What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Joseph K]

Anthony Braxton - New York, Fall 1974

[Stanfordian]

‘The Honeydripper’
‘Brother’ Jack McDuff with Jimmy Forrest, Grant Green & Ben Dixon
Prestige (1961)

[Jazzrook]

An overlooked album, 'Very Urgent'(1968) by The Chris McGregor Group with Dudu Pukwana, Mongezi Feza, Ronnie Beer, Johnny Dyani & Louis Moholo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZL7vhs3DuU

JR

[Beef Oven!]

Bill Evans - You Must Believe In Spring (1977)

(Can't know who I love most - Glenn Gould or Bill Evans)

[Ian Thumwood]

The Eric Revis album is quite stunning. Repeated listening reveals that the drummer Chad Taylor is probably the star of this record. I think I have heard him with Jeff Parker before bit anyone familiar with a bombastic drummer like Nasheet Waits is going to be impressed. Some of the tracks build up a maelstrom if intensity which recalls a lot of the fervour of the free scene of the late 60's yet there is an angularity in this music which makes it seem far more contemporary and, dare I say it, more technically in command that the outpourings from fifty years ago. I don't think I have heard a record that is quite so aggressive and bombastic for a long while, the more "restrained" tracks taking as their starting point the aggressive, non-compromising elements of Branford Marsalis' quartet. What interests me is that not all the elements swing in the traditional sense yet there is a simmering energy displayed by the four musicians which is discernibly jazz as opposed to being a loose and flabby Improv set. No matter how "out" and "unpredictable" the music becomes, it is still recognisable as jazz. I love the way that this band kicks and batters all the irregularities and angles out of the music and forges something which bubbles with energy. Probably going to appeal to Jazzrook and SA on this board.

[Stanfordian]

‘Natural Essence’
Tyrone Washington with James Spaulding, Kenny Barron, Woody Shaw, Joe Chambers & Reggie Workman
Blue Note (1967

[Stanfordian]

‘A Blowin’ Session’
Johnny Griffin with John Coltrane, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, Paul Chambers & Art Blakey
Blue Note (1957)

[CGR]

Soul Station
Hank Mobley
Blue Note

Yet again. I always seem to return to Hank Mobley and this one in particular.

[Stanfordian]

‘Lookin’ at Monk!’
Playing the Music of Thelonious Monk
Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis with Johnny Griffin, Junior Mance, Larry Gales & Ben Riley
Riverside (rec. 1961)

[burning dog]

Blacknuss - Roland Kirk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3d3m-OPaWk

[Stanfordian]

'Blue & Sentimental'
Ike Quebec with Grant Green, Paul Chambers & Philly Joe Jones
Blue Note (1961)

[Ian Thumwood]

Chick Corea - "Now he sings, now he sobs."

This is the first outing by Corea's all-star trio of Miroslav Vitous and Roy Haynes and sounds a bit odd insofar that the recording shows it's 1968 recording date whilst the music sounds totally contemporary. The music has not only stood the test of time but almost comes across as a benchmark record in that is seems more of our own time and less remote than a lot of the Hard Bop produced less than a decade earlier. There is a really good interview on YouTube with Pat Metheny where he comments on whether he considers himself the last of the "older generation of players" or the first of the "new generation." Metheny is good value for money as an interviewee and his response was interesting as he clearly had an affinity for the respect older musicians had for the "tradition." Listening to this Chick Corea record is fascinating as I grew up with the live trio album recorded in Europe and released by ECM in about 1983. I think that this is one of the greatest piano trio records ever yet it seems amazing that there about a 15 year gap between it and "Now he sings. Now he sobs." Being used to ECM's pristine sound, hearing the earlier record a in less luxurious recording is surreal as there is little difference in the performing style. It truly sounds like an "early contemporary jazz " record.

I have got to say that this trio turned my head from being obsessed with Bill Evans as a teenager and it remains Corea's greatest vehicle for jazz - not difficult if you consider Roy Haynes to be probably the most consistently exceptional drummer in jazz. Whenever he appears on any record, Roy Haynes takes the music up a few notches. This trio is probably the greatest example. I wish Eicher had recorded this trio more and maybe lavished the attention that he gave to Keith Jarrett's trio which I similarly enjoy. I don't have the double CD worth the Monk tunes but am tempted. Chick Corea can be frustrating on record and in concert for although the wonderful technique is always in place, there are lapses in taste with the Fusion stuff which I don't like. This trio , however, is staggeringly brilliant and has me scratching my head as to whether it was Corea who was the first to pick up where jazz might go after the sound and fury of the New Thing.

I would be really intrigued to read Bluesnik's opinion of this record as I think the historic context of the music and the presence o Roy Haynes would be of interest even if the music is markedly pointing towards the reawakening the music experienced in the 1980's. Whilst you can hear that the cues were coming from Bill Evans' trios, I feel that Chick Corea took up the batten with this group and really expanded the range of dynamics and the degree of swing. Whilst McCoy Tyner must always remain the hardest swinging pianist in jazz for me, this trio with Chick Corea is probably more nimble and easily the goosiest piano trio since the Hampton Hawes trio which made "The Green Leaves of Summer" which was recorded earlier in the same decade but might have been a generation for all the change that Chick Corea brought to the table.

[Stanfordian]

'Free For All'
Art Blakey with Freddie Hubbard, Curtis Fuller, Wayne Shorter, Cedar Walton & Reggie Workman
Blue Note (1964)

[Tenor Freak]

Kenny Wheeler - "Double, Double You"

[Serial_Apologist]

Kenny Wheeler - "Double, Double You"

A Particular favourite with the up-and-coming Loose Tubes generation when it first came out in '83, too.