What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Ian Thumwood]

Jazzrook

I have been playing the Kahil El'Zabar DVD called "Live at River East Arts Centre" which is probably the most exciting jazz DVD I have snapped up. I am generally not a fan of jazz DVDs but this one features two of my heroes , the late great Billy Bang and Ari Brown on tenor. The bassist is Yosef Den Israel. The music is terrific but the opening rack "Big M" is absolutely sensational.

All in all, I have got to say that jazz needs more people with the passion for jazz like Kahil El'Zabar. I didn't realise that he was such a huge character. The group's enthusiasm is really something and Billy Bang looked like he was very much getting in to the music. I would also have to say that Ari Brown continues to impress. He is a fabulous player and I can't understand why he is so over-looked - he is easily one of the big discoveries for me over the last few years. He is staggeringly inventive but keeps things simple, with an great tone on his horn.

[Jazzrook]

Jazzrook

I have been playing the Kahil El'Zabar DVD called "Live at River East Arts Centre" which is probably the most exciting jazz DVD I have snapped up. I am generally not a fan of jazz DVDs but this one features two of my heroes , the late great Billy Bang and Ari Brown on tenor. The bassist is Yosef Den Israel. The music is terrific but the opening rack "Big M" is absolutely sensational.

All in all, I have got to say that jazz needs more people with the passion for jazz like Kahil El'Zabar. I didn't realise that he was such a huge character. The group's enthusiasm is really something and Billy Bang looked like he was very much getting in to the music. I would also have to say that Ari Brown continues to impress. He is a fabulous player and I can't understand why he is so over-looked - he is easily one of the big discoveries for me over the last few years. He is staggeringly inventive but keeps things simple, with an great tone on his horn.

Ian - Have been thinking about getting that DVD for some time. You've finally made my mind up.
I believe there's also a CD available which the Penguin Guide preferred.

JR

[Ian Thumwood]

Jazzrook

In the opening number the four musicians feed off a simple vamp with the leader playing a kalimba whilst stamping out a groove with a set of bells stapped to his boot. The musicians keep the whole thing simplistic but the combination of the kalimba, Bang's plucked violin and the infectious bass figure generate a groove that is irresistible. Billy Bang is one of those players who, for me, produces the same kind of excitement in his shear originality that I often think you would have got the same sensation had you gone back and heard some of the pioneers of jazz in the late teens and early twenties. I really enjoy his playing and it is abundantly evident that he was having a whale of a time working with this trio. Kahil is also a larger than life character. There is a section where he gives a speech before the final number which, whilst I assume you will share my agreement of it's sentiments , could have been edited out. However, the music is totally unpretentious and really enjoyable. I am curious about snapping up the Ari Brown DVD - if you are not already aware of his playing and this is your first encounter, you will find him to be a revelation. Small wonder he is so revered in Chicago but quite how come his isn't better known in the UK is bordering on a massive injustice. Brown is not only a great player but one who plays with the authority of the giants of the past. I am struggling to think of any tenor player around today who deserves more recognition. You will love the music on the DVD.

[Beef Oven!]

Archie Shepp - Fire Music

Not heard any AS in a very long while. Going to listen to four From Trane next. All on Apple Music.

Anyone got any views on his best work?

Edit: moved on to Blasé, instead. Think I'm glad I did!

[burning dog]

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Archie Shepp - Fire Music

Not heard any AS in a very long while. Going to listen to four From Trane next. All on Apple Music.

Anyone got any views on his best work?

Edit: moved on to Blasé, instead. Think I'm glad I did!

I think Four for Trane is one of the great albums, full stop. All his earlier Impulse dates are worth a listen for a few tracks although they get more "uneven" through the cycle. Live in San Francisco with Rudd is the most "out" but is well worth sticking with. The New Thing at Newport (one side Coltrane, the other Shepp with Bobby Hutcherson, is a favorite for a lot of reasons, not least because it was the intermission record of choice by Surman, Mike Osborne, Westbrook, Dudu etc at Ronnie's Old Place in 1968. Fifty years ago? I dooooooont believe it.

[Beef Oven!]

Thanks very much BD & BR for your steer on this.

I really enjoyed Blase and I liked what I have heard of The Magic of JuJu.

I'm ordering Four for Trane for sure (I listened to two tracks from it last night) and I'll listen more to the others.

[burning dog]

Agree Four For Trane is a great album, it's a brilliant band performance not a Shepp showcase. Swinging drumming from Charles Moffett!

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Agree Four For Trane is a great album, it's a brilliant band performance not a Shepp showcase. Swinging drumming from Charles Moffett!

Yeah, totally agree. Rudd did the arrangements and made it special. Meant to say the two Shepp/Horace Parlan duo Steeplechase albums are unusual, relaxed and very good. Blues and spirituals.

I lost the plot with Shepp when he started singing, rediscovered bop standards and, much later, sounded alarmingly like George Melly. Unnerving.

But when he was young, radical and angry...

BN.

[Beef Oven!]

Agree Four For Trane is a great album, it's a brilliant band performance not a Shepp showcase. Swinging drumming from Charles Moffett!

Do you have any info on the trio work he (Moffett) did with David Izenzon? Like who was the third musician and are there any recordings?

I know Izenzon and Byard did an album together, but that was with Elvin Jones.

[Jazzrook]

Jazzrook

In the opening number the four musicians feed off a simple vamp with the leader playing a kalimba whilst stamping out a groove with a set of bells stapped to his boot. The musicians keep the whole thing simplistic but the combination of the kalimba, Bang's plucked violin and the infectious bass figure generate a groove that is irresistible. Billy Bang is one of those players who, for me, produces the same kind of excitement in his shear originality that I often think you would have got the same sensation had you gone back and heard some of the pioneers of jazz in the late teens and early twenties. I really enjoy his playing and it is abundantly evident that he was having a whale of a time working with this trio. Kahil is also a larger than life character. There is a section where he gives a speech before the final number which, whilst I assume you will share my agreement of it's sentiments , could have been edited out. However, the music is totally unpretentious and really enjoyable. I am curious about snapping up the Ari Brown DVD - if you are not already aware of his playing and this is your first encounter, you will find him to be a revelation. Small wonder he is so revered in Chicago but quite how come his isn't better known in the UK is bordering on a massive injustice. Brown is not only a great player but one who plays with the authority of the giants of the past. I am struggling to think of any tenor player around today who deserves more recognition. You will love the music on the DVD.

Thanks, Ian. Can't wait to see/hear the El'Zabar DVD.
You might be interested in this trailer to an Ari Brown DVD currently available as 'Live at the Green Mill':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4-iLDnJHOw

He certainly deserves an airing on JRR sometime.

[burning dog]

There are quite a few albums with Izenzon and Moffett but this (and volume 2) is the best example (IMO)

[burning dog]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/CDs-Vinyl-Coleman-Izenzon-Moffett/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A229816%2Cp_32%3AColeman%2FIzenzon%2FMoffett

Erm... £102

but

[Ian Thumwood]

The Harold McNair album , much celebrated on this site, is to be re-issued next month.

Wondered if anyone else had bothered to check out Jamie Cullum's programme on Radio 2? I had totally forgotten about it as I had never been that impressed but, catching the programme at the point the unknown singer Andrew Bird's record was being reviewed, I was really staggered by the music that he played. Apart from a five minute feature where someone called Corrie Dick was interviewed and he chose a five second except of a Larry Golding's CD with Paul Motian that sounded terrific, there wasn't any real jazz chosen. The aforementioned Mr. Dick transpired to be the musician whose jazz n' poetry was featured on JLU about three weeks ago and I was even less impressed this time. Strange to find artists like Andre Bird featured as it sounded like a crap re-tread of Prince but with even less reference to jazz. Even more bizarre was a Shabaka Hutching's record which promised avant garde tenor with techno / electric's as a jousting partner. Cullum assured his audience that he would be listening to this all summer - try as he might I doubt if he will hear any lengthy improvisation on the record.

The whole show gave me the impression of turning up at the wrong party. Ok, there was the odd familiar guest like Getz / Gilberto (who I didn't really want to meet again) but, by and large, this was a programme where little of what I heard could be classified as jazz. Granted it did have a "jazz flavour" as someone like Ed Reardon would probably point out, but there was precious little real jazz. It was a very peculiar sensation listening to the programme with references to bands called "Dinosaur" and "The comet is coming" and thinking that this is now what Radio 2 considers to be jazz.

From a production point of view, this is a snappy and zippy programme which probably fits the 30-40 something audience for Radio 2 now that it has thrown off any effort to play anything remotely pre-stereo. Cullum is a weird fellow. I admire his enthusiasm and his championing of UK musicians yet I don't think his Radio 2 programme will have any appeal whatsoever for anyone who loves jazz. He is clearly passionate about the music but the whole impression was of a condensed Jazz FM kind of programme with sound-bites replacing the kind of care an attention to detail was respected in the late, great Humphrey Lyttelton. It would deserve brickbats if it were not for the fact that it is essentially a pop music programme with the odd, inoffensive jazz record thrown in. If you consider Mr Hutching's and his cut and paste approach to jazz as being "avant garde" then the result is not a surprise. Should Cullum's selection be seen as representative of the current state of jazz in this country, it is a pretty depressing state of affairs. Shame he didn't bill the programme as pop music as it would have been far more honest and my expectations would have been much lower. Does anyone of this site actually bother to listen to this programme ? Jamie Cullum is jazz's answer to letting Robbie Savage stamp all over the Radio 5 football commentary!

[Beef Oven!]

There are quite a few albums with Izenzon and Moffett but this (and volume 2) is the best example (IMO)

Ah yes, I forgot about this.

I'm quite keen on OC, so I've dipped into this set, now and then.