Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
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Complete Royal Roost Broadcasts - CD1
Charlie Parker
Jazz Dynamics
Recorded live off radio in 1948.Comment
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Cecil Taylor's 1958 album 'Looking Ahead!' with Earl Griffith, Buell Neidlinger & Dennis Charles:
JRComment
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Wayne Shorter's 'The Big Push' played by the Mike Moreno Quartet -
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I have been played some George Gruntz discs this last week. In many respects, Gruntz was the European version of Gil Evans albeit he had his fingers in all sorts of pies included musical theatre and more contemporary classical music. A constant feature of his bands which were usually assembled for the jazz festival circuit was the recruitment of "A" list soloists which included the likes of Elvin Jones, Joe Henderson, John Scofield and Kenny Wheeler. The Swiss TCB issued a series of albums by Gruntz in the late 1990s and early 2000s and I have been working my way through these. "Merryteria" always seemed the best of these discs and included some of their best arrangements including the blistering "Mexicali Pose" which was a staple of the band's performances.
The first record I have been playing "Tiger by the tail" includes Jack Walrath, Franco Ambrosetti, Gary Valente, howard Johnson, Chris Hunter (ex NYJO and Gil ) and Dave Liebman. Sonny McCaslin is also in this band. /the disc opens with a radical re-working of "So what" which manages to embrace Trad through to funk in an arrangement which is subtitled "Serious Fun." Most of the remaining material either comes from Gruntz or the pen of his soloists albeit arranged by the Swiss. The trademark "distorted" harmonies are a large feature and I think that his writing for the trombones and lower brass instruments is in a class of it's own. Of the four albums from TCB, this is Ok-ish and not quite the let down that I felt "Global excellence" was.
Better still is "Pourquoi pas" which includes 2 versions of the title track, a piece of third stream jazz / classical featuring Hunter's flute and the two jazz standards, "Strutting with some barbecue " and Coltrane's "Bick Nick" which gets an 11 minute workout . This is much better than the version on the Ellington / Coltrane disc and again flirts with the kind of harmonies that Coltrane would probably have been unfamiliar working with. By and large, George Gruntz' writing pushes the orthodox to breaking point and most fans of big bands should be able to cope with his adventurous spirit. The more humorous aspect of the writing flags up the need to appeal to festival audience yet never seems to detract from what is going on. As he said, his music was "serious fun."Comment
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‘Dippin'’ - Hank Mobley
Hank Mobley with Lee Morgan, Harold Mabern Jr, Larry Ridley & Billy Higgins
Blue Note (1965)Comment
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Kenny Dorham's 1957 album 'Jazz Contrasts' with Sonny Rollins, Hank Jones, Betty Glamman, Oscar Pettiford & Max Roach:
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Six tracks on a D90 from a 1999 radio broadcast by Stan Tracey's trio with Andy Cleyndert ("Mister Clean Dirt") and son Clark.
Stan had his own Desert Islands Discs that year - and another one I think a few years on. I now see that I managed to cram 59 jazz broadcasts onto cassettes into that particular year - either complete programmes or those such as Mixing It with jazz included - and obtained 15 CDs as either gifts or purchases. Blimey - I must have thought the end of the world was about to happen!Comment
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Jezz Nelson's R3 "Jazz File" on Dick Twardzik from about a decade ago. Really excellent, this is part 2.
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JazzrookOriginally posted by Jazzrook View PostNot jazz, but I was bowled over by this track from Caroline Shaw's 'Attacca Quartet' played on Iggy Pop's eclectic BBC Radio 6 programme:
JR
Thanks for the steer with this disc. I managed to pick up the CD for about £6 as my curiosity was really piqued by this quartet. I think the best composition is "Entr'acte" and the other pieces do not really stand out quite as much as this. Personally, "Entra'acte" sounds compelling and fresh to my ears. It is interesting and it reminded me of the Neo-classical movement on the 1920s and 30s where older styles were recast in to a then more contemporary style. Listening to the music, I was sometimes put in mind of Baroque composers although what Caroline Shaw does with the group pushes the limits. It is exactly the kind of stuff that the Kronos Quartet used to be famous for performing. I like the balance of strong quartets and think it is actually quite refreshing to see this kind of group recasting the repertoire whilst still tipping it's hat to the tradition. So far I have played it through once whilst driving up to Wokingham this afternoon. The bulk of the disc is not as startling as the opening composition but I still felt it was a decent collection of string quartet pieces. I am afraid I cannot go along with SA's comment that this music lacks depth and find it immeasurably more appealing than a lot of the Germanic repertoire associated the serial school of composers. For an American composer, the lack of any jazz influence is a surprise. For £6, it was worth a punt. Thanks for introducing her music to me.Comment
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Sun Ra & His Arkestra playing 'Take The 'A' Train' at Montreux, 1972:
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‘Clark Terry Plays the Jazz Version of All American’
(Arrangements by Oliver Nelson)
Clarke Terry with Oliver Nelson, Budd Johnson, Lester Robertson, George Barrow, Eddie Costa, Art Davis & Ed Shaughnessy
Prestige (1961)Comment
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Strangely enough, the Caroline Shaw/Attacca Quartet CD arrived on the day of your post.Originally posted by Ian Thumwood View Post
So far 'Entr'acte' & the final track 'Limestone & Felt' have hit the spot.
Glad I bought the CD as I think it will repay repeated hearings.
Incidentally, I recommend Iggy Pop's eclectic 6 Music show(Fridays, 7-9pm) where I first heard of the Attacca Quartet.
He always plays something worth investigating.
JRComment
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Dick Twardzik with Carson Smith & Pete Littman playing 'Bess, You Is My Woman Now' in 1954:
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