What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Jazzrook]

Charles Mingus with Booker Ervin, John Handy, Richard Wyands & Dannie Richmond playing 'Nostalgia In Times Square' from the overlooked 1959 live album 'Mingus In Wonderland'.
Iggy Pop just played part of this on his eclectic BBC Radio 6 show:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=fp4LvUU5g1o

JR

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Charles Mingus with Booker Ervin, John Handy, Richard Wyands & Dannie Richmond playing 'Nostalgia In Times Square' from the overlooked 1959 live album 'Mingus In Wonderland'.
Iggy Pop just played part of this on his eclectic BBC Radio 6 show:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=fp4LvUU5g1o

JR

Charles Mingus Quintet, Antibes 1975, "Sue's Changes" actually the section with Don Pullen's totally extraordinarily piano solo. Very good camera work on this. Great piece of historical film...

http://youtu.be/jOWNkZrkLfk

[Jazzrook]

Charles Mingus Quintet, Antibes 1975, "Sue's Changes" actually the section with Don Pullen's totally extraordinarily piano solo. Very good camera work on this. Great piece of historical film...
http://youtu.be/jOWNkZrkLfk

Wonderful film, BN.
Will have to search for my Mingus DVD 'Live At Montreux 1975':
Here's 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat':

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=louXB-r84vg

JR

[Joseph K]

Catching up on the recent suggestions here of great players who I'm ignorant of - starting with 'Evidence' at the top of the page.

[Serial_Apologist]

Catching up on the recent suggestions here of great players who I'm ignorant of - starting with 'Evidence' at the top of the page.

I'm also back in that time for my listening, reminding me of the excitements of first discoveries, back then.

[Joseph K]

First jazz post of the day...

Thelonious Monk - Genius of Modern Music Vol. 2

[Jazzrook]

Chris Anderson playing 'Love Letters':

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=3JC9LwRL1Sw

JR

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Gerry Mulligan Qrt, Gerry with Jon Eardley, Red Mitchell,Chico.Hamilton. "Blues going up". Live 1954 in California. An impromptu blues that they played while the audience got seated. "I think maybe I'll play some blues..." Magical, I had it in my yoof on an EP and it's remained a favourite....

http://youtu.be/zeHvJhxLUiM

[Ian Thumwood]

Gerry Mulligan Qrt, Gerry with Jon Eardley, Red Mitchell,Chico.Hamilton. "Blues going up". Live 1954 in California. An impromptu blues that they played while the audience got seated. "I think maybe I'll play some blues..." Magical, I had it in my yoof on an EP and it's remained a favourite....

http://youtu.be/zeHvJhxLUiM

Listening to the excellent Gerald Clayton record live at the Village Vanguard, the band perform a version of Ellington's "Take the Coltrane" which is slightly reharmonized. Again, this piece is little more that a blues cooked up on the spot and has probably endured because of the fact that the album from which it came is amongst the most intriguing records ever made - a mismatch but one which is totally compelling. Clayton's take is good yet probably the one track which is not quite as stupendous as the rest of the record. I thoroughly recommend this as something you will very much appreciated. Clayton is a hugely impressive talent and even when tackling hackneyed material like "Body & soul," the trio come up with something fresh to say. The touch and dynamic of this tune is played in a fashion akin to someone like Brad Mehldau yet it totally eschews the florid nature of Mehldau's playing. Whereas Mehldau has a tendency to be over-fussy with the romanticism overlaid in thick dollops, I find that Clayton gets right to the point. His playing is often as succinct as someone like the criminally under-valued Hank Jones. The version of Bud's "Celia" burns in a way that has not been apparent in so much piano jazz since the late 1990s. Clayton's original material is also on the money.

Returning to your comment, "Take the Coltrane" is typical of a lot of the music that materialized on jazz albums in the 50s and 60s insofar that it is an ad hoc blues that musicians used to be able to churn out to flesh out the length of an LP. The Gerry Mulligan track is enjoyable and no so different from the material Ellington would produce on the spur of the moment. In fact, there is a whole album he made of this kind of material called "Blues in Orbit" which was pretty much made up on the hoof. You could listen to the album and quickly deduce how the session evolved without reading the liner notes which explains the circumstances of the recording session. As much as I love Ellington, the album comes across as lazy and marginally more than filling a contractual obligation for an LP. Only part of the session is interesting and the simplistic nature of the themes allows the musicians to stretch out comfortably. In fact, I think large parts of the band are absent on a number of the tracks. Where the music is more challenging, the pieces sound like sketches to be developed further.

The whole notion of throwing out a simple blues cooked up on the spot is something that has gone by the wayside these days. I cannot remember which musician it was whose interview I caught this week but a comment was made about the blues being present somewhere in the best jazz and that is was an inescapable element of what jazz was about.

[elmo]

Another one of those songs that has great changes that seem ideal for improvisation "End of a love affair" Notable versions by Wes Montgomery, Blakey's 1956 Messengers But I have chosen a version by Ronnie Mathews, with Ray Drummond and Billy Higgins. I think Ronnie was very underrated, I saw him in a Quartet with Roy Hargrove at the Village Vanguard a magical night. It so sad that so many fine musicians were so sadly neglected during their lifetime - Ronnie certainly was one.
Ronnie played this the night I saw him.

https://youtu.be/b4YaeHMzakg

elmo

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Another one of those songs that has great changes that seem ideal for improvisation "End of a love affair" Notable versions by Wes Montgomery, Blakey's 1956 Messengers But I have chosen a version by Ronnie Mathews, with Ray Drummond and Billy Higgins. I think Ronnie was very underrated, I saw him in a Quartet with Roy Hargrove at the Village Vanguard a magical night. It so sad that so many fine musicians were so sadly neglected during their lifetime - Ronnie certainly was one.
Ronnie played this the night I saw him.

https://youtu.be/b4YaeHMzakg

elmo

That's smashing, I hadn't heard that before. As you say it's a song almost everyone has done, my favourite is the Blakey with Silver, Byrd and Hank Mobley, and Kenny Dorham's with Ernie Henry. And Billie's, late with strings

Here's an oddity, an unreleased Marvin Gaye version, no it's not jazz, and it's from 1965 when Motown were trying to "broaden his appeal", but he had a fabulous voice, even if on this they said "think Johnny Mathis"! And you get the lyrics...

http://youtu.be/YZJR5j-UGn4

[elmo]

That's smashing, I hadn't heard that before. As you say it's a song almost everyone has done, my favourite is the Blakey with Silver, Byrd and Hank Mobley, and Kenny Dorham's with Ernie Henry. And Billie's, late with strings

Here's an oddity, an unreleased Marvin Gaye version, no it's not jazz, and it's from 1965 when Motown were trying to "broaden his appeal", but he had a fabulous voice, even if on this they said "think Johnny Mathis"! And you get the lyrics...

http://youtu.be/YZJR5j-UGn4

Marvin made a great job of that, he was a superb singer "Inner city blues"

https://youtu.be/p_PxgSQ9Vf4

elmo

[burning dog]

Marvin made a great job of that, he was a superb singer "Inner city blues"

https://youtu.be/p_PxgSQ9Vf4

elmo

What's going on? Live 1972

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPkM8F0sjSw

[Stanfordian]

‘Grab This!’ - Johnny Griffin
featuring Paul Bryant on organ
with Joe Pass, Jimmy Bond & Doug Sides
Riverside (1962)

[Joseph K]

‘Grab This!’ - Johnny Griffin
featuring Paul Bryant on organ
with Joe Pass, Jimmy Bond & Doug Sides
Riverside (1962)

Might have to check this out owing to the presence of Joe Pass.