What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Tenor Freak]

I dug out some old CDs that I hadn't played for years yesterday including:-


2. Keith Jarrett - "At the Deer Head Inn." With Paul Motian and Gary Peacock. I really like this disc and perhaps something Bruce will want to explore?

I have kept away from the Jarrett trios because I find his vocals a bit grating. However I have been exploring some Gary Peacock piano trios. Currently listening to the Marilyn Crispell trio with Peacock and Motian playing Annette Peacock's music (very good so far and I'm only on track 1). Before that it was Paul Bley on the joanna plus the same duo on bass & drums with When Will The Blues Leave (Live at Aula Magna STS, Lugano-Trevano, 1999). Also very good. Yesterday I was listening to Masabumi Kikuchi's Sunrise with Thomas Morgan on bass and Motian again. That is a trio worth listening to again.

I will give Lumi another go today. I did try listening to it a few years back but was a bit underwhelmed.

[Serial_Apologist]

Currently listening to the Marilyn Crispell trio with Peacock and Motian playing Annette Peacock's music (very good so far and I'm only on track 1).

That double CDer ECM recording nothing ever was, anyway, marked something of a comeback for Annette Peacock following a fallow period back in the States, who sings rather beautifully if forlornly on one track, Dreams, if time weren't. I reckon she should have remained here!

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Talking trios, The Mike Taylor trio, piano... Jack Bruce bass, John Hiseman drums, 1967 something. "Stella by Starlight". The drugs (acid etc sadly) put pay to him, but this album, rare on LP, and still rare after a brief reissue on CD, is a bit of a gem. My CD much played...http://youtu.be/zblUgJpoiGU

[Jazzrook]

Talking trios, The Mike Taylor trio, piano... Jack Bruce bass, John Hiseman drums, 1967 something. "Stella by Starlight". The drugs (acid etc sadly) put pay to him, but this album, rare on LP, and still rare after a brief reissue on CD, is a bit of a gem. My CD much played...http://youtu.be/zblUgJpoiGU

Remember seeing the Mike Taylor Quartet supporting the Ornette Coleman Trio at his famous 1965 Croydon concert.
Here's an interesting article about him:

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-not-so-strange-and-bizarre-life-of-mike-taylor-mike-taylor-by-duncan-heining.php?width=412

JR

[Ian Thumwood]

Thanks for posting the link to that article, Jazzrook. Really interesting.

I have been listening to the following records at home today.


1. Keith Jarrett - "Dark Intervals." I haven't played this somewhat notorious solo piano disc for years. I had it for a Christmas present in around 1988 and it was the first solo disc I had by Jarrett. At the time I liked it but I dug it out many years ago in my car and found it totally unlistenable. The first track is the main problem , the extensive use of the sustain pedal produces a blurry conclusion which just stirs up a load of dense harmonics. Jarrett is a marmite player for me as I love his trio work but find the solo stuff uninspiring with the exception of the Koln concert which I love. "Dark Intervals" improves after the opening track and it isn't quite as impenetrable as I recalled. I was struck by just how much the last track reminded me of Brahms, someone else whose music I find to be dark, gloomy and without any appeal. Parts of this disc are ok.

2. Michael Brecker - "Pilgrimage." This is the great tenor man's swansong with Herbie and Mehldau sharing piano duties alongside Pat Metheny and Jack DeJohnette. Brecker used to come under some flak in the board's older incarnation but I think he was absolutely brilliant. I initially found this record too sad to listen to but the band is top rate. Hard to believe what Mike Brecker was going through at the time he made this record.

3. Antonio Sanchez- "New Life." It is quite amazing at how influential someone like MB was. This group includes Brecker's heir Donny McCaslin sharing front line duties with Dave Binney. The pianist is John Escreet, a British musician who appears to have snuck under SA's radar as he is resident in the States. When this record came out in 2013 I was a little underwhelmed as it is a very strong line up yet the repertoire is only so, so.

4. Pat Metheny - "Unity Band." I think this is a record Bruce would appreciate. Chris Potter, Ben Williams and Antonia Sanchez. A stellar quartet which is not too dissimilar in scope to the Brecker disc. These musicians are playing on another level.

5. Sidsel Endressen - "So I write" I haven't spun this for a long while. Vocals with Django Bates on piano, Nils Petter Molvaer and Jon Christensen. When this was released, it was described as the best vocal album on ECM up until that point in 1990. It still sounds really good and I think the words on this record add a degree of depth. I have to be honest and say it is more appealing than Norma Winstone's work in this territory - maybe because the Nordic accent of Endressen's voice immediately draws you in. This is introspective and ECM at it's most original.

6. Bill Frisell - "Nashville." Another Christmas present, this time from around 1995. Frisell has always demonstrated a propensity towards folk and country music but this is full on! He is largely limited to acoustic guitar and is almost upstaged by Jerry Douglas' dobro playing. It is a job to know what to make of this. It is a record I always loved yet I had lost it in my cupboard. The music recollects some of the country style artists of the 1920s and early 30's. Got to say that this record is great fun.

7. Louis Moreau Gottschalk - "A night in the Tropics" Richard Rosenberg's Hot springs Music Festival orchestra perform music was the 19th century creole composer. I am intrigued by Gottschalk as he clearly had an eye towards the future with Ragtime whilst also writing parlour songs that are pure Victoriana. He was a fascinating composer. He was almost a precursor to what happened 20-30 years after his death in 1869.

[Joseph K]

Pat Metheny - Unity Band.

Some nice guitar-synth.

[Jazzrook]

Kenny Dorham & The Jazz Prophets with J.R. Monterose, Dick Katz, Sam Jones & Arthur Edgehill playing Billie Holiday's 'Don't Explain' in 1956:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=9qwAO3_FYjw

& Billie Holiday singing 'Don't Explain' in 1958:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=0MWRheQtvmA

JR

[peterthekeys]

Lyle Mays - Lyle Mays (his first album). Work of genius ("Slink" is just breathtaking).

(Just found that he died in February - what a dreadful loss. RIP)

[Joseph K]

Bill Evans - Portrait in Jazz

[Stanfordian]

‘Something Personal’ - Jack Wilson
Jack Wilson with Roy Ayers, Ray Brown, Charles 'Buster' Williams, Varney Barlow
Blue Note (1966)

[Ian Thumwood]

Like Jazzrook, I have been listening to some Kenny Dorham this afternoon, in particular his "Afro-Cuban" record that he made for Blue Note in 1955. There are some decent arrangements on this record which I prefer to the Clifford Brown Blue Note album of the same era and with a lot of the same personnel. In addition, I have been playing:-

1. John Surman - "Private City" Funny to think that as a teenager Surman's music seemed shocking but these days it is very agreeable.

2. Chick Webb - "Stomping at the Savoy." I like this band and there are tracks like "Harlem Congo" and "Go, Harlem!" which are amongst the hardest swinging records of the 1930s. I am less enamoured with the Ella Fitzgerald material which were largely arranged by Van Alexander .

3. "Guillermo Klein and the Swiss Jazz Orchestra" - I am sure it was Alyn who was expressing his enthusiasm for Maria Schneider's excellent arrangements on this board when I made a favourable comment about "Thompson Fields." Klein seems to be totally off the radar as far as most fans are concerned. On a first listen, this is not as good as the latest disc but it still offers an intriguing mixture of Gil Evans, Latin music and minimalism. As with the other disc I have of his music, it is difficult to take in on a first listen or indeed casually. There are some great composers working with big bands at the moment including Schneider, Hollenbeck, Argue, Ferber and Leonhart. I am beginning to think that Klein is worthy of some serious attention.

4. Tadd Dameron - "The magic touch." An all star big band assembled in 1960 which underlines how much Dameron missed the boat whilst doing a stretch. The tunes are beautiful as is always the case with his writing but you cannot escape the fact that the disc sounds more like something recorded in 1946.

5. Wilton "Bogey " Gaynair - "Africa Calling." I seem to recall picking this up on a recommendation of King Kennytone, late of these parts. Again, I have not played this for ages. Gaynair strikes me as a similar player to someone like Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. The band includes Shake Keane and Terry Shannon on piano. This was recorded the same year as the Dameron and emphasizes Bluesniks comment over the weekend about how quickly the British jazz scene managed to get up to speed after the clumsy attempts f Be-bop in the late forties. This would be a great album for a blindfold test. After listening to the Dorham record, I just get the impression that some players on this side of the Atlantic were far better than their reputations would suggest. Ok, despite the "African" inspired titles, it is pretty mainstream but this does not distract from it being a really decent record.

6. Gary Burton - "Times like these." Another 1980s album I forgot I had, this one featuring John Scofield, Mike Brecker, Marc Johnson and Peter Erskine. It is the only GRP record I have and the liner notes list other albums on the label that remind you that the 1980s was the decade when some jazz went FM-friendly. It has a curious sound mix with John Scofield almost sounding like he has been sent to the naughty step for being too raucous. At the time I was massively disappointed with this record and rarely played it . Thirty years later it actually sounds quite decent albeit Gary Burton had become very mainstream by this point having recently left ECM.

[Jazzrook]

Sonny Criss with Barry Harris, Leroy Vinegar & Lenny McBrowne playing 'Angel Eyes' from his 1975 album 'Saturday Morning'(Xanadu):

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=rL_nfYf0wrw

JR

[Joseph K]

John Coltrane - European Tour 1962, disk no. 2.

Naima is superb on this disk (Which was recorded in Stockholm).

[teamsaint]

Slightly random tunes by Dizzy Gillespie.

Recommendations for his best albums would be appreciated please.

[Jazzrook]

Walt Dickerson & Sun Ra with Bob Cunningham & Roger Blank playing 'Bacon and Eggs' from the rare 1965 soundtrack album 'Impressions of a Patch of Blue':

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=0jjmvAaiFIs

JR