What Jazz are you listening to now?

[BBMmk2]

Today’s session, is of the orchestral and choral music, from the recordings made by Claudio Abbado and the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Brahms
Eine Deutsches Requiem
Cheryl Studer (soprano)
Andreas Schmidt (baritone)
Swedish Radio Choir
Eric Ericson Chamber Choir
Berliner Philharmoniker
Claudio Abbado.

Academic Festival Overture, Op.80
Song of the Fates, Op.89
Radio Choir, Berlin
Symphony No.1 in C minor, Op.68
Alto Rhapsody
(Mariana Lipovsek, contralto,
Ernst Senff Chorus,
Berliner Philharmoniker
Claudio Abbado

Symphony No.2 in D major, Op.73
Tragic Overture, Op.81
Berliner Philharmoniker
Claudio Abbado

Schickslied, Op.54
Symphony No.3 in F major, Op.90
Ernst Senff Choir
Berliner Philharmoniker
Claudio Abbado

[Bryn]

Today’s session, is of the orchestral and choral music, from the recordings made by Claudio Abbado and the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Brahms
Eine Deutsches Requiem
Cheryl Studer (soprano)
Andreas Schmidt (baritone)
Swedish Radio Choir
Eric Ericson Chamber Choir
Berliner Philharmoniker
Claudio Abbado.

Academic Festival Overture, Op.80
Song of the Fates, Op.89
Radio Choir, Berlin
Symphony No.1 in C minor, Op.68
Alto Rhapsody
(Mariana Lipovsek, contralto,
Ernst Senff Chorus,
Berliner Philharmoniker
Claudio Abbado

Symphony No.2 in D major, Op.73
Tragic Overture, Op.81
Berliner Philharmoniker
Claudio Abbado

Schickslied, Op.54
Symphony No.3 in F major, Op.90
Ernst Senff Choir
Berliner Philharmoniker
Claudio Abbado

Jazz?

[Serial_Apologist]

Jazz?

Trad, Daddy-o.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Just up on YouTube...

The Jackie Mac Attack, Live 1991, for Radio Holland recorded at a club in Belgium.

Not sure what they all had for breakfast, or maybe lunch, but incendiary stuff, especially Jackie on the opener!

http://youtu.be/gTPW64T55tc

[Jazzrook]

Just up on YouTube...

The Jackie Mac Attack, Live 1991, for Radio Holland recorded at a club in Belgium.

Not sure what they all had for breakfast, or maybe lunch, but incendiary stuff, especially Jackie on the opener!

http://youtu.be/gTPW64T55tc

Wonderful stuff, BN.
Forgotten that I have this album - somewhere! Will have to dig this out and play it again.

JR

[Ian Thumwood]

I have been playing a mutlitude of different styles over the last week including a good proportion of John Field's piano work. Switching back to jazz, I have been fascinated by a double album of the work by Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti. The disc covers the period from about 1926 through to the early 1930s. The tracks are variable and there are a few by orchestras such as those of Jean Goldkette and Roger Wolfe Kahn who, for me, mirror the same negative perceptions posted regarding the CJF. The small group material is nothing short of breathtaking and I am fascinated how the rhythmic feel of the music chnges over the years from the use of Don Murray's bass sax to play the bass line to the more rubustious records that feaure more advanced players like Benny Goodman. These small groups led by the likes of Venuti and Rollini remind me a lot of some of Bill Frisell's stuff with the 1990s Quartet and seem like a wierd niche in jazz very much divorced from the mainstream rather like with Erroll Garner later on - if you like an evolutionary thread that lead nowhere but is fascinating never-the-less if for nithing ese than the shear oddness of the music.

It is interesting to speculate where Eddie Lang might have ended up musically had he lived. I find Venuti to be a player who wore his heart on his sleeve when he played. Eddie Lang is , perhaps, more perplexing and a player you might have assumed would have fitted in with a lot of the Chamber Jazz that existed between the 30s and 50's.

[Jazzrook]

Archie Shepp with Albert Dailey, Reggie Workman & Charli Persip playing Coltrane's 'Wise One' from the 1977 album 'Ballads for Trane'(Denon):

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=Wi00Plgw4bU

JR

[Stanfordian]

‘The Freedom Rider’ – Art Blakey
with Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Timmons & Jymie Merritt
Blue Note (1961)

[Ian Thumwood]

I have been playing a mixture of stuff from John Surman with Paul Bley/ Tony Oxley and Gary Peacock, through to Dino Saluzzi, Gerald Clayton, Arthur Blythe and Bennie Moten. I really like Moten's band. The one album that I had not played for ages and was surprised by was Bill Evans "Portrait in Jazz" which I find to be alot more mannered than I had recollected. It is quite salutary to hear this music against Hampton Hawe's "All night session" which I really enjoy and just sensed was far more spontaneous than Evans. Listening to more "modern" pianists dampened my orginal enthusiasm for Bill Evans who had been a revelation for me when I was about 17 although there is still a lot to admire with his playing. I am not a massive fan, I am afraid. However, the similarity of the alternative takes made me think just how far Evans' performances were worked out in advance. There is much more care in the way Evans chooses to voice his chords than with Hawes and better use of dynamics. Despite this, I find Hawes to be a player whose solos are more "in the moment." What fascinates me is that Keith Jarrett's work with his own trio seems to have found a bridge between these two approaches. It is almost as if he unlocked this element from Evans' more cautious approach.

[Serial_Apologist]

I have been playing a mixture of stuff from John Surman with Paul Bley/ Tony Oxley and Gary Peacock, through to Dino Saluzzi, Gerald Clayton, Arthur Blythe and Bennie Moten. I really like Moten's band. The one album that I had not played for ages and was surprised by was Bill Evans "Portrait in Jazz" which I find to be alot more mannered than I had recollected. It is quite salutary to hear this music against Hampton Hawe's "All night session" which I really enjoy and just sensed was far more spontaneous than Evans. Listening to more "modern" pianists dampened my orginal enthusiasm for Bill Evans who had been a revelation for me when I was about 17 although there is still a lot to admire with his playing. I am not a massive fan, I am afraid. However, the similarity of the alternative takes made me think just how far Evans' performances were worked out in advance. There is much more care in the way Evans chooses to voice his chords than with Hawes and better use of dynamics. Despite this, I find Hawes to be a player whose solos are more "in the moment." What fascinates me is that Keith Jarrett's work with his own trio seems to have found a bridge between these two approaches. It is almost as if he unlocked this element from Evans' more cautious approach.

I think with Bill Evans we are with somebody who laid down new ideas about harmony, symmetry and group interactivity which proved of inestimable influence on the next generation - without him we would not have John Taylor, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, so many more there are too many to cite. He was not part of the Free scene although he could have been had he chosen, leaving it to his successors to demonstrate the Free implications in his improvising approach; but as with the Free jazz pioneers he pioneered further possibilities that were there for the finessing. Hampton Hawes probably had the flasher technique with which to be less restrained, but unlike Evans he was working with the languages of Bud Powell and Oscar Peterson which in turn allowed for less group egalitarianism and creative input from colleagues. For the latter to transpire, and the future, you needed to turn to Bill Evans, Cecil Taylor, Monk or Paul Bley as exemplars.

[Joseph K]

I think with Bill Evans we are with somebody who laid down new ideas about harmony, symmetry and group interactivity which proved of inestimable influence on the next generation - without him we would not have John Taylor, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, so many more there are too many to cite. He was not part of the Free scene although he could have been had he chosen, leaving it to his successors to demonstrate the Free implications in his improvising approach; but as with the Free jazz pioneers he pioneered further possibilities that were there for the finessing. Hampton Hawes probably had the flasher technique with which to be less restrained, but unlike Evans he was working with the languages of Bud Powell and Oscar Peterson which in turn allowed for less group egalitarianism and creative input from colleagues. For the latter to transpire, and the future, you needed to turn to Bill Evans, Cecil Taylor, Monk or Paul Bley as exemplars.

Incidentally, this is something I've given a few listens over the past few days:

[Bryn]

A little earlier, the webcast of Victor Schonfield's funeral with, among its musical tributes, two items from Coleman Hawkins plus Spike Jones and his City Slickers by which to leave. Spoken contributions from, among others, Eddie Prevost and Evan Parker, the latter making a delicate reference to the financial mess Sun Ra visited upon Victor when the latter brought the former over the QEH for a packed out concert.

[Ian Thumwood]

I think with Bill Evans we are with somebody who laid down new ideas about harmony, symmetry and group interactivity which proved of inestimable influence on the next generation - without him we would not have John Taylor, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, so many more there are too many to cite. He was not part of the Free scene although he could have been had he chosen, leaving it to his successors to demonstrate the Free implications in his improvising approach; but as with the Free jazz pioneers he pioneered further possibilities that were there for the finessing. Hampton Hawes probably had the flasher technique with which to be less restrained, but unlike Evans he was working with the languages of Bud Powell and Oscar Peterson which in turn allowed for less group egalitarianism and creative input from colleagues. For the latter to transpire, and the future, you needed to turn to Bill Evans, Cecil Taylor, Monk or Paul Bley as exemplars.

SA

I agree with everything you say. As i said, when I discovered Bill Evans, he was a revelation to me but, by the same token, I felt the same about Hampton Hawes too. I see Bill Evans as a watershed in jazz , largely due to his advanced perception of harmony and the way he redefined swing. I would actually argue that his influence is absolutely crucial to understanding a record label live ECM whose esthetic owes a massive debt to Bill Evans. However, I think there was a trade -off in other respects which, in my opinion, make him not quite as complete a player as say Herbie Hancock. (For example , Hancock's work with horn players and as a "band player" is in a league of it's own.) For me, I regret to say that I admire Bill Evans a lot but he is one of those pianists like Oscar Peterson who leave me totally cold.

One of the best ever piano trio records from the 1960s is Hampton Hawes " The green leaves of summer" where the more egalatarian influence of Evans is apparent. I think this is record is exceptional and is as much a high point as "Portraits in jazz." By this point, Hawes had shed the more direct Bud Powell influence and the interface between the bass and drums team of Monk Montgomery and Steve Ellington owes a lot of La Faro and Motian. Whereas Evans seemed to play a lotof consideration into how he voiced the chords, Hawes strikes me as being far looser and it is debatable whether any other pianist swung so hard prior to McCoy Tyner. It is a record that never ceases to amaze me. I would concede that Hawes was not an original like Evans and probably had little influence on the younger geneation of players who followed him but with this record you can almost hear the approach Keith Jarrett would take with the Standard's Trio. It is a shame that the name of Hampton Hawes doesn't really resonnate much in 2022. My piano teacher was also a massive fan and I think the appeal for many fans was the pianist's relentless swing.

I was looking though some of my music books last night whilst listening to the football on the radio and noted the comment by Jason Moran in my Andrew Hill book which praised Hill's sophisticated concept of rhythm. Hill is another pianist I really admire and someone who took a different approach as opposed to concentrating on a quest for harmonic possibilities. In the end, it does make you realise that jazz piano , perhaps more than any other instrument, is effectively about problem solving and how you deal with harmony, melody, interaction with other musicians and how you tackle solo performance . I think that the rhythmic aspect of jazz piano is an element somewhat overlooked and a quality that is not always appreciated. I love pianists who are more prone to attack against the pulse such as Ellington, Monk, Bley, etc but I would argue that the ability to swing is really important too. Evans is rightly lauded for his harmonic concept and I believe that how pianist deal with rhythm is maybe equally important. I wonder if you have heard this record? You can sense the music owes a debt to Evans yet I feel he never managed to swing as hard as Hawes. The playing by Montgomery and Ellington is as good as anything by La Faro and Motian.

[Jazzrook]

Hampton Hawes & Charlie Haden playing Ornette's 'Turnaround' from the 1976 album 'The Golden Number':

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=fDCHd7ItGgI

JR

[Stanfordian]

‘Blue & Sentimental’ – Ike Quebec
with Grant Green, Paul Chambers & Philly Joe Jones
Blue Note (1961)