What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Serial_Apologist]

Dave Brubeck -"Time out." - It is funny how your perception of records changes over time. I have been listening to this quite a bit lately and think it is very much a mixed bag. The weaker tracks like "Pick up sticks" still strike me as being a bit twee but it is fascinating how a track like "Blue Rondo a la Turk" now seems completely out if it's time and remarkably contemporary. It could easily be something written by any number of European jazz musicians in the 21st century and you could perhaps imagine being culled from a record label like ACT. The better material on this record is very good and it is not too difficult to hear this music out of context - a bit like Brookmeyer and Guiffre's "Traditionalism revisited" where Jim Hall's guitar and the whole approach of the music seems to anticipate Bill Frisell. My perception of Brubeck is changing and I think he is perhaps more interesting than most jazz fans give him credit.

Can't stand "Blue Rondo" I have to say - a quart in a pint bottle if ever there was one! Brubeck had a great deal of kudos with British jazz musicians of a certain stripe who came up in the late 50s and early 60s, exemplifying, I suppose, some kind of validation of the idea that non-black non-American influences could play a major part in moving jazz forward, but some of us listeners of the time sensed something badly going wrong, at hindsight helps in informing us that it was the cack-handed way in which these extraneous influences were being adapted rather than syncretized: there were other, much more creative ways to be demonstrated, both here and in America. I for one don't believe we have to go back and revise our opinions of the time when jazz was much more reflective of an era's progressivity, as compared with today; Brubeck would turn into a better jazz pianist with a true feel for swing in later years.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I've mentioned this before, and it was a real surprise to me when I first heard it, Brubeck's "Time in" date from the '60s, in amongst all the "Out" "Further Out" etc more famous albums. If you played this as a blindfold session, how many would get the pianist?

http://youtu.be/17wGGSLbIiY

[Ian Thumwood]

Can't stand "Blue Rondo" I have to say - a quart in a pint bottle if ever there was one! Brubeck had a great deal of kudos with British jazz musicians of a certain stripe who came up in the late 50s and early 60s, exemplifying, I suppose, some kind of validation of the idea that non-black non-American influences could play a major part in moving jazz forward, but some of us listeners of the time sensed something badly going wrong, at hindsight helps in informing us that it was the cack-handed way in which these extraneous influences were being adapted rather than syncretized: there were other, much more creative ways to be demonstrated, both here and in America. I for one don't believe we have to go back and revise our opinions of the time when jazz was much more reflective of an era's progressivity, as compared with today; Brubeck would turn into a better jazz pianist with a true feel for swing in later years.

I would have totally agreed with this assessment a few years ago but my opinion of Brubeck is changing. I would almost be inclined the put Brubeck in to the same "dissident" context as Monk, Hope, Nichols and Hill. You certainly cannot categorise his playing as Be-bop. I am aware that there was a time when Brubeck received a lot of bad press in the UK and that his music was not taken too seriously. The issue for me is not of bolting on outside influences on to jazz but more about the music that resulted/ "Blue Rondo" fascinated me because when you actually listen to the piano part behind the alto, the notes that are being played are dissonant and the punctuations recall the kind of accentuation you find in the works of Steve Reich. This composition is not just about the off time signature and I think it is the whole concept that is interesting. As I said, parts of "Time out" sound naive by today's standards yet this band is actually quite interesting. Morello was an incredible drummer and deserves more kudos. Th whole band is effectively given over to performing arrangements and the music is far better than simply soloing over changes.

I have to say that i totally disagree about going back and revising opinions. In jazz, I think that there have been so many innovations that there is still plenty to go back and revisit and find inspiration from. In my opinion, Brubeck's work on "Time out" does heavily hint at the way a lot of European jazz have evolved in the last few years but I would through another group in to the mix and suggest that a band such as Steve Lehman's recent quartet with Craig Taborn has it's antecedents in Brubeck's quartet. I am not sure that I would dismiss Brubeck's music quite so readily as I would have done. His music seems more interesting with the passage of time.

[Stanfordian]

‘Open Sesame’ - Freddie Hubbard
with Tina Brooks, McCoy Tyner, Sam Jones & Clifford Jarvis
Blue Note (1960)

[Stanfordian]

‘The Honeydripper’ – Brother Jack McDuff
with Jimmy Forrest, Grant Green & Ben Dixon
Prestige (1961)

[Stanfordian]

‘Tom Cat’ - Lee Morgan
with Curtis Fuller, Jackie McLean, McCoy Tyner, Bob Cranshaw & Art Blakey
Blue Note (1964)

[kernelbogey]

A Jazz ingenu writes:

On Breakfast this morning, Hannah French announced West End Blues by saying that 'some would say' that when it was recorded by Louis Armstrong & the Hot Five, on 28 June 1928, 'Jazz changed forever'. But she didn't explain that: so I'm curious why. I had not heard this number before, and thought it very fine. But something was changed by this recording.... What?

[Jazzrook]

Sonny Clark with John Coltrane, Donald Byrd, Curtis Fuller, Paul Chambers & Art Taylor playing 'News For Lulu' from the 1957 album 'Sonny's Crib':

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=b2fE9vLb5z4

JR

[Serial_Apologist]

A Jazz ingenu writes:

On Breakfast this morning, Hannah French announced West End Blues by saying that 'some would say' that when it was recorded by Louis Armstrong & the Hot Five, on 28 June 1928, 'Jazz changed forever'. But she didn't explain that: so I'm curious why. I had not heard this number before, and thought it very fine. But something was changed by this recording.... What?

I think it is Louis's remarkably forward-looking free trumpet statement at the start that is usually cited in that connection, KB.

[kernelbogey]

I think it is Louis's remarkably forward-looking free trumpet statement at the start that is usually cited in that connection, KB.

Thanks Serial! Sounded good to me....

[Stanfordian]

‘Undercurrent’ – Kenny Drew
with Freddie Hubbard, Hank Mobley, Sam Jones & Louis Hayes
Blue Note (1960)

[Jazzrook]

Charlie Parker with Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Curley Russell & Buddy Rich playing 'Bloomdido' in 1950:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=1MCGweQ8Oso

JR

[Ian Thumwood]

‘Undercurrent’ – Kenny Drew
with Freddie Hubbard, Hank Mobley, Sam Jones & Louis Hayes
Blue Note (1960)

I have the lead sheets for some of the compositions from this album but I can never recall ever hearing any of this record nor anyone ever mentioning it. The line up looks strong and it does seem curious why this album should have been overlooked. No one ever seems to mention Kenny Drew as a "Blue Note artist."

I have been playing the Clifford Brown / Max Roach quintet in my car this week. Hearing this music afresh is quite interesting because of how your initial perceptions change. Clifford Brown's playing with this group is less burnished than his appearances with Sarah Vaughan or on the Blue Note album and has more edge about it that on the album he cut with West Coast musicians. I prefer his playing with Max Roach as it strikes me as being more incisive and you could make comparisons with the Bud Powell tracks that feature the neglected Fats Navarro who, I would argue, was at least Brown's equal. My overriding impression of Clifford Brown has always been that had he not died in that car accident, he would have produced a body of work which would have eclipsed what ultimately became his recorded legacy. Hearing him in the context of the group he co-led with Max Roach, it is pretty clear that this is the apogee of his recordings. However, I think that Harold Land's contribution to this group is severely neglected, not only because his tone is an excellent foil for Brown, but also because (to my ears at least) he is equal to Brown in being the group's most interesting soloist. Brown is bright and mercurial whereas Land's tone and phrasing have a stature akin to Hank Mobley's finest playing. Quite why Land is never cited as one of the best tenormen of his generation mystifies me - I am constantly impressed whenever he materialises on a recording session. (incidentally, there is a "new" live recording by some of his groups which was getting some excellent reviews last month.) Richie Powell is not as interesting as I had recollected but his comping is spot on. Overall, the real appeal of this group needs to be considered by the Bebop which preceded it as you can sense this group representing a sea change in what was considered as "modern jazz" beforehand. It is right on the cusp of being Hard Bop but i feel Land's breezy tenor playing nicely softens the edge of this group and gives it a unique feel. Max Roach's drumming is the icing on the cake on what it already a well-oiled and cohesive rhythm section. There is much more to this group that merely being Clifford Brown's "finest hour." Perhaps it is too easy to overlook the fact just how good this group was as a band regardless of the legendary status of the trumpeter ?

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I always thought that the Curtis Counce group, with Land, Jack Sheldon, the excellent Carl Perkins and Frank Butler was very much a successor band stylistically to Roach Brown. Their three albums up to Perkin's untimely death and then the one with Elmo Hope and Gerald Wilson. Interesting compositions great playing and feel, and a beautifully recorded sound, Contemporary being at least the equal to Bluenote and degrees "warmer".

[burning dog]

One of my "All Time Favourites" Beats the studio version IMO