What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Joseph K]

John Coltrane - Ascension (edition 2)

Recorded on this day in 1965.

[Ian Thumwood]

SA

I have been mulling over some of your comments regarding Classical composers as I have been listening to quite a lot of Syzmanowski of late. At the moment I am going through the Violin concerti but it is the piano works which have really caught my ear. His sound world seems to stretch out from Chopin and there is an illusion of Romanticism whilst being quite disonant when you listen closely. The more I listen, the more impressed I have been. Wondered of you had the 4 CD set by Martin Roscoe where a wide range of the piano music is covered ? I was impressed enough to order two of his pieces, the Opus 1 Preludes and an Opus 3 theme and variation. I have been looking at the first Prelude which I can sight read but lose the ability to play again if I leave for a few days! They are interesting and not too removed from Scriabin although the themes are not quite so strong. What I have listened to is giving me an impression that Syzmanowski is seriously under-valued. I much prefer this kind of "modernism" to the 12 tone stuff which, I regret, leaves me cold. I wa getting the same impression with Enescu - another composer who deserves more kudos.


The other composer I have checked out is Villa-Lobos. I like his music but I am not sure my perception is quite as high as your's. I bought an 18 piece volume of his piano work and this ranges from the almost child-like to stuff where I am struggling to understand the time signatures and notation. It does not help that the printing quality is absolute rubbish. One of the pieces is in 14/8 and split up in to sub-bar lines. I do not recall ever seeing any notation like this before. All in all, I think that the music sounds fun yet I am not convinced that he is on a par with the likes of Debussy, Scriabin, Syzmanowski. I do think he is much better than another maverick like Satie yet reading the music simply makes me think he is either amazing difficult or music for children. He is interesting but it is evident that the piano was not his first instrument.

I would be curious to hear what stuff you have attempted to play. My sight reading is dreadful and I have no technique whatsoever. Basically all I have is my curioisty for this stuff. What innterests me about Villa-Lobos and (to an extent) Satie is that there is something of popular, cafe music about their works which would otherwise be frowned upon within jazz. Maybe corny is too strong a word for it There as an interesting comment on line that I read about the Spanish composer Mompou and how , in a blindfold test, he could be mistaken for Keith Jarrett. I did start to listen to some Mompou on Youtube which helpfully included the notation. This begs the question about simplicity in music and at which point and for what reasons does it change from demonstrating the "essence" of something and being profound as opposed to be merely pretty and lightweight ? The alternative argument of music being good because it is complxz does not hold water. Back in the 1950s the Cool school of players seemed to follow a more simplistic route having been inspired by Lester Young. This is a lot in the argument that "less is more" as is demonstrated by artists as diverse as Basie, Monk, Miles and Jarrett but listening to the latest Joe Lovano record as well as Villa-Lobos, Satie and Mompou i am beginning to think that some more simplistic muisc comes across as shallow as opposed to profound. There is so little to hang your hat on with this music that you could argue a case for both.

[teamsaint]

More Dave Brubeck. Just can’t get enough of his music right now. Completely fallen for it.

Currently: Jazz Impressions of New York.

Recently , lots of stuff like Time Further Out. They/ he just make their constructs sound so effortless.

[Tenor Freak]

Sonny Stitt and Bud Powell - "Bud's Blues"

[Tenor Freak]

Francy Boland & Kenny Clarke et ses Big Band live from Ronnie's - would have loved to have been there but I was only a toddler:

[Serial_Apologist]

Francy Boland & Kenny Clarke et ses Big Band live from Ronnie's - would have loved to have been there but I was only a toddler:

The even better track that follows is "Volcano" by the same band. I remember that being played on radio at the time; I even have it on tape. The programme also had "Venture Inward" by Andrew Hill and "Tout de Suite" from Miles's "Filles de Killiamnjaro" _ Peter Claytong saying they would, unusually for that programme, be playing the entire 14 minutes as it was so good.

[Jazzrook]

Freddie Hubbard with James Spaulding, Ronnie Mathews, Eddie Khan & Joe Chambers playing 'D Minor Mint' from "Breaking Point!" in 1964:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=j2M-JjOg7Yk

JR

[Ian Thumwood]

The even better track that follows is "Volcano" by the same band. I remember that being played on radio at the time; I even have it on tape. The programme also had "Venture Inward" by Andrew Hill and "Tout de Suite" from Miles's "Filles de Killiamnjaro" _ Peter Claytong saying they would, unusually for that programme, be playing the entire 14 minutes as it was so good.

Picking up from Bruce's comment. Francy Boland / Kenny Clark big band was an orchestra which was around about 15 years after i was getting in to jazz and, being somewhat obsessed by big bands, it had a kind of cache about it that reflected the fact that so many of the great jazz orchestras had long since ceased to be relevant. I used to have the album "Doin' time" which I loved. When I was getting in to jazz , this was a band which was still broadly seen as "contemporary" and was perhaps only matched by the Thad Jones- Mel Lewis Big band and Buddy Rich's outfit. It is difficult to imagine what the state of big band jazz was like back then. Theey were few and far between, those that existed often trying to embrace rock in an attempt to remain relevant. I am surprised that the FB / KC band does not enjoy a cult status. The line -up was exceptional and the arrangements locked in to an aggressive form of swing /be-bop which suggested indifference to what was in vogue at the time.

It is funny how a lot of 1970's jazz is now fondly remembered whereas the jazz mainstream really hit the buffers at that time. I think that mainstream jazz has rarely been so ill-served as in the 1970s even if it is not difficult to see parallels with what is happening now. I am far from convinced that a lot of jazz in 2020's will fair any better. That said. I have been enjoying Gil Evans' "Plays the music of Gil Evans." It is difficult to call the music "fusion" as it was pretty much the total embracing of Hendrix' rock ethos. This is an album which has a pretty poor reputation and only features three GE arrangement on the whole disc. I find later Gil Evans problematic as the band increasingly became large ensemble jam sessions. On the Hendrix album, there are moments when this seems the case yet there are elements where the tuba is scrored at stratospheric levels on tracks like "Foxey lady" where the arrangement seems totally appropriate. Tom Malones' "Angel" remains the most impressive arrangement . i can appreciate why this disc has it's detratractors yet it must have caused shockwaves at the time.

[Joseph K]

Another new release and purchase, Kurt Rosenwinkel - Undercover: Live At The Village Vanguard

This again. This tune caught my ear this time, in all its post-boppy glory...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmoTfET79wg

[Joseph K]

Abercrombie/Holland/DeJohnette - Gateway

[elmo]

Have we lost Stanfordian? its ages since he posted on this bored. I miss his daily choices. I know he likes Ike Quebec, so here is "Cool Blues with Sonny Clark and Grant Green to tempt him back.

https://youtu.be/LeGOLYQc6mU

elmo

[Serial_Apologist]

Have we lost Stanfordian? its ages since he posted on this bored. I miss his daily choices. I know he likes Ike Quebec, so here is "Cool Blues with Sonny Clark and Grant Green to tempt him back.

https://youtu.be/LeGOLYQc6mU

elmo

Seems to be more and more in exile over on the classical threads nowadays. Something of an opera buff, our Stan.

[Joseph K]

Jim Hall - Good Friday Blues

[Jazzrook]

Seems to be more and more in exile over on the classical threads nowadays. Something of an opera buff, our Stan.

There can't be many opera buffs who also have fantastic jazz collections.

JR

[Ian Thumwood]

There can't be many opera buffs who also have fantastic jazz collections.

JR

I have to admit that I usually cannot stand opera. For me, the mixture of music and theatre does seem to distract from the other. However, there are composers like Janacek whose incidental music for operas are really impressive. I have a DVD at home of his "Cunning little vixen" which is an animated film with an introduction by Sir David Attenborough which I think works really well. Other than that, there have been albus like "Westbrook / Rossini" which offer a really fun account of operatice work and in a format which is highly original. I have always liked that album.

I have been giving the new Joe Lovano album another play through this week. The music is supposed to have been freely improvised although the opening track is based on a tone row. My initial response to hearing this record was that the approach reminded me somewhat of Paul Motian's trio. Having listened to this record for the last few weeks, it is clear that perception was wrong. I love Lovano's playing yet, despite the "outside" credentials, this is a record that I think is really conservative. SA commented last week about the powers of free improvisation being unprecedented due to the open possiblities of the format. The Trio Tapestry set offers another perspective in that this music now has any many cliches as other forms of jazz. Usually I love jazz that is thoughtful and intelligent with the players listening and responding attentively to each other. This record just strikes me as demonstrating that what might have appeared "hip" in the 1980s may no lomnger be the case.


The likes of Richard and SA may be intrigued by the new Tyshawn Sorey trio record which features pianist Aaron Diehl and bassist Matt Brewer. I have to say that I have been really hostile toeard's this pianists' ,music in the past having heard his perform live where he came across as an arch-conservative and less impressive than some of the British jazz pianists I have heard. It looks like Sorey's new trio is dipping it's toes in to the "jazz tradition" and the results by this drummer / classical composer are getting some really ppsitive reviews. Two studio albums and a live triple CD (with Greg Osby) have been released so far and I am seriously tempted by this music which sees jazz standards deconstructed and re-assembled. Sorey is a musician who gets little attention in here but the reviews are suggestive of a group that is breathing fresh life into a hithero- hackneyed format. Time to reappraise Diehl in light of his recently acquired avant credentials ??