What Jazz are you listening to now?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I think ferney meant having his oats.

Are you kidding?! Why do you think I need whisky for breakfast!

[Serial_Apologist]

Are you kidding?! Why do you think I need whisky for breakfast!

Are you serving porridge?

[Stanfordian]

Clark Terry with Jimmy Hamilton, Britt Woodman, Tommy Flamagan, Wendell Marshall & Mel Lewis
‘It’s About Time’
Swingville (1961)

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

A hopefull sign that jazz hasn't lost its political and social concerns:

On YouTube, on the NPR Tiny Desk concert series - Christian Scott et al. "Klu Klux Police Department"

"Artists don't usually tell long, rambling stories at the Tiny Desk, and if they do, those stories don't usually make the final cut. But this one felt different. It was about the time Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, a young black man, says he was stopped by New Orleans police late at night for no reason other than to harass and intimidate him (by putting a gun back of his head). And how his pride almost made him do something ill-advised about it. And how he finally channeled that pent-up frustration into a piece of music whose long-form title is "Ku Klux Police Department."

"K.K.P.D." was the emotional peak of the septet's performance, though it wasn't a new tune. That's notable, because Scott stopped by the Tiny Desk on the very day his new album came out. It was played by something of a new band, though: Flutist Elena Pinderhughes, saxophonist Braxton Cook and guitarist Dominic Minix are new, younger additions to the group".

Not usually "my kind of thing" musically but very impressive. I enjoyed it enormously and its good to see someone speak out.50 years after "the civil rights" era set things "straight" (sic).

BN.

[Stanfordian]

Gene Ammons with Clarence 'Sleepy' Anderson, Sylvester Hickman & Dorral Anderson
‘Preachin'’
Prestige (1962)
Superb playing! A stunning jazz album of hymns!

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

"Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer" - The Cadillacs. Josie records 45. 1958
Band and arrangement by Jessie Powell, tenor solo - Sam the Man Taylor?

Forget all the usual Christmas jazz - yer Jimmy Smith et al. THIS is the ONE.

"Alrigggghty!" says Rudolf.


BN.

[Stanfordian]

Got this CD out for later

Art Tatum, Ben Webster, Red Callender & Bill Douglass
‘The Album’
Verve ( 1956)

[Stanfordian]

Ben Webster with Hank Jones, Roger Kellaway, Richard Davis & Osie Johnson
'See You at the Fair' with 3 extra tracks
Impulse (1964)

[Ian Thumwood]

Most of the CD's the I have heard over the Christmas have been the ones that I bought for my Dad. I quite like the "Harlem Hamfats" and the album with "Steps Aheads and the WDR big band is a polished and contemporary sounding record that probably demonstrates how the mainstream of today remains adventurous. The fourth disc was by cult band Chicago "The Fat Babies" which is effectively a 1920's repertoire septet which captures the music spot on yet is played with an attack that belies the 70-odd year age of the music. If anyone is curious about this era then I think the Fat Babies give a brilliant insight in to how the music might have sounded "in the flesh" and the music is delivered with an attack and gusto that makes you immediately understand why they enjoy such a strong following in the States.

However by far the best record was "Special Kay" by the Diva Jazz Orchestra, a big band that is regularly placed high in American polls for the best of it's kind yet is almost unknown in the UK. I think the fact that their records are so hard to acquire doesn't help but the latest is available on line for a reasonable price and I would urge anyone who loved the big bands such as the likes of Count Basie, Woody Herman, LCJO and that ilk to snap this up. My Dad reckons this is the best big band jazz album he has heard for years., The charts are all originals penned by the band's mentor Stanley Kay, the music consists of some pretty hard-swinging arrangements which, whilst they could have been recorded in any decade since the mid fifties, belong in that kind of big band mainstream which has never gone away. The band is led by the drummer Sherrie Maricle who has a pretty strong pedigree herself as a side musician. I think we live in really interesting times in jazz with women making some of the most interesting music at the moment. Whilst Diva Jazz Orchestra is pretty much in the mainstream, this latest record really demonstrates that it is one of the hardest swinging big bands on today's scene and the hype (for once) is totally justified. This is a staggeringly brilliant record and as good if not better as anything by more lauded names in the current jazz scene. This sample gives you an idea of what they are about:-

[Serial_Apologist]

Just listened to a 1987 C90 of recorded broadcasts from 1987 introduced by Charles Fox, including Nick Evans's Dreamtime, at that time just joined by Keith Tippett; Points, led by Tim Garland, then still a member of NYJO, in which a drum machine appears quite audibly in some places; and Django Bates's Human Chain, at that moment just become a trio with the addition of multi-instrumentalist Stuart Hall (not the Barbadian-born Marxist historian, though he too loved jazz). Just about the right spirit of a byegone age for Christmas

an attack that belies the 70-odd year age of the music.

Some of us still have a bit of attack left in us at 70-odd years!

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Just listened to a 1987 C90 of recorded broadcasts from 1987 introduced by Charles Fox, including Nick Evans's Dreamtime, at that time just joined by Keith Tippett; Points, led by Tim Garland, then still a member of NYJO, in which a drum machine appears quite audibly in some places; and Django Bates's Human Chain, at that moment just become a trio with the addition of multi-instrumentalist Stuart Hall (not the Barbadian-born Marxist historian, though he too loved jazz). Just about the right spirit of a byegone age for Christmas





Some of us still have a bit of attack left in us at 70-odd years!

Yes indeed, I've been working out over Christmas, pumping iron, lifting weights and .....drinking Cockspur spiced rum, in preparation for the coming revolution. Russia 1917 - Europe 2017. Viva Le Red Corbynsky Brigade!

Anyway, I went to school with Nick Evans, primary and secondary, and was at his house as he tried to master "The Chimes" from a Chris Barber record.From little acorns etc. I lent him a Gerry Mulligan/Bob Brookmeyer EP (Paris live) which changed his trombone-ing and the course of British jazz. Well, a micro bit. I don't think there's ever been a request for a Nick Evans leader track on JRR, so I may follow through in 2017. Street fighting permitting.

BN.

[Beef Oven!]

Yes indeed, I've been working out over Christmas, pumping iron, lifting weights and .....drinking Cockspur spiced rum, in preparation for the coming revolution. Russia 1917 - Europe 2017. Viva Le Red Corbynsky Brigade!

Anyway, I went to school with Nick Evans, primary and secondary, and was at his house as he tried to master "The Chimes" from a Chris Barber record.From little acorns etc. I lent him a Gerry Mulligan/Bob Brookmeyer EP (Paris live) which changed his trombone-ing and the course of British jazz. Well, a micro bit. I don't think there's ever been a request for a Nick Evans leader track on JRR, so I may follow through in 2017. Street fighting permitting.

BN.

I never knew so much music came out of Wales! (apart from the irreplaceable Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones and Richard Barrett!)

Pumping iron lifting, weights? What you gonna do, bench-press your opponent? A swift knee in the gonads is far preferable and the only prep you need is to drink more rum!

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Dill Jones, Karl Jenkins, John Cale.....

Shakin Stevens....

Caerphilly Joe Jones...


BN.

[Beef Oven!]

OMG! How’d I forget John Cale! (hangs head in shame)

Karl Jenkins was good, up to a point (the point when he left soft machine and became John Rutter).

Shaky

Caerphilly Joe Jones

[Ian Thumwood]

Some of us still have a bit of attack left in us at 70-odd years!

Oddly, the reviews that I have read regarding the music by "The Fat Babies" always plays on the fact that the vintage repertoire is invigorated by their performances. Traditional Jazz often gets a really bad press and I think there are few other people on this board who will share my enthusiasm for and interest in the jazz of the 1920's. The "Trad Boom" of the 50's and 60's seemed to get a lot of the interpretation wrong and even when the likes of Ken Colyer absolutely nailed the music, it was all tarred with the same brush by modernists. It is strange how the perception of this material has changed but I think that jazz fans have a totally different perspective of this era than their counterparts in the 1950's would have done. Basically, the audience for this jazz is far better informed and musicians like Vince Giordano have thoroughly researched the repertoire so as to make the interpretations sound authentic.

The biggest different I feel that exists today is the willingness not to let this repertoire seem preserved in aspic. The likes of Steve Bernstein have used the material in a mash up with freer styles of jazz or have used arrangements redolent of the Territory Bands of the 20's and 30's to explore compositions by the likes of Steve Wonder , the Grateful Dead and Prince. Conversely, the Fat Babies seem to remain faithful to the era yet allow the soloists to depart from the original solos or perform big band charts reworked for a small ensemble. The clip below comes from the Green Mill club in Chicago which is more generally associated with more modern jazz. The three albums of theirs I have heard are not pointless recreations and, as the liner notes point out, the band members are still trying to make this kind of jazz seem credible and not a sterile and pointless exercise. On top of that, the music is great fun!