Rolling Jazz Thread 2022

My latest podcast interview is up today — I talked to Vernon Reid about Ronald Shannon Jackson, the Isley Brothers, Bad Brains, and his new Free Form Funky Freqs record with Jamaaladeen Tacuma and G. Calvin Weston. Details here.

One of the things I am really going to miss about branch and this is something that really came through when I saw her live, was the sense that her life depended on what she was playing right at that moment. There are a lot of younger jazz players, a lot of whom I like, can seem a little measured almost tentative live, they don't grab the music by the collar and drag it around the way branch did and I am really going to miss it.

I'm really bummed I never saw her live

The Fly or Die live album thrilled me: I felt like I was there, in the middle of the audience and loving that (in headphones), loving the music too, despite quarantine and my usual hermit tendencies. It was a little too long and familiar after the first two FoD, but overall very refreshing. Hopefully there will be more of that, more from the studio too, and an album of the show that I think unperson mentioned on the International Anthem thread: Fly or Die with Harriet Tubman, omg. More Anteloper too--but she gave us so much already, these past few years.
Before I saw the news, came here last night to say thanks to James Blechh for that Harry Whitaker link! Great stuff.

Must check unperson's xxpost Vernon Reid interview---also:

Searching In Grenoble: The 1978 Solo Piano Concert is a previously unissued recording of jazz icon Mal Waldron's mesmerizing performance at the "Five Days of Jazz" series in Grenoble, France on March 23, 1978.
Waldron was Billie Holiday’s final accompanist, played on classic sessions with John Coltrane, Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy among others, and recorded dozens of solo albums as a leader before his passing in 2002.

Originally produced by the legendary André Francís and transferred from the original Radio France tapes, this is the first official release of this music in cooperation with the Mal Waldron Estate and Ina (The Institut national de l'audiovisuel). The beautifully designed, deluxe 2-CD set includes photos by K. Abe, Brian McMillen and Raymond Ross; an extensive 24-page booklet with a heartfelt statement by Mal's daughter Mala Waldron, plus essays by producer/"Jazz Detective" Zev Feldman, journalist Adam Shatz and Ina's Pascal Rozat; and interviews with modern jazz piano luminaries Ran Blake and Matthew Shipp. Searching In Grenoble features classic Waldron originals such as "Soul Eyes" and "All Alone," and jazz standards "You Don't Know What Love Is," "It Could Happen to You" and "I Thought About You.”

The 2CD set will be available worldwide September 23rd on Tompkins Square (TSQ5906), and was produced for release by Zev Feldman and Josh Rosenthal.

Tompkins Square has released jazz recordings by Sonny Clark, Ran Blake, Calvin Keys, Bola Sete, Giuseppi Logan, Charles Gayle, and Bern Nix among others.

Pre-Order Links :

bandcamp / Amazon / Indie

Michael Bourne, remembered in Downbeat:

“‘I get paid to spin records,” is what Michael always told people, said Amy Niles, former president of WBGO and one of Bourne’s closest friends. “While that was true in some ways, it was the impact of how he crafted his stories through the music and his words that was really what he laid out for us all. Nothing was random in his life. You had to read his words the way he wrote them and hear the music as he presented it, but he always left the room for your interpretation, never telling you what you should see, hear or feel.

I was a huge fan of that guy. I believe Bobby Sanabria is doing a tribute to him this weekend.

Various musicians reporting on social media and elsewhere that Joey DeFrancesco has passed.

And his wife posted about it on his FB page so I guess it's true.

Nate Chinen weighs in on some transitions, but not this latest one.

Thanks, James. After reading that, I ended up subscribing to The Gig and got a chance to add Burning Ambulance, but already had it.

Wait, Louis Cato is now the leader of The Late Show Band?

Joey deFrancesco, what the fuck!

I was just recently going deep on that Miles Davis local TV interview where he first heard Joey play on high school, and listening to some of his records. And a Questlove interview with Christian Mcbride where they both say that Joey was the real prodigy in their arts high school (which included Kurt Rosenwinkel and Boyz II Men).

Good ol' CAPA still graduates gifted and strange kids, from what I've been told

I had McBride on my podcast last year and he talked a lot about his friendship with DeFrancesco (they had just put an album out together at the time).

Still at it!

Abdullah Ibrahim & Ekaya tonight in NYC pic.twitter.com/tn2Jj4bLKz

— jeff (@jazyjef) August 28, 2022

This was some nice skronk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmC4DGkUEAM

Young fresh skronk, thanks!
Reminds me:

#HBD to the legendary guitarist Sonny Sharrock, born this day August 27, in 1940. To celebrate link in bio for a short audio interview from 1993.#freejazz #jazzbirthdays #sonnysharrock pic.twitter.com/pdd4xyKUhL

— Arts for Art / Vision Festival (@artsforart) August 27, 2022

HB Sonny!

Joey DeFrancesco has passed.

RIP. I was lucky enough to see him play once with John McLaughlin and Dennis Chambers in San Sebastian, something like 30 years ago. Time flies ...

Zoh Amba is getting a lot of (IMO undeserved) push. Apparently there's a NY Times feature in the works.

Somebody I *still* need to check out

An early champion of “free form” jazz, Joe Harriott is now widely recognised as a major British Caribbean innovator. Here are five key albums from Harriott's catalogue 👀 https://t.co/Q3IdGpmp3n

— Jazzwise (@Jazzwise) August 30, 2022

the Indo-Jazz Suite is not a bad place to start at all

I have a 2CD set that has 4 of his albums but have never listened to it.

Hum Dono is fantastic, surprised it's not in that list.

yeah indeed

This week's Burning Ambulance newsletter contains the full, previously unpublished transcript of my 2019 interview with Jaimie Branch.

Zoh Amba is good and will only get better. She's been doing stuff with Luke Stewart and gabby fluke mogul, who are both powerhouses, so can't complain. Rather her getting hyped than some of the bland coffee table Gilles Peterson jazzers too many critics are going wild for.

This SSWAN album has been getting heavy rotation. Bit of a new generation supergroup with Jessica Ackerley, Patrick Shiroishi, Luke Stewart, Chris Williams and Jason Nazary. One of the most exciting things about these guys is their interest in sound based free improvisation, but imbued with a punky energy.

https://577records.bandcamp.com/album/sswan-invisibility-is-an-unnatural-disaster

Zoh Amba is good and will only get better. She's been doing stuff with Luke Stewart and gabby fluke mogul, who are both powerhouses, so can't complain. Rather her getting hyped than some of the bland coffee table Gilles Peterson jazzers too many critics are going wild for.

That YouTube clip with her and fluke-mogul is better than anything she's committed to disc thus far. I don't hate her by any means, but I've definitely had conversations with some elder free jazzers who are like "who is this little girl and in what universe does she deserve this hype-wave?"

She’s not originally from Tennessee is she? I just heard a YouTube clip of her talking and she sounds Yurpean as much as anything

I think it's good and natural for people to be excited about new players coming up - and it's kind of inevitable that the media will pick up on that. I know that can cause some resentment among others who have paid their dues for years and undeservedly been overlooked, but those dismissing her as a "little girl" sound pretty sexist tbh!

Yes, from Tennessee. Must admit the PR stuff about her growing up playing saxophone in the woods sounds a bit too mythic, but then if you've got the space, then it's a pretty good place to practice ha!

Advance track from the upcoming Thumbscrew is good: https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/multicolored-midnight-hd-24-96

checking how old abdullah ibrahim is (87) i discover that his birthname was "adolph" lol: hence "dollar" when he first lived and performed in europe in the 60s

Thumbscrew played a surprise show at Blues Alley in DC a couple months ago so so good. Three great composers: Mary Halvorson, current and future legend. Love Mike Formanek, his ECM albums were great and un-ECM. Tomas Fujisawa always impresses me.

checking how old abdullah ibrahim is (87) i discover that his birthname was "adolph" lol: hence "dollar" when he first lived and performed in europe in the 60s

― mark s, Thursday, September 1, 2022 7:25 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

i'm just putting together abDULLAh / DOLLAr and it's blowing my mind ...

Woah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMwDdEGrt8E

Has anyone mentioned new Ron Carter doc coming soon on PBS?

Don't think so---will check local listings, thx

This guy! Bout time for collected works.

Phil Ranelin was born in Indianapolis in 1939, made a lot of creative music in Detroit (John McEntire remastered some of it), then relocated to Los Angeles in 1977, where he currently lives. Turned 83 in May.

Respect to the indie labels that have documented him over the years. pic.twitter.com/AmvdpcGwOQ

— jeff (@jazyjef) September 3, 2022

Correction: Phil Ranelin moved back to Indianapolis.

— jeff (@jazyjef) September 4, 2022

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFZ3e08BZ8YNWN-5BqyKXVggX69k9QfJHvQ-ke9stbnFVUBUi0f6rMkPav8KryVpbUohJt5VoftkUVvt3_iSJAZWtrCJs9c_r1hyVw-8yPxit11aQt9moVtyvG1FG2cxvxG5GsFDrwuFl1Kg6_BGhqRUOSysICx5cmxoUgf3vFEf43kEfr-nv5C03q5w/w400-h400/R-3806338-1392135791-9081.jpg
Survival Themes: Reggie Lucas solo album, w Mtume input, in the wake of Miles, but I like that the poster cautions us against expecting too much, so maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised, Description lays out Milesian-enough perimeters. anyway (but no they don't have a guy playing trumpet, wisely enough). Link is in comments:
https://zensurfingarcher.blogspot.com/2022/09/reggie-lucas-1975-survival-themes.html
And here's 23:12 of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5a6n9DJRoA

Remembering double bass master Wilbur Ware, who was born on this day in 1923. You could pick highlights with Thelonious, Sonny, Clifford, and others, but let’s hear it for ace The Chicago Sound, the only album he released as a leader during his lifetime. pic.twitter.com/vShI0alLXX

— Chris Monsen (@chris_monsen) September 8, 2022

It's finally here! Check out my new interactive discography at https://t.co/nEoSpeSI6W.
Listen to nearly 1,000 albums and get behind-the-scenes stories from yours truly. It's called the Ron Carter Universe - where Planet Elegance resides! #roncarterbassist #planetelegance pic.twitter.com/VUQZK5HK9i

— Ron Carter (@RonCarterBass) September 8, 2022

Listening a fair bit to the Jamaladeen Tacuma/Mary Halvorson collab; they connect p well:
https://jamaaladeentacuma.bandcamp.com/album/jamaaladeen-tacuma-mary-halvorson-strings-things

Have you heard the Young Philadelphians? Halvorson, Tacuma, Marc Ribot, and G. Calvin Weston on drums:

https://marcribot.bandcamp.com/album/the-young-philadelphians-live-in-tokyo

I hadn't! Hm, songs with Ribot singing (or vocalizing)? Might try it.

So that Titan to Tachyons album mentioned upthread comes out in... (checks notes)... three days, and I'll be damned if I can find a way to order it. It's not on the artist's bandcamp page, it's mentioned on the band's website but without a single link to where to buy it and the banner ad at the top of the page that looks like it will lead you to that simply routes you back to the exact page you were already on. It's mentioned at the bottom of the home page of Tzadik's website but, again, not a single link to where it can be ordered.

Can't say I've sought out a lot of Tzadik stuff, so maybe this is just par for the course, but this seems... less than optimal. I'd be pretty annoyed if I had a new album coming out in not only one single physical format, but without a place from which it could be ordered.

incl download and youtube

50 years ago tonight, Miles debuts a new 9-piece band with a scorched-earth closing set at the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival.

With On the Corner still unreleased, it’s hard to imagine anyone in the crowd was remotely prepared for this music.https://t.co/FPyAp404sc

— Jeremy Erwin (@theheatwarps) September 11, 2022

Jeremy Erwin@theheatwarps
·
Sep 10
Replying to @theheatwarps
This is also the date on which Miles first encountered Pete Cosey, who helped engineer the previous day’s set from Art Ensemble of Chicago.

The complete interview with Cosey is a must-read. https://t.co/gpbqKB4lGl https://t.co/yAJoxVSP6z

— Don Allred (@0wlred) September 15, 2022