... the brown fog of a winter dawn

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

JLU is very tempting this week

Claire Martin presents concert music by saxophonist Nat Birchall and his quintet recorded at the Vortex Jazz Club, London. The line-up features Adam Fairhall (Piano), Corey Mwamba (Vibes, percussion), Nick Blacka (Bass), Johnny Hunter (Drums) and Nat on tenor/soprano saxophones and percussion. Nat's influences range from his love of Jamaican music to the spiritual jazz experiments of Alice & John Coltrane and saxophone legend Pharoah Sanders.

plus half a dozen new releases ....

Geoffrey does Branford Marsalis which is an interesting prelude to Jon3 presenting alive set from the 2014 EFG London Jazz fest

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis's quartet is one of the most revered and long-established ensembles in contemporary jazz. Growing up in New Orleans as part of the Marsalis dynasty that includes his pianist father Ellis and trumpeter brother Wynton, Branford's music communicates a deep reverence for the jazz tradition while also reflecting a career that has taken in funk, R&B and performances as a classical soloist. With only one change in personnel in over a decade, his quartet has an almost telepathic sense of interplay and an intense, adventurous spirit. Marsalis is joined by Joey Calderazzo on piano, Eric Revis on bass and drummer Justin Faulkner in this performance recorded at the 2014 EFG London Jazz Festival, presented by Jez Nelson.

nb JLU is first at @ 4pm today; JRU @ 1715 in conjunction with R2

it must be my dementia but i can make little sense of just what the BBC is doing with coverage of this festival ...have they listed it somewhere all in one place as a favour to ageing jazbos and any one else with a passing interest? ... or is it a journey of discovery and surprise into the far reaches of the night ....

i mean there is a website for footie on the telly


1962 was a good year i discovered this band .... and the midnight sun is with me still ....

[Pianorak]

Ah - Quincy Jones - have just ordered this: Complete Recordings: 1955-59 (4CD) Box set
Quincy Jones (Artist). Got QJ and Ella F on an old LP - much played, need to get the CD if available.

[Honoured Guest]

it must be my dementia but i can make little sense of just what the BBC is doing with coverage of this festival ...have they listed it somewhere all in one place as a favour to ageing jazbos and any one else with a passing interest? ... or is it a journey of discovery and surprise into the far reaches of the night ....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2014/london-jazz-festival

[Quarky]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/lat...-jazz-festival

Thankyou HG. Which brings me to the BBC Arts channel, which seems to be a dedicated website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/sections/performance

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

...listening to Geoffrey's appreciative survey of Branford Marsalis leads me to feel he gets too little recognition as an absolute ace on the saxophone and major artist ... bet other horn players pay him his due

[Ian Thumwood]

I've seen his quartet live in two occasions (might be three) and have never come away with a feeling of being less that totally amazed. It's probably true that his reputation has suffered by association with his brother but, whilst Wynton seems to be wanted to plug in to what he perceives to be the jazz heritage, Branford's approach is more in keeping with what jazz should be about. His playing has a degree of fury about it which typifies the best tenor players and , although he has the ability to pitch his playing anywhere between Ben Webster and David Murray, he remains distinctive.

I was very much into Branford and Wynton in the 1980's but lost contact with Branford's music for a while in the 1990's. Wynton had by that stage transformed in to an artist who was producing the kind of jazz that my Dad loves.

When I re-discovered Branford on the album "Contemporary jazz" it was staggering to hear how he had moved on from earlier records like "Royal Garden Blues" (the album where he wore a Miami Vice style blue suit on the cover) and I've gradually added some of his other albums like "Eternal" and "Braggtown" to my collection. Aided by the fantastic Jeff "Tain" Watts on drums, I think this quartet is one of the top five regular jazz groups of the last 10-15 years. It's worthwhile comparing this band this any other number of younger tenor players to see just how good they are as Branford always transpires to be surprisingly better than you might have imagined. I totally agree that he is under-appreciated and think he would have easily have held his own with any of the greats from 30-60's. It's funny that he is so over-looked and almost too obvious to be seriously considered as a major artist of this generation.

Poole Lighthouse booked this quartet within a month of Tim Berne's own quartet several years back and I remember someone saying at the time that the "real" jazz enthusiast would choose Berne's gig if they wanted to hear where the state of jazz was. Berne was good yet his band couldn't match the range of dynamics or shear power of Marsalis' quartet and whilst the manner in which the alto player's group unspooled their music was riveting , Branford's band was simply a better outfit. I love the aggression with which his bands perform which is right at the total end of the spectrum of the more feminine and lightweight style of someone like Trish Clowes - much lauded on this board. I would also consider his music to be a natural evolution from the "heavyweights" like Webster, Coltrane, Rollins, and although he has not been a player to really influence others as a stylist, I'd certainly put him in the same league as another Titan of the instrument, Joe Henderson.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

A good little survey. I always thought Branford has so much facility and ability to pull in Byas, Rollins, Henderson etc and even Jnr Walker, and makes it sound so easy (which it obviously ain't) that he, and his own identity, gets overlooked in favour of others.

Really liked his take on Lewis's Concorde. I hadn't heard that before.

BN.

Related. John Lewis wrote so much good material its strange its not picked up on (and developed even) more often. How many more versions of Round Midnight do we need.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

A good little survey. I always thought Branford has so much facility and ability to pull in Byas, Rollins, Henderson etc and even Jnr Walker, and makes it sound so easy (which it obviously ain't) that he, and his own identity, gets overlooked in favour of others.

Really liked his take on Lewis's Concorde. I hadn't heard that before.

BN.

Related. John Lewis wrote so much good material its strange its not picked up on (and developed even) more often. How many more versions of Round Midnight do we need.

[Ian Thumwood]

Dipping in to Jimmy Heath's book, he is actually quite dismissive about Lewis say that he was more interesting in trying to make jazz connect with Bach than elements like the blues. I can take or leave MJQ. Their Ellington album is exceptional but they sound a bit polite by today's standards and maybe they represent the point at which jazz started to migrate towards the more Western-orientated approach of a label like ECM?

Staggered at how good the track from "Black codes" sounds. I think this was probably Wynton's best album by a long chalk - Blakey's jazz messengers made contemporary and more savvy. It's a shame that Wynton Marsalis never really matched this record again as he was ahead of the curve at that time. "Black codes" was a brilliant album and totally bypasses the then-current criticisms of the New-neos. It's just great jazz - regardless of era.

Currently working my way through the programme but a bit staggered that the long-standing quartet with Calderazzo, Revis and Watts is so under-represented. The early Branford albums sound goos but the later albums are great. Probably limited by the track lengths as the best efforts on the CDs tend to be in the ten minute mark. There is a muscularity in his performances that I love - even the ballads have a degree of toughness about them. However, it is the more aggressive repertoire that always stands out on his albums, especially when he mixes it with "Tain" Watts. I think the track "Jack Baker" on "Braggtown" takes this to the max, Branford worrying the opening phrase with a degree of madness like a Rottweiler on crack cocaine.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

...or like a Ruddy Duck on Viagra. Two of whom used to live on my river and gave all the fem mallards hell until given a hard slap/webbed boot by one of them.

Very good looking ducks tho...the 1960s Dexter Gordons of the Duckworld.

BN.

[Serial_Apologist]

My first-ever jazz record, had on it a version of "Golden Striker" performed by... the Chris Barber Band!

[Ian Thumwood]

My first-ever jazz record, had on it a version of "Golden Striker" performed by... the Chris Barber Band!

SA

I think Chris Barber is pretty switched on to the world of jazz beyond "Trad" and even his latest band is now firmly encamped in Ellington territory. Seeing that he could work with both blues artists as well as "modernists" like Joe Harriott makes it no surprise that he would also record John Lewis compositions.

[Serial_Apologist]

SA

I think Chris Barber is pretty switched on to the world of jazz beyond "Trad" and even his latest band is now firmly encamped in Ellington territory. Seeing that he could work with both blues artists as well as "modernists" like Joe Harriott makes it no surprise that he would also record John Lewis compositions.

I think Joe Harriott's collaborations with Chris Barber came towards the sad end of his days, when he was scuffling for gigs. AFAIK there are no recordings from that time, but when I asked Michael Garrick, who knew Joe about this, he told me that Joe would just play in his usual post-Bird style wherever, regardless of context - which must have provided quite a culture shock in a trad or quasi-trad setting. He'd probably be hailed today as a progenitor of postmodernism!

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

There are more than a few live/concert recordings around of Barber with Joe Harriot guesting, including a London Palladium concert from 1960 (I think). Barber was always pretty open and deserves all credit for bringing Muddy Waters, Spann and Jimmy Cotton etc over. And fully understood "the blues" was not banging out a neo-Chuck Berry twelve bar in a fake accent - via the Route 66 to Cheltenham.

Yes, I know he had "banjoist failings" but he could have been cured with modern medicine. And a gun.

BN.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

we met Mr Barber and His Band playing on a Saturday afternoon on the bandstand in Melton Mowbray .... pork pies and a cans of lager all round ... very nice bunch of blokes

odd but i was thinking about Joe Harriott this morning; how the quintet was so tremendous and could rival anything from NYC and so ahead of its time ..