What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Jazzrook]

Bud Powell's 'Comin' Up' from 'The Scene Changes'(1958) with Paul Chambers & Art Taylor:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=5aH9iVgOo1M

JR

[Stanfordian]

‘Dippin'’ - Hank Mobley
Hank Mobley with Lee Morgan, Harold Mabern Jr, Larry Ridley & Billy Higgins
Blue Note (1965)

[Joseph K]

Herbie Hancock - My Point of View

[Jazzrook]

Bud Powell playing 'I Want To Be Happy' with Jean Marie Ingrand & Kenny Clarke in Paris,1961:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=72vmRqayW0E

JR

[Joseph K]

Bennie Maupin - The Jewel in the Lotus

[Ian Thumwood]

Palle Mikkelborg Ensemble- 'The Mysterious CORONA" (Yes really), from 1967, with the cream of Danish jazz . I think it was his debut. Starts with a "classical" string section (v effective) and then Le Jazz..."Corona", here 'tis!

http://youtu.be/kRQlC9iZJ_g

Mikkelborg is one of those players who has a far lower profile than he should have. I first saw him play with George Russell when he led an international band on tour of the UK in 1985 and I am pretty sure he was also in the trumpet section of the Gil Evans orchestra when I saw them at Hammersmith Odeon in 1987. At the time he was getting a lot of kudos for the composition "Aura" which was written for Miles Davis but which was only released a few years after being recorded. It was one of the first records where I was aware of a musician being dubbed in to a recording.

As a player, his appearances on record have been sporadic at best. I have a record by a quartet led by Gary Peacock where he performs alongside Jan Garbarek and Peter Erskine. It was one of Garbarek's last genuine jazz performances before he disappeared in to New Age music. I always felt that "Guamba" was a bit austere but Mikkelborg is better on Dino Saluzzi's "Once upon a time in the south..." where he is lined up with Pierre Favre (whatever happened to him?) and the late Charlie Haden. This features the bandoneon quite heavily but any illusion to tango is quashed in what almost has the kind of feel as a Paul Bley recording. It is quite intimate and Mikkelborg's playing is exemplary. It is a thought provoking record.

Hard to believe that Mikkelborg is now nearly 80!!

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Mikkelborg is one of the good guys, very committed and genuine. His stuff has run from Miles-ish through Jazz Rock to the more austere of his recent work. I remember a really good interview in s Danish jazz magazine about a decade ago where he talked about his influences and friendships, including Dexter Gordon and Miles. He had this wonderful line, "I knew Dexter when he was "at home" (sober). Here he is from much earlier, in the studio with an octet in 1966. A hint of the George Russell with this maybe too..

http://youtu.be/lF_ZVwVoKV4

[Jazzrook]

Rene Thomas Quintet playing 'Green Street Scene' from 'Guitar Groove'(1960) with J.R. Monterose, Hod O'Brien, Teddy Kotick & Albert Heath:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=B1tXDBqjb48

JR

[Stanfordian]

'Night Hawk' - Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins with Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis, Tommy Flanagan, Ron Carter & Gus Johnson
Swingville (1961)

[Joseph K]

Herbie Hancock - Inventions and Dimensions

[Serial_Apologist]

Mikkelborg is one of the good guys, very committed and genuine. His stuff has run from Miles-ish through Jazz Rock to the more austere of his recent work. I remember a really good interview in s Danish jazz magazine about a decade ago where he talked about his influences and friendships, including Dexter Gordon and Miles. He had this wonderful line, "I knew Dexter when he was "at home" (sober). Here he is from much earlier, in the studio with an octet in 1966. A hint of the George Russell with this maybe too..

http://youtu.be/lF_ZVwVoKV4

Ian Carr told me a very amusing story concerning Palle Mikkelborg's participation in one of Graham Collier's large-scale international projects. Apparently Mikkelborg went up to Collier and said to him "I'm sorry, I just can't play your music" - to which Graham replied, "Oh, don't worry - a lot of people tell me they can't"!

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I was thinking of Ian Carr a bit when I was going through Palle's career, a similar kind of arc. Mikkelborg's quintet playing "Gingerbread Boy" from the sixties is on YouTube. It's very good, but he does sound a lot like the Miles of that period. That's not a criticism, the influence must of been overwhelming.

Gingerbread Boy....http://youtu.be/XM47QaiYx8I

[Joseph K]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-keTOOZ1mIU&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1En8z7-FTymmNwDNyJSi3IxF8I0UAAJfMI5m_Sw9l6JQdaLGheh8xs74M

Ant Law Quartet - 2 Bridges

[Ian Thumwood]

I have been playing a range of stuff whilst working at home this week. I dug out some stuff that I had not played for a long while including a session Lionel Hampton cut with a mixture of American and French musicians in Paris in the early fifties. For my money, this is some of the best music Hampton recorded and the Cool Jazz vibe of the record is atypical of what he is generally known for. This mixture of players like Nat Adderley and Benny Bailey with Rene Urtreger, the French horn player Dave Amran and Sacha Distel on guitar.

I also found a double CD by two Bill Frisell trios called "East / West" which were recorded live in 2003/4 and cover a lot of country &western material as well as music by the likes of Leadbelly, Marvin Gaye and a few standards. The best track is a deconstruction of the traditional song "Shenandoah." The discs got good reviews at the time and it might be something that Joe would want to check out. Frisell always seems better on other people's records yet I think this is a really good record.

The other stuff I have been listening to has been by two under-appreciated bassists. William Parker's 2000's quartet with Rob Brown, Louis Barnes and the great Hamid Drake is one of the great bands of recent times and "Raining on the moon" benefits from the addition of the singer Leena Conquest's on Parker's off-kilter but politically savvy lyrics. Anything with Hamid Drake on drums is worth listening to but this is a really enjoyable disc. Drake is the antithesis of some of the more contemporary drummers on the scene today like Mark Guiliana whose playing I generally dislike. For me, Hamid Drake is more akin to what jazz drumming should sound like and it was no surprise for me to read that he is a big admirer of "Papa" Jo Jones. Parker cut some fabulous albums in the 2000s .

No one ever talks about bassist Harrison Bankhead who is one of the most underestimated bassists in jazz. He isoften associated with Hamid Drake too bit Avreeayl Ra takes the drum chair in this record. The only other familiar name in the sextet is Mars Williams , a stalwart of the alternative rock and Chicago avant garde scenes. The surprise package on this record is the violin of James Sanders. I quite like this kind of free / outside playing and this must be one of the few outings for jazz didgeridoo!

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

My "Isolation" playlist has been David S Ware's "Ballads" which is a wonderful deconstruction, Coltrane's "Live at the Half Note" box (interesting in that context - the radio announcer reading out the club's upcoming Kai Winding group and the Ronnie Scott Qrt. A Cannonball Adderley assortment across his career, and some Jim Hall. In the hall. Oh and Kenny Dorham in Scandinavia. Ya.. I

And now the two wonderful albums Milt Jackson and Lucky Thomson cut for Savoy in the mid 50s, with Hank Jones & Kenny Clarke etc. These are super records.