Rolling Jazz Thread 2022

I love all that stuff.

Liked the Winter Concert a lot on first listen.

Chris Paquette
18 hours ago
On the one hand: a characteristic time feel and tone, and a beautifully rendered classic;
On the other hand: puts up a poster of himself in his own room.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59XAG0AU5aU

Fantastic sample track here:
https://maryhalvorson.bandcamp.com/album/amaryllis

Yeah, I've listened to a little bit of the new Halvorson album (the promo player Nonesuch uses suuuuucks, like all major label promo apps) and it's really good. She spent their money well.

that's a nice track. it had me thinking about funky jazz tunes in odd meters, which inevitable led me to thad jones's "ahunk ahunk"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKQlZl6N11g

Oops, why I should keep up w my twitter better:

Nubya Garcia
@nubya_garcia
·
Mar 14
tonight and tomorrow opening for
@Khruangbin
in Nashville
@theryman
! on at 8pm 🖤

🖌
@yesolpictures
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FN1ZzOrWYAA5fta?format=jpg&name=medium

Coming up in the US:
MAR 17 THU
Roadrunner @ 8:00pm
Boston, MA, United States
TICKETS RSVP
MAR 18 FRI
Roadrunner @ 7:00pm
Boston, MA, United States
TICKETS RSVP
MAR 19 SAT
The Met Philadelphia @ 8:00pm
Philadelphia, PA, United States
TICKETS RSVP
MAR 22 TUE
Le Poisson Rouge @ 7:00pm
New York, NY, United States
TICKETS RSVP
MAR 24 THU
Treefort Music Fest 2022 @ 12:00pm
Boise, ID, United States
TICKETS RSVP
MAR 26 SAT
Big Ears Festival 2022 @ 7:00pm
Knoxville, TN, United States
TICKETS RSVP
Then to Manchester https://www.nubyagarcia.com/

Yeah, I interviewed her yesterday for Stereogum; it'll run on Monday as hype for the Le Poisson Rouge gig (which is her as headliner, not support for Khruangbin — she was here last week with them, two nights at Radio City Music Hall).

Yeah her site doesn't list any other artists on shows coming up, although maybe it does on those tickets links or in news section.

Once the Khruangbin tour ends she's back to Europe for spring and summer, but she'll be back in the US later this year — she told me she just got a 3 year visa for the US in February.

I saw David Murray with Dave Burrell at the Blue Note last week. IIRC he mentioned in-between numbers that the group performing those nights had also cut an album that will be released soon. He's done something like a HUNDRED albums and I've only heard a fraction of them, but what I've heard has been great, including the few I have with Burrell (for a Japanese label was back in the late '80s).

Forgot to mention, he played two numbers from the album and they were both great. I'm not sure if he played different ones in other sets - had it been a weekend, I definitely would've stayed for the late set or at least caught another day as well.

I wrote a short beginner's guide to Murray not long ago, which includes capsule reviews of 10 representative albums. He did a set of five albums with Burrell in 1988 for DIW that are organized around themes (ballads, spirituals, tunes by famous tenor players, etc.) and are pretty good.

the 1988 Lucky Four album with Murray/Burrell is a fab album. I like quite a few solo Burrell albums as well, the Morton tribute one, Jelly Roll Joys is worth checking out as well.

I always try to see Murray live when he comes to town, but I only have maybe a dozen or so of his releases, exclusive of the WSQ albums.

The “Waltz Again” album with Lafayette Gilchrist is one of my favorites.

I thought he was still living in NYC but it sounds like he moved to France some years ago (in the '00s or '10s?)

Not sure if he's scaled back his U.S. appearances because of that, but I was glad to catch at least one set. If he comes through again, I'll be sure to catch him.

Oh wow, didn't know about some of those in your beginner's guide to Murray, thanks. Last one reminds me (re Caribbean) of his mighty guest shots on The Skatalites'Hip-Bop-Ska. Got a bunch of MRE, WSQ, Dark Star (he's usually to be found on YouTube with the live Dead, too), several of your picks, Clarinet Summit, and Plays Nat King Cole en Español is just incredible, even for him: his string charts alone are worth the price of admission.
I used to get the impression, back when I tried to keep up with such things, that he seemed to be taken for granted, maybe because so many albums (Branford seemed annoyed by the release schedule, and in fact that's the only Murray comment I've seen by him, typically enough).

Been digging the new-ish Hawkins, featuring a number of other great players.
https://alexanderhawkinsintakt.bandcamp.com/album/break-a-vase-2

If I may, the latest episode of Jazz Police with music from the late, great Dennis Gonzalez, Tomas Fujiwara (absolutely ripping solo from Mary Halvorson folks), Myra Melford, Flower-Corsano, GOATFACE! and much more.

https://www.mixcloud.com/RepeaterRadio/stewart-smith-presnts-jazz-police-live-gateshead-uk-1/

xp

it's a really good album. I think this is the first time I've seen him mentioned on here despite him being a longtime Shabaka Hutchings collaborator and done lots of good to brilliant releases since at least 2013. I was starting to think he got cancelled for doing that album with [redacted anti-vaxxer crank] last year!

Hawkins is great I follow him religiously. Never seen him live sadly.

He's performing with Hafez Modirzadeh in Glasgow in a couple of weeks, doing the Facets material. Really psyched for that. Also Decoy coming up at Cafe Oto - Hawkins unleashes the full cosmic power of the Hammond B3.

that sounds excellent!

well they both sound good, but especially the Modirzadeh gig. Be interesting hearing him filling in for Sorey.

I saw the new Bad Plus in a pretty small venue in Madison WI, and it was fantastic. All originals (all by Reid & Dave), mostly from the upcoming quartet record (out in Sept. apparently).

At first I was distracted by Monder's guitar tone in context -- no highs, zero attack, pretty quiet, kept getting lost in the low mids of the bass and sax. But I think it's partially just his thing, and also maybe trying not to act like a piano replacement? It was very much a background thing, sometimes doubling the sax, sometimes the bass, and even when he was shredding it was sort of a white noise element. Kinda cool and different how it just blended into everything, or maybe I was just sitting in a bad spot. I'm curious how it's mixed on record.

Anyway everyone sounded very committed and distinctly Bad Plus-y (which highlights their aesthetic even more in a way), and now I think this was a better move than trying to find another piano player. Highly recommend catching them if you can.

(also my wife & I got into a long conversation with Monder after the show, super nice dude)

Nubya Garcia just finished a string of tour dates opening for Khruangbin (a really good combination, to my ear) and is headlining Le Poisson Rouge in NYC tomorrow night. I interviewed her about getting back to the US for the first time since, I think, 2018 in my latest Stereogum column.

(He is great to talk to, I have done so many times)

I think I met him once after a gig at the Jazz Gallery, and I interviewed him once for The Wire. He is a very nice, soft-spoken dude.

I know this is the jazz thread, but I just need to make note that I find it *super weird* that Khruangbin don't have any actual Thai people in their band?

Has the recent Smalls "controversy" come up here yet?

No, but for the record I am pro-Smalls, and found that aside to be a weird sour note in an otherwise excellent piece.

For those not paying attention, Gio Russonello (a writer I like a lot) wrote a NY Times feature on new jazz and jazz-adjacent venues, some of which sound really cool. But for some reason, he felt the need to throw in a shot at Smalls:

At Smalls Jazz Club, the storied West Village basement, purebred jazz jam sessions still stretch into the wee hours on a nightly basis, inheriting some of the infectious, insidery energy that existed in its truest form into the 1990s at clubs like Bradley’s. But today it’s hard to argue that Smalls is the right destination for hearing the most cutting-edge sounds.

And although they don’t usually say it publicly, seasoned players have come to agree that the code of conduct at Smalls’ jam sessions went a little flimsy after the 2018 death of Roy Hargrove. His frequent presence as an elder there had helped to keep the bar high, even as the room had come to be filled with musicians whose hands-on experience of jazz arrived mostly through the distorted lens of formal education.

Spike himself wrote a rebuttal as did Sasha Berliner.

Great looking compilation of post-war British jazz, featuring Shake Keane, Joe Harriott, Ronnie Scott et al.

https://deathisnot.bandcamp.com/album/i-had-the-craziest-dream-modern-jazz-and-hard-bop-in-post-war-london-vol-1?from=fanpub_fb

[tiny thread] Missed this from last week. Great stuff, showing the ongoing fragmentation of 21c art, "we contain multitudes." However NYC is also where true bebop still lives, and IMHO there was no need to take a swipe at Smalls... https://t.co/aXUmRcbuVa

— Ethan Iverson (@ethan_iverson) March 22, 2022

otm

the distorted lens of formal education

Um anyway---some new and recent Sunnyside jazz---think I only recognize Matt Slocum? At least muh lens is ok.
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Sunnyside-in-Early-Spring.html?soid=1101632560908&aid=rOF0xfVkkdY

Oh wow--should check spam folder more often:

https://artistshare.blob.core.windows.net/artists/001/1/images/11079.jpg?1648595335444

and other news via artistshare: http://artistshare.blob.core.windows.net/artists/019/19/downloads/03-23-2022.html

My dad's 1968(?) Down Beat review of the Tony Williams with Larry Young and John McLaughlin performing at the Village Vanguard. Since he (famously) hated rock, dad praises the musicians, but undersells it. Me--I'd cut off a toe to hear that show... pic.twitter.com/1OJ4nAvOOZ

— Fitz Gitler (@techdef) March 29, 2022

Wonder what Dad thought of their NYC gig w Jack Bruce? Now that's what I call heavy.

okay ill admit it, when i was younger i thought that every time someone on a jazz record was credited for "vibes" it meant they hung out at the recording session and made everything feel cool

— Fritz Pape (@fritzpape) March 31, 2022

If only!

Lol

“Wow, musicians really liked hanging out with that Milt Jackson guy!”

tapes?

Archie Shepp Quintet with Roswell Rudd, Grachan Moncur III, & Beaver Harris (Jimmy Garrison n.p.), Copenhagen, October 1967

📸 Jan Persson / Getty Images pic.twitter.com/WaEt0DI3eG

— jeff (@jazyjef) April 2, 2022

Oh, here they all are:

Archie Shepp Quintet with Roswell Rudd, Grachan Moncur III, Beaver Harris, & Jimmy Garrison, Copenhagen, October 1967

📸 Jan Persson / Getty Images pic.twitter.com/eDOF4Yf1ko

— jeff (@jazyjef) April 2, 2022

Archie Shepp & Roswell Rudd, Copenhagen, October 1967

📸 Jan Persson / Getty Images pic.twitter.com/AkWacHY2fT

— jeff (@jazyjef) April 1, 2022

these were my cheap record finds today O_O

Tidy little pile of jazzers from the chazzer, all early pressings from the 50s/60s pic.twitter.com/F4OhatDX0g

— fell into a green dream (@Mount_Analogue) April 2, 2022

all super-clean and sounding ~incredible~

braggin' with the miles davis quintet