What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Stanfordian]

‘The Waiting Game’
Tina Brooks with Kenny Drew, Wilbar Ware & Philly Joe Jones
Blue Note (1961)

[Stunsworth]

Cannonball Adderley Quintet: Live In Stuttgart 1969

A DSD download.

[Stanfordian]

‘Soul Train’
John Coltrane with Red Garland, Paul Chambers & Art Taylor
Prestige (1958)

[Jazzrook]

Miles Davis & Lester Young plus MJQ playing 'How High The Moon':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ2R00bEJt8

[Stanfordian]

‘Dial ‘S’ for Sonny’
Sonny Clarke with Art Farmer, Curtis Fuller, Hank Mobley, Wilbur Ware & Louis Hayes
Blue Note (1957)

[Stanfordian]

‘Step Lightly’
Blue Mitchell with Leo Wright, Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, Gene Taylor & Roy Brooks
Blue Note (1963)

[Ian Thumwood]

I know that Jazzrook is a fan of Greg Ward's previous Mingus-inspired album but I think the new album "Stomping off from Greenwood" is pretty impressive too and a contender for album of 2019 already. The new band features a quintet with two guitars and continues with the same kind of feel to it. What I like about this music is the fact that it has a bit if grit about it and does not seem at all produced in a studio .i.e. It feels like an older and more genuine album. The tunes are pretty catchy even if the re-working of "Stardust" only approximates to Carmichael's tune. The best track is called "The contender", obviously because if the punchy quality if the tune. This is another one that I wouod strongly recommend to Jazzrook.

[Jazzrook]

I know that Jazzrook is a fan of Greg Ward's previous Mingus-inspired album but I think the new album "Stomping off from Greenwood" is pretty impressive too and a contender for album of 2019 already. The new band features a quintet with two guitars and continues with the same kind of feel to it. What I like about this music is the fact that it has a bit if grit about it and does not seem at all produced in a studio .i.e. It feels like an older and more genuine album. The tunes are pretty catchy even if the re-working of "Stardust" only approximates to Carmichael's tune. The best track is called "The contender", obviously because if the punchy quality if the tune. This is another one that I wouod strongly recommend to Jazzrook.

Many thanks, Ian.
Here's a brief album trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7ni91HXQjA

JR

[Stanfordian]

‘Saxophone Colossus’
Sonny Rollins with Tommy Flanagan, Doug Watkins & Max Roach
Prestige (1956)

[Jazzrook]

John Coltrane Quartet ~ Live in Philly, 1964

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUVxlm0cJds

JR

[Tenor Freak]

Harold Land & Bobby Hutcherson - "Mtume" from the LP "A New Shade of Blue"

[Ian Thumwood]

Been listening to Duke Ellington's "And his mother called him Bill." I think this is one of his best records and an essential disc in any collection. My version comes with some extra tracks including a version of "My little brown book" featuring Lawrence Brown. Got to say that this version is even better than the legendary one with John Coltrane. Has anyone ever made a more beautiful sound on the trombone than Lawrence Brown? It is as good as anything Ellington did in the 40's and nicely illustrates Strayhorn's importance to the orchestra. Oddly enough, Ellington's writer seemed the then take on amore contemporary feel and whilst a band member like Julian Priester has commented that he felt the band was "old-fashioned" and not as interesting as a lot of the jazz being produced in the late 60's / early 70's, Ellington was on a very interesting path, experimenting with instruments like organs and flutes plus introducing choirs and then breaking down the divisibility of the sections in the band.

I always find Ellington surprising. There are always things to hear in his music with odd voicings and the frequent use of dissonance. It is fascinating trying to understand why the music works and if you listen casually there are elements which are different from how you hear the music first. i.e. brass accentuations which are actually a tone out from where you might anticipate a more mundane swing band to place them. Tracks like "Boo-dah" have the veneer of a typical swing arrangement but I think Strayhorn had such a grasp of harmony to make these kinds of tunes "different." I find it interesting that someone like Mingus was clearly under the thrall of Ellington when writing for larger ensembles and pushed jazz in to a supposedly more progressive direction yet I still think that Ellington and Strayhorn were more sophisticated from a harmonic perspective. I do think it is a shame with some Ellington records like "Blues in Orbit" where there is almost an informal jam session air about at least 3/4th of the tracks with heads rapidly scribbled out in the studio. In these cases, the results are nowhere as near as interesting as where composition and arrangements has a bigger part to play albeit the band still sounds like Ellington.

[burning dog]

Been listening to Duke Ellington's "And his mother called him Bill." I think this is one of his best records and an essential disc in any collection. My version comes with some extra tracks including a version of "My little brown book" featuring Lawrence Brown. Got to say that this version is even better than the legendary one with John Coltrane. Has anyone ever made a more beautiful sound on the trombone than Lawrence Brown? It is as good as anything Ellington did in the 40's and nicely illustrates Strayhorn's importance to the orchestra. Oddly enough, Ellington's writer seemed the then take on amore contemporary feel and whilst a band member like Julian Priester has commented that he felt the band was "old-fashioned" and not as interesting as a lot of the jazz being produced in the late 60's / early 70's, Ellington was on a very interesting path, experimenting with instruments like organs and flutes plus introducing choirs and then breaking down the divisibility of the sections in the band.

I always find Ellington surprising. There are always things to hear in his music with odd voicings and the frequent use of dissonance. It is fascinating trying to understand why the music works and if you listen casually there are elements which are different from how you hear the music first. i.e. brass accentuations which are actually a tone out from where you might anticipate a more mundane swing band to place them. Tracks like "Boo-dah" have the veneer of a typical swing arrangement but I think Strayhorn had such a grasp of harmony to make these kinds of tunes "different." I find it interesting that someone like Mingus was clearly under the thrall of Ellington when writing for larger ensembles and pushed jazz in to a supposedly more progressive direction yet I still think that Ellington and Strayhorn were more sophisticated from a harmonic perspective. I do think it is a shame with some Ellington records like "Blues in Orbit" where there is almost an informal jam session air about at least 3/4th of the tracks with heads rapidly scribbled out in the studio. In these cases, the results are nowhere as near as interesting as where composition and arrangements has a bigger part to play albeit the band still sounds like Ellington.

This is the person I think was most influenced by Strayhorn

Gil Evans "From the moment I first heard 'Chelsea Bridge,' I set out to try to do that. That's all I did ... tried to do what Billy Strayhorn did."

[Stanfordian]

‘River: The Joni Letters’
Herbie Hancock with Wayne Shorter, Lionel Loueke, Dave Holland, Larry Klein & Vinnie Colaiuta
Guest vocalists Leonard Cohen, Tina Turner, Norah Jones, Corinne Bailey Rae, Luciana Souza & Joni Mitchell
Verve (2007)

[burning dog]

Miles Ahead - Miles Davis & Gil Evans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88VtvDgwiAw

Duke Ellington 1941