Lloyd returns with interest and J to Z presents!

[Serial_Apologist]

Sat 9 Dec

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001t2y5

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001t2z9

Sun 10 Dec

http://www.alynshipton.co.uk/blog

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001t2j6

[Tenor Freak]

Got the email last night to confirm my request is to be played tomorrow. Looking forward to this one.

[Old Grumpy]

Classic stuff on JRR

[Ian Thumwood]

Classic stuff on JRR

I really enjoy JRR this evening. The Charles Lloyd track was excellent and I loved being able to hear Earl Bostic's "Flamingo" again. This track reminded me of when I was small because my Dad had an LP by Bostic with this track on. Bostic always struck me as a musician whose work defined a style of jazz in the 1950s and the line up with the vibes and echoey production takes me back to when this was amongst the earliest kind of jazz I was aware of. I was probably still at junior school when my Dad used to play this record. It has always fascinated me as the tone of the alto is so full and the rhythm is not too far removed from Rock n' roll. It is a great pop record and I think the version of this song which is definitive. From recollection the liner notes made some reference to the Bostic upset purists but I have heard the likes of Benny Golson comment that Bostic had incredible technique that few could match including Charlie Parker. When you are more familiar with his work, the arrangements seem a bit similar but you can immediately grasp where a later musician like Dave Sanborn was coming from. In my opinion. "Flamingo" is a really great track even it it was very commercial.

Full marks for Bruce for requesting the excellent Paul Bley Quartet track "Line down." I always regret not getting this CD as the first album by this group remains one of the truly great albums of the 1980s. "Line down" does include some great interplay but I regret to say that it is a performance which still has the same amount of clout as when I heard it for the first time and which, in my opinion, so little contemporary jazz is able to match. When I heard the track for the first time, I was shocked by the almost industrial sound of Bill Frisell's guitar and the sense of Motian and Surman seeming to clamber over each other. The music always seems to balance on a knife-edge yet still retain it's ability to remain cohesie. However, the thing that I have alway loved most about this track are the crashing chords from Paul Bley's piano towards the end of the piece. After what has gone on before on this track, it is perhaps the only repost possible and I just feel that the unexpected depth of these chords right at the bass of the piano is one of the great moments in jazz. I have never been able to pick out what Bley is playing on the piano. Anyone with a better ear than myself who can advise would be appreciated if they can shed light on this. There was a rather silly suggestion on this "bored" a few weeks ago about John Surman's music taking a nose-dive after the work with the Trio. I think tonight's track demonstrated that he was still producing jazz in the late 1980s that was as vital as anything else he had recorded. As for Paul Bley, I just think he was a musician who could do not wrong. Really glad that Bruce requested this track by a truly "allstar" line up that certainly delivered the goods.

[Tenor Freak]

Thanks, Ian. The ending of Line Down brings to mind a movie scene with a slow-motion explosion, the bits of car or aircraft falling back to earth amidst the flames. Excellent stuff.