What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Joseph K]

One for Joseph K - The guy it all came from, the amazing Charlie Christian at Mintons Playhouse in 1941....

https://youtu.be/h6JU0Tx2siU

elmo

That is indeed most sick. And on an electric instrument as well - shocking! Plus he plays pretty much exclusively with downstrokes with the plectrum. As for me, I've ditched the plectrum entirely and, um, jazz too.

BTW I agree about ESP - fantastic album.

[burning dog]

[Ian Thumwood]

I am still playing the new Emmet Cohen record. It is an interesting concept and a polished record. The more I listen to Melissa Aldana, the more impressed I have been of her playing which puts be in mind of Donny McCaslin, a player himself due took his cues from Michael Brecker. Aldana is the most interesting musician on this disc having initially been more impressed by Marquis Hill's trumpet. I had initially forgotten that I had seen Hill in concert in Southampton about 15 months back and what might have been the last live gig I went to at the Turner Sims. Cohen's playing is crisp yet I think that the "stride" element of his playing is probably the least sincere. I prefer what he has to offer with the quintet as opposed to the trio tracks where he sounds more like Kenny Barron.

All of this has got me scratching my head as to how a record like "Future stride" fits in to the current spectrum of jazz. It is not too retrospective and where vintage material like "Dardinella" and Symphonic Raps" has been employed, I am thinking that there are other pianists who have pulled this style off with more authenticity in recent years than Cohen. His playing in an ensemble is so radically different (although no less impressive) that you wonder where is true musical direction might lie. Hill seems more interesting on this record and perhaps reminiscent of someone like Terrance Blanchard than when I saw him live where I was in two minds about him. Listening to someone like Hill, you can appreciate why a player like Laura Jurd from the UK is rated so highly because she seems more "of the moment" than Hill even if there are players like Dave Douglas, Finlayson, Akinmusire etc who , I think, are far more challenging in how they pursue their music ideas. The Cohen disc is symptomatic of the direction that jazz is taking in the US. There is a nod towards "the tradition" and all the players are fashionably young with Aldana being a "wild card" as being a female tenor saxophonist who hails from Chile. However, the result is a bit too polite.

I recall that in the days of the old "bored", a frequent criticism of records was that they were "products" with the suggestion that contemporary records were less of a musical statement and more of an attempt to "shift units." It was an argument which I felt seemed controversial at the time yet the "Future stride" disc is demonstrably a "product" with Cohen's presentation on the album cover giving the impression of being a "classical record." I admit to liking the music but find it slightly strange that the idea of "tradition" now might be inclusive of taking cues from players like McCaslin or Blanchard let alone mixing this with repertoire from 1919 ! What the music isn't is Hard or Post Bop. It seems like a softer version of what the mainstream might be and maybe something that has been on-ging since the 2000s with other (more capable?) players like Anat Cohen where this kind of music replaces what a label like Concord might have issued in the 70s and 80s. In fact, I think that Mack Avenue , who have issue this record, have effectively taken over from the production style of Concord which no longer has a "house style."

I am not necessarily in agreement with some of the arguments put by the likes of SA by the need to jazz to constantly evolve and "challenge" yet an album like "Futurestride" does, in my mind, raise questions about authenticity and is maybe the culmination of the college system where styles of the 1920s can be accommodated in a watered down contemporary approach.

This year I have bought three "new" releases including "Futurestride", Ron Miles' hugely disappointing "Rainbow Sign" and the Rudresh Mahanthrappa which is decent enough although could have done with the bass and drums replaced by edgier players like William Parker or Hamid Drake as opposed to 1/2 of the Moutin brothers and drummer Rudy Royston. 2020 offered some fascinating records which were more than enough to make you feel comfortable about contemporary jazz in all styles and idioms. The cynic in me makes me wonder that, as polished as the Emmet Cohen disc is, you would not swap it for the work of any of the musicians from whom he is taking his influence whether that is someone from 1920s or Bill Charlap who is a good comparison. If you wanted to be cruel, you would argue that this record was a facsimile of earlier styles but delivered with 21st century polish and presentation.

I would be intrigued to read anyone else's impressions because I am on the fence about this record. A break from the overwhelming influence of Brad Mehldau or a host of ECM-style clones is welcome but I have to say I am far more convinced by someone like Gerald Clayton or even Christian Scott than Cohen who I feel may be a flash in the pan.

[Stanfordian]

‘Born to be Blue’ - Grant Green
with Ike Quebec & Sonny Clarke, Grant Jones & Louis Hayes
Blue Note (1962)

[Stanfordian]

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

[Ian Thumwood]

‘Free For All’ - Art Blakey
with Freddie Hubbard, Curtis Fuller, Wayne Shorter, Cedar Walton & Reggie Workman
Blue Note (1964)

I have been playing this record today too. In my opinion, it is Blakey at his skull-cracking best. It is an incredible album and probably the most musculine jazz album I can think off. The title track is off the scale.

[Joseph K]

musculine

??

[Serial_Apologist]

??

Compound of masculine and muscular - rather novel for "our Ian", whether or not you agree the two words can be conflated conceptually.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Compound of masculine and muscular - rather novel for "our Ian", whether or not you agree the two words can be conflated conceptually.

Are you sure he didn't mean "MESCALINE"?! As Freddie Hubbard said there was definitely "something" in the air when we cut that.

[Joseph K]

Are you sure he didn't mean "MESCALINE"?!

[Jazzrook]

Charles Mingus Quintet with Booker Ervin, John Handy, Richard Wyands & Danny Richmond playing 'No Private Income Blues' from the overlooked album 'Jazz Portraits/Mingus in Wonderland' recorded live at the Nonagon Art Gallery, 1959:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=_SXb7ckjcZU

JR

[Stanfordian]

‘Easy Living’ - Ike Quebec
with Bennie Green, Stanley Turrentine, Sonny Clark, Milt Hinton, Art Blakey
Blue Note (1962)

[Stanfordian]

‘Step Lightly – Blue Mitchell
with Leo Wright, Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, Gene Taylor & Roy Brooks
Blue Note (1963, released 1980)

[Jazzrook]

Johnny Hodges with John Coltrane, Emmett Berry(?), Lawrence Brown, Richie Powell, John Williams & Jimmy Johnson playing 'In A Mellotone' in 1954:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=oIG3ZDf8h2c

JR

[Serial_Apologist]

Johnny Hodges with John Coltrane, Emmett Berry(?), Lawrence Brown, Richie Powell, John Williams & Jimmy Johnson playing 'In A Mellotone' in 1954:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=oIG3ZDf8h2c

JR

Amazing to note how un-Trane like JC sounds on there!