What Jazz are you listening to now?

[teamsaint]

Dave Brubeck.
Time In.

First listen , very impressive.

[Tenor Freak]

The WNUR stream from Northwestern U. in Evanston, Illinois, USA. I was a bit worried that the music being played when I first tuned in signalled a change to a much more conservative policy, but it's just past the top of the hour and they're back to normal with some skronk from the NRG Ensemble with Ken Vandermark. It's some sort of holiday over there today so they're on pre-recorded shows, it seems.

https://wnur.northwestern.edu/stream/

[Joseph K]

Paul Desmond - First Time Again

Featuring Jim Hall.

[Ian Thumwood]

I have been listening to the second 2 CD Avid collection of Hampton Hawes discs which includes the rcord "For Real" that has Harold Land on tenor. Hawes has always been a pianist I have loved and another player capable of putting an individual spin on Bud Powell's influence. The trio sets on this collection are good but reflect the tastes of the times with a mixture of standards, ad- lib blues, contra-facts and some Bop classics. Not sure that this approach would be sophisticated enough for some contemporary listeners and the approach is far less radical than Hawes' contemporaries such as Monk, Nichols or Hope. It is fascinating to see how both players can take Powell as an inspiration yet run with it in totally different directions. I see Hope and Richard Twardzik to be quite similar too.

Disappointing that the generation of players who fell between Powell and Bill Evans no longer seem quite as fashionable. You can see why Evans' approach made it necessary for pianists to up their game harmonically and how the likes of Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea developed this to evolve into more contemporary styles so that the whole Bop model quickly went out of date. For my money, Hawes always justifies repeated listening and the sense of swing and looseness of his phrasing is something that has been lost in the trade-off with more contemporay players. It is a real shame. The whole notion of "West Coast jazz" seems to get short thrift these days but there are players like Hawes, Art Pepper and Harold Land seem over-looked these days. The "For Real" album is a gem , in my opinion. Land is always on the money but couples with Hawes it is a winning combination .

[Jazzrook]

West Coast tenor saxophonist Hadley Caliman with Hotep Cecil Barnard, David Williams & Elvin Jones playing 'Gala' from the 1977 album 'Celebration':

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=c_uAyMHQ9Ro

JR

[elmo]

Shelley Manne " Live at the Blackhawk" 1959 with Richie Kamuca, Joe Gordon, Vic Feldman and Monty Budwig playng 'Whisper Not' one of the finest West Coast bands all five albums are indispensible.

https://youtu.be/Moo_ZQtOQUg

elmo

[Joseph K]

I was scrolling through facebook and only caught a snippet of some saxophone playing but just that snippet suggested something from Miles Davis's Nefertiti, so that's what I'm listening to.

[Joseph K]

I was just tidying up downstairs after my little niece who along with my mum has gone now, and put some music on youtube from my phone and mini speaker - 'My Favorite Things' played by John Coltrane, Live At The Village Vanguard Again! I am really digging Pharoah Sanders' shrieking today, for some reason - it's taken a while to get round to appreciating it, I'll admit. Often during Sanders' solo on this tune he'll be joined by John in the background and the whole thing is just searing with intensity. It's incandescent. And Alice is so beautifully plangent at the piano. That and of course John sounding like a shehnai on soprano, the whole thing is incredible.

[Serial_Apologist]

I was just tidying up downstairs after my little niece who along with my mum has gone now, and put some music on youtube from my phone and mini speaker - 'My Favorite Things' played by John Coltrane, Live At The Village Vanguard Again! I am really digging Pharoah Sanders' shrieking today, for some reason - it's taken a while to get round to appreciating it, I'll admit. Often during Sanders' solo on this tune he'll be joined by John in the background and the whole thing is just searing with intensity. It's incandescent. And Alice is so beautifully plangent at the piano. That and of course John sounding like a shehnai on soprano, the whole thing is incredible.

Had Trane not "displaced himself" from the mic for much of it I wonder if that particular number would have been too much for the sensitive soul that I am to have taken.

[Joseph K]

Had Trane not "displaced himself" from the mic for much of it I wonder if that particular number would have been too much for the sensitive soul that I am to have taken.

[Ian Thumwood]

Shelley Manne " Live at the Blackhawk" 1959 with Richie Kamuca, Joe Gordon, Vic Feldman and Monty Budwig playng 'Whisper Not' one of the finest West Coast bands all five albums are indispensible.

https://youtu.be/Moo_ZQtOQUg

elmo

I really regret not buying this set. Shelly Manne is seriously under-rated. I think there was a time when Richie Kumuca was much vaunted but you seldom read his name nowadays. Manne is a drummer I always feels enhances a session. I know SA has stated that he was not fan of his drumming with Bill Evans but I always felt that the pianist benefitted from having a more forthright drummer behind him. Manne recorded on some of Ornette Coleman's earlier records and there is also an association with some of the West Coast big bands which is probably at the other scale of things. I would argue that Manne is one of those musicians like Harold Land who is remarkably consistent.

Picking up on Joseph's comment about Pharoah Sanders, I could be controversal and suggest that Eric Dolphy was a far more radical foil for Coltrane's work. Some of the earlier "New Thing" players have not really aged well and I do think that there was very much an "of their time" element in their playing. I get the shock value of the work and there are players like Ayler who have a naive quality about their work which does appeal. Sanders is a bit hit and miss for me. I like his music yet it is often pretty simplistic and the two-chord vamps strike me as avoiding the challenges that Dolphy presented. There is a darkness in Dolphy's playing and the odd intervallic leaps which make his work insccessible for some. Take away the timbral approach of the likes of Sanders and Shepp, I feel they are not really saying as much as Dolpy. In addition, if you want to go down that route, there are tenor players like Frank Lowe and Dewey Redman who were much better. I was intrigued by Jazzrook's post featuring Hadley Caliman as he is a name Ihave never heard before. I liked that track but I think it is a good example of how jazz coped post-Coltrane. I am a Coltrane fan yet I think that some of those who built a career from his coat tails are not necessarily the most interesting saxophonists who worked ino the 1970 and 80s.

[Ian Thumwood]

I was just tidying up downstairs after my little niece who along with my mum has gone now, and put some music on youtube from my phone and mini speaker - 'My Favorite Things' played by John Coltrane, Live At The Village Vanguard Again! I am really digging Pharoah Sanders' shrieking today, for some reason - it's taken a while to get round to appreciating it, I'll admit. Often during Sanders' solo on this tune he'll be joined by John in the background and the whole thing is just searing with intensity. It's incandescent. And Alice is so beautifully plangent at the piano. That and of course John sounding like a shehnai on soprano, the whole thing is incredible.

Joseph
Have you ordered the new Coltrane at the Village Gate disc ? I think is is released by Impulse mid -July ?

[Joseph K]

Joseph
Have you ordered the new Coltrane at the Village Gate disc ? I think is is released by Impulse mid -July ?

No, I haven't. I was a bit financially blitzed by the unexpected expenditure of having to get back from London after seeing Shakti last week. I have ordered the Trane/Monk Carnegie Hall disk though.

Picking up on your comments re: Pharoah Sanders, I wouldn't use the quality of radicalness as a form of value-judgement, and I wouldn't use Eric Dolphy as a stick with which to beat Sanders. We've been through this discussion - the thing is, you don't 'take away' the timbral approach of Sanders or Ayler - their playing is what it is, you hear what you hear. If it's not your cup of tea, that's too bad.

Anyway, I am currently listening to 'My Favorite Things' from Japan, where Sanders mostly eschews the extended playing techniques. And John plays alto, I believe. It's an incredible performance...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHgPZfNlI6I

[Jazzrook]

Tenor saxophonist Don Braden with Xavier Davis(piano); Dwayne Burno(bass) & Cecil Brooks III(drums) playing the title track from 'Brighter Days' recorded in 2000:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=92GCLHaLxlc

JR

[Jazzrook]

John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy, McCoy Tyner, Reggie Workman & Elvin Jones playing Trane's only recorded version of Victor Young's 'Delilah' live at Falkonercentret, Copenhagen, November 20, 1961:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=O4KgqBOk9eU

JR