What Jazz are you listening to now?

[MrGongGong]

Gigi Gryce with Mickey Roker, Richard Gene Williams, Richard Rylands & Reggie Workman
‘The Hap'nin's’
New Jazz (1960)

What software did you use to speed up the Brahms quartets ?
It appears that they only lasted 2 minutes (plus the other things you were listening to "now")

[Stanfordian]

What software did you use to speed up the Brahms quartets ?
It appears that they only lasted 2 minutes (plus the other things you were listening to "now")

I certainly don't take the title of this thread literally. I always choose my CDs usually in the morning to play during the day or more likely jazz in the evening. I hope that satisfies your quest for info on my personal listening habits.

[Jazzrook]

Alice Coltrane's 'Translinear Light' with Ravi Coltrane, Charlie Haden & Jack DeJohnette:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waLNd3VZdZE

JR

[Stanfordian]

Ben Webster with Hank Jones, Roger Kellaway, Richard Davis & Osie Johnson
'See You at the Fair' with 3 extra tracks
Impulse (1964)
For later this evening.

[Jazzrook]

John Coltrane's 'Bahia' from 1958 with Red Garland, Paul Chambers & Art Taylor.
A lot of neglected gems among those PRESTIGE recordings!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIkT3CyT5Dk

JR

[Stanfordian]

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

[Serial_Apologist]

Alice Coltrane's 'Translinear Light' with Ravi Coltrane, Charlie Haden & Jack DeJohnette:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waLNd3VZdZE

JR

That's a fantastic album! - I tend to prefer Ms Coltrane on joanna, where she was more expansive and taking risks, to her harping on in perennial pentatonics!

[Ian Thumwood]

I've been listening to Taylor Ho Bynum's "Enter the plus-tet" which is an "improvising big band" featuring a stellar cast of musicians such as Steve Swell, Mary Halvorson, Tomeka Ried, Nate Wooley, Jay Hoggard, Ingrid Laubrok and Thomas Fujiwara. This is a truly mouth-watering line up, only Laubrok being for me a musician who disappoints. Ho Bynum ( and a number of the other musicians) have been staples of recent Anthony Braxton projects and he is cited as an inspiration in the sleeve notes as well as Prince!

I would have to say that the results are less than impressive and the review that I had read was way too enthusiastic. (Typical All about Jazz.) To my ears these larger ensembles in this type of music fall down in two areas. The fist is that, in comparison with more orthodox big bands ( and this means anything from Fletcher Henderson through to Darcy James Argue) the writing is often pretty hopeless. In this case the scores must have been quite limited and the orchestration is frequently muddy. In fact, the written or more straight ahead elements are the best thing about this disc but , like so many of these "free improvisation compositions, the material is wafer thin, complex motives being based on 8-bar structures or, in this case, a blues. I was really disappointed in this as there are no really decent themes and whatever melodic content there is, it is pretty basis. The other problem is that the group is too large to allow the soloists in shine in the brief window they get. As much as I love the work of many of these soloists, hidden within a big band they doesn't get the chance to stretch out.

It is an interesting experience but, when you can hear bands like Satoko Fujii's blowing the roof off or compare the opening track which does sound similar to an early Michael Mantler Jazz Composer's Orchestra arrangement, this band does not measure up in my opinion. Of course, taking a more "open" approach to large ensembles does tend to produce stereotypical results with the violin, cello scratching out single tonalities, mutes applied to brass en masse to "explore tonality" and sax solos which tend to be very, very predictable. I was pretty underwhelmed by this disc on first listen. It is not "unlistenable" but nowhere near as good as a lot of other contemporary arrangers. For example, the whole result seems pretty amateur in comparison with someone like Maria Schneider and maybe suggestive that some of these more composed works demonstrate that the avant garde is as clichéd as any Trad outfit or Benny Goodman tribute band. The avant garde scene at the moment ( especially from Chicago) is more interesting than a lot of other jazz at the moment but this record demonstrates that it is not always good.

Wonder if anyone else had heard this record?

[Stunsworth]

Bill Evans: Trio 64

From this box...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/tn0/5-Original-Albums-Bill-Evans/B019GAUPR2/ref=sr_1_8?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1489335907&sr=1-8&keywords=bill+evans

Great playing and stunning recording.

[Ian Thumwood]

Bill Evans: Trio 64

From this box...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/tn0/5-Original-Albums-Bill-Evans/B019GAUPR2/ref=sr_1_8?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1489335907&sr=1-8&keywords=bill+evans

Great playing and stunning recording.

Steve

One of the first Bill Evans albums I heard was "A simple matter of conviction" and this made a huge impression on me when I first heard it. It is not a record that I have heard for ages but the Verve-era Evans records were not considered to be amongst his finest. I find Verve to be quite a conservative record label and their best output always seemed to be by the older generation of musicians like Krupa, Herman and Ellington whereas the efforts to sound "contemporary" always seemed like a massive compromise with more commercial material. From recollection, "Conviction" had quite an edge to it but I am not too familiar with the other releases as have only heard selections of these records and they always struck me as a bit tame.

[Ian Thumwood]

I think this is the kind of big band that SA might enjoy.

The music of Satoko Fujji seems really hard to lay your hands on. Here is one of her arrangements played by a Canadian big band but she has her own orchestras based in the State, Japan and Berlin. You can also find some videos of her leading a band in Perth in Australia. For me, her bands blend the traditional with the more outside elements of jazz and Japanese music without losing any integrity. Can't understand why she seems so unknown / unappreciated.

[Stunsworth]

Ian, I can understand what you mean about conservative. However I'm listening to the Live in Montreux album from the set and loving it. At around £12 for 5 well packaged CDs it's proving to be a steal.

The only album I've not greatly enjoyed so far is the one of him playing overdubbed duets.

[Ian Thumwood]

There is also a beautiful side to her music as well:-

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks Ian - the first track was wonderfully unladylike, but I didn't anything of interest in the second other than the fact that it was quite different in idiom from the first. Perhaps this would all make more sense in a broader context.

[Jazzrook]

Duke Ellington & His Orchestra playing Charles Mingus's 'The Clown' in 1969:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg829iLb8Cg

JR