What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Bert]

Andrew Hill - Pax (1965)

[Joseph K]

Miles Davis - Cookin' at the Plugged Nickel.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Mose ALLISON ..."Stop this world" , appropriate...http://youtu.be/grk8Z_SLMlU

[Ian Thumwood]

Andrew Hill - Pax (1965)

I regret not buying this record when it came out. I have been playing "Shades" which is a quartet he made with the underrated Clifford Jordan. It includes some great tunes and, in my opinion, is a really good introduction to Andrew Hill's music. The other records on the 4-cd box set are more mixed - "the solo "Verona Rag" being essential to any serious Andrew Hill collection.

[Ian Thumwood]

I meant to post a link to this article last night which I found interesting. I think I might have heard Garzone play at Vienne but this article offers some interesting insights in to the music-making process and maybe more to the point about what making jazz is about as opposed to some of the stuff mentioned on J-Z last night:-

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/sax-in-the-city-george-garzone

[Bert]

I regret not buying this record when it came out. I have been playing "Shades" which is a quartet he made with the underrated Clifford Jordan. It includes some great tunes and, in my opinion, is a really good introduction to Andrew Hill's music. The other records on the 4-cd box set are more mixed - "the solo "Verona Rag" being essential to any serious Andrew Hill collection.

Agree about ‘Verona Rag’ but I’ve never heard ‘Shades’. Lined it up on Qobuz for a listen tonight. Thanks!

[Stanfordian]

'Boss Guitar' - Wes Montgomery
Wes Montgomery with Melvin Rhyne & Jimmy Cobb
Riverside (1963)

[Joseph K]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeD7wjZ6Hx8&fbclid=IwAR3gGn1jC_Cf-3aPOBL2IdWLSXt_9QChZFit4v3HtOugbcenJDlJwojl4n4

Allan Holdsworth playing Keith Jarrett's 'Questar'.

[Stanfordian]

‘Tenor Conclave’ - Hank Mobley
Hank Mobley with Al Cohn, John Coltrane & Zoot Sims
Prestige (1956)

[Joseph K]

Ray Russell - Footprints

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psyKpeB2n9Q

[Jazzrook]

Altoist Sonny Red with Clifford Jordan, Tommy Flanagan, Art Davis & Elvin Jones playing 'Prints' from the 1961 album 'A Story Tale'(Jazzland):

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=Noh6cFYc0Og

JR

[Ian Thumwood]

Agree about ‘Verona Rag’ but I’ve never heard ‘Shades’. Lined it up on Qobuz for a listen tonight. Thanks!

Bert

I am a fan of Andrew Hill's music and have even got a book of some of his lead sheets which are quite interesting if you want to understand what is going on in his music. There are tunes with odd bar lengths as well as unusual chord progressions. The whole approach to documenting this music appears to have been quite casual. Of the 21 tunes in the books, only one of them exists in his handwriting as the other tunes have been transcribed. Some tunes differ quite radically depending on the version you are listening to whereas there are some numbers which are totally different but share the same name. It is quite surprising because he has a reputation , quite rightly, as one of the great composer / pianists yet the over-riding impression of this book is that it was the process of improvisation which dominates the compositions as opposed to, say, rigid adherence to form. I spent yesterday looking through this book after digging out the book of Monk compositions that I also have. Harmonically, I think that the progressions used by Monk were quite traditional. The eccentricities stem from the altered harmonies and use of whole-tone scales. By contrast, there is nothing orthodox with Hill's harmonic language. The odd progressions and key changes make them very hard to negotiate. I am struggling with them, to be honest, even thought they are quite fascinating. I had some time on my hands over the Easter and sat at the piano for the first time in about 2 years to look at some music. My fingers are like bananas and the little finger on my right hand no longer works so I struggle. Despite this, I find looking at these sheets fascinating. Hill had, perhaps, more in common with someone like Herbie Nichols who had a similar enthusiasm for weird progressions. The other pianist whose work I had a look at was Eri Yamamoto who is similarly sparse in what she writes although the harmonies use a lot of penta-tonics to give the music an oriental feel. Picking up on the previous thread regarding Brubeck, the Nichols. Hill and Yamamoto seem to write a lot of material that is not in common time. I would also argue that all three pianists swing too.

With regard to Andrew Hill recordings, the one I like the most is "Dusk" which cam out around 1999/2000. It is a sextet recording and perhaps the optimum size for Hill's musical expression. There was a follow up disc with a big band yet I think "Dusk" has some knockout arrangements. (However, it probably has the worst ever album cover!!) I think this was done by Ron Horton who certainly wrote the charts for the big band. Winder what ever happened to him?

[Jazzrook]

Sonny Criss with Dolo Coker, Ray Crawford, Larry Gales & Jimmie Smith playing Horace Tapscott's 'The Isle of Celia' from the 1975 album 'Crisscraft'(MUSE):

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=crhYor3nbvo

JR

[Stanfordian]

'Undercurrent' - Kenny Drew
Kenny Drew with Freddie Hubbard, Hank Mobley, Sam Jones & Louis Hayes
Blue Note (1960)

[Bert]

Bert

I am a fan of Andrew Hill's music and have even got a book of some of his lead sheets which are quite interesting if you want to understand what is going on in his music. There are tunes with odd bar lengths as well as unusual chord progressions. The whole approach to documenting this music appears to have been quite casual. Of the 21 tunes in the books, only one of them exists in his handwriting as the other tunes have been transcribed. Some tunes differ quite radically depending on the version you are listening to whereas there are some numbers which are totally different but share the same name. It is quite surprising because he has a reputation , quite rightly, as one of the great composer / pianists yet the over-riding impression of this book is that it was the process of improvisation which dominates the compositions as opposed to, say, rigid adherence to form. I spent yesterday looking through this book after digging out the book of Monk compositions that I also have. Harmonically, I think that the progressions used by Monk were quite traditional. The eccentricities stem from the altered harmonies and use of whole-tone scales. By contrast, there is nothing orthodox with Hill's harmonic language. The odd progressions and key changes make them very hard to negotiate. I am struggling with them, to be honest, even thought they are quite fascinating. I had some time on my hands over the Easter and sat at the piano for the first time in about 2 years to look at some music. My fingers are like bananas and the little finger on my right hand no longer works so I struggle. Despite this, I find looking at these sheets fascinating. Hill had, perhaps, more in common with someone like Herbie Nichols who had a similar enthusiasm for weird progressions. The other pianist whose work I had a look at was Eri Yamamoto who is similarly sparse in what she writes although the harmonies use a lot of penta-tonics to give the music an oriental feel. Picking up on the previous thread regarding Brubeck, the Nichols. Hill and Yamamoto seem to write a lot of material that is not in common time. I would also argue that all three pianists swing too.

With regard to Andrew Hill recordings, the one I like the most is "Dusk" which cam out around 1999/2000. It is a sextet recording and perhaps the optimum size for Hill's musical expression. There was a follow up disc with a big band yet I think "Dusk" has some knockout arrangements. (However, it probably has the worst ever album cover!!) I think this was done by Ron Horton who certainly wrote the charts for the big band. Winder what ever happened to him?

Thanks for this Ian. Interesting stuff about the lead sheets, but I don’t play.

I don’t know dusk either. I seem to mainly go for the earlier albums. I’ll give it a whirl and ignore the album cover!