What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Jazzrook]

Jackie McLean with Lamont Johnson, Scott Holt & Billy Higgins playing 'Old Folks' recorded on February 15, 1967. It was included on the RCA album 'Newport Jazz Festival Tribute to Charlie Parker'(1964):

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

JR

[Tenor Freak]

Bruce

Good evening

I get where you are coming from but I find that if someone in jazz is hyped up and over-marketed, I tend to be a bit put off. I would rather discover someone myself as opposed to have someone's PR company recommend them on my behalf.

You are right about the fact that the Classical world has long since gone down this route. It will be interesting to see how long the Classical world will continue to publicise the likes of Yuga Wang as they mature although she never looks like she is getting older! At least the Classical world has a long history of going down the route of promoting glamorous women to perform music. It seems a relatively new thing in jazz and may have started with Hiromi even if her strangler's hands are a bit off-putting! When I have seen her perform live, the impression of her being a kind of jazz Pokemon quikcly vanishes as she is an extremely physical and visceral pianist.

For me, the Connie Han thing is a step too far. I am not influenced by how glamorous a jazz musician looks and I have a theory that when you step into jazz, the performers are effectively distilling their personality down to an individual sound that can often be recognised. I like listening to jazz without knowing what a performer looks like and, from past experience, think that a negative perception of a musician's personality can put you offf their music. The worst example of this for me was the pianist Kenny Werner who I can no longer listen to having experienced him hold a "masterclass" which became sufficiently unsavory to earn him a ban at Vienne. He was so "wrong" by how he presented himself and the language he used in front of kids and women that I would purposely avoid his music. I think the only person I have encountered who came close to being as bad was Tigran Hamasyan who was incredibly rude to the French students he was supposed to be coaching, (He shared the personality of a mutual piano playing acquaintance from Southampton but was even worse! ) After these two experiences, I find that I need to divorce the personalities from the music and the whole marketing process that tries to project non-musical elements to improve the appeal is a non-starter for me. It is the sound the musicians produce which is important and not the fact they have nice legs! For the most part, I do not want to know what the musicians are like as people nor am I keen for jazz musicians to sexualise the music. That seems really disrespectful to jazz's heritage and not really appropriate in 2023.

I think jazz has flirted with photogenic musicians since the 2000s since singers have become more fashionable. Connie Han has certainly taken this to another level yet I think there are plenty of female jazz musicians who are producing better "quality" jazz without going down the road of maximising the amount of lipstick worn and minimising the length of their skirts! One of the greatest writers about jazz musicians was the late Gene Lees and I can remember a chapter in one of his books about the steretypical be-bop musician and especially that of being a "troubled artist." It would have been fascinating to know how he would have considered the likes of Connie Han. I doubt he would have been enthused by this kind of approach.

In my personal opinion, I find it hard to see many of the younger crop of musicians leaving much of a legacy. As you rightly say, a lof of the jazz vocabulary has already been explored yet I still think that there are some terrific musicians out there who are making valid contributions to jazz without resorting to either man buns or short skirts. If I see that someone has a shiny PR job done in relation to their latest release, I would be more inclined to avoid than have my curiousity piqued. Indeed, it would be better if I had no idea what the musician looked like or how they presented themselves as the music is the important thing! That is why part of me still has a sneaking admiration for a label like ECM who minimalise the presentation so that their audience focuses on the music.

Music is a tough business to make a living from. Anyone who can has my admiration; I recently attended the funeral of an old mate who, against some odds, made a living as an operatic bass-baritone. He died way too young, but was an enormously-talented musician who had gone through some hard times to make it out the other side and had sung a wide range of roles with ENO and WNO among others. Which brings me to the young musicians of today. Personally I don't mind that they are not mind-blowingly original. As I said before, the seam of originality has probably been mined out now and we are left with reprocessing the spoil. Presentation of the music has always been a key part of it, so again I am not at all bothered that some present themselves more strikingly than others. Think of the beboppers with their suits and kipper ties; Pres and his pork-pie hat and holding his tenor at a 135° angle; Billie Holiday and her gardenia flower and gowns; Miles and his Italian suits and later the neckerchiefs and shiny clothes; Sun Ra; and that is only in jazz, never mind in pop or rock music. The music has spread out further and wider than the old New Orleans-Kansas City-New York route and it's a lot harder for anyone to set themselves apart from the pack. Remember that jazz/improvised music is only a tiny niche and there simply isn't the same infrastructure of PR people and music company execs that is available for other, more popular, genres. This always irritated me about King Kennytone and mr improv on the old Bored (RIP) who would spout nonsense about "the society of the spectacle" which was totally inappropriate to music as unpopular as jazz.

At the last gig I went to, with the Way Out West collective, Tim Whitehead recalled a bit of advice he received from a jazz veteran who he studied with, who said that, I quote: "Nobody will beat a path to your door." That was in the 1970s; and it's ten times worse now as jazz loses its direct influence on our culture. As I say though, it's not enough to wear a short skirt or a six-pack for a photoshoot. You must have the chops to back them up - a work ethic which is as welcome today as it was in the past. So it's no problem to me that Connie Han wears a short dress; she is going to be a major figure in the music but has earned the right to be there, as much as Keith Jarrett, for example.

PS: if Tigran Hamasyan is half as irritating as Mr "de Winter" you would probably have had to stop me from assaulting him. Our mutual acquaintance is the only person I have ever felt like getting up and decking the MFer, he was such a patronising twat.

[Tenor Freak]

I may be wrong but I hardly think most jazz fans would ever have been drawn towards buying an album by having a sexually objectivised model on the front, even back in the bad old days of the 1960s, when the model so presented would not have been the artiste herself, and probably not even named on the sleeve. Even on pop sleeves; were Dusty et al presented in sexualised pose modes? Heavily made up, fashionably coiffed etc., stereotyped in line with fashion, which jazz never was about apart from the big band era.

Perhaps not here in the UK where much beard-stroking would have been done, perhaps even in time with the music. But in the States? Even Blue Note were not above putting "dolly birds" on the front covers of their LPs, though it has to be said that the LPs tended to be at the funkier end of their product range, and the ladies featured were largely African American, to match their audience. For example, Big John Patton Oh Baby! and Let 'Em Roll, Freddie Roach Brown Sugar, Lou Donaldson Good Gracious!, hell even Horace Silver's The Cape Verdean Blues or Sonny Clark's Cool Struttin'. And many others.

[Tenor Freak]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pMyMBRpx4o My favourite Herbie Hancock album Crossing (and all works before his albums became ordinary poroduct....The one track side one top draw....I think showing how important Herbie was to MIles Davis or/and vice versa....the relaxed feeling , I believe comes from Miles not being involved....

I never got into Crossings and I'm not sure why, because Mwandishi is one of my favourites. That sextet was a great group.

[Tenor Freak]

NP: Jackie McLean I'll Keep Loving You from Let Freedom Ring (Rudy Van Gelder 24 Bit Mastering 2003 Digital Remaster)

[Tenor Freak]

NP: Herbie Hancock Sextet Wandering Spirit Song from Mwandishi .

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Jackie McLean, 1957. "A long drink of the blues", take one, take two. An argumentative first, "don't tell me when to come in Man! I got your best interests at heart!" How Prestige sessions were made.

And Jackie playing Tenor, the first and only time on record? Sounds just like 50s Sonny Rollins. Fascinating track.

http://youtu.be/2WWX4zdZdVM?feature=shared

[Ian Thumwood]

Happy New Year

One of the comments that I can recall Bluesnik making many years ago was how the blues no longer seem relevant these days. I flew back from Doha yesterday and explored the jazz and blues selection on the in flight entertaiment. The selection had changed little since my last visit in November and I listened to some of the selections ranging fron Darcy James Argue's Secret Society big band, Charles Mingus, Jeff Parker and the underwhelming Theo Coker which sounded like Donald Byrd - lite. The least interesting disc was the Chet Baker / Paul Desmond selection which sounded like they were playing over an Aebersold play-a-long. There was also a BBC concert with Hancock Shorter / Clarke / Hakim which was brilliant with the pianist and saxophonist demonstrating how good live jazz can be, After playing an ECM disc with Rob Luft and a vocalist, i was crying our to hear something a bit more raw. Out of curiousity, I clicked on a blues album called "This Land" by Gary Clark Jr and was absolutley bowled away by the music.

There are elements of rock, soul , rap and reggae as well as jazz trumpeter Keyon Harris, I think the Bluesnik was right about the social circumstances that made blues recorded between the 20s and 60s so special yet I have to admit that Clark's biting repost to Trump's America is as relevant today as say Skip James05 years ago. Granted , you do not expect blues musicians to make videos but I feel that if the blues are to be relevant in 2024 , it needs to sound like Gary Clark Jr. I am guessing that this will appeal very much to Jazzrook (the whole album is varied as extremely consistent) and I am guessing that Clark is a musician who Bluesnik would appreciate too. I was really impressed by this disc. I knew the name but was unfamiliar with his music.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Gary+Clark+Jr.+What+About+Us&docid=603487104646800266&mid=E4D60B5D85248E7590C6E4D60B5D85248E7590C6&view=detail&FORM=VRAASM

[Tenor Freak]

NP: Joe Henderson - A Shade of Jade from Mode For Joe Rudy Van Gelder Edition/2003 Digital Remaster/24 Bit Remastering (Blue Note, 1966).

[Tenor Freak]

NP: Joe Henderson - Escapade from Our Thing Rudy Van Gelder 24-Bit Mastering/2000 (Blue Note, 1964).

[Ian Thumwood]

I think that it would be possible to make a case for Joe Henderson's recordings for Blue Note as being the label's finest efforts. The music is exceptional , esepcially "Page One" and the albums cut with Kenny Dorham which are amongst my favourites. "Mode for Joe" is a funny album as I think that the ensemble has a pretty hard sound and I have never found it as immediately appealing as the other records. It is quite interesting hearing Henderson command a larger ensemble and to discover that the results are quite uncompromising. Sometimes I feel that the ensemble playing is a bit rugged on this record and I am always put in mind of the 1990s Big Band album Henderson made which was poorly received at the time yet seems to be more highly considered these days. Although the ensemble on this record is twice as large, I think it is more satisfactory than the "Mode for Joe" disc. Anything with Joe Henderson on is worth listening to. The stuff he cut for Verve is as good as jazz got in the 1990s.

[Jazzrook]

The Dave Bailey Sextet with Kenny Dorham, Frank Haynes, Curtis Fuller, Tommy Flanagan & Ben Tucker playing ‘Osmosis’ from the 1961 album ‘Bash!’
It’s currently more easily available under Kenny Dorham’s name titled ‘Osmosis’(BLACK LION) with extra tracks.
(ASIN: B0000242E9)

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=IDWYt5vuvlU

JR

[Jazzrook]

Little Walter playing 'Blue Midnight' recorded in Chicago, October, 1952:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=vT0Ku-gzHS8

JR

[Quarky]

Erik Truffaz. His new album Clap! on Bluenote. Some interesting tracks, e.g. L'Oiseau. Overall, I was reminded of Chet Baker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYH5PLEX-cU&list=OLAK5uy_nAFfd5ofuOuXtBc-zL9YClGsgEWi80_hI&index=8

[Serial_Apologist]

Erik Truffaz. His new album Clap! on Bluenote. Some interesting tracks, e.g. L'Oiseau. Overall, I was reminded of Chet Baker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYH5...i80_hI&index=8

The truffaz you see it!