Rolling Jazz Thread 2021

OK have listened to the new Vijay Iyer about a dozen times now, it's in turns exhilarating, elegant and quite beautiful.

freakin love the vijay iyer record

yep!

This seems like it could be of interest to people who like Bill Evans more than I do.

CRAFT RECORDINGS CELEBRATES THE LEGACY OF BILL EVANS WITH FIRST-EVER CAREER-SPANNING COLLECTION, EVERYBODY STILL DIGS BILL EVANS: A CAREER RETROSPECTIVE (1956–1980)

5-CD deluxe set (also available digitally) spotlights legendary jazz pianist’s work as a leader and co-leader, with over 60 choice cuts including an entire
previously unreleased live concert

Breakout title ‘On a Friday Evening’ offers newly discovered concert from 1975 in Vancouver, B.C. as a standalone live album (available in 2-LP, CD, and digital formats)

Both titles due out June 25th

Craft Recordings proudly honors the pioneering jazz artist Bill Evans and his enduring musical contributions, with two new titles. The first—a deluxe, five-CD box set and digital album, titled Everybody Still Digs Bill Evans: A Career Retrospective (1956–1980)—marks the first-ever career-spanning collection of music from the pianist, featuring over 60 tracks that spotlight Evans’ exceptional work as a leader and co-leader. The expansive set also includes a previously unreleased live performance from 1975, captured at Oil Can Harry’s in Vancouver, B.C. This recently unearthed concert recording will also be issued as a standalone album, titled On a Friday Evening, which will be available on 2-LP, CD and digital formats, including hi-res 192/24 and 96/24. Both titles will be released June 25th and are available for pre-order today, with the previously unheard live track “Up with the Lark” available for immediate download as an instant grat. single (listen and pre-save here). Special bundles featuring a new Bill Evans T-shirt and mug are also available exclusively at the Craft Recordings online store.

Everybody Still Digs Bill Evans: A Career Retrospective (1956–1980) spans the pianist’s Riverside, Milestone, Fantasy, Verve, Warner Bros., and Elektra/Musician catalogs, and features such collective personnel as Tony Bennett, Cannonball Adderley, Kenny Burrell, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Eddie Gomez, Shelly Manne, and Lee Konitz, among many others. Produced by Nick Phillips, the five-CD collection comes housed in a fabric-wrapped, hard-cover book, containing 48 pages of photos and ephemera, as well as new liner notes from the GRAMMY® Award-winning writer, radio host, and music journalist, Neil Tesser, who offers insight into the life and career of Evans through recent and archival interviews with a variety of subjects, as well as a deep survey of the box set’s tracks. Also available across digital and streaming platforms, Everybody Still Digs Bill Evans includes newly remastered audio by GRAMMY®-winning engineer, Paul Blakemore.

The majority of the box set’s musical selections are culled from Evans’ trios, with whom he released over 40 albums. Discs one and two offer highlights from those recordings, with the first disc spotlighting his Riverside sessions and spanning Evans’ earliest days working with Philly Joe Jones, Teddy Kotick, Paul Chambers, and Sam Jones, to solidifying a group with drummer Paul Motian and bassist Scott LaFaro, who died tragically in 1961, to the post-LaFaro trios featuring Motian, Chuck Israels, and Larry Bunker. The second disc focuses on Evans’ trio recordings from the mid-’60s onwards, collaborating with sidemen like Eddie Gomez, Marty Morell, Eliot Zigmund, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette, Joe LaBarbera, and Marc Johnson.

Evans’ many solo recordings were also an important aspect of his career, garnering him two of his seven GRAMMY® Awards (for 1963’s Conversations with Myself and 1968’s Alone). Disc three of the collection spotlights the pianist’s performances unaccompanied by others (some are truly “solo” while others feature Evans accompanying himself by way of overdubbing), including some of his seminal works like “Peace Piece” and “N.Y.C.'s No Lark,” as well as his musical composition to his son, “Letter to Evan,” and the Miles Davis-penned “Nardis,” which, in a lengthy and abstract solo piano exposition, Evans made wholly his own.

Disc four, meanwhile, focuses on Evans’ non-trio collaborations—of which there were many. Highlights include his famous duet partnerships with legendary vocalist Tony Bennett and lyrical guitarist Jim Hall, and a rare pairing with fellow pianist and interviewer Marian McPartland, excerpted from her long-running NPR show. Evans’ work within quartet and quintet settings is also highlighted on this disc, with such esteemed musicians as Cannonball Adderley, Stan Getz, Freddie Hubbard, Toots Thielemans, Zoot Sims, and Lee Konitz.

For the final disc of Everybody Still Digs Bill Evans, fans will enjoy a newly discovered live performance by the Bill Evans Trio, featuring Eddie Gomez on bass and Eliot Zigmund on drums. Available in its entirety, the previously unreleased concert took place on June 20, 1975, at Oil Can Harry’s—an intimate club that operated until 1977 in Vancouver, BC. The show was captured for Canadian radio host Gary Barclay, who served as the evening’s announcer, and later aired the set on his popular CHQM jazz show. Then, for nearly half a century, the tapes lay forgotten—until now. Thanks to audio restoration by Plangent Processes and meticulous mastering by Blakemore, the intimate recording sounds just as fresh today as it did more than 45 years ago.

The concert will also be released as a standalone album, On a Friday Evening, and will be available on two 180-gram vinyl LPs, CD, and across digital and streaming platforms. The nine-track outing includes an adaptation of original liner notes from Tesser, who incorporates new interviews with trio members Eddie Gomez and Eliot Zigmund, along with meticulous, track-by-track details on the evening’s program—which included both original compositions and standards.

On a Friday Evening also offers listeners the rare chance to hear Evans and his bandmates settling into a new reconfiguration of the trio, which Zigmund had joined just months before. Tesser explains that this live recording “merits attention, and much of that comes from hearing Zigmund, in an intimate setting away from the concert hall, finding his place in the lineage of the most important piano trio of its era—a trio that for 15 years had exploded the established piano-plus-accompanists model and replaced it with a true trialogue among instruments.”

Indeed, Zigmund knew he was on a different plane entirely, playing alongside Evans. In the notes for Everybody Still Digs Bill Evans, Tesser proclaims, “In the history of 20th-century piano, the music of Bill Evans constitutes an inflection point…. There have been only a handful of pianists…whose innovations so strongly altered the prevailing aesthetic that the timeline breaks down into ‘before’ and ‘after.’”

One of the most influential artists in the history of jazz, Bill Evans (1929–1980), was known for his conversational interplay within his trios, his lyrical compositions, and his matchless approach to the piano. In less than three decades, the prolific artist released over 50 albums as a leader, garnering seven GRAMMY® Awards, 31 GRAMMY®-nominations and two inductions into the GRAMMY® Hall of Fame. In 1994, he was honored posthumously with the GRAMMY® Lifetime Achievement Award. Cited as an influence by everyone from Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea to Eliane Elias and Robert Glasper, Bill Evans’ work continues to inspire new generations of musicians today.

Tracklist - Everybody Still Digs Bill Evans: A Career Retrospective (1956–1980):

Disc One: Trialogues, Vol. 1
1. Five
2. Woody'N You [take 2]
3. Young and Foolish
4. Autumn Leaves
5. How Deep Is the Ocean
6. Sweet and Lovely
7. Blue in Green
8. How My Heart Sings
9. Re: Person I Knew
10. My Foolish Heart (live)
11. Waltz for Debby (live)
12. Gloria's Step (live)
13. My Man's Gone Now (live)
14. Swedish Pastry (live)

Disc Two: Trialogues, Vol. 2
1. Israel
2. The Peacocks
3. I Believe in You
4. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
5. I Will Say Goodbye
6. Turn Out the Stars (live)
7. Walkin' Up (live)
8. Very Early (live)
9. Minha (All Mine) (live)
10. My Romance (live)
11. Days of Wine and Roses (live)
12. The Touch of Your Lips (live)
13. Someday My Prince Will Come (live)

Disc Three: Monologues
1. Peace Piece
2. Danny Boy
3. Make Someone Happy
4. A Time for Love
5. Waltz for Debby
6. The Bad and the Beautiful
7. N.Y.C.'s No Lark
8. Emily
9. Remembering the Rain
10. I Loves You Porgy (live)
11. Letter to Evan (live)
12. Nardis (live)

Disc Four: Dialogues & Confluences
1. My Funny Valentine
2. A Face Without a Name
3. The Touch of Your Lips (Vocal Version)
4. I Love You
5. Up with the Lark (live)
6. Funkallero (live)
7. Who Cares?
8. Body and Soul
9. You and the Night and the Music
10. Time Remembered
11. Night and Day
12. A Child is Born
13. Peri's Scope

Disc Five: Epilogue
1. Sareen Jurer (live)
2. Sugar Plum (live)
3. The Two Lonely People (live)
4. T. T. T. (Twelve Tone Tune) (live)
5. Quiet Now (live)
6. Up with the Lark (live)
7. How Deep Is the Ocean (live)
8. Blue Serge (live)
9. Nardis (live)


Tracklist - On a Friday Evening (LP-edition):

Side A
1. Sareen Jurer (live)
2. Sugar Plum (live)

Side B
1. The Two Lonely People (live)
2. T. T. T. (Twelve Tone Tune) (live)
3. Quiet Now (live)

Side C
1. Up with the Lark (live)
2. How Deep Is the Ocean (live)

Side D
1. Blue Serge (live)
2. Nardis (live)

* Tracklist for CD and digital editions mirror vinyl.

Not necessary for me, but I'm interested in the live concert!

XXXXXXXXXXXpost Vijay the stomping kicking hairline clarity centering xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxpost Burnt Sugar's The Rites too.

Welp unperson just now jumped for this ("Yes Please!") on Twitter:

Disc 1: WADADA LEO SMITH & MILFORD GRAVES
01-03 Nyoto 1-3 / 04 Baby Dodds In Congo Square / 05 Celebration Rhythms / 06 Poetic Sonics / 07 The Poet: Play Ebony, Play Ivory (For Henry Dumas)

Disc 2: WADADA LEO SMITH & BILL LASWELL
01 Ascending the Sacred Waterfall - A Ceremonial Practice / 02 Prince - The Blue Diamond Spirit / 03 Donald Ayler´s Rainbow Summit / 04 Tony Williams / 05 Mysterious Night / 06 Earth - A Morning Song / 07 Minnie Riperton - The Chicago Bronzeville Master Blaster

Disc 3: WADADA LEO SMITH, BILL LASWELL & MILFORD GRAVES
01 Social Justice - A Fire for Reimagining the World / 02.Myths of Civilizations and Revolutions / 03 Truth in Expansion / 04 The Healer´s Direct Energy / 05 Waves of Elevated Horizontal Forces / 06 An Epic Journey Inside the Center of Color / 07 Ruby Red Largo - A Sonnet

Wadada Leo Smith Trumpet
Bill Laswell Basses
Milford Graves Drums and percussion
International release:

May 21, 2021

Sacred Ceremonies brings together three distinct and highly influential movements in contemporary creative music, convening in a once-in-a-lifetime meeting of wholly singular minds...
http://tumrecords.com/box-003-sacred-ceremonies

... as well as a second 3cd box with solo work

Thanks! Also, now I see this, from 2019:
Wadada Leo Smith
PURE LOVE. AN ORATORIO OF SEVEN SONGS
This new major work is composed for the iconic civil rights hero Rosa Parks (1913-2005) and performed by three vocalists, a double-quartet and a drummer with electronics. The album is released in February 2019 to celebrate Rosa Parks´ birthday on February 4.
Texts by Wadada Leo Smith, except text for "No Fear" by Rosa Parks
http://tumrecords.com/057-rosa-parks

Is the Hasaan ibn ali going on streaming ?

Maybe it will--release is April 23 (not seeing digital btw).

That label (Omnivore) puts a fair amount of their stuff on Spotify.

As discussed on the International Anthem thread, the Damon Locks/Angel Bat Dawid/etc. album is really really good.

Checking out the Iyer/Sorey/Oh album now, seems promising.

Do these labels really not release digitally? That Smith/Laswell/Graves thing is exactly up my alley, but in order to play CDs, I would have to drag out an old computer, import the CDs, put them on my external HD, then move them to my current computer.

CDs are literal garbage, it's absurd that any label would still be relying on them in this day and age.

I still buy cds and prefer them to both overpriced, shoddy quality vinyl and streaming

should always be an option to purchase digitally though, I agree

Checking back, can confirm that the Iyer trio is a.) a jam, and b.) my jam. Great conversational back and forth between all three, lots of energy.

Listening to the Vijay Iyer record, hating the drum sound (bc it's the same anemic close mic'ed sound as 98% of modern jazz records)

xp lol

Oh right, forgot it's on ECM :)

I like the drums! What don't you like?

Too much skitter, not enough thump?

Tum and RogueArt are two labels I can think of offhand that do not do downloads or streaming. No idea why. Even the anti-streaming classical labels have make FLAC downloads available.

Listening to the Vijay Iyer record, hating the drum sound (bc it's the same anemic close mic'ed sound as 98% of modern jazz records)

Having seen this trio live, I agree about the drums. Sorey's been ECM-ized. Live with this band, he sounds like a cross between Billy Cobham and Gene Hoglan.

Close-mic'ed, no room sound, super-separated, compressed either not enough or in a very bland way.

I compared against Now He Sings, Now He Sobs and it was like night and day, but that's not fair. So I pulled up a few more recent jazz records with drum sounds that I like, and all of them sound much more like a whole drum kit and are much more exciting to hear:

-Joshua Redman record from last year w/Brian Blade
-Mark Turner 'Dharma Days' w/Nasheet Waits
-Christian McBride 'A Family Affair' w/Gregory Hutchinson
-Nicholas Payton 'Relaxin' with Nick' w/Kenny Washington

I hear what you mean, tho I wouldn't say there's no room sound. I think there's a fair amount of space in the mix, his cymbals have a lot of shimmer. I feel like it's a good companion to Iyer's kind of precise, staccato playing. It's a bit of a mathematical vibe, but that's his thing.

No prob w drums x perc sound on xpost Damon Locks - Black Monument Ensemble's NOW---although, as tends to happen in my bandcamp streaming experiences, I have to turn it up more than elsewhere to get what I want, but once I do that yeah this is good---that link one more time: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/now (Should spring for the flac no doubt).

Oh and was startled by bold drums & percussion (& everything else) of Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah's Axiom last year---also on bandcamp, but no need to turn that one up: https://christianscott.bandcamp.com/

Axiom is excellent, yeah.

I guess I didn't notice Sorey's playing much, which is not something I would have expected.

I might personally write Tum and tell them that they will continue to be irrelevant past a certain demographic unless they begin to offer digital downloads.

(Just a note that I do not use any streaming services...if it's available digitally or on vinyl, I try to buy it... If not, well, slsk it is...that this happens more with jazz releases says something IMHO. It's like how Underground Resistance could be making bank on an mp3 site, but...alas, none is emerging, it seems).

Really don't get this CD hate. They're a perfectly good format and often better for lengthy jazz sets. And they're cheap, especially when it comes to reissues. If you've got a hi-fi set up for vinyl, then adding in a CD player isn't a big deal - you can get good ones pretty cheap these days.

Rogue Art's old school approach is admirable in certain respects, but they are missing a trick by not offering DLs. Their stuff is beautifully curated and produced - deserves to be heard more widely.

Rogue Art goes one step further by (as far as I know) not having a publicist, either. Matt Shipp and I have had rueful conversations about this in the past. They seem to have zero interest in the issue of whether anyone hears their records or not.

They sent me their stuff for a while, which was lovely, but lately I've tended to have their stuff sent directly by the artists.

x-post Tend to agree about the Iyer. Strong music, but the ECM tastefulness comes into the composition/performance as well as the production. Would love to hear this band live and hear the difference. Saw Iyer's Sextet a couple of years ago and while it wasn't exactly ragged fire music, it had more bite than on record.

CDs are a good high-quality format, wtf.

In some defense, Tum releases are beautifully packaged, but I definitely need fewer physical “things” and I still want to support the artists/label.

That's fair - my romantic attachment to physical media has taken a hit after moving house recently. I love having a good collection in the flat, but limited space means it needs regular pruning. Now we're coming out of UK lockdown, I'll be taking a fair bit of stuff to my local record store and charity shops. The jazz ain't going nowhere though.

perhaps i'm a boring fucker, but I can't understand how someone can listen to that incredibly good new Vijay album and their main takeaway is: meh, too much ECM!

lmao a convo about ecm tastefulness in 2021, interesting

not sure i even hear one iota of anyone’s problem with the drum sound on the iyer

I interviewed Seth Rosner and Yulun Wang of Pi Recordings for my podcast. Wanna know how to keep an independent jazz label running for 20 years? Here's how. Links to listen:

Osiris - https://bit.ly/3toETtQ
Apple - https://apple.co/3dmbHOi
Spotify - https://spoti.fi/32iCOnf

It just feels like the recording & mixing (for piano too!) doesn't serve the music, by making it less exciting than it actually is. Works for those more ambient & less busy Eurojazz ECM records, not for something like this.

Still been thinking about that Rudy Van Gelder interview I found awhile back, and how people think those old Blue Note records are some sort of neutral document, but he talks about all these things he did to specifically hype up the sounds, to simulate the excitement of seeing the music live.

Anyway I'm glad people are enjoying the record, wish I could enjoy it more!

Also the Damon Locks album is cool, although it satisfies something other than the 'jazz' part of my brain (more like listening to electronic music). I saw Dana Hall with the Saturday night band at the Green Mill once (fka Sabertooth?), with a ton of all-stars in the audience (Kamasi, Makaya, etc), and he sounded amazing.

Looking forward to the new Joe Lovano/Dave Douglas Sound Prints album...the last one was great

My latest Stereogum column is up. I wrote about the new Vijay Iyer, Wadada Leo Smith, and Floating Points/Pharoah Sanders albums, among others, but I also wrote a whole long thing about Louis Armstrong.

The other day I listened to Bobby Hutcherson's last album, with Billy Hart, Joey DeFrancesco, and (wait for it) David Sanborn. It's...really good! Particularly DeFrancesco.

christ almighty Axiom is an incredible album!!

ph1l i want your column as a newsletter :)

christ almighty Axiom is an incredible album!!

― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, April 21, 2021 5:02 PM (ten minutes ago)

Assuming you're talking about the Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah live album, I've been getting obsessed with this lately myself as well as Stretch Music (plus I just ordered the Centennial Trilogy)

yes indeed.

just imagining being in the room while this music is being played makes me lowkey freak out!

Ha, I actually slept on listening to Axiom for a long time because I saw him on the Ancestral Recall tour; it was really incredible. He's a powerfully magnetic stage presence. Also the drums were insanely loud lol

also thanks Jordan for mentioning "Relaxin With Nick" - kind of other end of the spectrum from Christian Scott but it totally hits my spot. It's on by default in my house for the last couple of days and there's always something that makes me perk up and go 'huh'

Payton's an interesting character in general