What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Ian Thumwood]

I never dreamed I would see Bruckner's name come up on the jazz bored!!!

SA

I have to own up to the fact that I have probably been listening to more Classical music this year than jazz. In fact, the only gig I have been to this year was to hear Beethoven No, 5 and Bartok;s "Concerto for Orchestra" which I feel are both very much of the same stature. (Unimpressed by a Mozart piano concerto , though. ) Both are milestones in human artistic endeavour. Classical music has always been in the background for me but it usually appertains to those composers who have had a bearing on jazz. I collared my Mum's classical CD collection and shifted out the discs that did not interest me . I did buy her Haintink's version of Symphony No, 3 many years ago as I was blown away by how great it sounded on a Saturday morning review on Radio 3. This CD was very much a keeper. It did get me thinking about composers who have no bearing on jazz. Usually I hate German classical music that came after Beethoven as I find a lot of the music from this country from the mid 1800s through to the 20th century to be too dark. Bruckner sounds interesting to me because I can hear so much Beethoven in his writing. I also like NO, 4 but Sympony No, 3 is my favourite. It has that stately-ness and sense of purpose about it that makes Beethoven appealing in contrast to the likes of Schumann, Mendhelsson or Brahms who all leave me cold. He is also more modest than Wagner and I quite like that in the same way that I am happier to listen to Hadyn than Mozart. The ego thing with Wagner and Mozart is a real barrier for me.

It is still fun exploring Classical music but your post is suggestive that you are not a Bruckner fan. He seems to get a lot of short thrift from many classical fans and critics as well. I am intrigued by this as the tone of your post is suggestive you feel the same way too, as if he lacked credibility. At the moment I have returned to Classical music and broadened my palette. Over thr last six month I have listened to loads of Scriabin, Janacek, Chopin and especially Field too. I have also been struggling to try to read some of this stuff as well. The Scriabin is unplayable but I have enjoyed picking out the chords as far as my hands will allow . Some of the Chopin is too difficult for me too so I have "downgraded" to Field who is yet another composer totally ignored by most jazz fans. Not all the music I have been checking out has been good. I am still underwhelmed by Martinu whose music is really Neo-Classical and a bit tame after Janacek. The one disc of his work that I have includes the Harpsichord Concerto and much of it is not memorable although I like the Charleston from the ballet suite about kitchen utensils. I have got a CD of his cello concerti on order after I read an online review and this may make me review my opinion. Off to the Anvil for some Janacek and Martinu in October.

I have to say that I am finding Classical music a lot more interesting than jazz at the moment. It is fascinating how some composer's music works and the reputations they enjoy perhaps being contrary to my perceptions. I am finding an intensity in Scriabin's piano which has parallels with Coltrane whereas Field seems to me to be unfairly over-looked by the jazz community. I was wondering what Jazzrook thought about the Janacek piano music CD he ordered? I am addicted to it and bought the music for "In the mists." Some of it is physically challenging although a lot is not too bad - it is just that the notation is difficult to understand sometimes.

Also been delving in to Baroque music and Erica Rana's exceptional "Goldberg Variations" - fantastic to listen to this CD and hear what the music should sound like. The last few evenings I have been playing Scarlatti which is pretty rudimentary but great fun to sight read. For fun, you could tick these musicians off as being jazz influencers or having no bearing on jazz. In the past, I would have been less inclined to listen to the latter and mainly concetrated on early 20th century which was something of a high point. I have probably changed my view in the last 6 months and happy to accommodate Bruckner! Playing Scarlatti is like putting WD40 on your fingers when you practice.

[Bryn]

Yes, I wonder what my neighbours must think when I've played something that I would imagine might elicit a WTF sort of reaction e.g. something by Xenakis or Barrett or Birtwistle loudly. I have no idea how much if at all sound permeates the walls to the next-door-neighbours, but I never hear much coming from them (the pop music this afternoon was coming from adjacent neighbours, who from time to time will also produce marijuana smells). We did have antisocial next-door-neighbours ten or more years ago but not so any more, fortunately. It's nice that you like where you live, SA.

Agreed. I am fortunate in having very good neighbours, too. Such has not always been the case with previous neighbours.

[Stanfordian]

‘South Side Soul’ – The John Wright Trio
John Wright with Wendell Roberts & Walter McCants
Prestige (1960)

[Serial_Apologist]

Agreed. I am fortunate in having very good neighbours, too. Such has not always been the case with previous neighbours.

One flat I was in, my downstairs neighbours complained about my music being too loud, and thereafter never seemed satisfied however low I turned the volume. They then turned to my TV - this was in the days before headphones. In the end I was forced to watch TV sat on the floor at a foot's distance, barely able to make out what was being said! I would always have to check if they were in before switching on. I celebrated their moving out after two years with a half bottle of bubbly! One just has to make mutual allowances: I'm quite happy for my neighbours and their devices to be audible -barring prolonged DIY, particularly using electric drills! - so long as I can have my own on loud enough to drown out theirs!

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

The only (recent) times I had a complaint (a lot before) is when I bought the box set of Monk's Quintet music for "Les liaisons dangereuses - much recommended. The track "Light Blue"has about eight takes of just the opening because Monk insisted Art Taylor play a ludicrous drum figure against the time. Much sarcasm back and forth with Art and TM, this awful drum thing over and over, and eventually my neighbor banging on the door. I blame Thelonious.

[Serial_Apologist]

SA

I have to own up to the fact that I have probably been listening to more Classical music this year than jazz. In fact, the only gig I have been to this year was to hear Beethoven No, 5 and Bartok;s "Concerto for Orchestra" which I feel are both very much of the same stature. (Unimpressed by a Mozart piano concerto , though. ) Both are milestones in human artistic endeavour. Classical music has always been in the background for me but it usually appertains to those composers who have had a bearing on jazz. I collared my Mum's classical CD collection and shifted out the discs that did not interest me . I did buy her Haintink's version of Symphony No, 3 many years ago as I was blown away by how great it sounded on a Saturday morning review on Radio 3. This CD was very much a keeper. It did get me thinking about composers who have no bearing on jazz. Usually I hate German classical music that came after Beethoven as I find a lot of the music from this country from the mid 1800s through to the 20th century to be too dark. Bruckner sounds interesting to me because I can hear so much Beethoven in his writing. I also like NO, 4 but Sympony No, 3 is my favourite. It has that stately-ness and sense of purpose about it that makes Beethoven appealing in contrast to the likes of Schumann, Mendhelsson or Brahms who all leave me cold. He is also more modest than Wagner and I quite like that in the same way that I am happier to listen to Hadyn than Mozart. The ego thing with Wagner and Mozart is a real barrier for me.

It is still fun exploring Classical music but your post is suggestive that you are not a Bruckner fan. He seems to get a lot of short thrift from many classical fans and critics as well. I am intrigued by this as the tone of your post is suggestive you feel the same way too, as if he lacked credibility. At the moment I have returned to Classical music and broadened my palette. Over thr last six month I have listened to loads of Scriabin, Janacek, Chopin and especially Field too. I have also been struggling to try to read some of this stuff as well. The Scriabin is unplayable but I have enjoyed picking out the chords as far as my hands will allow . Some of the Chopin is too difficult for me too so I have "downgraded" to Field who is yet another composer totally ignored by most jazz fans. Not all the music I have been checking out has been good. I am still underwhelmed by Martinu whose music is really Neo-Classical and a bit tame after Janacek. The one disc of his work that I have includes the Harpsichord Concerto and much of it is not memorable although I like the Charleston from the ballet suite about kitchen utensils. I have got a CD of his cello concerti on order after I read an online review and this may make me review my opinion. Off to the Anvil for some Janacek and Martinu in October.

I have to say that I am finding Classical music a lot more interesting than jazz at the moment. It is fascinating how some composer's music works and the reputations they enjoy perhaps being contrary to my perceptions. I am finding an intensity in Scriabin's piano which has parallels with Coltrane whereas Field seems to me to be unfairly over-looked by the jazz community. I was wondering what Jazzrook thought about the Janacek piano music CD he ordered? I am addicted to it and bought the music for "In the mists." Some of it is physically challenging although a lot is not too bad - it is just that the notation is difficult to understand sometimes.

Also been delving in to Baroque music and Erica Rana's exceptional "Goldberg Variations" - fantastic to listen to this CD and hear what the music should sound like. The last few evenings I have been playing Scarlatti which is pretty rudimentary but great fun to sight read. For fun, you could tick these musicians off as being jazz influencers or having no bearing on jazz. In the past, I would have been less inclined to listen to the latter and mainly concetrated on early 20th century which was something of a high point. I have probably changed my view in the last 6 months and happy to accommodate Bruckner! Playing Scarlatti is like putting WD40 on your fingers when you practice.

We nearly all sometimes stray slightly off jazz on this sub-forum, and it's always interesting to find out what posters' other musical interests are and whether or not we coincide. I was effectively brought up on the classics, particularly early Romantics, as my mother was a fine pianist with Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin and Brahms as her favourites. The only thing Dad could play without slipping up was "Good King Wenceslas"! - but his tastes were rather wider than Mum's and included one or two "moderns", though not extending as far as the Second Viennese School or the post-WW2 avant-garde. School wasn't much better, not stretching "music appreciation" far beyond the usual suspects - Rossini overtures, Rimsky's Sheherezade, the English Choral tradition for "chapel" and mostly standard fare for the annual choral concert, eg Verdi's Requiem, Bach's St Luke Passion, Handel's Messiah. Anything more "adventurous", ie before 1650 or after 1910, along with jazz, were not mentioned or encouraged until reaching the Sixth form. Anything picked up before that was self-taught - a useful lesson which has stood the test of my whole life since! This all sounds familiar from what composers such as Peter Maxwell Davies and Harrison Birtwistle have said about formal music education in this country in the 1950s. So through my later school years I had a self-taught education in parallel, on the one hand familiarising myself with Trad, then Mainstream, and then "modern jazz" up to Ornette and Coleman, and on the other Stravinsky, Bartok and eventually Schoenberg and the 12-tone music that was still mainstream in vogue among many composers including the ageing Stravinsky. And I guess it's continued that way to this day, although nowadays I find less that is of personal interest in contemporary classical than in jazz and broadly relating musics. If I listen to, say, a work by Brahms or Mahler I tend to appreciate it in relationship with later music I appreciate more, rather than in its own right - looking in it for potentials subsequent composers would take further. I'm not sure to what extent my tendency with advancing years to hark back to music I was passionate about in my teens and 20s is typical of my age group.

[Joseph K]

I haven't bought this album... yet.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Mose Allison, "Gotham Day" from what must be one of his least known early-ish albums, "Transfiguration of Hirum Brown" on Columbia. It's mostly a suite with some additional vocal tracks. I've been listening to a lot of Mose lately, particularly the piano tracks, uniformly great, and it's a shame this aspect is so overlooked. I wonder how many could get this blindfold?

http://youtu.be/tXzjmT82NNQ

[Serial_Apologist]

Mose Allison, "Gotham Day" from what must be one of his least known early-ish albums, "Transfiguration of Hirum Brown" on Columbia. It's mostly a suite with some additional vocal tracks. I've been listening to a lot of Mose lately, particularly the piano tracks, uniformly great, and it's a shame this aspect is so overlooked. I wonder how many could get this blindfold?

http://youtu.be/tXzjmT82NNQ

Georgie Fame was a big Mose fan in his early days, & could do a good sardonic imitation of him, with additional nasality.

[elmo]

I wanted to attach the Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden version of Bud's 'Dance of the Infidels' but it doesn't appear to be on Youtube, shame its a great track. Buds version with Bird, Mingus and Art Taylor though can't be bad as a sub.

https://youtu.be/29Nah1qQkNY

elmo

[Joseph K]

I wanted to attach the Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden version of Bud's 'Dance of the Infidels' but it doesn't appear to be on Youtube, shame its a great track. Buds version with Bird, Mingus and Art Taylor though can't be bad as a sub.

https://youtu.be/29Nah1qQkNY

elmo

Happy birthday Bird!

[Jazzrook]

The melancholy sound of Booker Little with Wynton Kelly, Scott LaFaro & Roy Haynes playing 'Bee Tee's Minor Plea' in 1960:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=pJo9c7u_Fi0

JR

[Stanfordian]

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

[elmo]

I'm currently picking out tracks featuring the pianist Gil Coggins who was highly rated by his fellow musicians but never seemed to get many breaks. Here he is with Ray Draper's band playing Rollins 'Paul's Pal' with a fine Coltrane solo and excellent Coggins. He made a couple of trio records late in life but little from the period he was lauded by the likes of Miles and Horace Silver.

https://youtu.be/2vLZ-eESei0

elmo

[Stanfordian]

'Bluesy Burrell' – Kenny Burrell & Coleman Hawkins
with Tommy Flanagan, Major Holley, Eddie Locke & Ray Barretto
Moodsville (1962)