Yeah I pretty much agree with that.
Also I shamefully admit to hearing Joe Lovano on a recent record and thinking "didn't he pass away? Oops, that was Michael Brecker."
― change display name (Jordan), Friday, 14 January 2022 17:14 (two years ago) link
Ha, was wondering when Joe would get mentioned.
― Presenting the Fabulous Redettes Featuring James (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 14 January 2022 17:15 (two years ago) link
There are basically only a very small bunch of people writing about jazz at all, let alone in "mainstream" outlets, whatever that is these "days," so only a tiny number of artists will be mentioned at all in this latter, and every once in a blue moon a few new ones get added to the rotation. Similar to the reason Charley Pride could have a career in Country Music but not Swamp Dogg/Jerry Williams Jr.
― Presenting the Fabulous Redettes Featuring James (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 14 January 2022 17:19 (two years ago) link
I mean the people who book or have booked some the of the venues like Smalls or the late lamented Jazz Standard etc seem to know something but that doesn't translate into press. Maybe a listings recommendation now and then.
― Presenting the Fabulous Redettes Featuring James (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 14 January 2022 17:20 (two years ago) link
(a lot of people do write about country music, but Swamp Dogg only occasionally puts out albums of country music of which 2020's Sorry You Couldn't Make it is a very satisfying example---on bandcamp with Total Destruction To Your Mind and many others.)I've never cared that much about Michael Brecker outside the xpost garish attractions of Brecker Brother Band and BS&T's kitsch classic Child Is Father To The Man, but will always love Randy's solo on Springsteen's "Meeting Across The River"---like I said: Bruce Springsteen labored for years on Born To Run, as the title became ironic, but a lot of it worked, to varying degrees–-most of all, for me, in “Meeting Across The River,” which still sounds like a magical one-off: a seemingly basic scenario, with no purple passages, as written, sung, and played. Roy Bittan’s keys get room to breathe, Richard Davis’s bass slips through shadows, as it did on Astral Weeks, and Randy Brecker, having left his own purple passages far behind in Blood Sweat & Tears and The Brecker Brothers Band, leans his trumpet waaay out ofCherry’s nightside window and fire escape (I don’t think she’s home).https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6OAtvjSf1Y
― dow, Friday, 14 January 2022 18:37 (two years ago) link
The Swamp Dogg analogy was imperfect, I admit. More about the limited opportunities to record or be played in the past.
― Presenting the Fabulous Redettes Featuring James (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 14 January 2022 19:11 (two years ago) link
Just ordered some late '60s/early '70s out-jazz titles in fancy mini-LP sleeves from Japan:
Stanley Cowell, Brilliant CirclesAndrew Hill, SpiralOliver Lake, NTU: The Point From Which Creation BeginsCharles Tolliver, The Ringer
― but also fuck you (unperson), Saturday, 15 January 2022 16:31 (two years ago) link
Ok Ted Gioia linked to this article but he didn't write it-- about Ghanaian jazz and Louis Armstrong's 1956 visit there, and jazz there today
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/louis-armstrong-jazz-highlife-ghana
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 16 January 2022 21:54 (two years ago) link
Ghana jazz article is from December 2021, apologies if it was mentioned last year. I am just seeing it
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 16 January 2022 21:55 (two years ago) link
looks like Ted Gioia made his top 100 albums of 2021 list available only to paid subscribers of his substack (but his honorable mention list free)
― curmudgeon, Monday, 17 January 2022 00:04 (two years ago) link
https://alexanderhawkinsintakt.bandcamp.com/album/break-a-vase-2
new Alexander Hawkins album out on friday with his usual band from the previous sextet albums including guitarist Otto Fischer and Shabaka Hutchings.
xp
lol I can think of few places where Ted Gioia can stick his paywalled list
― calzino, Monday, 17 January 2022 10:38 (two years ago) link
I keep going back to the Kenny Garrett album, it rules. Wish I would have come across it in time for the ILM poll.
― change display name (Jordan), Monday, 17 January 2022 21:37 (two years ago) link
Been listening to Charles Brackeen's Silkheart albums from the late '80s; they're great. Half Ornette, half Ayler, and the bands are killer. Brackeen, Dennis Gonzalez, Malachi Favors and Alvin Fielder on Bannar, and Brackeen, Olu Dara, Fred Hopkins and Andrew Cyrille on Attainment and Worshippers Come Nigh. Also been listening to the two ECM albums he made with Paul Motian (and David Izenzon), Dance and Le Voyage. I'm not the world's biggest Motian fan, but those albums are really good.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Monday, 17 January 2022 22:36 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5o4JAKMBZ8
Angel bat Dawid 2022 Winter Jazz fest live
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 18 January 2022 03:01 (two years ago) link
I interviewed South African jazz drummer Ayanda Sikade for Bandcamp Daily, with additional quotes from pianist Nduduzo Makhathini and saxophonist Linda Sikhakhane:
http://daily.bandcamp.com/features/ayanda-sikade-umakhulu-interview
― but also fuck you (unperson), Tuesday, 18 January 2022 16:11 (two years ago) link
Missed seeing the November 2021 death of spiritual jazz flautist Lloyd McNeill, a dc born guy, who was also a painter/ artist, designed concert posters, and hung out with Picasso and Andrew White
https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2021/11/11/artist-and-flutist-extraordinaire-lloyd-mcneill-jr-passes-at-86/
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 18 January 2022 17:58 (two years ago) link
I do always find something new from Fred Kaplan's year-end list and playlist.
― deep luminous trombone (Eazy), Tuesday, 18 January 2022 18:06 (two years ago) link
Yeah, and I agree about the one I already knew, Shepp-Moran's Let My People Go. The musical and emotional range just keep unfolding, giving us the whole picture, so we get the thoughtful spirituals and Ellington-Strayhorn's jewel of The Far East Suite's"Ishtafan" (originally "Elf" before they played Iran), and "Wise One," the non-obvious Trane pick, which fits just fine with all the above and with "Lush Life" and "'Round Midnight," and even a radio edit of the opener, "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child," because the Lord helps those who help themselves.
― dow, Wednesday, 19 January 2022 02:19 (two years ago) link
Yeah I big upped the Shepp album on the Floating Points thread.
― Johnny Mathis der Maler (Boring, Maryland), Wednesday, 19 January 2022 02:55 (two years ago) link
My latest Stereogum column is up now. I talk about Kenny G; explore my decades-long suspicion of the critical love for Fred Hersch; eulogize Mtume, Charles Brackeen, Khan Jamal, and Fred Van Hove; plug my book; and more, so check it out if you like.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Thursday, 20 January 2022 16:16 (two years ago) link
Paul Steinbeck@steinbeckpaulJust arrived in the mail: Timo Hoyer's astonishing new book ANTHONY BRAXTON / CREATIVE MUSIC.#aacm #creativemusic #experimentalmusic #wolkeverlaghttps://wolke-verlag.de/musikbuecher/timo-hoyer-anthony-braxton-creative-music/
― dow, Saturday, 22 January 2022 18:41 (two years ago) link
It’s in German though right?
― Johnny Mathis der Maler (Boring, Maryland), Saturday, 22 January 2022 20:02 (two years ago) link
Yeah, I replied to that tweet saying I’m waiting for a translation, as my wife can read German but has no interest in Braxton.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Saturday, 22 January 2022 20:15 (two years ago) link
David Kikowski is dueting with this monster bari player I never heard of before named Jason Marshall at Smalls right now and it is sounding amazing.
― Tapioca Tumbril (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 23 January 2022 04:07 (two years ago) link
This guy: https://www.bestsaxophonewebsiteever.com/bari-sax-master-jason-marshall-players-dont/
― Tapioca Tumbril (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 23 January 2022 04:18 (two years ago) link
From my Brussels buddy John W.: ...yesterday I learned of the existence of this Black Belgian woman,Peggy Pierrot, and I listened to last night's podcast (her playlist is at the link below; the podcast went online even though she herself couldn't go on mic because she's home in bed with Covid; I assume her occasional voiceover readings in both English and French had been recorded in advance). As you would expect from her inclusion of tracks by Drexciya and Detroit-homeboy allies like the Aquanauts, she's into the underwater-aquatic end of Afrofuturist myth. But in her mix she achieved a terrific balance between Detroit electro beats, what people are now calling "spiritual jazz" (one highlight being the Joe Henderson / Alice Coltrane track; another being "Old and New Dreams" by the Old and New Dreams Quartet, and in context it wasn't just Dewey's Chinese musette that sounded spooky, but even Blackwell's drumming) and the music of the whales[!] without being goopy NewAge sentimental about it. If a link to stream the podcast shows up, I'll alert you. Meanwhile, here's her playlist:http://www.q-o2.be/en/event/songing-with-our-ancestors-live-radio-session-with-peggy-pierrot/Live radio session with writer, radio dj and educator Peggy Pierrot.From Drexciya and other Detroit techno bands, to historians and science fiction writers, to Solomon Rivers, author of speculative and literary fiction such as The Deep, the Atlantic Ocean – known here as the Black Atlantic – has been the crucible for stories of loss and flight, abduction and rebirth. This radio program invites us to dive into this black ocean in search of these sounds and stories.
Playlist of the Radio Show:
Vangelis -Sauvage et Beau, le chant des baleinesClipping – The deepEd Blackwell / Don Cherry / Charlie Haden / Dewey Redman – Old dream andnew DreamsThe comet is coming – The ProphecyDrexciya – Intro: Temple Of Dos De Aguathe Aquanauts – Aquatic KamikaziDrexciya – Hydro TheoryEarth – Sonar and Depth ChargeJoe Henderson & Alice Coltrane – WaterShabaka and the Ancestors – The SeaMr. Bubble – Bubble BeatsSun Ra – LanquidityLe chant des baleines – Killer Whale, Orcinus OrcaRas-G – Been CosmicLe chant des baleines – narwhal Whale, Monodon MonocerosSons of Kemet – in remembrance of those fallenExtracts from The deep by Rivers Solomon in french and in english.
― dow, Monday, 24 January 2022 19:28 (two years ago) link
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FKahqdmWUAMfgUz?format=jpg&name=small
beautiful album is this.
― calzino, Monday, 31 January 2022 09:48 (two years ago) link
Recently posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxM980ocuCw
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 31 January 2022 13:17 (two years ago) link
🖼beautiful album is this.
― Johnny Mathis der Maler (Boring, Maryland), Monday, 31 January 2022 14:38 (two years ago) link
Just got my download of the Peter Brötzmann/William Parker/Milford Graves live set, Historic Music Past Tense Future, recorded 3/29/02 at CBGBs' 313 Gallery. Available from Black Editions on vinyl and digitally, though the former is likely to sell out fast. It rips, of course.
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0994075720_10.jpg
― but also fuck you (unperson), Monday, 31 January 2022 19:57 (two years ago) link
So we were talking about Michael Brecker's overplaying---here's an exception I should have thought of: not brilliant, but it works (and I'd like to hear an all-instrumental version of this song),Garland Jeffreys, "I May Not Be Your Kind"---from Ghost Writer(1977)
― dow, Wednesday, 2 February 2022 01:40 (two years ago) link
Oops!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knPYobziFmg
― dow, Wednesday, 2 February 2022 01:42 (two years ago) link
New Kamasi Washington tune:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzrkerz1SW8
Sounds like Kamasi Washington. He should make the trumpet player a full-time band member.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Wednesday, 2 February 2022 15:46 (two years ago) link
"Sounds like Kamasi Washington" is enough for me, tbh.
Btw, unperson, looking forward to your book arriving later this week!
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 2 February 2022 15:47 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx_CuxesjmU
― Tapioca Tumbril (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 3 February 2022 00:04 (two years ago) link
Note that Ted Gioia's brother, Dana Gioia, was once the US poet laureate, and is also a notorious fucking asshole.
― we need outrage! we need dicks!! (the table is the table), Thursday, 3 February 2022 21:59 (two years ago) link
...and that's how you get the gig
― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 3 February 2022 22:08 (two years ago) link
Which one?
― Tapioca Tumbril (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 3 February 2022 22:18 (two years ago) link
Making a Rational Funk joke about the Julian Lage video (which is great)
― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 3 February 2022 22:21 (two years ago) link
Oh, okay. I miss the days when I would see Jorge all the time. And would also see a friend from Mexico who studied with Randy Vincent who also taught Julian Lage and would tell him about this kid who was really talented.
― Tapioca Tumbril (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 3 February 2022 23:29 (two years ago) link
I overlooked his trio album from last year, need to give that some time.
Speaking of Dave King, just got tix to see the new Ben Monder + Chris Speed version of the Bad Plus at a small venue here next month.
― change display name (Jordan), Saturday, 5 February 2022 16:53 (two years ago) link
Cool.
― Tapioca Tumbril (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 5 February 2022 17:04 (two years ago) link
I feel like the Bad Plus are on the downward slide and just don't want to admit it yet. I mean, swapping Orrin Evans in when Ethan Iverson left/was fired is one thing, but to bring in Monder and Speed, neither of whom has shown much interest in the past in being part of a steady, hard-touring band... it feels kinda desperate, and I don't see it lasting very long. Plus, it's too big a structural change. People (rightly) think of TBP as a piano trio, so to now become a sax-guitar-bass-drums quartet runs the risk of alienating a whole lot of the audience, many of whom were originally drawn in by piano-trio covers of rock songs and only incidentally converted to fans of original jazz music...which was still presented in piano trio format!
― but also fuck you (unperson), Saturday, 5 February 2022 18:16 (two years ago) link
This has nothing to do with the merits of the music, of course. I hope they make a record soon, 'cause I'd love to hear it. Monder's skronk on top of a rhythm section that hard-hitting? I'm 100% on board for that.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Saturday, 5 February 2022 18:18 (two years ago) link
A guy I know produced this. I really like it
https://theofficialcowmusic.bandcamp.com/album/live
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Saturday, 5 February 2022 18:55 (two years ago) link
Yeah, I'll listen to Monder play on anything but I don't get how this is still the Bad Plus.
― The sensual shock (Sund4r), Saturday, 5 February 2022 18:57 (two years ago) link
The Bad Minus Plus Plus Plus
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Saturday, 5 February 2022 18:58 (two years ago) link
Add Ben to (X)
― Tapioca Tumbril (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 5 February 2022 21:40 (two years ago) link
Finally got the Courvoisier/Halvorson album from last year: https://sylviecourvoisiermaryhalvorsonpyroclastic.bandcamp.com/album/searching-for-the-disappeared-hour . It really is marvellous, almost like a bizarro world Undercurrents. The connection between the two of them is really strong throughout, no matter how intricate they get.
― The sensual shock (Sund4r), Sunday, 6 February 2022 15:11 (two years ago) link
Ah! you mean the Jim Hall Bill Evans Undercurrents, I take it:
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61gr6T-rTuL._SL1200_.jpg
― dow, Sunday, 6 February 2022 21:38 (two years ago) link
not familiar with Miguel Zenon but really enjoying this album
https://miguelzenon.bandcamp.com/album/m-sica-de-las-am-ricas
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 8 December 2022 20:53 (one year ago) link
I'm listening to Mark Giuliana's album from this year, 'the sound of listening', and liking it way more than expected. He's always been a great drummer, but I don't think he's had a great (solo) record until now. Love the sonic palette of the group and the electronic interludes.
― change display name (Jordan), Tuesday, 13 December 2022 22:37 (one year ago) link
That Shiroishi gig sounds great. Still to see Shiroishi live - hopefully he'll be back in Europe next year - but he's definitely deserving of a 2022 MVP award. There are few releases I've still to hear, but he's been absolutely killing it across a wide range of sounds. The SSWAN album absolutely rips and I love the duo album he did with Cassiopeia Sturm on "bionic" (midi controlled) sax. The "ambient" duo with Jessica Ackerley is another gem.
― Composition 40b (Stew), Wednesday, 14 December 2022 10:36 (one year ago) link
Just clocked Che Chen and Shiroishi's duo album, sounding great: https://patrickshiroishi.bandcamp.com/album/parts-2
― Composition 40b (Stew), Wednesday, 14 December 2022 10:41 (one year ago) link
Got the tape of this at the show!~
Didn't clock the Ackerley duo, will have to check that out. He releases so much!
― Goose Bigelow, Fowl Gigolo (the table is the table), Wednesday, 14 December 2022 15:03 (one year ago) link
There's a good Deutsche Welle story (video) at this link about Nduduzo Makhathini; the performance that's filmed features him, singer/poet/historian Mbuso Khoza, and alto saxophonist Justin Bellairs; they put the whole thing up on Bandcamp yesterday.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Sunday, 25 December 2022 20:49 (one year ago) link
man yall just heard the following Jazz Night In America excursion for the third time this weekend: Matt Wilson and friends transforming some xmas songs that sorely needed it, and I think it works, even on Lennon's Happy Christmas (War Is Over)"(I think--the little bit of soft singing at the end tipped the scales). Saying that as someone who worked many an xmas at a CD store, and heard every approach to this stuff:
Musicians:Matt Wilson's Christmas Tree-OMatt Wilson, drums; Jeff Lederer, reeds; Ted Rosenthal, piano; Paul Sikivie, bassSet List:Winter Wonderland (Felix Bernard, Richard Bernhard Smith)Christmas Don't Be Late (Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.)Up on the Rooftop (Benjamin Hanby)Silver Bells (Jay Livingston, Ray Evans)8 Little Candles (flory Jagoda)Happy Christmas (War Is Over) (John Lennon)Wonderful Christmastime (Paul McCartney)I'll Be Home for Christmas (Kim Gannon, Walter Kent)
Matt Wilson's Christmas Tree-O
Matt Wilson, drums; Jeff Lederer, reeds; Ted Rosenthal, piano; Paul Sikivie, bass
Set List:
Winter Wonderland (Felix Bernard, Richard Bernhard Smith)Christmas Don't Be Late (Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.)Up on the Rooftop (Benjamin Hanby)Silver Bells (Jay Livingston, Ray Evans)8 Little Candles (flory Jagoda)Happy Christmas (War Is Over) (John Lennon)Wonderful Christmastime (Paul McCartney)I'll Be Home for Christmas (Kim Gannon, Walter Kent)
― dow, Monday, 26 December 2022 02:15 (one year ago) link
Oh. That reminds me that I think Matt Wilson is playing Birdland tomorrow as part of a Tadd Dameron tribute I want to see.
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 26 December 2022 02:18 (one year ago) link
In the theater downstairs, not the larger room.
xxxpost taking the scenic route: something like a Rashaan Roland Kirk treeship.
― dow, Monday, 26 December 2022 02:21 (one year ago) link
Think Matt Wilson may be touring on the Xmas thing.
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 27 December 2022 02:18 (one year ago) link
Or so he told me a little while ago.
At the Birdland Theater. This 19 year-old college student on vocals is amazing. Kind of a star is born thing, although maybe somebody else already knows who she is.
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 27 December 2022 02:25 (one year ago) link
https://www.anaisreno.com/
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 27 December 2022 02:26 (one year ago) link
That Matt Wilson xmas set is fantastic. Love him and almost forgot how musical and fun his groups are. I was going to say they should put this out as a record but I see they did a studio version of it in 2010.
― change display name (Jordan), Friday, 30 December 2022 16:11 (one year ago) link