Rolling Jazz Thread 2020

https://ohadtalmor.bandcamp.com/album/long-forms

this is a much more choice one featuring Okazaki imo. Also new Christian Sands album is ace and features the voice of Bruce Lee philosophising about water.

i dunno if the jazz thread is the right place for this, but i'm quite taken with Miyamoto is Black Enough's first LP Burn/Build (which, fair play, i am repping)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utRms52fIis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hef27h7jXYY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLAB6svMvvY

i like the ohad talmor record

My neighbor just hipped me to this which is on right now:
https://www.newportjazz.org/revival

And then tomorrow as well

very nice 1961 Coltrane set, ty

You're quite welcome.

Right now: Thelonius Monk combo cookin', thanks!
https://www.newportjazz.org/wp-content/uploads/NewportJazzRevivalRadio-1080x1350-WEEKEND.jpg

Monk as accompanist! As satisfying as soloist.
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/thelonious-monk-quartet/1966/festival-field-newport-ri-23c0acab.html

July 2, 1966. Personnel: Charlie Rouse (ts), Thelonious Monk (p), Larry Gales (b), Ben Riley (d).

Sessionography 1966-1969 - Thelonious Monkwww.monkbook.com › sessionography › sessionograp.

https://www.npr.org/2020/08/05/899489411/helen-jones-woods-groundbreaking-female-trombonist-has-died-from-covid-19

Helen Jones Woods, who played trombone with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, a history-making all-female big band that toured widely during World War II, died of COVID-19 on July 25 in Sarasota, Fla. She was 96....In addition to their pioneering role as women on the jazz circuit, the International Sweethearts of Rhythm were an interracial band in the era of Jim Crow. Their extensive itinerary through the South, where they traveled by sleeper bus, reportedly inspired jazz piano giant Earl Hines to call them "the first Freedom Riders." They also toured Europe, playing in occupied Germany for American soldiers — both white and Black, though not at the same time.

As a Black musician, Woods endured mistreatment and indignity on the road. "Music broke her heart," says Hughes. "In the '30s and '40s, and even the '50s, which was the last time she played, they wouldn't get paid regularly. They couldn't find housing accommodations."...After the Sweethearts disbanded in 1949, Woods joined the Omaha Symphony, only to be fired after her first performance. Her father, who had a darker complexion, came to pick her up, which prompted symphony management to realize she was Black. This was the last straw for Woods, who chose to end her musical career. She became a registered nurse, spending the next 30 years devoted to nursing and social work.

Finally being reissued, after 54 years:

Milford Graves & Don Pullen: The Complete Yale Concert, 1966

this came, i'm playing it now, it totally rules

Mine has been lost in the mail for about 10 days now and I'm pissed.

sorry to hear that :(

Thanks to Youtube recommendations for this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6PTHYCHqk8

Great band! In particular so glad Julian Lage is making good on his Wunderkind origins.

A few initial impressions of highlights on Ill Considered 9---East/West:
1 hour, 47 minutes, 58 seconds, rolls right along, segmentation down in there, tiny mile markers: seconds of distorted audience sounds back in the headphones every now and then, a even a little back-and-forth of musos and crowd at one point, also distorted---all part of the carnival scrim, incl dub-associated effects, on the fly or might as well be. Sax turns into a swarm of bassoons about 8 minutes in, bass gets more distorted, needs no other guitars as suggestions of Last Exit just behind the curtain---in the vast Jazz Park (don't stick your fingers in there) on a windswept gray-green summer's day. Later clearing for a Middle Eastern view of the Med, which comes back later as s slow modal ferris wheel, empty but still turning-- for a minute,'til the bass has enough, and everything gets zigzag funky---going to night skies, night sweats, emltting the ECM Sound expansions--the bass goes toward a metal chant, everybody falls into a funeral procession, like Ishmael at the beginning of Moby Dick: it's a sign it's time to ship out, and so they do, finding more excitement, along the way, that is--finale is black helicopter blades too fast and shakey, but still cutting through waves of grooves.
I listened on YouTube Music---Bandcamp may be better for artists, but YTM provides better sound on my old computer, non-audiophile headphones:
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=5njPSBXk29E&list=RDAMVM5njPSBXk29E

"Melting" the ECM Sound expansions, that is.

I dunno if there might be some predictable bits in there very eventually, for a while--hazards of long live performance--but an edit might kill the sense of pace, of searching in the moment, however in the moment this actually is.

Yeah, nice video.

hmm, nice but I'm a little bit put off by playing Blues Connotation as though it's a straight 12 bar blues.

(xp re Julian Lage, not the ECM thing)

yeah i couldn't hang with that at all

Idk, they keep a 12 bar form but there's a ton of playing over the bar line, and Scott Colley gets into some non-blues zones and comes back to it? That single note guitar thing that happens at 2:20 is dope. And the pulse is just so strong no matter what happens, like that whole section from 6:00 - 6:30. But I can't speak to what's really going on harmonically compared to the Ornette group.

Listening to Jan Garbarek's Afric Pepperbird, with Terje Rypdal, Arild Andersen and Jon Christensen. I got a box set not long ago that had three other albums by these guys, but this one wasn't in it, which is too bad because it rules.

that record and "beast of komodo" in particular get a lot of love on the ECM thread iirc

and for good reason

xp also Dave King not really doing it for me there, but perhaps partly the mic/camera placement making him way too high in the mix. Much prefer Ed Blackwell's approach to playing lots and lots of drums over everything. 1961 version is way more hip and fresh. Some really good moments though.

I wrote about Maria Schneider's new album (which I liked) and the general inaccessibility of her music (which I don't like)...

That's fair, I'm just a big Dave King stan. To me it sounds busy but not in the way, and super musical and communicative. Obviously Ed Blackwell is a master.

xp
I bet she'll be over the moon that people are downloading her latest for nowt on slsk. It's quite an elitist attitude she has, so serves her right tbf!

#BillFrisell is beyond honored to have his version of 'In My Life' being used for tonight's @DemConvention 'In Memoriam' segment.

You can watch the clip below:https://t.co/JpEUwpM3yV

— Bill Frisell (@BillFrisell) August 20, 2020

Wow

Just now exclaimed over Nubya Garcia's brand-new Source over on Moses Boyd thread---wasn't getting first two tracks, but now I am, and rest of it swept me away immediately.

Pigeon Jazz 🎶 pic.twitter.com/YBSIQRCPFX

— Pablo Rochat (@PabloRochat) August 19, 2020

Branford Marsalis turned 60 yesterday. I've spent a surprising (to me) amount of time with his catalog the last few years, and while the majority of his albums are at least good, there are a few real killers: Random Abstract, Trio Jeepy, and Crazy People Music from the early years (when I interviewed him, he said CPM was a breakthrough album in his mind), and from the 21st century, Contemporary Jazz, Braggtown, Four MFs Playin' Tunes and The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul are all great. I'll stick up for the Mo' Better Blues soundtrack, too. But not Buckshot LeFonque.

Christian Scott has a live album, Axiom, out tomorrow. It was recorded in March at the Blue Note in NYC. I was supposed to go to one of those shows, but the word was coming down about corona - the city reduced nightclubs to 50% capacity the night I was supposed to go, and I told the publicist to pull my name off the guest list. I don't regret my decision, but I'm very excited to hear what I missed. There's a 1CD version with 9 tracks, running 74 minutes, and a digital version that's 14 tracks and runs 2 hours 19 minutes.

http://christianscott.bandcamp.com/album/axiom

Excellent Chicago drummer Quin Kirchner released his first album a few months ago, listening now and it's pretty varied and cool:
https://quinkirchner.bandcamp.com/album/the-shadows-and-the-light

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/03/arts/music/jazz-protest-academia.html

Of the more than 500 students who graduate from American universities with jazz degrees each year, less than 10 percent are Black, according to Department of Education statistics compiled by DataUSA. In 2017, the last year with data available, precisely 1 percent of jazz-degree grads were Black women

Just now exclaimed over Nubya Garcia's brand-new Source over on Moses Boyd thread---wasn't getting first two tracks, but now I am, and rest of it swept me away immediately.

I got this yesterday, wasn't super impressed by her debut, even though it was nice enough, but this on a whole different level! I'd say it's best new album I've heard this year in any genre.

I love Georgia Anne Muldrow aka Jyoti and the -Mama, You Can Bet!- album is exactly hitting the spot for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSi8Gcioh-o

GAM has never really clicked for me, which is odd since I used to be a big Stones Throw fuxxor, but I'm curious about that one; the review I read ticked all the right influence boxes.

Has anyone mentioned the new Greg Foat album Symphonie Pacifique yet? It might be too smooth for some tastes, but I really enjoyed it (the smooth is balanced with some good drumming, including by Moses Boyd). It reminds me a bit of the Resavoir album on International Anthem that I adore.

The new Garcia is very good, but I think I agree with dow about the opening tracks--the title track is really something though.

I love this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1ek4siKqn4&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR3dyrcPW6yrLzizsR_hbU2Q-GsNGGlLuTEdRoPdC8zpTKxDKA1meSyX1j0

what is it?

The link is black

I saw it yesterday, I think it was a woman doing carnatic scatting along with the studio version of Giant Steps?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1ek4siKqn4

That's fascinating and sent me down a rabbithole to learn more about carnatic theory!

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/03/arts/music/jazz-protest-academia.html

Of the more than 500 students who graduate from American universities with jazz degrees each year, less than 10 percent are Black, according to Department of Education statistics compiled by DataUSA. In 2017, the last year with data available, precisely 1 percent of jazz-degree grads were Black women

This reminded me of a song my friend's punk band had back in the late 90s: "All the Kids Who Listen to Ska Get Good Grades And Are in Lots of After-School Activities." One might as well have replaced "ska" with "jazz." Even though I loved jazz then and still love it now, obv, the snarky song title rang true: at least in the US, from my observation and from my time in a music conservatory, much jazz music education is given to white, suburban kids. It's a ridiculous shame.

I do remember that Don Byrd was actively trying to recruit more Black students for the program at my alma mater, though don't know how his efforts went.

I was just talking about the issue of jazz education with bassist Luke Stewart (from Irreversible Entanglements, James Brandon Lewis's group, Heart of the Ghost, and other acts). He got his undergrad and master's degrees in international relations, started out playing electric bass in punk bands (which was where he met Moor Mother), and eventually switched to upright and started playing jazz, but that DIY/punk mindset is all over his sound and style. And frankly I wish there were more players like him, because he demonstrates that you can just...start playing jazz, without having to get a goddamn master's degree or win the Thelonious Monk competition first. It's an attitude I see coming out of the London scene as well; even the players there that have gone through school (Shabaka Hutchings has all kinds of classical clarinet training) are able to shrug off the straitjacket of tradition and play music that means something to them. I'm sure Nubya Garcia could play the hell out of "Giant Steps" if she felt like it, but could your average New School or New England Conservatory jazz student throw down over a dub rhythm or a cumbia groove the way she can?

That makes sense to me, unperson. I minored in music comp at the conservatory, coming in late, but my major (and my pursuit in life at this point) was Creative Writing, with an emphasis on poetry. My music composition mentor took a shine to me mostly because I approached composition from the perspective of someone who wasn't the most trained or studied, but someone who really cared about sound, and whose interests were and continue to be all over the place. Not that I'm an exceptional musician— far from it!— but the specialization that happens in the conservatory model is limiting when it should be expansive.