What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Ian Thumwood]

I have been listening to the Hampton Hawes album "Four"" which featueres another guitar playing contemporary of Jimmy Raney, Barney Kessel. The best partnership with a guitarist Hawes had was with Jim Hall. I have to admit I have never been enthused by Barney Kessel's playing. When I got into listening to jazz in the 1980s, Kessel was enjoying a reputation playing with "Great Guitars", a quintet that also featured Herb Ellis and Charlie Byrd. The premise was that this group featured three of the finist jazz guitarists in Modern Jazz. This was a favourite group of my Dad's but I could never understand why Kessel was so venerated. Whilst "Four" has a good reputation, I think that Hawes is far better where he is unincumbered by the 4/4 chug of a guitar and is more compelling when he plays looser with the rhythm. Hawes was a really hard swinging player and the coupling with Kessel seems intriguing nowadays. Perhaps in the mid 50s, the electricla guitar still sounded radical? Listening today, I find Kessel's phrasing to be the exact opposite of Hawes insofar that it sounds quite stiff and unswinging. Kessel never seemed to lose that stilted method of phrasing and I have never felt that his reputation was justified. I have to say the same about Raney who is more relaxed yet still anondyne . For me, the guitarists like Kessel, Ellis, Raney and Farlow are all of an era. Byrd seemed unique is trying to bring acoustic jazz in to modern jazz yet I can remember reading a blindfold test with Ralph Towner where he said he had felt guilty about being critical of Byrd's technique when he learned that the older player had been in awe of Towner. I would argue that most blues guitarists of that era were more fluid soloists than their jazz counterparts in the 1950s.

[Joseph K]

I have been listening to the Hampton Hawes album "Four"" which featueres another guitar playing contemporary of Jimmy Raney, Barney Kessel. The best partnership with a guitarist Hawes had was with Jim Hall. I have to admit I have never been enthused by Barney Kessel's playing. When I got into listening to jazz in the 1980s, Kessel was enjoying a reputation playing with "Great Guitars", a quintet that also featured Herb Ellis and Charlie Byrd. The premise was that this group featured three of the finist jazz guitarists in Modern Jazz. This was a favourite group of my Dad's but I could never understand why Kessel was so venerated. Whilst "Four" has a good reputation, I think that Hawes is far better where he is unincumbered by the 4/4 chug of a guitar and is more compelling when he plays looser with the rhythm. Hawes was a really hard swinging player and the coupling with Kessel seems intriguing nowadays. Perhaps in the mid 50s, the electricla guitar still sounded radical? Listening today, I find Kessel's phrasing to be the exact opposite of Hawes insofar that it sounds quite stiff and unswinging. Kessel never seemed to lose that stilted method of phrasing and I have never felt that his reputation was justified. I have to say the same about Raney who is more relaxed yet still anondyne . For me, the guitarists like Kessel, Ellis, Raney and Farlow are all of an era. Byrd seemed unique is trying to bring acoustic jazz in to modern jazz yet I can remember reading a blindfold test with Ralph Towner where he said he had felt guilty about being critical of Byrd's technique when he learned that the older player had been in awe of Towner. I would argue that most blues guitarists of that era were more fluid soloists than their jazz counterparts in the 1950s.

Kessel sounds alright here IMO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F22y1pHsCdo

To be honest I'd be lying if I said I didn't find some of the Raney I listened to yesterday sort of generic. Not bad, but not great. I thought perhaps I am spoilt by being used to the first great quintet of Miles Davis from that same era, which of course is awesome.

I personally prefer Tal Farlow to what I've heard of Raney, e.g. -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB_9CA7G9vk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLV5aWyLx6o

Perhaps the rhythm sections aren't as good as the Miles quintet though? Not as hard-swinging or sophisticated.

But we have to wait until Wes comes along, from what I know, before you get a guitarist worthy of the likes of Miles, Coltrane, Rollins etc. And even then, I would argue, if it's fluidity you're after, one would have to wait for Holdsworth to appear on the scene.

[Ian Thumwood]

From the era of 50s / 60's, the standout guitarists are Wes, Kenny Burrell , Jim Hall and Grant Green in my opinion. Technically, Joe Pass was probably the best of the bunch. I feel that jazz guitar only started to get interesting in the 60s with players such as George Benson, John McLaughlin, Pat Martino and Gabor Szarbo. After the advent of Hendrix, I feel the instrument started to come in to it's own with bandleaders like Miles and Chico Hamilton encouraging this. Probably not sensible to discount the impact of the "British Invasion" too.

I think the advantage players like Holdsworth had was the use of better technology. So many players these days have benefitted from this whether you are talking about Bill Frisell, Pat Metheny , John Scofield or John Abercrombie. I feel that Abercrombie probably comes more out of the "tradition" than the others and in a more orthodox situation, I just feel that the likes of Raney, Kessel and Farlow never really took the guitar that much beyond what Christian was doing. None of them shared that level of attack as Christian nor swung as hard. Getting into jazz in the early 80s, Kessel was a player I was really aware of through by Dad's records and especially with the group Great Guitars. I was never really appreciative of Holdsworth at that time whereas the paucity of jazz guitarists in the 50s and 60s plus the high profile of labels like Concord that my Dad was into seemed to trust Kessel in to the forefront in my mind. On top pf this, Kessel seemed to crop up as the "go to" guitar player on West Coasts sessions. This is a musician who was voted as best jazz guitarist throughout 1957 -60 in numerous polls as well as working with musicians like Charlie Parker and Sonny Rollins. i don't doubt that he was one of the best jazz guitarists around prior to 1960 as well as being sufficiently equipped technically to have a parallel career working in the studios. The issue for me is that the bar for jazz guitar has been raised much higher since then. If you listen to some of the contemporary players Peter Bernstein or Russell Malone who are working in the same sphere was Kessel, there is a massive gulf with what these players can do in comparison with Kessel. In addition, I am not sure that the people listening to Kessel at that time I was discovering jazz would have been aware of Holdsworth. He is certainly someone I had not heard until you started to post his tracks.

[Joseph K]

I've mentioned this before, but this is special even by Coltrane's exalted standards. His tone is especially radiant and his playing is far-out and sublime to an extent that is far beyond any kind of description...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw21XGhliwQ

[Stanfordian]

‘The Sidewinder’ – Lee Morgan
with Joe Henderson, Barry Harris, Bob Cranshaw & Billy Higgins
Blue Note (1963)

[JasonPalmer]

I mainly listen to radio 3 jazz programs but run away to my cd collection and noticed I have a fair few jazz collections so will give them a whirl.

[Serial_Apologist]

I've mentioned this before, but this is special even by Coltrane's exalted standards. His tone is especially radiant and his playing is far-out and sublime to an extent that is far beyond any kind of description...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw21XGhliwQ

"And so, we end with the jazz of today. For the jazz of tomorrow we look forward to Newport Jazz in 1964"

Interesting to have Roy Haynes sitting in for Elvin on this date - he had some way to go to be the true giant he would become, and in any case seems unsuitable for the energy levels demanded by this particular group, though from the inspiration demonstrated here the remaining three would seem to have garnered a pre-existing head of steam sufficient to take them through anything, the end of the world included!

[Joseph K]

I think Haynes does well there.

[Joseph K]

John Coltrane - My Favorite Things

[Joseph K]

I'm listening to the abovementioned Coltrane at Newport disk - this time the actual CD rather than just the 'Impressions' via youtube...

[Joseph K]

Bill Evans Trio - Sunday at the Village Vanguard

[Keraulophone]

I've mentioned this before, but this is special even by Coltrane's exalted standards.

I'm pretty ignorant about jazz, though I'd like to become more familiar with the genre. I used to show off to friends at prep school with frantic boogie-woogie that a lodger had taught me, and I much enjoyed the (rather loud) jazz concerts at the school where I taught for thirty years. I noticed in My culture fix: Nile Rodgers in yesterday's Times that his 'Album I’m hooked on' was by JC:

'Last year my manager gave me John Coltrane’s complete works and I’m in love with it. I absolutely love, and cannot live without, John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme album. It completely turned my life around when I was a child, and to this day it still sounds incredible every time I hear it.'

I will investigate. Meanwhile, a jazz-loving friend sent me a link to an Erroll Garner session - https://youtu.be/UYS1QMorSxg - where the bass player hasn't a clue when to begin due to Garner's initial musings. I love this instictive piano playing - truly amazing. When I discovered that he wrote Misty, I couldn't get enough of this - https://youtu.be/P_tAU3GM9XI - which led me to this album, currently in my CD player:



Lovely sounds coming from my tube amp into Quad 57s.

[Joseph K]

Thanks for the tips, Keraulophone.

I love A Love Supreme though primarily the live version from Antibes, which is how I got to know it and which I listen to much more often than the studio version. Coltrane stretches out more and plays more exuberantly, in a more out and space-bop type of style.

[Jazzrook]

Miles Davis with Lester Young & the MJQ, European tour, 1956:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=s6kgN8kF-Cw

JR

[JasonPalmer]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Simply-Jazz-Various-Artists/dp/B0002BPIPO

Jazzing the blues, unsure what disc that is but enjoyable background music.

Edit ... is disc 2 ... trying a cut and paste from amazon listing of disc 2

1 Lester Young - Jump Lester Jump
2 Jimmy Rushing - Jimmy's Round The Clock Blues
3 Illinois Jacquet - Illinois Goes To Chicago
4 Helen Humes - Airplane Blues
5 Paul Williams - The Hucklebuck
6 Tiny Bradshaw - Take The Hands Off The Clock
7 Hal Singer - Cornbread
8 Gatemouth Moore - I Ain't Mad At You, Pretty Baby
9 Otis Spann - This Is The Blues
10 Joe Williams - Everyday I Have The Blues
11 Big Jay McNeely - Pink Champagne
12 Jaki Byard - Pete And Thomas
13 Harold Land - Swingin' On Savoy
14 Doc Pomus - My Good Pott
15 Pete Johnson - Atomic Boogie
16 Tommy Brown - V8 Baby
17 Jack McDuff - Walkin' The Dog