Red parson's nose job well Cooked

[Serial_Apologist]

Sat 16 Dec

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001t9vj

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001t9wc

Sun 17 Dec

No Jazz Record Requests - next episode Xmas Eve.

Tues 19 Dec

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001tktt

[Ian Thumwood]

I caught some of J-Z whilst coming back from the football and found that conversations about "Best Jazz recordings" in 2023 to be quite enlightening. Notwithstanding the fact that the gishing Jomoke Fashola (just give the gig to KLG) is so over-the-top that she verges in bing unlistenable, the most fascinating track was the one with Steve Lehman and the ONdJ. I have long since admired Steve Lehman's work and tbe album he produced called "Mise en abime" with an octet about ten years ago marked him out as on original voice. I would be curious to read SA's opinion on this track which shifted the emphasis of this programme from fizzy jaz-pop to something more intelligent. I loved the Kenny Barron track byt the Lehman recording really underscored for me that so much of the "serious" jazz being produced today is scored work for large ensembles.

Controversial thought here that perhaps big band / ensemble jazz is now at the forefront of the creative jazz for the first time since the 1930s.

[Serial_Apologist]

I caught some of J-Z whilst coming back from the football and found that conversations about "Best Jazz recordings" in 2023 to be quite enlightening. Notwithstanding the fact that the gishing Jomoke Fashola (just give the gig to KLG) is so over-the-top that she verges in bing unlistenable, the most fascinating track was the one with Steve Lehman and the ONdJ. I have long since admired Steve Lehman's work and tbe album he produced called "Mise en abime" with an octet about ten years ago marked him out as on original voice. I would be curious to read SA's opinion on this track which shifted the emphasis of this programme from fizzy jaz-pop to something more intelligent. I loved the Kenny Barron track byt the Lehman recording really underscored for me that so much of the "serious" jazz being produced today is scored work for large ensembles.

Controversial thought here that perhaps big band / ensemble jazz is now at the forefront of the creative jazz for the first time since the 1930s.

I wouldn't automatically agree with that last paragraph, an over-generalisation imv, but the Lehman was ace. I wasn't immediately made conscious of the electronics feedback being used - a tribute to Evan Parker and colleagues' innovations in his own Electroacoustic Ensemble (including as it does the greatly missed Richard B), and the way some of the so-called Spectralist composers such as Tristan Murail and Gérard Grisey were already incorporating these sonorities seamlessly into instrumental ensembles from their preparatory work at Ircam back in the 1980s. All of which couldn't have happened without the previous work of Stockhausen and others at Darmstadt in practically applying serial and stochastic principles to constructive procedures at the micro as well as macro level should go without question. With Julian Joseph continuing to hold to the arch reactionary retro line abysmally represented by the Wynton Marsalis museum track, Kevin Le Gendre, who one feels must sometimes have to bite his diplomatic lip, emerges from the murk and condescension of historicism as the much-welcomed advocate of modernism here. I was as touched as he was moved in speaking of the late Roy Hargrove, "His voice, not just what he says" as Kevin put it, and his wonderful run-through of personal reminiscences and inspirations.

[Ian Thumwood]

SA

I felt that the Steve Lehman track was the first recording I have heard on J-Z for ages where your maxim that jazz needs to advance was was demonstrated. Not heard anything played on J-Z for a long while where the music presented sounds like a genuine step forward for the music. It is a curious programme which presents a rather skewed perception of where jazz is at the moment and seems to place it squarely within a rather conservative and even populist mainstream. For me, this is probably the most "original" take on jazz since i first heard John Hollenbeck's music for larger ensembles in the early 2000s. - Hollenbeck having previous secured a repuation through his work with Meredith Monk as well as the Claudia Quartet.

There is a curous series of essays on All About Jazz at the moment which charts a persepctive of the "hottest" jazz records of the last fifty years, I find the concept really fascinating since I hace alot of the records singled out for the 80s and 90s whereas I am largely unfamiliar or unaware of the 21st century suggestions which are increasingly white and / or European artists, It is wierd taking an overview where the music picks our players like Arrhur Blythe and then ends up in some really wierd placee towards the end of the survey. None of the latter stuff selected for 2000-2023 has that "shock of the new" quality about it which appealed to me in the 1980s when I was discovering jazz. I felt that last night's record by Steve Lehman made to think back to each excited me when I was discovering jazz back then,. Lehman is a player who has intrigued me in the past but last night's selection was "right" whereas as the Brazilian singer seemed more typical of the kind of stuff being pushed as contemporary. I agree with Julian Joseph's on the nose comment about this being a new wave of Fusion and would concur with his assessment whole-heartedly other than the fact that I don't think it is a good thing! Fusion was uneven the first time around. Do we need to hear an updated version of Fusion for the Tik Tok generation ? The real route to innovation is akin to that Steve Lehman composition.

[Jazzrook]

I caught some of J-Z whilst coming back from the football and found that conversations about "Best Jazz recordings" in 2023 to be quite enlightening. Notwithstanding the fact that the gishing Jomoke Fashola (just give the gig to KLG) is so over-the-top that she verges in bing unlistenable, the most fascinating track was the one with Steve Lehman and the ONdJ. I have long since admired Steve Lehman's work and tbe album he produced called "Mise en abime" with an octet about ten years ago marked him out as on original voice. I would be curious to read SA's opinion on this track which shifted the emphasis of this programme from fizzy jaz-pop to something more intelligent. I loved the Kenny Barron track byt the Lehman recording really underscored for me that so much of the "serious" jazz being produced today is scored work for large ensembles.

Controversial thought here that perhaps big band / ensemble jazz is now at the forefront of the creative jazz for the first time since the 1930s.

I also enjoyed the Steve Lehman track and see that KLG was the only critic to vote for Lehman’s ‘Ex Machina’ in Jazzwise’s ‘New Releases of 2023’ poll.
The Roy Hargrove section was fascinating with excellent choices of John Coltrane, Hank Mobley, Donald Byrd &.Freddie Hubbard.
Apart from the cringeworthy presenter, JF, this was an above average edition of J to Z.

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=VlIFddZIRrw

JR