What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Stanfordian]

'The Hard Swing'
Sonny Stitt with Amos Trice, George Morrow & Lennie McBrowne
Verve (1959)

[Serial_Apologist]

Alan Skidmore/Elton Dean Qrt - "El Skid", there was an LP by this name/group but this is the original BBC R3 Charles Fox live presentation from c.1976? On an acquired C90 cassette with very good sound. Excellent

The recording (on Jost* Gebers' Vinyl label) was made on 25th and 26th February 1977. By coincidence the next recording due for play on my pile of CDs is Elton Dean's "Free Beat - Northern Lights" from 2004 on FMR with guitarist Jon Wilkinson and on drums, piano and bass synthesiser Tony Bianco. Tony's an interesting character - an American living in London whose primary medium is as a drummer with a measured style very close to Rashied Ali's on "Interstellar Space". I wasn't too sure about this the first and only time I've played it, so it's about time to give it a second go.

*I met Jost Gebers once, at a gig somewhere, since when I've always kicked myself for omitting to swap addresses & phone numbers.

[Quarky]

Bitches Brew.

There is a hell of a lot going on in the duodectet/ band. To me the least attractive part of this album is Miles loud and electronically processed trumpet in the title track.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I'm working through (again) the very big collection of British jazz on radio cassettes I was given a year or so back. 1970s but mostly 1980s. Tonight, Trevor Watts Moire Music from 1983 and "Tuesday piece". The weird thing about these tapes is that some still have the midnight closedown news on them. Thatcher laying waste...the Devil's decade.

BN.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Bitches Brew.

There is a hell of a lot going on in the duodectet/ band. To me the least attractive part of this album is Miles loud and electronically processed trumpet in the title track.

Funnily, I re-bought this a few weeks back, the double CD. There is some wonderful stuff on it, but God, a hell of a lot of meandering filler. And to think that it was substantially edited down. Interesting to compare the version of Sanctuary with the earlier classic Quintet one. No prizes...

Miles' first Gold record....

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm working through (again) the very big collection of British jazz on radio cassettes I was given a year or so back. 1970s but mostly 1980s. Tonight, Trevor Watts Moire Music from 1983 and "Tuesday piece". The weird thing about these tapes is that some still have the midnight closedown news on them. Thatcher laying waste...the Devil's decade.

BN.

I had the same experience of an offer I couldn't refuse - including that particular Moire Music, and a line-up of Dudu Pukwana's Zila including a very young, pre-Loose Tubes Django Bates. There was also some very early Barbara Thompson Paraphernalia from the era before hubby's joining, which I loaned Barbara in the hope of getting them back sometime, but haven't the heart to ask! Some of my own cassettes off the BBC were allowed to run off to the end after the broadcast's finish, by which time I would have gone to bed, and are likewise news-apended, making them valuable historical records, in a way!

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

It's scary stuff! Not just Thatcher but Ronald Reagan revisited. Once is enough for anyone...I need a HUGE drink...

BN.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I've also got a Barbara Thompson, with Don Rendell. Haven't played that yet. I have played the cassette A side which is Johnny Dyani's Witchdoctors Son. Magnificent, but halfway through Charles Fox announces that "Nelson Mandela is still in prison in South Africa" which adds a great deal of poignancy.

BN.

[Serial_Apologist]

Funnily, I re-bought this a few weeks back, the double CD. There is some wonderful stuff on it, but God, a hell of a lot of meandering filler. And to think that it was substantially edited down. Interesting to compare the version of Sanctuary with the earlier classic Quintet one. No prizes...

Miles' first Gold record....

Tony Williams's reduction to pattering pulsations on "In a Silent Way", though I can to an extent appreciate Miles's decision to turn minimalist to focus listener attention on now sonorities and counterpoint, might have been the drummer's motive for quitting and forming Life Time, though rhythmic complexity and ambiguity would remain stock-in-trade in live performances at that particular stage, as witnessed by Jack DeJohnette's role fulfilling in footage from the era.

It was fascinating to be reminded of what might have been by the inclusion of "Petits Machins" from "Filles de Kilimanjaro" on JRR last week - one of my favourite tracks (not just from Miles's repertoire) and, interestingly, one where in particular Wayne's prodding exchanges with the rest of the band, constantly re-locating the downbeat, have been a cause, maybe the marker, of disagreements with this approach from a number of Coltrane-influenced British players I've brought this up with. Complexity remained the preoccupation with British groups essaying early jazz-rock around that same time - perhaps only Ian Carr's Nucleus opted for "rhythmic disambiguity". Though he favoured the odd time signatures espoused by Soft Machine and Graham Collier, among others, it was as pre-established frameworks rather than spontaneous metrical shift-shaping a la Miles.

[Serial_Apologist]

I've also got a Barbara Thompson, with Don Rendell. Haven't played that yet. I have played the cassette A side which is Johnny Dyani's Witchdoctors Son. Magnificent, but halfway through Charles Fox announces that "Nelson Mandela is still in prison in South Africa" which adds a great deal of poignancy.

BN.

If that's the Thompson/Rendell line-up of 1974 with Pete Lemer, Steve Cook and Laurie Allan which recorded "Just Music" for Columbia, that'll probably be a real good 'un. I'm fortunate to have the CD reissue, a limited number of copies of which Jon H issued a few years back.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Yep, that's the one.

Btw,
My fav Miles story is when Bob Berg was in the band, and carried away with the moment (and many "substances") took a very very long UNSCHEDULED Coltrane-esque tenor solo. When they got off stage Miles just stared at him, so Berg, high, and thinking he'd been a "genius", thought he'd better explain. "Miles, we were all playing so well tonight, I just had to play like that then!" Miles just glared at him and said, "We were playing SO well tonight because YOU weren't fkng playing, Mother F........!!!!"

[Quarky]

Alan Skidmore/Elton Dean Qrt - "El Skid", there was an LP by this name/group but this is the original BBC R3 Charles Fox live presentation from c.1976? On an acquired C90 cassette with very good sound. Excellent

Thanks for mentioning this. I had paused my reconnaissance of Alan Skidmore (and fellow conspirators) ~1970, because to my ear, he had entered a dark phase. However, the tracks from this album on You Tube are much lighter in spirit. Must be the influence of Elton Dean. Further investigation required!

[Ian Thumwood]

Listening to the latest Tedeschi Trucks band double album. I prefer their studio work but this is still just about the best band to stride across blues / rock / jazz. Interesting to hear the audience reaction and to ponder why this kind of music is so popular in America yet maybe finds it harder to translate across the Atlantic where the blues and jazz influences are less appreciated.

Incidentally, Trevor Watt's Moire Music was the first gig I ever walked out of. I usually stick concerts through to the end but their gig at a Southampton Jazz Festival around 1987 was a bit of a shock. I had been listening to loads of Abdullah Ibrahim at that time and Watts' approach to African music was far to removed for my tastes. I am getting quite good at walking out these days although this year's Vienne was something of a triumph in that a number of bands didn't get beyond the fourth or fifth number. Not sure I even made the second one when Mary J Blige performed - totally crap but for other reasons although the volume meant I could ha e probably listened to the gig from Winchester.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I think the last thing I walked out of was the movie "Absolute Beginners" (Julian Temple?) back in the 80s. After five, not ten minutes, my then partner and I looked at each other and we were orfffffffffff.

Or maybe a free jazz thing in Bath. I think Tony Levin was involved. Actually half the audience respectfully tiptoed out. What was that Evan Parker said, "You close your eyes, bend to play, look up and ....the audience has vanished". I think he was being factitious about some early gigs.

BN

[Ian Thumwood]

The jazz gigs I have walked out of have tended to be freer stuff which has not got going. I have only done it rarely although the Italian Instabile Orchestra was shockingly bad and I never returned to the second set which got a good review from John Fordham in The Guardian. This made be start doubting reviews in magazines afterwards as I was staggered that someone could be so wrong about a gig. Sometimes I think people will say something is great if it has a shock value but when you attend as many concerts as I go to over the course of a year, you get a feel for what is poor and what is good.

I walked out of a French film with Ludovine Sagnier which was dreadful but I think it is easier not to make a mistake with films because they are finite. You can be underwhelmed by a film but not put off as you can be when the music is unlistenable as was the case with Mary J Blige. If anything, pop music is more of a revealing experience because the poor quality artists quickly get exposed as such. The better artists tend to really know their music even if not necessarily going to the extremes of Niles Rodgers of Chic who warmed up the last time I saw him by playing Thelonious Monk!