What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Stanfordian]

‘Crash!’
Kenny Burrell with Brother Jack McDuff, Harold Vick, Eric Dixon, Joe Dukes & Ray Barretto
Prestige (1963)

[Joseph K]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD5akJEJxXU

Mike Stern and Nelson Faria again, this time with Rubem Farias on bass, playing Mr P.C.

[Jazzrook]

Maybe I'm misremembering, but didn't Coltrane play a venue in Walthamstow at that time? I seem to recall quite a number of British jazz musicians speaking of being in attendance and being knocked out by the experience, including Alan Skidmore and Evan Parker. A few new directions were being charted that night for our guys to take up.

According to Lewis Porter's biography of John Coltrane his tour of the UK in 1961 included:

London, Gaumont State, Kilburn, two shows(November11)
Birmingham, Hippodrome, two shows(November 12)
Glasgow, St. Andrews Hall(November 13 or 14)
Newcastle, City Hall(November 13 or 14)
Leicester, De Montfort Hall(November15)
Brighton, The Dome(November16)
London, Walthamstow, two shows(November 17)

I was always under the impression that Coltrane played just one concert in the UK.

Wish I'd been at one of these gigs but probably wasn't even aware of Coltrane in 1961!

JR

[Joseph K]

It's a pity Coltrane cancelled a UK tour in the latter half of 1966 - it would included a video of his group, and would have been the only proper footage of his last group (aside from silent footage from Newport in that year).

[Serial_Apologist]

According to Lewis Porter's biography of John Coltrane his tour of the UK in 1961 included:

London, Gaumont State, Kilburn, two shows(November11)
Birmingham, Hippodrome, two shows(November 12)
Glasgow, St. Andrews Hall(November 13 or 14)
Newcastle, City Hall(November 13 or 14)
Leicester, De Montfort Hall(November15)
Brighton, The Dome(November16)
London, Walthamstow, two shows(November 17)

I was always under the impression that Coltrane played just one concert in the UK.

Wish I'd been at one of these gigs but probably wasn't even aware of Coltrane in 1961!

JR

Me too!

I do remember the better-known Coltrane recordings coming out in succession here not long after they'd been recorded, which gave one an ongoing view of the progress as well as time to take the innovations on board. This was easier with Trane than with Ornette, because Trane had clearly come along with much of the received improvising language intact, which he was building on, whereas Ornette sounded like he'd jettissoned most of it, and came as quite a shock to most of us, me included. I was just glad some of the boys obviously had more disposable income because the "Jazz Hole" we christened the unused store room we took over and became our refuge from school CCF and organised sports was a real boon in true self-education. I remember Pete Saberton ("Sabbo") saying we were all autodidacts, those of our generation who were drawn to jazz along with French and Italian movies. I wouldn't have even known the word back then. Things really haven't changed that much, when black kids today are banned from school for having the wrong haircut, which for us was sideboards longer than halfway down the ear.

Without the sixties I don't know where I'd have been. With all the unknown unknowns today, I wonder if I'd ever manage to get a job. Keeping youngers unaware of radical politics makes me think of parents who wave rattles in front of babies' faces to distract them.

I've coined this misquotation: "Tread softly on their protocols, for you tread on their dreams".

[Joseph K]

I do remember the better-known Coltrane recordings coming out in succession here not long after they'd been recorded, which gave one an ongoing view of the progress as well as time to take the innovations on board. This was easier with Trane than with Ornette, because Trane had clearly come along with much of the received improvising language intact, which he was building on

Though IIRC Atlanta continued to release Coltrane albums well into the sixties alongside some of his Impulse stuff, which may have confused some people regarding what to expect seeing him live...

[Serial_Apologist]

Though IIRC Atlanta continued to release Coltrane albums well into the sixties alongside some of his Impulse stuff, which may have confused some people regarding what to expect seeing him live...

That too - besides the fact that the way Coltrane advanced was not just one straight line, but a succession of leaps with backwards-looking consolidations. There were more than hints (Chasin the Trane) of what became the uncompromising stance taken from that time on with Ascension in '65. There was a feeling of imminent social and political change and needing preparation and expressing that. It was partly Coltrane's untimely death but also the fact that change didn't come or only in parts that slowed things down, in my opinion; but in any event it would have been superhuman to have maintained that momentum without let-up, or back-up.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Prestige had a 50s Coltrane backlog that they dribble released into the 60s as Coltrane was moving from Atlantic to Impulse. The first Coltrane LP album I bought was "Lush Life" on Esquire (recorded 57/58) when I was about 15 or 16. A slightly older "modernist" friend daringly went to Paris with his girlfriend (lucky him) and came back with "My Favourite Things" and "Coltrane Jazz". Then I became aware and bought "Giant Steps" second hand from City Radio in Cardiff. My other thing was that French radio really took to Coltrane (programmer/producer Frank Tunot was in the Atlantic studio when Favourite Things was recorded), so you could REALLY "catch up" by tuning to that. The same with Ray Charles. Viva la France...

BN.

[Bella Kemp]

I wonder if anyone caught this on Radio 4 Extra? If Ella and Cleo Laine don't blow your socks off then you don't have socks:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01s09z5

[Ian Thumwood]

Picking up on the Camila Meza disc, the record is quite bizarre. The tunes almost seem like pieces of poetry set to music and there is not really an attempt to create an album of catchy and snappy songs. The guitar playing reminds me of Metheny but I am not quite sure about the singing style which could only really come from a jazz tradition. (I mentioned the likes of Jordan and Parlato previously but maybe Luciana Souza might be another analogy or even Norma Winstone. ) The weirdest thing about the record is that the most impressive element is the writing for the string quartet. I don't think it is too untypical of a lot of writing for strings in a jazz context nowadays. The old notion of providing a opulent background to add depth to an arrangement had long since been thrown out of the window and the writing on this disc has the robustness of a lot of the kind of classical music from the early twentieth century when notions of totality were being stretched. The strings dovetail convincingly in to the ensemble yet it is not quite as easy listen as the idea of a guitar-playing singer plus string quartet might suggest. It is the kind of album that will grow on you. None of the musicians are familiar and I only picked it up after reading an interesting review as well as some reviews on Amazon.

[Stanfordian]

‘Yeah!’
Charlie Rouse with Billy Gardner, Peck Morrison & Dave Bailey
Epic (1961)

[Joseph K]

Wayne Shorter - Schizophrenia

I figure this Shorter boxed set is worth another listen.

It definitely is.

[Joseph K]

Don Cherry - Malkauns

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

[Stanfordian]

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

[Jazzrook]

Eric Dolphy filmed in Berlin, 1961; Norway, 1964 & Germany, 1961(with John Coltrane):

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3nurz6

JR