What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Stanfordian]

‘Go’
Paul Chambers with Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley, Freddie Hubbard, Jimmy Cobb, Wynton Kelly & Philly Joe Jones
Vee Jay (1959)

[Joseph K]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P-kQnYee8M

Guitarist Adam Rogers with David Binney - Inner Urge. This is great.

[Jazzrook]

Chet Baker & Paul Desmond with Bob James, Ron Carter & Steve Gadd playing 'Autumn Leaves':

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=sgn7VfXH2GY

JR

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Reference "J to Z": Chris Anderson, solo piano, "There's a lull in my life". I posted this a few years ago and still think it's enthralling. And a much neglected tune, only Hank Mobley is the other jazz version I know of. Anderson wasn't just blind, he had brittle bones and a host of problems.

http://youtu.be/nYhK553J_u0

[Joseph K]

BIMHUIS Radio Live Concert: Julian Lage Trio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5R2tVbd7EE

[Ian Thumwood]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P-kQnYee8M

Guitarist Adam Rogers with David Binney - Inner Urge. This is great.

I have lost track of David Binney of late but he produced some terrific albums about ten years ago. I particularly liked "Graylen Epicentre" which featured a multitude of line ups and is a good starting point for Binney's unique perspective on composition. I used to have some of his lead sheets which are fascinating as it is possible to see in black and white why his musical thinking is so interesting.

[Jazzrook]

Miles Davis was so excited when he heard test pressings of Sonny Rollins' 1955 quartet album 'Worktime' "he played certain tracks more than once, at times picking up the tone arm to return to specific passages which made his eyes smile and his mouth utter exultant oaths." (Ira Gitler).
Steve Lacy also thought that 'Worktime' was Rollins' finest recording.
Here's Rollins' version of Billy Strayhorn's 'Raincheck' with Ray Bryant, George Morrow & Max Roach:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=_0MszEdyeiE

JR

[Joseph K]

BIMHUIS Radio Live Concert: Julian Lage Trio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5R2tVbd7EE

There's a blues here starting just before 49:00 that's mightily impressive.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Miles Davis was so excited when he heard test pressings of Sonny Rollins' 1955 quartet album 'Worktime' "he played certain tracks more than once, at times picking up the tone arm to return to specific passages which made his eyes smile and his mouth utter exultant oaths." (Ira Gitler).
Steve Lacy also thought that 'Worktime' was Rollins' finest recording.
Here's Rollins' version of Billy Strayhorn's 'Raincheck' with Ray Bryant, George Morrow & Max Roach:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=_0MszEdyeiE

JR

By a totally amazing coincidence I have JRR requested this very same track for a close friend's birthday mid September! A fan of Strayhorn and le Sonny, it's a two for onezer for her!

It is a wonderful album, where Sonny really came of age.

BN.

[Jazzrook]

By a totally amazing coincidence I have JRR requested this very same track for a close friend's birthday mid September! A fan of Strayhorn and le Sonny, it's a two for onezer for her!

It is a wonderful album, where Sonny really came of age.

BN.

Look forward to hearing it on JRR, BN.
I was thinking of requesting the marvellous 'There Are Such Things' for JRR's 'tenor ballad' series but it may be too long at over 9 minutes:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=7RLOlsZQ4wA

JR

[Serial_Apologist]

Jason Yarde is 49 today - I've sent my best wishes on the book of faces. Here he is in his now quite long-lasting duo with Andrew McCormack, another fine product of the Jazz Warriors nurturer, playing a spirited 12-bar by McCormack:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFJEMr2UPfE

Nice fella - he didn't mind me touching his top-knot!

[Stanfordian]

‘White Gardenia’
Tribute album to jazz singer Billie Holiday
Johnny Griffin with Nat Adderley, Clarke Terry, Ernie Royal, Jimmy Cleveland, Paul Faulise, Urbie Green
Riverside (1961)

[Jazzrook]

Sonny Rollins Trio, Aix en Provence, 1959 playing Tadd Dameron's 'Lady Bird' with Henry Grimes & Kenny Clarke:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXVVjpEZ4Qo

JR

[Ian Thumwood]

Sonny Rollins Trio, Aix en Provence, 1959 playing Tadd Dameron's 'Lady Bird' with Henry Grimes & Kenny Clarke:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXVVjpEZ4Qo

JR

This is interesting. "Lady Bird" is one of the first jazz tunes I learned to play and was my introduction to Tadd Dameron, a musician who is more associated with Be-bop but whose career was already over ten year's old when he made his more celebrated records. The charts he wrote for Harlan Leonard are overlooked but, to be honest. Leonard's KC based big band is little known today and only ever gets mentioned in association with being the band Charlie Parker started with prior to joining Mcshann.

The weird thing about Rollins is that his approach to improvisation no longer seems as dated as the once ubiquitous Coltrane influence. I feel that you can listen to these performances from about 60 years ago and the main giveaway of their age is the style of drumming. Rollin's seems as savvy as contemporary players like J D Allen who have the same rhythmic approach to improvisation. I have always felt that Rollins stacked phrases one on top of the other as opposed to running changes or doing the intervallic / modal approach. He is, in some ways, more harmonically freer than Coltrane and perhaps even more radical in breaking down the form. It is really difficult to ascertain where or indeed if he is adhering to the changes when he improvises. I find this approach really mesmerising and the appeal is to see just how far Rollins can stretch things before they fall apart. I hear much more of Rollin's approach these days in contemporary saxophonists than the modal playing of Coltrane and you can almost consider Rollins as a precursor to a lot of free playing in respect of his disregard to form. A lot of the best jazz these days seems to be by those players who take a theme or motif as a jumping off point for improvisation. I was listening to some Steve Coleman this weekend whilst cooking a meal and you get the same sense to stacking these phrases one on top of the other. Shame so few people are checking out Coleman these days - a fantastic improvisor and thinker.

I wasn't aware of Aix being a "jazz city" albeit there was a bustling music scene when I went there in 1998. They had a festival of busking in the town when I visited during the World Cup in 1998 with loads of rock bands performing along the street. For some reason, I ended up hanging out with a group of Norwegians who were gleefully tormenting the locals who weren't quite savvy enough to appreciate the humour.

[Joseph K]

He is, in some ways, more harmonically freer than Coltrane and perhaps even more radical in breaking down the form.

This strikes me as a weird sort of assertion. Are there degrees of free-ness in free jazz? I've never come across any atonal Rollins playing, nor records of his that feature the radical textures and forms of Ascension, Meditations or Interstellar Space. Coltrane's free playing, while mostly based on modes and transposing motives, does feature atonal passages...