What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Stanfordian]

‘Short Stories’ – Dominick Farinacci
Mack Avenue (2016)

‘Minor Move’ – Tina Brooks
Tina Brooks with Sonny Clark, Doug Watkins & Art Blakey
Blue Note (1958)

[Stanfordian]

‘Heavy Sounds’
Elvin Jones and Richard Davis with Frank Foster & Billy Greene
Impule (1967)

[Jazzrook]

I've seen this great 1957 jazz video countless times but it never fails to move me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKqxG09wlIA

JR

[Joseph K]

[Ian Thumwood]

Joseph

I had forgotten all about Frank Vignola. I quite like Martin Taylor and have an old solo guitar record by him which is fascinating to listen to. It is almost like a piano record as there is so much going on.

One name that cropped up at the gig I went to the other week in an Sam Dunn's introduction to a piece and that was Howard Alden. My Dad was a big fan of Howard Alden and I can remember hearing the quintet he co-led with trombonist Dan Barrett at the Concorde Club which was pretty good. This was one of my Dad's favourite bands. It is amazing how often Alden cropped up on records , usually on the Concord label from the 1980s and then also on more traditional labels like Arbors. He is a strange musician to pigeonhole because he is involved in projects which are very reminiscent of the pre-Swing era but then also covers material my the likes of Bill Evans. I think he has even recorded Herbie Nichol's compositions. He emerged in an era when the likes of Scofield and Frisell arrived on the scene and I had some what written him off as being irrelevant at a time when there were players like Barney Kessel and Herb Ellis doing this material - I would now have to say not as well as Alden. I think he now deserves more credit.

I am now more open to Alden's playing than I had been although he is very much in the jazz mainstream in the old sense of the word. It is quite interesting because he is more inquisitive and open in his playing than those players who inspired him. Wondered if you had ever checked him out ? I think he is the kind of player whose work is informed by so much of the jazz history.

Alden has also recorded with another guitar player called Andy Brown who I would also recommend. There is a quartet album of him on Delmark called "Direct Call" which is really good and that I would recommend. It covers a wide range of material from standards, Django to Hank Mobley. Brown is not at all well known but I think well respected around the Chicago scene.

[Joseph K]

The only checking-out of Howard Alden I have heretofore done is seeing an article about his playing in the magazine Guitar Techniques. I'll investigate further...

[Jazzrook]

Sonny Boy Williamson(Rice Miller) & Cliff Givens(vocal bass line) playing 'Mighty Long Time' in 1951:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVK93GbaVp0

JR

[Stanfordian]

‘Whistle Stop’ - Kenny Dorham
Kenny Dorham with Hank Mobley, Kenney Drew, Paul Chambers & Philly Joe Jones
Blue Note (1961)

[Serial_Apologist]

Joseph

I had forgotten all about Frank Vignola. I quite like Martin Taylor and have an old solo guitar record by him which is fascinating to listen to. It is almost like a piano record as there is so much going on.

One name that cropped up at the gig I went to the other week in an Sam Dunn's introduction to a piece and that was Howard Alden. My Dad was a big fan of Howard Alden and I can remember hearing the quintet he co-led with trombonist Dan Barrett at the Concorde Club which was pretty good. This was one of my Dad's favourite bands. It is amazing how often Alden cropped up on records , usually on the Concord label from the 1980s and then also on more traditional labels like Arbors. He is a strange musician to pigeonhole because he is involved in projects which are very reminiscent of the pre-Swing era but then also covers material my the likes of Bill Evans. I think he has even recorded Herbie Nichol's compositions. He emerged in an era when the likes of Scofield and Frisell arrived on the scene and I had some what written him off as being irrelevant at a time when there were players like Barney Kessel and Herb Ellis doing this material - I would now have to say not as well as Alden. I think he now deserves more credit.

I am now more open to Alden's playing than I had been although he is very much in the jazz mainstream in the old sense of the word. It is quite interesting because he is more inquisitive and open in his playing than those players who inspired him. Wondered if you had ever checked him out ? I think he is the kind of player whose work is informed by so much of the jazz history.

Alden has also recorded with another guitar player called Andy Brown who I would also recommend. There is a quartet album of him on Delmark called "Direct Call" which is really good and that I would recommend. It covers a wide range of material from standards, Django to Hank Mobley. Brown is not at all well known but I think well respected around the Chicago scene.

I would place Howard Alden and Martin Taylor in roughly the same bag of highly gifted virtuosos capable of delivering practically anything in any genre effectively on demand - which is fine, but kind of nowhere, really, in terms of now... or even then. A similar guitarist is Kit Morgan, who appeared in and around Bristol back in the 1980s doing that kind of orchestral jazz - improvising cogent lines interlaced with harmonies, strummed or picked - before or around the time Martin Taylor hit the scene as The New Prodigy. I saw Kit once do covers of some of the numbers on the solo side of John Mclaughlin's famous 1970 album "My Goal's Beyond" - the one with the picture of McLaughlin's Indian guru coupled opposite his own on the inside of the gatefold edition much envied by those who didn't manage to get it, only the singlefold - but managing, spectacularly it has to be said, to play the additional parts without McLaughlin's resorting to overdubbings on the record! Fairly typically there's some youtube of Kit at some festival, playing (from what one can make out) in some sort of folk-jazz group, and sounding and indeed looking very like Alvin Lee. There's another youtube of him performing Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody - one of the very few pieces of music I loathe to the very pit of my stomach. Kit's still active according to his Facebook, I now see, but having to reboot his approach following serious health problems

[LMcD]

'Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster'

[Serial_Apologist]

And speaking of guitarists, this is the earliest example of Ray Russell's playing I have yet found. Dave Holland - yes, THE (pre-Miles's band) Dave Holland, is on the bass, notwithstanding this being another release from Ron Mathewson's fantastic archive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvzrQyWOmQ8&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3b9PgC29fXma6JqPcPzl138j3TUmOtJ-J9e2FnWHePDP3479PKl3uOaU

Ron did subsequently join Ray for about one year, before being replaced by Daryl Runswick. Daryl's sojourn with Russell lasted until around 1977, coinciding with his years as in-house bassist for John and Cleo. Which I'm surprised didn't completely do his head in!

[Ian Thumwood]

I would have to disagree with a lot of that statement. Alden is versatile but I think this reflects the fact that the mainstream these days is pretty broad and varied. It is far more interesting than it was in the period 1950-80 since it covers so bases. He is not a favourite of mine yet I don't think it really matters whether it is "nowhere" either now or in the past. I think the main issue I would pick up upon is that these players are now far better technically than the likes of Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis, Johnny Smith, Tal Farlow, etc, etc from the immediate Charlie Christian generation. There are so many guitarists working in the mainstream now who are well worth a listen whether it is Alden, Russell Malone or Andy Brown and whose work I would much prefer to listen to. They are better players but perhaps also more interesting insofar that they are not hemmed in by repertoire. Of the earlier , pre-Hendrix generation, the ones that stand out for me are Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell and Grant Green and this is largely because they were good enough to impose their personality upon the music. It is a strange debate because those guitarists working in a pre-Hendrix / contemporary area these days are, as a rule, far superior than their predecessors.

Some of my favourite jazz musicians are guitarists and I think the innovations by the absolute masters such as Scofield, Frisell, Metheny and Abercrombie have not only been at the forefront of guitar since the 1980 but also produced some of the best jazz over the last 40 years. Of the younger generation, I think the likes of Julian Lage and Jeff Parker are the most interesting yet they also owe a lot to players from earlier generations and haven't radically changed the game like Scofield's mix of BB King meets Ornette. Even someone as radical as Mary Halvorson owes a lot to her teacher, Philip Catherine.

I think Andy Brown is really good and he deserves to be better known. I think Joe will like this...

[Joseph K]

Listening now, though soon I'll have to pause it and resume later. Ok, I'm five minutes in and I'll say: he doesn't sound too modern. It'll be interesting finding out how he turns the Bee Gees into jazz though!

Much of my favourite jazz is on guitar also (John McLaughlin, Allan Holdsworth, Kurt Rosenwinkel etc.). BTW I don't think people these days are necessarily better technically than Tal Farlow - he was quite formidable, could play some really up-tempo tunes...

[Joseph K]

Since we're on the topic of guitarists, I'll mention this chap again, in case anyone missed it the first time round:

[Jazzrook]

Canadian guitarist Sonny Greenwich with Fred Henke(piano); Ron Seguin(bass) & Andrew White(drums) live at Sweet Basil, 1987:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=ZpY3Qo07RW8

JR