Rolling Jazz Thread 2023

What kept me away? Parenthood then pandemic. When I used to run into Morbius I would sheepishly sort of apologize that I couldn't keep up wiith his rate of filmgoing (anymore). He would smile and say "I can imagine, I can imagine."

Actually I went to the not-so-lower East Side a few months ago to use that week's MUBI GO ticket.

I was confusing it with National Sawdust, which I also have yet to visit.

NS can put on a great show
let's get you out this year

Something to look forward to. I'm in!

Probably should follow some of these places on social media.

I did sometimes get out to Barbès and especially to Shapeshifter, both of which I should also follow, I guess. And to my friend's Tuesday night jam session that is now at...Bar Bayeux...but used to be...somewhere else.

Halyards

And before that, Fifth Estate.

Part of me wants to say that the last time I was there was exactly seven years ago, so I could ask Ben Monder about Bowie and Tony V, but I probably went a few times after that.

Okay I'm done.

We now return this thread to its regularly scheduled content.

I went to Nublu once or twice; saw the Hedvig Mollestad Trio there about seven or eight years ago, probably.

they've remodeled

I admit that I find the name “NuBlu” so off putting that I would have a hard time walking into the place. Why that stupid name!

OTM. Sounds like a bespoke vodka brand.

it's a stupid name but it's a cool spot as i remember!

Anybody check out David Murray's new quartet at the Village Vanguard this past week? I was going to go this weekend, but the shows sold out before I could commit to a time. On paper it looks really interesting: Marta Sanchez – Piano, Luke Stewart – Bass, Kassa Overall – Drums

I almost never go to vanguard? Convince me I am wrong.

The aforementioned Saturday roulette set was a fairly epic free jazz hootenanny. My poor partner was expecting something slightly more melodic and was shell shocked by the whole experience. It was apparently her first time hearing Zorn. When we heard sirens on the way home she exclaimed “he’s following us!”

Is there a reason to avoid it? FWIW, I've seen a few Zorn shows at the Vanguard as well.

over the weekend i was able to catch alain gomis's "rewind & play", which is made up of concert and interview footage of thelonious monk on french TV in '69. what makes it particularly interesting is the outtakes footage. highly recommended!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0lvlXQQIG0

It's so good. If his 'Félicité' is still on MUBI then it's highly recommended as well. It's about a woman who sings with Kasai All Stars, and also includes a Congolese orchester playing Arvo Pärt as a sort of greek chorus (which might seem like the biggest cliché, but it's honestly really fun to have an amateur orchestra playing Pärt live on the soundtrack, instead of hearing the polished ECM versions for the thousandth time). Gomis really cares about music and the way it interacts with society.

thanks, i'll have to check it out

heard this on the radio yesterday and loved it. it sounds so fresh and yet so classic. from '04. between this and his new record of beatles covers, i think i'm having a brad mehldau phase, a mehl-down as i've decided to call it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaF3znfkZuw

"The biggest difference is how they accent stuff. Pheeroan accents in a way where you feel that edge of propulsion moving forward. DeJohnette ... his accents are much more distant from each other and have a very sharp intellectual curve that is so brilliant. Milford Graves, what he does is he tumbles rhythms, like a juggler. Yeah. He does that with rhythms, and he keeps all of them afloat. Shannon Jackson, he pushed the units of horizontal form forward with what I call multi-polyphonic drumming.”

I really appreciate Martyn's NTS show as a selection of whatever jazz vinyl he's dug up (including private press stuff).

https://www.nts.live/shows/martyn/episodes/martyn-21st-november-2022

Collecting and listening to vinyl doesn't really fit into my life at the moment, but it seems like a nice way to live and I appreciate reaping the listening benefits.

private press jazz! Intriguing, thamks.

Hi friends - excited as always to bring you the first Q1 release of 2023 for International Anthem - the return of Rob Mazurek's unpredictable, wild Exploding Star Orchestra. The new album is full of classic RM curveballs - an entire live recording of the band laid over the studio sound, Damon Locks vocal incantations on the Jeff Parker produced opening track "Future Shaman" - fearless and fiery as always. Hope you dig it!

Future Shaman is out today along with the announcement of Lightning Dreamers.

Quote from Rob on the lead single:

Future Shaman is a beat and lyrical sojourn into the clouds and then the eye of the storm and finally an ascension to the stars. A snaking counterpoint summoning the spirit world. An attempt at communication, renewal/rebirth through sound and movement.

more from International Anthem's Bandcamp page for this alb:

...The album’s opener “Future Shaman” was co-produced by Parker and features added percussion by Mazurek’s longtime São Paulo Underground collaborator Mauricio Takara, as well as synth bass from
Cathlene Pineda. The track finds Mazurek and ESO where they left off with Dimensional Stardust – deep in a chromatic funk fantasy of outer-space grooves and Bartok-ian riffs. Vocalist/MC Locks brings the Orson Welles via Deltron 3030 energy while Taborn and Sanchez face-off from behind Wurlitzer pianos and Moog synthesizers. On “Dream Sleeper” Locks’s poetry is swirled in drifting storm clouds of fractured atmospherics, both improvised and composed. “Shape Shifter” finds Mazurek recalling a past life of Isotope 217 – not just for the swinging grooves anchored by Moog basslines, but also in that he returns to the trumpet after years of playing cornet. Once the soaring melodic theme is established the ensemble shifts into On The Corner mode, creating a mangled rhythmic base for Taborn’s Wurlitzer runs and clean guitar soloing from Parker, before shapeshifting yet again under Mazurek’s rising polytonal electronics as Locks’s scattered vocal embellishments take us to the promised land...

releases March 31, 2023

All music composed by Rob Mazurek (OLHO, ASCAP). Words by Damon Locks.

Recorded at Sonic Ranch, Tornillo, TX, September 23rd & 24th, 2021.

Rob Mazurek - director, composer, trumpets, voice, launeddas, electronic treatments
Jeff Parker - guitar
Craig Taborn - wurlitzer, moog matriarch
Angelica Sanchez - wurlitzer, piano, moog sub 37
Damon Locks - voice, electronics, samplers, text
Gerald Cleaver - drums
Mauricio Takara - electronic percussion, percussion
Nicole Mitchell - flute, voice

Future Shaman" co-produced by Jeff Parker, with additional synth bass played by Cathlene Pineda.

“Black River” includes samples of Exploding Star Orchestra recorded live at Sons d’hiver in Paris, France, on February 3rd, 2022, featuring: Rob Mazurek, jaimie branch, Tomeka Reid, Thomas Roher, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Julien Desprez, Pasquale Mirra, Angelica Sanchez, Damon Locks, Mikel Patrick Avery, Chad Taylor, and Mauricio Takara.

Is there a reason to avoid it? FWIW, I've seen a few Zorn shows at the Vanguard as well.

Reminds me of those Thirsty Ear Blue Series records of the early '00s in terms of the sound and some of the players, but harder and less soup-y.

xp

from 2022 but just caught documentary Music for Black Pigeons which if you like Jakob Bro is wonderful but also has great scenes with Lee Konitz, Thomas Morgan, Midori Takada and many others, some incredible live recordings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI07dp_pFsU

Listening to this John Hollenback/Dan Cavanagh/James Miley album from last year "Another Life". It starts with a cheeky mash-up of Everything In Its Right Place and All the Things You Are (ok jazz nerds), but is really good, also sounds absolutely incredible.

Two pianos and drums! I had to look up who mixed it, and it's bassist Todd Sickafoose.

Cool.

Finally getting around to listening to Champion Fulton since the Smalls Livestream just alerted me a little while ago. Her trio (drummerless tonight, since it's Mezzrow, although sometimes they do have drummers) is sounding really good.

I'd been avoiding listening to Samara Joy, but I suppose I have to now.

She can sing but do we need more traditional versions of Misty and Someone to Watch Over Me as she offers on her album. She’s only 23 and I did like her enthusiasm and passion when getting the award, so hopefully she can at some point do something more original

Maybe her first album is more interesting (just guitar/bass/drums, no piano):

http://samarajoy-whirlwind.bandcamp.com/album/samara-joy

i missed a showcase gig this past summer, don't think i'll be seeing her in a small room anytime soon now!
the current album is a bit unexciting though her voice is solid as oak. would like to hear her live.

https://eastaxis.bandcamp.com/album/cool-with-that

love the latest Shipp "East Axis", he seems to be on a bit of a roll recently

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead says tenor saxophonist Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and organist Shirley Scott had one of the great jazz partnerships in the late 1950s. A new anthology focuses on their "Cookbook" series of albums recorded over a six-month period. Here's Kevin's review.

(SOUNDBITE OF EDDIE "LOCKJAW" DAVIS AND SHIRLEY SCOTT'S "HEAT 'N SERVE")

KEVIN WHITEHEAD, BYLINE: "Heat 'N Serve" from a new roundup of tenor saxophonist Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis' 1958 "Cookbook" sessions with organist Shirley Scott. The set "Cookin' With Jaws And The Queen" celebrates the inexhaustible power of the blues. They play a bunch of fast, medium and slow blues in seven keys that leave you hungry for still more. This collection also celebrates a musical partnership then two years old. Lockjaw was the horn man with a sizzling tone and swagger. Scott would swoop in behind him with dramatic gestures and perfect timing.

(SOUNDBITE OF EDDIE "LOCKJAW" DAVIS AND SHIRLEY SCOTT'S "HIGH FRY")

I saw Kahil El'Zabar's Ethnic Heritage Ensemble last night and just want to say that if you get the chance to see them you should definitely take it

say more?

I like El'Zabar generally and have every reason to believe any of his groups would be great live, but the Don Cherry tribute album he's got coming out in April (it was supposed to be out next month, so I've already filed a review for The Wire) kinda sucks.

oh man, you need to say more please

ah ok, I wasn't really expecting that kind of response — I'll give it a shot, though I don't see nearly as much live jazz as y'all, so ymmv

Primarily what I meant was that he is ~70 years old, so if you're into him, it's wise to see him sooner rather than later! The friend I went with had seen him in 2019 and said on that date they'd played for something like 2.5 hours, while the other night was more like <1.5 (fine by me for a Thursday tbh).

But it was also just a really great spiritual jazz show. The two "opening acts" were poets, which I might normally have been bothered by but it fit the mood, and fuck it I'm more open to some vintage countercultural energy these days. One factor might be that I've mostly seen jazz shows in Montreal via the Jazz Fest, which is a fantastic event that I love but is def a little on the formal, bourgeois, tourist-y side, whereas this was at La Salla Rossa and felt much more community-oriented. Apparently he's been playing annually in Montreal for decades, so the whole thing felt homey.

Probably the most impressive aspect was how deftly they ranged from fiery to hypnotic. I've tried some of his albums, and they've never quite blown me away (possibly I tried the wrong ones), so it was a pleasant surprise. In particular I didn't much care for his vocals on the records I tried, but live they make much more sense. I was impressed that sometimes it sounded like solfeggio (is that the right word? that humming thing Monk and Powell do), and sometimes he sounded more like a soul singer, reminiscent of Sly or GSH. He's a good drummer, afaict, though I almost liked it more when he played mbira or, especially, this box-drum thing I don't know what to call. I was also really into his baritone sax player, Alex Harding, who did this amazingly funky, in multiple senses of the word, intro to "Caravan". The trumpeter was Corey Wilkes, also good though maybe more solid than spectacular, but they were a great uh ensemble with a ton of positive energy

They didn't play any Cherry songs — which I would have loved, I've been listening to him a lot lately and making my way through the Organic Music Societies book — but in addition to Caravan, they played Lonely Woman and Resolution (from A Love Supreme) as well as some originals.

oh, sorry, i didn't intend to put the guy down or dampen your enthusiasm. i'd love to see him live. but as a certified cherryhead, i had a keen interest in hearing details about a "failed" DC homage, which strikes me as morbidly fascinating is all

DEXTER GORDON CENTENNIAL BROADCAST
dexter
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2023 - 12:00AM TO 11:59PM
WKCR presents a day long tribute to the life and work of Saxophonists Dexter Gordon. Join us from midnight to midnight on February 27th as we celebrate the "Sophisticated Giant's" 100th birthday.

89.9FM wkcr.org

Full schedule TBA

Well, I missed Kahlil El'Zabar yet again last night.

I have occasionally referred to Ethan Iverson as a "small-c conservative", meaning I figured he was probably somewhere in the neighborhood of Albert Murray, politically. Well, today I found out via the Twitter algorithm that he follows Libs of TikTok. That puts him in "fuck this guy" territory for me.

Hard to imagine that a guy who knows and understands the history of jazz music as well as Iverson does could be interested in that sort of thing, political affiliation notwithstanding. Maybe it's one of those follows-are-not-endorsements things?

In other news, Eremite just announced a new Natural Information Society album