What Jazz are you listening to now?

[CGR]

Monsters in the Night
Greg Abate Quintet
Koko Jazz Records 2006

[burning dog]

This album is brilliant.

I prefer the faster Miles version because of Philly Joe's more dynamic drumming, but don't miss the horns especially (considering they are one of the the most famous front lines in Jazz).

Red Garland was a very underrated pianist, influence wise IMO .Most rate him but not for that. Always the tension, despite the cocktail-ish sound. Whose arrangement on the Miles recording? I think Red had been playing this tune for a while, though this track is from after the Miles performance.

[Ian Thumwood]

I am usually not a fan of rap but I love Napoleon Maddox work with the French brass band Bad Fat. Their short CD is really good fun but probably the language means that it us not JRR-friendly although the politics are right on. Pitching rap with brass bands seems to be a really good combination. I saw Bad Fat at Vienne and they had everyone up on the floor dancing although I am not too sure if everyone was aware what p***y meant when NM continually shouted it out mid performance!

Beware this video includes some rude words which some may find offensive.

[Bryn]

I am usually not a fan of rap but I love Napoleon Maddox work with the French brass band Bad Fat. Their short CD is really good fun but probably the language means that it us not JRR-friendly although the politics are right on. Pitching rap with brass bands seems to be a really good combination. I saw Bad Fat at Vienne and they had everyone up on the floor dancing although I am not too sure if everyone was aware what p***y meant when NM continually shouted it out mid performance!

Beware this video includes some rude words which some may find offensive.

Thanks for that. Must check that combination out further.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

This album is brilliant.

I prefer the faster Miles version because of Philly Joe's more dynamic drumming, but don't miss the horns especially (considering they are one of the the most famous front lines in Jazz).

Red Garland was a very underrated pianist, influence wise IMO .Most rate him but not for that. Always the tension, despite the cocktail-ish sound. Whose arrangement on the Miles recording? I think Red had been playing this tune for a while, though this track is from after the Miles performance.

I've really "reappraised" Red Garland over the last few years (not that he cares anymore!). There is some really lovely stuff in amongst all those Prestige albums. OK, he was working to a defined "market" but he was crisp, classy, swinging and expert at framing a tune. Also surprisingly angular on occasion, my "revelation" came one night listening for the umpteenth time to Miles/Coltrane's "Round Midnight" (Columbia) and Red's playing behind them.

He was also a font of songs like a lot of pianists of that generation. For instance his role on the classic Art Pepper "Rhythm Section" date.

It's OK to dig Red. Again. And again

BN.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Art Pepper with Red Garland, Paul Chambers, Philly Jo Jones, "Meets the Rhythm Section"..."Birks Works"...forceful/no cocktails solo from Red, he's a credit to the entire date.

http://youtu.be/KLDW4i9gf8w

[Ian Thumwood]

I like Red Garland as he really swings. The only issue I have with his playing is when he sometimes used the block chords which does seem redolent of cocktail music. I have read about how his approach differed from George Shearing who changed the voices of the chord in the left hand whereas Garland only amended the chords in the right, playing the same voicings in the left until the harmony changed. Garland has also been credited with not using the roots of chords in his voicings which is a feature of more modern, post 1950's pianists. I believe Garland used 4 notes in the left and three notes in the right but also doubled up with octaves in the high registers. I have never analysed this nor seem a transcription but I have seen transcriptions of Evans where the approach is reversed with more notes in the chords played by the right hand. Again, Evans chose not to use roots which are typically taken up by bass players. Note selection in voicings fascinates me and I was taught that doubling up notes was not necessarily a "good" thing when re-voicing. I am not sure anyone used root notes nowadays but it is interesting that players now tend to play with the lowest note not necessarily being associated with the chord. There is a massive distance, for example, in the way someone like Red Garland would voice and the kind of voicings you encounter in works my more "modern" composers like Tom Harrell and Pat Metheny which is now someway above my head in understanding. The Harrell book in the Aebersold series is staggeringly complex.

The problem with Garland is that he does sound very much of that era. After Miles' records like "Milestones," you can understand why the leader looked to move on to the likes of Wynton Kelly (Miles' best acoustic pianist after Herbie) and Bill Evans. By the time of "Milestones", I think Garland had started to sound a bit dated. I think that Garland is not unique in this respect and maybe redolent of a time where the listener has to apply himself in understanding those aesthetics which were important to musicians in the 1950s but were discarded in the next decade. In the worst extreme, you have players like Milt Buckner who used block chords but who was corny whereas at the other extreme, there are the likes of Shearing and Bill Evans who were sophisticated. I think even the likes of Shearing and Evans sometimes sound a bit dated from the 1960's onwards. As with Brubeck, Shearing's later work is often more interesting whereas I feel Evans' later efforts are energy-sapping. The crispness of the early stuff is missing and he became a bit of a parody of himself. In between, you can find players like Errol Garner who is really difficult to categorise as his style was so homespun and lodged in it's own world somewhere between Swing and the 1950's mainstream.

What I think is telling is that the subsequent generation of players did not voice with so many notes so that the harmonies could be more ambiguous. The whole concept of voicing and harmony is, for me, the most interesting part of jazz piano. I think it reached it's apogee with Herbie Hancock although there are other players who like Richie Beirach and John Taylor who have tried to pursue this objective even further in their unique ways. Red Garland is very much at the beginning of this process which has it's antecedents in players like Teddy Wilson and Nat King Cole.

It is fascinating how certain styles of jazz piano playing rapidly date more than any other instrumental soloist. As much as I like McCoy Tyner, that style is so rooted in the 1960s that anyone copying it seems anachronistic. I would also have to say that Tyner is an enigma for me as no one swings as hard as he does on the piano yet there are still elements in his playing which are quite florid and romantic from where you can draw comparisons with players like Red Garland. I have never heard Tyner explain who his favourite Classical composers for the piano are and I have always wondered whether it is the 19th Century Romantic composers who tick all the boxes for him. I would love to know what his tastes are with classical composers.

[Jazzrook]

I've really "reappraised" Red Garland over the last few years (not that he cares anymore!). There is some really lovely stuff in amongst all those Prestige albums. OK, he was working to a defined "market" but he was crisp, classy, swinging and expert at framing a tune. Also surprisingly angular on occasion, my "revelation" came one night listening for the umpteenth time to Miles/Coltrane's "Round Midnight" (Columbia) and Red's playing behind them.

He was also a font of songs like a lot of pianists of that generation. For instance his role on the classic Art Pepper "Rhythm Section" date.

It's OK to dig Red. Again. And again

BN.

Red Garland with John Coltrane, Donald Byrd, George Joyner & Art Taylor playing Dizzy Gillespie's 'Two Bass Hit' recorded in Hackensack, NJ, December 13, 1957:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33jQQnKBBZ8

JR

[Stanfordian]

‘Texas Twister’ - Don Wilkerson
Don Wilkerson with Nat Adderley, Barry Harris, Leroy Vinegar, Sam Jones, Billy Higgins
Riverside (1960)

[Stanfordian]

‘The Rumproller’ - Lee Morgan
Lee Morgan with Joe Henderson, Ronnie Matthews, Victor Sproles & Billy Higgins
Blue Note (1965)

[Ian Thumwood]

I have been listening to the Ornette Coleman album "Sound Grammar" from 2007. At the time I thought that this was a terrific album and having not played it for a long while, I would have to say that it is probably the most enjoyable OC record I have in my collection. The whole disc is rammed with some great melodies and you could almost describe it as entry level Ornette. If you wanted to get someone in to his music for the first time, I think this would serve as a great introduction. Shame that it doesn't seem to be so lauded. Love Denardo's drumming on the disc too - it is a nonsense to suggest that he could not drum. He seems to have bags of technique.

[Jazzrook]

I have been listening to the Ornette Coleman album "Sound Grammar" from 2007. At the time I thought that this was a terrific album and having not played it for a long while, I would have to say that it is probably the most enjoyable OC record I have in my collection. The whole disc is rammed with some great melodies and you could almost describe it as entry level Ornette. If you wanted to get someone in to his music for the first time, I think this would serve as a great introduction. Shame that it doesn't seem to be so lauded. Love Denardo's drumming on the disc too - it is a nonsense to suggest that he could not drum. He seems to have bags of technique.

Thanks for reminding me of that album, Ian - will have to dig it out again sometime.
I recently picked up 'Ornette Coleman Trio at Manchester Free Trade Hall, 1966' which stands comparison with his Stockholm 'Golden Circle' 1965 recordings.
Apparently it was from an FM broadcast but I can't recall ever hearing it on Radio 3.

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=K0i6Y-iZr5A

JR

[Stanfordian]

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

[Joseph K]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5uCa0-lKO0&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR250rtGkZoQVHo5DYxbABfX2e7uVjbPE8EbiCr55vU-vs2rJp7XfD4in9Y

I wonder why this wasn't included in the Miles 1969 Live in Europe Bootleg box.

[Joseph K]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5uC...s2rJp7XfD4in9Y

I wonder why this wasn't included in the Miles 1969 Live in Europe Bootleg box.

Great performances though.