Rolling Jazz Thread 2023

Today being Bandcamp Friday, I've bought seven albums by drummer Willie Jones III from his label WJ3 Records. Lots of good mainstream players represented: Eddie Henderson, George Cables, Buster Williams, Eric Reed, up-and-coming pianist Isaiah Thompson, saxophonist Stacy Dillard, etc.

Nice

TIL that trumpeter Jeremy Pelt has a sister...Danielle Spencer, who played mouthy younger sister Dee on What's Happening! (She left acting behind decades ago and is a veterinarian.)

We were listening to the new James Brandon Lewis record “Eye of I” in the car and my husband said, “I like this but it is very fucking weird of you to be into” lmfao

Anyway, I like it— more jazz/drone/stoner sludge and adjacent music, please.

I think half of it is fantastic. Not entirely sold yet on the doom cello bits

I’ve been kinda on the fence too about the new one. I loved Jesup Wagon, but Eye of I hasn’t clicked for me yet. It’s not the doom cellos - I dig that element. The album just maybe feels a little directionless.

no idea who this is, but qobuz recommended Emil Brandqvist Trio - "Layers of Life" to me and I'm really digging it...I'm so bad at talking about jazz but maybe some Brad Mehldau meets prog influences thing?

count me as a non-jazz guy (sorry) who digs the JBL album. i like that it's kinda noisy and weird, but also with what i think are pretty melodies played well.

maybe i should write for Jazz Times

Was reminded on Twitter of the existence of Stephen Scott, a pianist who got the big push in the early '90s (four albums for Verve, was in Sonny Rollins' band for a bit, worked with Roy Hargrove as well) but faded out at the turn of the millennium. He's still alive, living and teaching down in Florida. He was one of the first jazz artists I interviewed, around the time of his final Verve album, The Beautiful Thing. It's a good record: Dwayne Burno on bass, Victor Lewis on drums on most tracks, Russell Malone on guitar on about half of it, guest appearances from Kenny Garrett and Branford Marsalis, versions of Kenny Dorham's "Blue Bossa" and "La Mesha," Wayne Shorter's "Oriental Folk Song," and Ornette Coleman's Lonely Woman." Worth pulling up on streaming. I saw him play with Rollins at Tramps around that time, too.

Unperson, thanks for your recent Stereogum column. I was on the fence about that London Brew record, for precisely the reason you mentioned, but your review pushed me into pre-ordering it.

Something I learned while researching my book: Cecil Taylor's Silent Tongues, a solo performance from the 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival, was part of a whole evening of solo piano performances. The other three were by Earl "Fatha" Hines, Jay McShann, and Sir Roland Hanna, and they were all recorded and released, too:

Hines: West Side Story
McShann: Vine Street Boogie
Hanna: Perugia

Listening to them all in sequence is pretty amazing. Taylor sounds 100% "in the tradition" when coming after these three guys, who do, respectively, very nice somewhat Bud Powell/Art Tatum-esque versions of pop tunes; straight-ahead blues 'n' boogie (with some vocals); and florid, sort of Jaki Byard-esque post-stride. (I can hear a direct link between Byard and Hanna and Jason Moran and Aaron Diehl.)

I love some Jaki Byard, it's awfully sad the way his life ended.

Pi Recordings is selling 100 (well, 99 now) autographed copies of Henry Threadgill's upcoming autobiography Easily Slip Into Another World via Bandcamp. $45 plus $5 for shipping in the US.

ARTEMIS returns with the May 5 release of In
Real Time, a marvelous follow-up to their 2020 debut that highlights the improvisational strength of its members as well as their respective gifts as composers. The album showcases a new lineup with founding members—pianist Renee Rosnes, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, bassist Noriko Ueda & drummer Allison Miller—joined by newcomers Nicole Glover on tenor saxophone & Alexa Tarantino on alto saxophone, soprano saxophone & flute. Pre-order & hear the single “Lights Away From Home.”

You may have seen this on her thread, but just in case:

Multi-instrumentalist, singer & songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello makes her Blue Note debut with the June 16 release of The Omnichord Real Book, a visionary & deeply jazz-influenced album that taps into a broad spectrum of her musical roots. The Omnichord Real Book features a wide range of guest artists including Jason Moran, Ambrose Akinmusire, Joel Ross, Jeff Parker, Brandee Younger, Julius Rodriguez, Mark Guiliana, Cory Henry, Joan As Police Woman, Thandiswa, and others. Pre-order & hear the expansive lead single “Virgo.”

Heard this on the radio today. This kills. I need more Booker Ervin in my life. Dude named Gildo Mahones on piano? Sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILhyDtvL4g8

only other Ervin I've heard is THE QUEST with Dolphy and Mal Waldron, but that's pretty killer too

he did loads of good stuff with Jacki Byard as well

indeed -- was just checking out THE TRANCE w/ jaki on keys

https://ingrid-laubrock.bandcamp.com/album/the-last-quiet-place

love the new Laubrock, apparently the concept running through the album is "we are all too online" lol. Don't really care about that, she's consistently good.

Oh man, the Booker Ervin 'book' records with Alan Dawson on drums are fantastic, enjoy.

The Laubrock record really is beautiful — so are her recent Contemporary Chaos Practices and Dreamt Twice, Twice Dreamt. I just interviewed her for DownBeat; it'll probably be in the next issue.

the Booker Ervin 'book' records

oh, it's a series! thanks for the tip

xp

yeah Dreamt Twice, Twice Dreamt was brilliant as well, it was like an improvised soundtrack for a Hitchcock movie or something. Well that was the impression it made on me at the time, will have to have another listen.

New album by the Dave King Trucking Company on Bandcamp:
https://daveking.bandcamp.com/album/old-tv

Dave on piano as well as drums, Chris Speed in the mix

A pen pal got me onto this:

Legendary trumpeter/composer Wadada Leo Smith debuts his all-star ensemble Orange Wave Electric with the exhilarating Fire Illuminations. This scintillating album features Nels Cline, Brandon Ross, Lamar Smith, Bill Laswell, Melvin Gibbs, Hardedge, Pheeroan akLaff and Mauro Refosco.

My reply:

Just now auditioned it on Bandcamp, thanks for the tip! Big Fun yas, though no surprises within Milesian perimeters, though of course MD and these guys have set the bar very high, but attentive, thoughtful w/o ever getting introverted, esp. struck right off by guitars erupting from big earthy groove whenever it seems almost more comfortable than combustible, on epic"Ntozake Shange," also Smith's trumper is particularly full-bodied and sparkling on "Tony Williams," also dig effects of short vs. long tracks. Smith was excellent guest w Ross and Gibbs' jazz power trio Harriet Tubman, on my gateway to HT. thee bodacious Araminta

Thanks again! Will get back to your linked Arcana, which I can already tell will be more surprising, when I have more time.

Ross's Breath of Air, with Charles Burnham and Warren Benbow, made my 2022 Top Ten via s/t Burning Ambulance arrival: https://breathofair.bandcamp.com/album/breath-of-air

Also good to hear Nels Cline unchained! (While still on Wilco's payroll, I hope.)

Hey unperson, while hoping not to pick at a sore subject, are you doing jazz releases of the month anywhere? I miss your insights!

from the controversial opinions thread:

On paper it should be extremely my thing and I like him fine in other contexts but I have never enjoyed a single album Wadada Leo Smith has made as a leader. This post inspired by two different jazz friends haranguing me this week to listen to the recent thing with Nels Cline, which on admittedly distracted first listen just sounds to me like very capable electric Miles cosplay. I'm open to recommendations and not giving up yet, but I've probably listened to a dozen of his records and none of them ever stick

― Paul Ponzi, Sunday, April 2, 2023 10:24 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

xpost

Yeah, I'm still doing my Stereogum column. This one ran earlier than usual in March, because I was moving across the country. I'm writing April's column now, and it'll probably go up next week.

Thanks unperson! Don't know why I didn't notice it when it went up.

Hope the move has gone okay.

re: PP's challop about WLS...

I really love the record with Naqvi and Cyrille from last year, in terms of his recent output.

I think that certain records of his feel a lot more essential to me than others— I discovered him through the bevy of Tzadik releases in my college radio station's freeform section, and I admit that I still think the 90s era Tzadik records are my faves of his.

Did the station get promo service from Tzadik? I thought Zorn didn't do that, but maybe he did in the early years.

xp WLS's first album (creative music -1) is one of the coolest solo recordings I know, he uses space and silence and instrumental textures so beautifully and effectively here. as a big fan of don cherry's mu series I really love his later ed blackwell duo as well

xxxpost Well yeah,

on admittedly distracted first listen just sounds to me like very capable electric Miles cosplay

From ilxor.com/Rolling Jazz 2021 (re Wadada Leo Smith, to start with):

Welp, somebody just sent me Sacred Ceremonies, and I've so far given up, after the first six tracks: Graves is of course the ideal collaborator, constantly (but never obtrusively) spinning fresh ideas around and behind the trumpet, but a lot of times I wish he'd challenge or just bust through these repetitive, frequently draggy-ass lines---at first it works as contemplation, but then what the heck, not nearly fuck, zzzz. Maybe I'll try some more of it.

Listening to more Wadada on bandcamp (think I may have already mentioned his cogent contributions to my beloved https://harriettubman.bandcamp.com/album/araminta):

from The Year of The Elephant, by Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet, here is the robustly Milesian work-out,

1.Al-Madinah 10:01

Malachi Favors Maghostut - bass

Wadada Leo Smith - trumpet & flugelhorn

Jack DeJohnette - drums & synthesizer

Anthony Davis - piano & synthesizer

https://wadadaleosmith.bandcamp.com/album/the-year-of-the-elephant

And a couple of lively, warm, distinctive, sometimes exploratory, always emblematic free jazz trips w Braxton:

from Organic Resonance:

1.Tawaf (Cycles 1-7) 11:48

https://wadadaleosmith.bandcamp.com/album/organic-resonance

Now you might think 11:48 that feels more like 4 would be enough, not pushing your luck--but personally, I find that the variety (incl. some lyricism and dog-keening) certainly benefits from added time, and vice-versa, of course---goes into second plane of my attention sometimes, but pulls itself back into the foreground, often enough:

from Saturn, Conjunct the Grand Canyon in a Sweet Embrace:

1. Composition No. 316 28:4

Wadada Leo Smith - trumpet, flugelhorn

Anthony Braxton - saxophones

https://wadadaleosmith.bandcamp.com/album/saturn-conjunct-the-grand-canyon-in-a-sweet-embrace

― dow, Tuesday, May 11, 2021 2:41 PM (nine months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Almost as long as that last one, but tensile and interactive with no claustrophobia---think the strings are my faves here, but he's always responsive, and I'm always ready for those drums to jump in and out---really good live sound too:

Taif: Prayer in the Garden of Hijaz 27:57

Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith - Trumpet

Anthony Brown - Percussion

Del Sol String Quartet

https://othermindsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/om-live-taif-prayer-in-the-garden-of-hijaz

― dow, Tuesday, May 11, 2021 4:29 PM (nine months ago) bookmarkflaglink

I've been listening to some of his and Henry Kaiser's Yo Miles! tribute-based band albums, reissues and first releases, both on Cunieform's bandcamp pages: they're fun, not trying to beat Miles at his own game, but appropriately employing some of his and crew's more conversational approaches--shrewd-to-incisive comments from the guitars, bass, and keys for inst, w 0 bravura asshole Fusion solos, from them or anybody else---in fact, it's not really about solos, for the most part, although Greg Osby's alto and John Tchicai's soprano and tenor do provide tasty rations of such, and Smith flexes reflections of translucent punctuation.

This is a (non-Cuneiform?) collection of band originals from (then) OOP albums---current fave is the wah-wah shuffle, "Who's Targeted?", which also takes evasive action, and Smith also gets bluesy as hell on his hovering intro to "Miles Star."

https://henrykaiser.bandcamp.com/album/yo-miles-shinjuku

participants on this and/or other Yo Miles! bandcamp albums also include:

Kaiser, Mike Keneally and Chris Muir on electric guitars; Michael Manring on bass; Steve Smith on drums; Karl Perazzo on percussion; Tom Coster on keyboards,and sometimes Zakir Hussain on tabla, Dave Creamer on guitar, and the ROVA Sax Quartet .

Will have to check the one w Naqvi and Cyrille and those cited by Left, thx for mentions.

because I was moving across the country

wait, excuse me???

wait, excuse me???

Yep; I live in rural Montana now. If you subscribed to my newsletter, you'd know that already!

Re Wadada: He puts out way too much material to come to grips with all of it. Some of my own favorites include Divine Love (ECM, late 70s); Sun Beans of Shimmering Light, a 2021 collaboration with saxophonist Douglas R. Ewart and drummer Mike Reed; Fire Illuminations, which if nothing else allows you to hear Melvin Gibbs and Bill Laswell playing together, something I never thought would happen; and Lebroba, a trio disc with Bill Frisell on guitar and Andrew Cyrille on drums. I got to see that band live at Lincoln Center; they only played for about 15 minutes but it was incredible.

Thanks unperson, slowly going through some really cool records from that round-up (Daniel Ake, Lukas Traxel, and the Kendrick Scott)

Drummer-led saxophone trios are always better than saxophonist-led sax trios for some reason.

It's a fantastic sounding record too (the Kendrick Scott)

From the studio video, love to see that they're all in the same room without baffles or anything, that's the way

Oh I guess that's not actually the same version of the first track that's on the record, so it might not have actually been how it was recorded, but oh well. They both sound great.

The Kendrick Scott record — with Walter Smith III on sax — came out in March, and now this month Smith has a record out with Scott on drums (and a generally killer band: Taylor Eigsti on keyboards, Matt Stevens on guitar, Harish Raghavan on bass, and Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet on two tracks). It's also excellent.

Thanks for the heads-up.

The Lukas Traxel album might sound even more incredible, with the same instrumentation. Very intimate.

Yeah this is sick

Matt Stevens? Cool.

I was in New Orleans with the fam and did Preservation Hall. Shannon Powell was the guest, which made it more than worth seeing. Not my typical style of jazz but a very fun live show, and one of the few places in NOLA where you can bring kids to see jazz in a venue.

Nice, you never know who you're going to get at Pres Hall but Shannon is who you want. :) I hope he said "wowwwwwww" a lot in reaction to his own playing.

My latest Stereogum column is up. I interviewed the members of GoGo Penguin, who aren't really sure they're a jazz group, and reviewed a bunch of great new records including the latest from Wadada Leo Smith, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Brandee Younger, Walter Smith III, Fire! Orchestra...