What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Bert]

Allan Holdsworth - The Sixteen Men Of Tain

[Joseph K]

Allan Holdsworth - The Sixteen Men Of Tain

His best album IMO. And you have the special edition I see - I too have the special edition because that's the form the album appears in the complete album collection (which isn't actually complete, a few of his early recordings aren't in it as well as All Night Wrong, though I have that separately) -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01N5P4DLD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I am glad I bought this boxed set when it was still available! I also have the 'normal' edition of The Sixteen Men of Tain which I'd purchased in the mid-noughties.

[Bert]

His best album IMO. And you have the special edition I see - I too have the special edition because that's the form the album appears in the complete album collection (which isn't actually complete, a few of his early recordings aren't in it as well as All Night Wrong, though I have that separately) -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01N5P4DLD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I am glad I bought this boxed set when it was still available! I also have the 'normal' edition of The Sixteen Men of Tain which I'd purchased in the mid-noughties.

I think I agree with you - quite possibly AH's best album. I have no idea if the special edition is still available. I can't remember when I bought it, but it was soon after its release. The music arrangements are very interesting and for some reason, I'm put in mind of Scofield - but AH's soloing is on another planet!

[Jazzrook]

Sonny Clark with Jackie McLean, Art Farmer, Paul Chambers & Philly Joe Jones playing 'Sippin' At Bells' in 1958:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=VpAtX3CEINo

JR

[Ian Thumwood]

This week I have been almost extensively listening to Joe Henderson, a musician I really appreciate and someone I find to be extremely consistent on record. If I am honest, the music he made with Kenny Dorham is my absolute favourite, both for the writing and the quality of the playing. Of he five albums they made for Blue Note, I think that "Page One" and "Our thing" are the absolute pinnacle and offer a brilliant contrast for those who perceive what Coltrane and Davis were producing at the same time to define the jazz of the 1960s. What I have found is interesting is just how good drummer Joe Chambers. "Mode for Joe" is an album I had been curious about for years and it make a fascinating contrast to Henderson's work with a quintet. I like the combination of Bobby Hutcherson and Cedar Walton and albums are always enhanced by the appearance of trombonist Curtis Fuller. However, I keep on being drawn increasingly to the drumming of Joe Chambers to the extent that I am totally baffled why he has never got his due. I think he is one of the greats on his instrument.

The other Joe Henderson albums I have enjoyed are the two "State of the tenor" albums which were much vaunted when they came out n the late 1980s. Few albums from that era seemed to be venerated to the degree of these and I think that the album title seemed very much about making a statement. In hindsight, the music contained on these two discs is probably less a statement of the tenor saxophone at that time than it might suggest. Certainly I think there were other players around at the time such as David Murray, Mike Brecker and Joe Lovano who more clearly defined this era. However, it is surprising how ruminative these records are. They are far from being in-your-face statements and more demonstrative of a master musician at the top of his game with little to prove. i think the performance of his sidemen is also interesting. Drummer Al Foster is remarkedly restrained and often sits out for chunks of the performance. By contrast, I would have to say that I think that these records probably have Ron Carter's best work on disc. He really makes these records something special and Henderson could not have expected anything better than what Carter played. Carter is so good that i feel he probably deserves second billing. All told, this is a "different" Joe Henderson from the player on the Blue Note discs and one with nothing to prove so the music just flows out of him.

Bruce might be interested to learn that you can buy a C edition of the music by Kenny Dorham which has been transcribed by Walter Davis. The use of harmony on these charts is fascinating (especially on something like "Escapade" ) and it is intriguing to see the choices of keys me makes - they tend to favour loads of flats. Seeing the music expressed on manuscript is something I find to be helpful. The notes in the book are also quite revealing and I never knew that Dorham also wrote charts for the Dizzy Gillespie big band when Gil Fuller was overstretched.

[Tenor Freak]

I have been playing the new Shai Maestro quartet record called "Human." I was really impressed by the samples I heard but the disc as a whole is more problematic. The music is really nice and the leader's piano is very good. The music is extremely well played and I think the folkish element of the compositions does work to it's advantage. The problem is we have heard the same approach now for over twenty years. However, even if you set aside Eicher's rather dated concept of brooding melancholy, this is ultra polite jazz. ECM used to be very much the "go to" label but am I alone in thinking that it has now become something of a parody of itself - as cliched as any Trad jazz with clunking banjos ??

I wonder if Bruce has checked this album out.

No I haven't, but I think I may give it a go. I have been delving into old Dexter Gordon live sessions at the Cafe Montmartre, and Booker Ervin.

UPDATE: I'm now 40% into "Human" and so far, so good. Yes, it's stereotypical ECM fare to a point, but there are some interesting harmonies in there and it's not all at the same slow tempo. I think the addition of Philip Dizack on trumpet is a wise move. I often find that I miss a horn to cut through the piano trio sound on these dates.

[Bert]

Four For Trane - Archie Shepp

Seems like Shepp is falling of the radar, these days ......

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Miles Davis SEXTET (with Coltrane & Buddy Montgomery vibes), live San Francisco 1960. Just prior to the European tour, the final Coltrane/Miles tour. The band was expanded to a sextet because Trane said he was leaving and Miles hired Buddy Montgomery, Wes's brother on vibes (and piano). A very fine player, but with a very deep fear of flying which caused him to (hurriedly) abandon the idea.
Anyway, "So What" from the SF gig. Sound is not wonderful but there's a phenomenal Coltrane tenor solo...

http://youtu.be/9LN7_tBKilk

[Joseph K]

A second Sunday cleaning my room:

Miles Davis - Filles de Kilimanjaro

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme (live in Antibes)

First few tunes of Holdsworth/Pasqua - Blues for Tony

Miles Davis - Live in Europe 1969 (first disk only)

Break for tea

John Coltrane - Ascension (Edition II only)

Allan Holdsworth - I.O.U

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew (first disk only)

Hellborg/Lane/Sipe - Personae

And lastly and currently: John Coltrane - Live in Japan (first tune, Afro Blue)


My room is not 100% done but it's a hell of a lot better.

[Jazzrook]

Four For Trane - Archie Shepp

Seems like Shepp is falling of the radar, these days ......

Archie Shepp & Jason Moran playing John Coltrane's 'Wise One' from the recent album 'Let My People Go':

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

JR

[Serial_Apologist]

A second Sunday cleaning my room:

[...]

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew (first disk only)

I well remember being in somebody's house when Mark Murphy was guest. Someone put "Bitches Brew" on, and Murphy shouted "Take that Off!!! - that's music to do your hoovering by!"!!!

[elmo]

Nat Adderley's beautiful lyrical composition "Naturally" played by Louis Hayes band with Jeremy Pelt, Vincent Herring, Rich Germanson and Dezron Douglas

https://youtu.be/G1r8edM7dMI

elmo

[Stanfordian]

‘The Cooker’ – Lee Morgan
with Pepper Adams, Bobby Timmins, Paul Chambers & Philly Joe Jones
Blue Note (1958)

[Stanfordian]

‘More Power!’ - Dexter Gordon
with James Moody, Barry Harris, Buster Williams & Albert Heath
Prestige (1969)

[Joseph K]

John Coltrane - Live in Japan, disk 2 (Crescent)