What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Joseph K]

Charlie Parker, the Chasin' the Bird boxed set - disk 1. The booklet notes are very useful. I'm currently listening to Sweet Georgia Brown from 1943 with Parker on tenor.

Disk 2 now.

[elmo]

Paul Bley "Turnaround"

Paul Bley really knew how to interpret Ornette's compositions. I just bought "Notes on Ornette" and have been playing a lot and its a very fine album.

Here is "The Turnaround"

https://youtu.be/0RyTTHPUCnA

elmo

[Joseph K]

Mike Stern - Standards (and other songs)

[Stanfordian]

'One Flight Up' – Dexter Gordon
with Donald Byrd, Kenny Drew, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen & Art Taylor
Blue Note (1964)

[Jazzrook]

Roy Haynes with Booker Ervin, Ronnie Mathews & Larry Ridley playing 'Under Paris Skies' in 1963:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=5brqtc7AC-Q

JR

[Joseph K]

Julian Lage - World's Fair

An album comprising solely solo acoustic guitar tunes. I am enjoying it quite a bit - it is full of subtle detail and unexpected twists and turns that mean the music escapes ever being bland. It has some nice sweet lilting melodies. Makes me want to write some self-contained solo guitar tunes for myself, he makes it seem quite easy (it's not!)

[Ian Thumwood]

Picking up on the topic of Kirk Knuffke, I was surprised to see him crop up on an album with Pierre Dorge who is rhe guitarist better known for leading Denmark's New Jungle Orchestra. SteepleChase commisioned an album by hDorge with an American group that included Jay Anderson. Adam Nussbaum and Conrad Herwig on trombone. It is called "Soundscapes." The most intriguing musician is tenor saxophonist Stephen Riley who is a new name to me but whose playing is very similar to Paul Gonsalves. I wish I had discovered Dorge sooner as I had never really taken the New Jungle Orchestra too seriously but he is a musician initially associated with John Tchicai.

On this album the group is scaled down to six members and the music is like a Cool Jazz reinterpretation of the kind of music associated with Brotherhood of Breath and the more "outside" element of South African jazz. One of the best tracksis dedicated to Johnny Dyani. I would describe the music as burning on a slow fuse and having musicians from a more mainstream background working outside of their comfort zone. The second half of the album really takes hold and i like Dorge's composition. Sometimes the music almost has the ethereal quality of Lennie Tristano and there is a sense of the music simmering at most as opposed to boiling over. However, in addition to the African influences, fans of earlier styles of jazz will probably draw comparisons with some of the small group recordings of the late 30s /early 40s by various Ellingtonians although the music is obviously being played by a younger generation of soloist. Consequently, it is a disc that sounds better each time you listen. As good as the others are in this band, Riley is a real discovery for me.

For someone who has enjoyed a career in jazz since the late 70s and has a reputation outside of Europe, I cannot recall Pierre Dorge ever being discussed in here. The New Jungle Orchestra never gets a mention and even a guitarist like Joseph has never mentioned his playing. The guitar has that slippery, golden sound that is so prevalent in African music and, in this context, I find the record really fascinating. In the spectrum of the people who would apprectiate this disc, I would very much put in in the Bluesnik - Jazzrook- Elmo . Probably one for Joseph to avoid, though - Dorge being more of a colourist as opposed to a fret board monster.

[Serial_Apologist]

Steve Williamson with Steve Coleman - "Circle C" (1992)

I have more respect than liking for MBase and still remain unconvinced how much mileage there was in resorting to constant cadential evasion, like the music doesn't seem able to make up its mind. More seems to yield diminishing returns, though one may feel the more rhythmically disruptive the more satisfying, as demonstrated by Williamson here; Coleman tends to go for longer lines undifferentiated in tone or dynamic so that the moment-by-moment sidestepping movements are diluted of any tension otherwise inherent in the harmony and polyrhythmic complexity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdRrGM0aR4g

[Joseph K]

Steve Williamson with Steve Coleman - "Circle C" (1992)

I have more respect than liking for MBase and still remain unconvinced how much mileage there was in resorting to constant cadential evasion, like the music doesn't seem able to make up its mind. More seems to yield diminishing returns, though one may feel the more rhythmically disruptive the more satisfying, as demonstrated by Williamson here; Coleman tends to go for longer lines undifferentiated in tone or dynamic so that the moment-by-moment sidestepping movements are diluted of any tension otherwise inherent in the harmony and polyrhythmic complexity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdRrGM0aR4g

Reminds me of some of McLaughlin's stuff from the 90s...

[Ian Thumwood]

For a period around 1988 -1991 the jazz pres loved M-Base and there seemed to be an opinion that it was an alternative to the kind of Hard Bop produced by the New Neos which reflected the music of the time. Loads of musicians including the likes of the late Geri Allen and Cassandra Wilson were associated with the music as well as Gary Thomas who is featired in the post Joseph posted by Jonh McLaughlin's band. I can remember driving back from Southampton one Friday evening and hearing Jez Nelson proclaim on the radio that Steve Coleman was probably the most influential saxophonist of his generation. My experience of his playing was largely limoted to hos work with Dave Holland which is oretty special. Something like "Extensions" is one of the defining albums of the 1980s and gives a clear picture of just how good Coleman was then.

At the time this stuff did not interest me as the whole idea of jazz musicians working with keboards and bass guitars seemed retrospective but I now realise I had totally missed the point. What Coleman is doing is devising a system for improvisation which is based on musical theory. I so not know what he is doing or how this works but it is a change in approach tousing chords or scales for improvisation. Although I have not listened lot to, his original "Five Elements" group, I have snapped up a number of his recent albums on the Pi label which I think probably represent the apogee of his work. The Five Elements have dispensed with the keyboards and replaced this with the guitar pf Miles Okazaki. In trumpeter Jonatham Finlayson , Coleman now has a foil who perfectly compliments his alto.

The composition element of his work fascinates me. I do get the impression that some of this might have been written on a computer as the larger ensemble pieces sich as "Synovial Joints" and "Morphogenesis" are so complex. What Steve Coleman is producing is pure music but configured to his own,original concept. What I find intriguing is how many of his original M-Base coterie seems to have foresaken the limelight yet there is now a younger generation ofplayers who are very mich disciples of this style of player even if they had never played in Coleman's groups. There would be no Steve Lehman without Steve Coleman, for example.

I grant you that listening to Steve Coleman can seem analytical and also seem as formal in it's concept as Bach but there is still a viseral punch with his playing. For my money, he is one of jazz's great originators and original voices. There is some really good music to be found on labels like Pi, Intakt, Cuneiform and Clean Feed which I feel really illustrates the strength of a lot of contemporary jazz and that does not necessarily get the media attention these days or at least as much coverage at the edgier styles of jazz did in the 1980s and 1990s.

[Stanfordian]

‘Heavy Soul’ – Ike Quebec
with Freddie Roach, Milt Hinton & Al Harewood
Blue Note (1961)

[Joseph K]

Herbie Hancock - Headhunters

Specifically, Chameleon. Still gives me ecstatic shivers!

[Joseph K]

Disk 2 now.

Picking up on where I left on this disk (see previous page).

[RichardB]

Arcana
(Derek Bailey, Bill Laswell, Tony Williams)
The Last Wave (1996)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtOgMpX-VdM

Some fantastic playing by Bailey and Williams (must have been one of his last sessions) here. If only Laswell had left his bass guitar in the case and stuck to producing.

[Serial_Apologist]

Arcana
(Derek Bailey, Bill Laswell, Tony Williams)
The Last Wave (1996)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtOgMpX-VdM

Some fantastic playing by Bailey and Williams (must have been one of his last sessions) here. If only Laswell had left his bass guitar in the case and stuck to producing.

Hadn't realised Tony had played with Derek - another completed circle! - so thanks for this.