What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Stanfordian]

‘New and Old Gospel’
Jackie McLean with Ornette Coleman, Lamont Johnson, Scortty Holt & Billy Higgins
Blue Note (1967)

[burning dog]

Song of the Wind - Joe Farrell

[Serial_Apologist]

That Joe Farrell is one LP I would have bought had I had enough money at the time!

[Beef Oven!]

‘New and Old Gospel’
Jackie McLean with Ornette Coleman, Lamont Johnson, Scortty Holt & Billy Higgins
Blue Note (1967)

New to me this summer. Bought the download from Qobuz - amazing stuff

[Joseph K]

Jaco Pastorius - Jaco Pastorius.

[Ian Thumwood]

Turns out Keith Jarrett had recorded all these bop tunes …

Bouncin’ With Bud - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpNtkC0ZO7A

Plus a few different takes on 'Scrapple from the Apple' are on youtube...

Joseph

Now that Jarrett's trio has ceased to exist for a good number of years, it is interesting to reflect upon it's status in jazz. The trio was formed just at the time I was discovering contemporary jazz and back in the mid 1980's Jarrett seemed like a revelation to me. At the time, he sounded like a clean break from the tradition and something profound and new. He is still a player I like although I am more circumspect in exploring his output. These days I am not too fussed by his solo work but the trio still impresses me. Picking up on your comment about Jarrett's re-visiting of bop material, I feel that the trio must now be considered to be firmly in the jazz mainstream. The interpretation of standards is something that also seems to mark the trio as coming from musicians of an earlier generation. If you think about how jazz trios have evolved since the late 1990s, Jarrett seems to be the last link in the chain of great piano trios. There is more in his music that has something in common with Hampton Hawes than say The Bad Plus or EST. Rather than offering something new, the passage of time seems to have rendered this trio a culmination of a tradition. Is there any piano trio who have swung in this fashion since the demise of the Jarrett trio. I am scratching my head to think of a group that would compare.

[cloughie]

It's true. I know nothing about Jazz and don't mind admitting it! That I should think is a most extremely congruent reply. I assure you my choice of Jazz to play is not based on any Jazz knowledge.

I think I’m about level with you there Stan - I listened to a few things back in the 60s and still like most of that eg MJQ, Brubeck and Desmond, Getz, Peterson, Ellington, Garner, Kenton, Jimmy Smith, Wes Montgomery, Barney Kessell. Also a few things post that era Weather Report. Comes now to what to prioritise in limited listening time.

[Quarky]

Nick Luscombe with Ben Ratliff's Mixtape - last night -

Coltrane etc

Check it out!

[Joseph K]

Joseph

Now that Jarrett's trio has ceased to exist for a good number of years, it is interesting to reflect upon it's status in jazz. The trio was formed just at the time I was discovering contemporary jazz and back in the mid 1980's Jarrett seemed like a revelation to me. At the time, he sounded like a clean break from the tradition and something profound and new. He is still a player I like although I am more circumspect in exploring his output. These days I am not too fussed by his solo work but the trio still impresses me. Picking up on your comment about Jarrett's re-visiting of bop material, I feel that the trio must now be considered to be firmly in the jazz mainstream. The interpretation of standards is something that also seems to mark the trio as coming from musicians of an earlier generation. If you think about how jazz trios have evolved since the late 1990s, Jarrett seems to be the last link in the chain of great piano trios. There is more in his music that has something in common with Hampton Hawes than say The Bad Plus or EST. Rather than offering something new, the passage of time seems to have rendered this trio a culmination of a tradition. Is there any piano trio who have swung in this fashion since the demise of the Jarrett trio. I am scratching my head to think of a group that would compare.

[Constantbee]

Chris Ingham's tribute to Dudley Moore: Dudley by The Chris Ingham Quartet. Can't help wonder how much of the late great's work on Not Only but Also was lost when the BBC purged its archives during the 70's.

[Stanfordian]

'Plus'
Cannonball Adderley with Nat Adderley, Wynton Kelly, Victor Feldman, Sam Jones & Louis Hayes
Riverside (1961)

[Joseph K]

Miles in Berlin.

[Joseph K]

Nels Cline / Gregg Bendian – Interstellar Space Revisited: The Music Of John Coltrane

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

I'm only on the first track but I quickly gathered that this really isn't on the level of Coltrane. I don't know, I might have enjoyed it if I wasn't comparing it to what I consider to be one of the greatest musical achievements ever.

In lieu of Coltrane's ecstatic abundance of impossible colours and iridescent intricacies you get some very noisy playing which sounds crude at times. While Coltrane always sounded impeccably in control while playing, here there is more a sense of abandonment and noodling … while Coltrane's playing is free of course he nonetheless evidently had a clear conception of what he wanted to do... his ideas had a great deal of clarity.

IIRC Albert Ayler said Coltrane in his final period wasn't so much playing free jazz, rather Ayler described it as 'space-bop' and I think this shows the distinction. Nels Cline isn't playing space-bop...

[Ian Thumwood]

Joseph

Nils Cline is one of those musicians you constantly hear name -checked but seems to be off the radar for most jazz fans. I think this is probably because he comes from a rock background. The YouTube clip is pretty boring and perhaps not too representative of what Cline is about. I can understand the appeal of late-Coltrane because The freer stuff liberated him from the modal approach that marked a lot of his "Classic" quartet period. I just feel that in the hands of lesser soloists, the whole approach of that quartet could have been quite boring. It is the titanic approach to improvising which keeps the music from being dull. You can see why Coltrane initially found the approach liberating as it allowed him to breakdown form but ultimately why he would have found it restricting. As I said on another thread about Modal Jazz, it is actually quite binary - either you are "on" the harmony of the scale or you are "off" it. I've been listening to "Plays" this week in my car and the music is compelling but sometimes less so when you realise what the "trick" is with a tune like "Nature boy."


I haven't heard a lot of Cline but do have his "Lovers" double CD which I picked up in the spring. This record is nothing like the Coltrane tribute and was conceived as a repost to the kind of cheesy "mood" music albums of the sixties and seventies. The music is pretty eclectic and includes tunes associated with the likes of Annette Peacock, Billie Holiday, Jimmy Guiffre, some standards, a Rock cover and even one Brazilian tune. It features a large ensemble but also includes small group stuff. The arrangements are by Michael Leonhart who is the trumpet / composer son of bassist Jay and something of the flavour of the month at the moment. This disc is worth checking out as it is quite ironic. It fascinates but despite trying to be quite "cheesy", effective subverts your expectations. Some of the stuff is pretty outside yet it is original enough to keep you hooked.

[Beef Oven!]

Captain Senor Mouse - Return To Forever