What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Joseph K]

It might seen heretical to say this but I think the Europeans (including Brits) probably managed to fuse jazz and rock in a way that was more interesting than groups like Weather Report.

Joe Zee was Austrian.

edit: also, the Czech Miroslav Vitous… But I don't think of Weather Report fusing jazz and rock, since they never had a guitarist. Like the Head Hunters, they were more about fusing jazz and funk, though in a different way, of course...

[Joseph K]

Well, not only was I very happy this morning when Ant Law's album 'Entanglement' CD arrived unexpectedly, but I am not much into the first track and already it's really great.

[Serial_Apologist]

Joe Zee was Austrian.

edit: also, the Czech Miroslav Vitous… But I don't think of Weather Report fusing jazz and rock, since they never had a guitarist. Like the Head Hunters, they were more about fusing jazz and funk, though in a different way, of course...

Good point. I also agree with Ian inasmuch as British and European bands like Eberhard Weber's Colours essaying into Fusion realms often tended to pick up on aspects with creative potential in Weather Report's conception which had become sidelined in the band's quest for dependability - the main one being retrieving improvisational space. But I also agree with Joseph's assessment about live WP performances; my guess would be these probably got critically overlooked in the reputational bid for safety evident in the studio albums, post-Black Market. Some of the groups led by Tim Whitehead in the 1980s adapted early Weather Report's way of not hogging the improvising limelight by holding back for others to offer initially subsidiary "infills" that can then provide further springboarding, building up tensions through gradual complexification as in certain free improvisation practices.

[Serial_Apologist]

Well, not only was I very happy this morning when Ant Law's album 'Entanglement' CD arrived unexpectedly, but I am not much into the first track and already it's really great.

Yes, I have it, and it's a good one!

[Stanfordian]

'Another Workout' – Hank Mobley
with Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers & Philly Joe Jones
Blue Note (1961)

[Joseph K]

Bill Evans - Explorations

[teamsaint]

This is Our Music.
Ornette Coleman

[Stanfordian]

‘J.R. Monterose’
J.R. Monterose with Ira Sullivan, Horcace Silver, Wilbur Ware & ‘Philly’ Joe Jones
Blue Note (1956)

[Jazzrook]

Rene Thomas Quintet with J.R. Monterose , Hod O'Brien, Teddy Kotick & Al Heath playing 'Green Street Scene' in 1960:

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

JR

[Jazzrook]

Charles Tyler Quartet with Earl Cross,
Kevin Ross & Steve Reid playing 'Lucifer Got Uptight' in Stockholm, 1981.
I seem to remember Peter Clayton enthusing about this track many years ago and describing it as 'organic avant garde jazz'.

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=2vCKP6Q85TQ

JR

[eighthobstruction]

Charles Tyler Quartet with Earl Cross,
Kevin Ross & Steve Reid playing 'Lucifer Got Uptight' in Stockholm, 1981.
I seem to remember Peter Clayton enthusing about this track many years ago and describing it as 'organic avant garde jazz'.

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=2vCKP6Q85TQ

JR

....yes thats good fun, great sound, carefree....

[Stanfordian]

‘South Side Soul’ – The John Wright Trio
John Wright with Wendell Roberts & Walter McCants
Prestige (1960)

[Serial_Apologist]

"And now, I will play 'Suite pour une frise"; and if you don't understand French, I will make George Avakian to translate in the album notes" - Martial Solal on Martial Solal at Newport '63 This still sounds phenomenally advanced for its date - Solal borrowing Teddy Kotick and Paul Motian from Bill Evans's then trio, Evans having gone off to California on his own. With the pianist coming up with substitute harmonies for the standards making up the rest of the set, and managing to render even Poinciana almost unrecognisable, this performance was interactivity effectively by default, Kotick dropping pitches in wherever he can find some relationship to what Solal is devising and Motian more-or-les pit-pattering the spaces. I'm proud of myself for not passing this on to someone more up with new stuff at the time - still at school, my musical tastes were pretty conservative. Oh, and the record must be made of tungsten - hardly any surface noise after all this time!

[Jazzrook]

"And now, I will play 'Suite pour une frise"; and if you don't understand French, I will make George Avakian to translate in the album notes" - Martial Solal on Martial Solal at Newport '63 This still sounds phenomenally advanced for its date - Solal borrowing Teddy Kotick and Paul Motian from Bill Evans's then trio, Evans having gone off to California on his own. With the pianist coming up with substitute harmonies for the standards making up the rest of the set, and managing to render even Poinciana almost unrecognisable, this performance was interactivity effectively by default, Kotick dropping pitches in wherever he can find some relationship to what Solal is devising and Motian more-or-les pit-pattering the spaces. I'm proud of myself for not passing this on to someone more up with new stuff at the time - still at school, my musical tastes were pretty conservative. Oh, and the record must be made of tungsten - hardly any surface noise after all this time!

Here's Martial Solal with Lee Konitz, Reggie Johnson & Daniel Humair in Berlin, 1999:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=6HdIPmjRvZo

JR

[Joseph K]

Weather Report - Live in Tokyo (1972)