What Jazz are you listening to now?

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I also had a little listen to this and had to buy it. Awaiting the CD from Amazon. I’m really partial to Jazz from the early sixties to about 1968. Especially the free & avant garde stuff.

Memories. I bought that as part of a Bluenote double LP set in the late '70s when they first started going back through the vaults for unreleased sessions. The companion LP was the Andrew Hill/Sam Rivers Qrt "Change" which is really excellent. One of my fav Hills. Interesting to see (and hear) Donald Byrd in that company. He does very well.

BN.

[Serial_Apologist]

I also had a little listen to this and had to buy it. Awaiting the CD from Amazon. I’m really partial to Jazz from the early sixties to about 1968. Especially the free & avant garde stuff.

Oh yes: I picked that one up second hand.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE??

[teamsaint]

I also had a little listen to this and had to buy it. Awaiting the CD from Amazon. I’m really partial to Jazz from the early sixties to about 1968. Especially the free & avant garde stuff.

love this so far. Great steer.

The bass player isn't getting much down time......

[elmo]

John Beasley presents the Monk'estra Mack Avenue rec 2016

Really impressed with this groups orchestrations of Monk. John Beasley takes lots of liberties with these pieces and I guess only goes to show how strong his compositions are and how they sound so contemporary. Most of the musicians are unknown to me but the band have plenty of spirit, Gary Burton guests on "Epistrophy"

I would certainly recommend this to fans of bands that push the boundaries but maintain a true Jazz spirit.

Ian - I think you would like this one, give it a listen - most of the tracks are on youtube.

elmo

[Stanfordian]

Nat Adderley with Cannonball Adderley, Nat Perrilliat, Ellis Marsalis, Sam Jones & James Black
'In the Bag'
Jazzland (rec. 1962)

[CGR]

Charlie Parker Live at the Royal Roost, cd 1.

Great live radio recordings from 1949.

[Stanfordian]

Lester Young, Roy Eldridge & Harry ‘Sweets’ Edison
with Hank Jones, Herb Ellis, George Duvivier & Mickey Sheen
'Laughin’ to keep from Cryin'
Verve (1958)

[Jazzrook]

Elmo Hope Quintet on BLUE NOTE from 1954.
Here's 'Crazy' with Frank Foster(tenor sax); Freeman Lee(trumpet); Percy Heath(bass) & Art Blakey(drums):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zFXiKobzCk

JR

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

"Jazz in Italian Cinema (1958-62)" New Compilation.

"Blues all'Alba" from Giorgio Gaslini's quartet music for Michelangelo Antonioni's La Notte is probably the best known piece here, a cigarettes-and-coffee nocturne featuring Eraldo Volonté's eloquently world-weary tenor saxophone" - Richard Williams Blue Moment blog yesterday.

One of my favorite films and an atmospheric moody bluesly/track that perfectly catches the time and place. A lost era of sophisticated film making. And not forgetting the wonderful Monica Vitti! Its on YouTube, music and film.

BN.

[Jazzrook]

Abdullah Ibrahim(Dollar Brand) at Montreux in 1980 with Carlos Ward(alto sax); Craig Harris(trombone); Alonzo Gardner(electric bass) & Andre Strobert(drums):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMcKrMXzjhg

JR

[Stanfordian]

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

[Stanfordian]

Jimmy Smith with Stanley Turpentine, Kenny Burrell and Donald Bailey
‘Midnight Special’
Blue Note (1961)

[Jazzrook]

Abdullah Ibrahim's 'Water From An Ancient Well' from 1985 with Ekaya:
Ibrahim(piano); Carlos Ward(alto sax, flute); Ricky Ford(tenor sax); Charles Davis(baritone sax); David Williams(bass) & Ben Riley(drums)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBf7yGbxtHw

JR

[Ian Thumwood]

I have been re-visiting some early 2000's George Gruntz big band records. This band's recordings used to be something of a rarity but in the early 2000's they became increasingly frequent through funding via Swiss Radio. Gruntz at his best is immediately recognisable and the music is frequently very approachable and not without an element of the tongue being firmly in the cheek.

"Pourquoi pas" includes some contemporary classical music in amongst a sour re-working of "The man I love" , a quirky "Strutting with some barbeque" and a fantastic version of Coltrane's "Big Nick" which ends with a trio of trombones jostling for attention at the close of a ten minute performance which somewhat eclipses the original version. "Global Excellence" is probably the weakest of his records that I have on my collection and whilst the band is good, the material isn't up to his usual standards.

Gruntz sometimes gets compared to Gil Evans but I find that the Swiss had his own style which is quite different. No other band seemed to be able to match his writing for trombones / brass and it is this section which gives the music it's sonority and character. His sax writing could also be very distinctive too yet the bands he led were always choc-a-bloc with contemporary soloists including the likes of Marvin Stamm, Alex Sipiagin, Dave Leibman, Kenny Ramtpon, Larry Schneider, Donny McCaslin ( before the discovered Bowie!) and, in earlier days, the likes of Joe Henderson, Kenny Wheeler, Elvin Jones, etc. Stylistically he was always coming out of the contemporary mainstream yet always doing something different with the music, whether his own originals, jazz standards by the likes of Ornette and Henderson or originals written by his sidemen. I have always had the impression that these bands were convened especially for the European Jazz festival circuit and you can understand that the charts must have been created either to show off his soloists or else to provide crowd-pleasers such as the famous tune "Mexacali pose" which is featured in this concert 14 and a half minutes in. As ever , the music is brimming with humour which masks the kind of adventurous approach he took with mainstream big band writing.

[Ian Thumwood]

This band is even better featuring Elvin Jones on drums and some pretty impressive faces in the line up. It is a veritable who's who of jazz in the 1990s including a comgination of musicians you might have considered incompatible