What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Serial_Apologist]

Don Cherry playing Ornette Coleman's 'Chopin Chopeen' with Carlos Ward, Mark Helias, Ed Blackwell & Nana Vasconcelos live at Bracknell J.F., 1986:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=CyjX4CjTF8A

& same band live at San Sebastian, 1986:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=sr1dmWgQEtY

JR

I was at that Bracknell Fest session - from memory it was a bit on/off, that clip being one of the more interesting stretches. Cherry spent much of it offstage or dropping in momentary musical comments on the piano not otherwise used, the way Miles often did if a Hammond was present in later years. At one point he emerged from a long spell backstage, "towing" a Keith Tippett who had obviously been jollying it up out of view and was holding one of the longest joints I have ever seen, around the platform before disappearing stage right!

[Serial_Apologist]

Weirdly enough, I have ben playing "Gene Krupa plays the music of Gerry Mulligan" today. This is a record that I have always loved and I think the best thing Krupa ever recorded. Gerry Mulligan shaped Krupa's big band in the late 1940s and this record effectively sees an all star big band assembled to perform a number of charts which did not make it to wax at the time. Krupa is one of those musicians whose immense popularity during the Swing Era ultimately resulted in a bit of a backlash against his playing later on. On this disc, the stereo sound recording effectively captures why he was so highly considered by his peers and sees him really work for the band as opposed to being some sort of showman. It is fascinating to see just how be copes with more modern soloists such as Phil Woods and Hank Jones. If you wanted to select a record to illustrate Krupa's ability, I would tend to plump for this one more than anything he recorded with Goodman.

The band is superb too but, to be honest, it would be difficult to sound bad playing these charts. Mulligan's arranging ability for big band is somewhat overlooked these days. This record illustrates the extent of his skill with arrangements which predated his involvement with the Concert Jazz band. It is a great album.

I well remember how that big band stirred us all up when we first heard it in the early 1960s - especially the freshness and excitement of the contrapuntal writing, which as Charlie Fox remarked at the time amounted to a formalisation of Mulligan's previous way of collectively improvising with people such as Zoot Sims, Art Farmer, Chet Baker and Bob Brookmeyer.

[Ian Thumwood]

I was at that Bracknell Fest session - from memory it was a bit on/off, that clip being one of the more interesting stretches. Cherry spent much of it offstage or dropping in momentary musical comments on the piano not otherwise used, the way Miles often did if a Hammond was present in later years. At one point he emerged from a long spell backstage, "towing" a Keith Tippett who had obviously been jollying it up out of view and was holding one of the longest joints I have ever seen, around the platform before disappearing stage right!

I was at the Southampton gig and remember Cherry walking on stage with his pocket trumpet blasting out like some sort of Far Eastern shepherd. (Wonder if Jazzrook was there too ? I think Bruce was in the audience. ) I was totally shocked as I had never experienced anything like that at the time and in 1986 had not discovered Ornette's music. It took me several numbers before my ears adjusted but I look back nowadays and try to think back to the last time I have been to a jazz gig and been totally shocked like that. Cherry's personality effectively acts as a portal to get in to the music yet it is weird to think that there is very little these days that you can hear at live gigs which has the visceral effect.

I have to be honest and say that I wish I was still at a point where music could surprise me like this. I really miss stumbling across musicians who I had read about but had not heard and finding the experience pushed open more doors for me to explore. There are times when I have heard various artists for the first time and been surprised that I had overlooked them because the music was so good. However, it is the element of "shock" that I miss. Don Cherry had that is abundance.

Whatever happened to Carlos Ward, by the way ?

[Jazzrook]

I was at the Southampton gig and remember Cherry walking on stage with his pocket trumpet blasting out like some sort of Far Eastern shepherd. (Wonder if Jazzrook was there too ? I think Bruce was in the audience. ) I was totally shocked as I had never experienced anything like that at the time and in 1986 had not discovered Ornette's music. It took me several numbers before my ears adjusted but I look back nowadays and try to think back to the last time I have been to a jazz gig and been totally shocked like that. Cherry's personality effectively acts as a portal to get in to the music yet it is weird to think that there is very little these days that you can hear at live gigs which has the visceral effect.

I have to be honest and say that I wish I was still at a point where music could surprise me like this. I really miss stumbling across musicians who I had read about but had not heard and finding the experience pushed open more doors for me to explore. There are times when I have heard various artists for the first time and been surprised that I had overlooked them because the music was so good. However, it is the element of "shock" that I miss. Don Cherry had that is abundance.

Whatever happened to Carlos Ward, by the way ?

Ian & S_A

I regret missing Don Cherry at Bracknell & Southampton in 1986 but console myself by having the BBC Jazz Legends CD(excellent notes by A. Shipton) of the Bracknell gig.
Carlos Ward turns 80 this year and for someone who's played with Abdullah Ibrahim, John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, Sam Rivers, Sunny Murray, Roswell Rudd & Carla Bley, deserves wider recognition.
Here he is in duet with Abdullah Ibrahim in Poland, 1984:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=4ZqkPnQ_41U

JR

[eighthobstruction]

....Francesco Guerri....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-hd7JVjgF0

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

The Jazz Messengers, live at the Olympia Paris 1963. Wayne, Freddie, Curtis et al....an antidote to a gloomy day.

http://youtu.be/Nc7FWE2mZ5k

[Stanfordian]

'Kenny Burrell' also released as 'Blue Moods'
Kenny Burrell with Cecil Payne, Tommy Flanagan, Doug Watkins & Elvin Jones
Prestige (1957)

[Ian Thumwood]

There is a new Blue Note album of previously unreleased Jazz Messengers material due out this month. I think the line up includes Hank Mobley and Lee Morgan. The material was never released because it repeated tunes from a live session which had been issued.

[Jazzrook]

Tenorist Hadley Caliman playing 'Lush Life' with Hotel Cecil Barnard, David Williams & Elvin Jones from his 1977 album 'Celebration'(Catalyst):

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=FdQLUz72BQ4

JR

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

There is a new Blue Note album of previously unreleased Jazz Messengers material due out this month. I think the line up includes Hank Mobley and Lee Morgan. The material was never released because it repeated tunes from a live session which had been issued.

It's been around amongst the cognoscenti & the Bluenote obsessives. I think Michael C let someone hear a tape copy and further dubs were circulated. I've heard it on line and it was up on YouTube for a while. Frankly I'm surprised if it's coming out because the material was FAR better cut on the live dates ("At the Jazz Corner..." from memory). In the studio, Lee Morgan is in good shape considering, and I thought Bobby Timmons was OK (others disagree), but Hank Mobley is either strung out or hungover, his phrasing off and run together, and his tone is really weird, at first I thought something to do with the mikes, but everyone else is OK. And tunes often break down, much to the annoyance of Lee Morgan who plays some strong solos. This is the "Everything MUST be released" Bluenote fanatics getting their own way. NOT always wise with unworthy material.

[teamsaint]

Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society.
Brooklyn Babylon.

Ok, this is well outside my usual listening, and my grasp of contemporary jazz is close to non existent.....but...

Interesting, slickly compiled, and feels pretty cohesive given its diverse influences. I wonder how well it works live ? It’s not difficult to be grabbed by it on first listen, as there is something for almost everybody, but does it stand up ( and improve with ) to repeated listening ?

[Constantbee]

Live Jazz at the Lincoln Centre to watch at home every Wednesday. This week it's the JLCO Songbook. Enjoying Carlos Enriques.

Here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxUu8ZjH8H8&utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MKT20Marchall-subscontentnewsletter%233&utm_content=version_A&promo=

aaannd ... here's the same link but condensed using TinyURL.com. It turns a long URL into a usable one:

https://tinyurl.com/tgo9hxv

[Stanfordian]

‘Go’ - Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon with Sonny Clark, Butch Warren & Billy Higgins
Blue Note (1963)

[Jazzrook]

Walt Dickerson with Wilbur Ware & Andrew Cyrille playing 'Tell Us Only The Beautiful Things' in 1975:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=N1GiN_CMdN8

JR

[Ian Thumwood]

It's been around amongst the cognoscenti & the Bluenote obsessives. I think Michael C let someone hear a tape copy and further dubs were circulated. I've heard it on line and it was up on YouTube for a while. Frankly I'm surprised if it's coming out because the material was FAR better cut on the live dates ("At the Jazz Corner..." from memory). In the studio, Lee Morgan is in good shape considering, and I thought Bobby Timmons was OK (others disagree), but Hank Mobley is either strung out or hungover, his phrasing off and run together, and his tone is really weird, at first I thought something to do with the mikes, but everyone else is OK. And tunes often break down, much to the annoyance of Lee Morgan who plays some strong solos. This is the "Everything MUST be released" Bluenote fanatics getting their own way. NOT always wise with unworthy material.

BN

I miss the old Blue Note website which was full of fanatics who would constantly score anything highly in the review section to the extent that it was useless to gauge whether a particular recording was essential. Everything appeared to have been "overlooked." The situation was already out of hand by about 2003 when nothing seemed to be considered without merit and the whole review section contained compelling arguments as to why it was felt certain records were "under-appreciated." There is no record label quite like Blue Note to receiving almost hagiographical reverence for practically any recording. The only label that I feel comes close these days is ECM where reviewers like John Kelman on "All about jazz" would argue strongly for the merits of each new release to the extent that you just wished he would come out with a remark that a particular record was crock of crap and should be avoided. ECM has it's own adherents just as much as Blue Note, equally loath to criticise any release. As a former "ECM'er", I can see the appeal yet I think it has been inconsistent and the presentation is often more interesting than the music enclosed within. Like Blue Note, at it's best, this label is exceptional whilst it is guilty of churning out some stuff that doesn't appear to have much depth or older recordings which now sound really dated. Both labels could do with more balanced views by fans.

It is quite salutary re-visiting some of these old albums after a break and then finding how your perception has changed. I cannot help feeling that some Blue Note "classics" are over-rated and perhaps not as significant as you might be led to believe. I have always felt that "Blue Train" was very average and not in the same league as "Giant Steps" or the later Impulses. It is just a pretty standard Hard Bop session where the writing is not terrific whereas Coltrane also features on Sonny Clark's "Sonny' crib" which is over-looked and is a really lovely album. The Donald Byrd "New Directions" album sounds woefully out of date yet you read about the innovate use of voices in a Hard Bop setting. The best thing that can be said for this album is the cover - the writing for voices belays Duke Pearson's lack of experience with this format. Just because it is on Blue Note, does not automatically render the music essential. That said, the review of the new Blakey album I read suggested it was a good record.

Picking up on the thread about Palle Mikkelborg, I replayed the Dino Saluzzi disc with him on for the first time in ages this week. I think it was issued around 1986 as I can recall hearing the music around the time that the World Cup was in Mexico the same year. It is funny how something that sounded so fresh and original back then now seems only intermittently interesting. The label's obsession with introspection means it does not get out of second gear in some moments. Like Blue Note, Eicher is not disinclined to delve in to unreleased material which often being a lot better than the new releases. The recent Paul Bley trio is a prime example. How many musicians are playing jazz to this level now? It was easily one of last year's best records. There has always been stories of ECM sitting on material and it not being released because it does not sit well with their aesthetics. It does raise some interesting perspectives of how music's worth changes over time. How do you produce a record which sounds compelling in 30,40 or 50's years time? The Saluzzi CD caught my attention at the time because it was music that pulled me in when I was not use to listening to anything that introspective. To use the parlance of the music, the groups is not always on the zone. I cannot hear what I found so totally inspiring at the time.

Playing a live session by Harold Land this week, I think it is fascinating how what is appreciated in jazz changes over time. No one would record a record like this now as it would not sell. It's interest is largely historic because it captures what was valued in the late 1970s by a groups of musicians who established their reputations 20 years previously blowing in a club where the music proudly follows of format of head-solos-head. I think it is valuable because it shows jazz musicians working in a live context doing their bread and butter work without any concept or project. It is jazz an unadulterated music. As CD sales plummet and other live sessions from all eras seem to resurface to revive interest in a flagging market saturated with reissues of "classics", I think it is going to result in a lot of reappraisal of musicians from other generations and generally for the enhancement of their reputations. It strikes me that the re-issue market is basically spent and work by earlier generations of artists will largely manifest itself with rediscovered live sessions. I am therefore not surprised

I tend to be very cynical about new albums these days. I am really disinclined to listen to any hype and it is the musical process which interests me. However, you wonder whether an unreleased Art Blakey session is really necessary if it was rejected at the time or are these historic albums indicative of the shear volume of mediocre records by derivative artists who pale in comparison? The mass of unreleased Coltrane is another problem in itself because you sense there is probably little left to be learned about his playing yet who is making music of this intensity in 2020 ? I can appreciate the market's desire to release historic material whilst I think the record companies have made a rod for their own back by struggling to champion more adventurous players. It seems incredible that David S Ware once had a contract with Columbia! I think it is small wonder that the more interesting music in 2020 is being issued by small labels if not by the musicians themselves. I am not even sure younger jazz fans are consuming music in the same way. Releasing Blakey records from the vaults probably allows a younger generation to "connect" with us oldies who grew up listening to jazz between 1950-1990.