What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Serial_Apologist]

Chet Baker & Dick Twardzik can be heard on the 'Complete Studio Sessions with Dick Twardzik'(LONE HILL JAZZ LHJ 10161) recorded in Paris in 1955.
A great album if you can find it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iCclE4h7uc

JR

So that's the theme Pink Floyd got their "We Don't Need No Educashun" line from! More interestingly, it's mostly in one minor key - one hears pre-echoes of Mingus's "Pithecanthropus Erectus", if not the coming of modalism.

It's a great track, many thanks JR for posting it.

[Serial_Apologist]

Yes indeed, but I took SAs thoughts as whether Billie, Chet and Dick recorded together, or indeed ever played together?

Btw, the Barcley album Chet recorded right AFTER DT died is, despite that, very very good. Brooding and dark, as well it might be. I think Bobbie Jasper is on some tracks.

BN.

Sorry to have caused confusion there - not to mention spelling Mr Twardzik's name wrong!

Keith Tippett once mentioned that when he was studying with Graham Collier at the Barry Summer School, Graham told Keith that the one pianist his playing reminded him of was Dick Twardzik's. "I'd never heard of Dick Twardzik", Keith told me!

[Stanfordian]

'Groove' - The Complete Legendary 1961 Sessions
Ben Webster with Richard 'Groove' Holmes, Les McCann, Lawrence 'Tricky' Lofton,
George Freeman, Herbie Lewis & Ron Jefferson
Pacific Jazz (1961)

[Ian Thumwood]

Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood - "Out louder."

The initial MM & W + Scofield album was one of the best records of the 1990's but the follow-up double album is perhaps illustrative of the risky-laden approach by the trio. A lot of their material seems to be spontaneously composed and they operative is a strange demo-monde between free jazz and funkier grooves. When it works they are terrific but this album doesn't quite hit the heights. I think the Radiolarians albums represented MM&W at their finest, the music being incredibly catchy yet at the same time always teetering on the point of chaos. Pianist John Medeski has probably the ultimate commercial approach to Cecil Taylor's influence , Wood and Martin both providing the perfect partners in crime.

Of all the great guitarists who emerged in the 1980's or who were producing sterling work from this period on, John Scofield always seems the most accessible and the funkier side of his playing was the ideal match for MM&W on "A go go." It is interesting to delve in to his recorded output as it is varied and the mixture of B. B. King meets Ornette a compelling and heady mix. However, there are a few projects which are so-so, and this second reunion with MM & W lacks the strong hooks. The best track is one called "Julie" which, it transpires, is actually a John Lennon tune. A lot of the material seems to have been cooked up on the spot in the studio.

It is funny how free improvisation initially sounded pretty strident and was certainly not "listener friendly." The approach of MM &W is illustrative that things have massively changed in the intervening 40 years as musicians have tempered the idea of total freedom to look at exploring other aspects such as groove. I can see purists scoffing at this approach but throwing the road map out of the window when the music has a groove seems no less a challenge that thoroughly improvised music.

[Jazzrook]

John Coltrane's strangely neglected album 'Living Space'(IMPULSE!) recorded in June 1965 during the final days of the classic quartet.
Here's 'The Last Blues'(without Tyner) a tape of which was rediscovered at Coltrane's home and eventually issued in 1998:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4evGxbtVlI

JR

[Stanfordian]

'Blows the Blues'
Sonny Stitt with Lou Vevy, Leroy Vinnegar & Mel Lewis
Verve (1959)

[Stanfordian]

'Moving & Groovin’'
Horace Parlan with Sam Jones & Al Harewood
Blue Note (1960)

[Jazzrook]

One of Thelonious Monk's finest live quartet albums 'Monk in Tokyo' from 1963 with Charlie Rouse, Butch Warren & Frankie Dunlop:

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

JR

[Stanfordian]

'Dexter Blows Hot and Cool'
Dexter Gordon with Jimmy Robinson, Carl Perkins, Leroy Vinnegar and Chuck Thompson
Boplicity Records (1955)

[Stanfordian]

'Inner Urge'
Joe Henderson with McCoy Tyner, Bob Cranshaw & Elvin Jones
Blue Note (1964)

[Jazzrook]

Warne Marsh's 1969 album 'Ne Plus Ultra' with Gary Foster(alto sax); Dave Parlato(bass) & John Tirabasso(drums).
The bassist played on several Frank Zappa albums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_hu3iTnxj0

JR

[Stanfordian]

'Street Singer'
Jackie McLean & Tina Brooks with Blue Mitchell, Kenny Drew, Paul Chambers & Art Taylor
Blue Note (1961)

[Ian Thumwood]

Warne Marsh's 1969 album 'Ne Plus Ultra' with Gary Foster(alto sax); Dave Parlato(bass) & John Tirabasso(drums).
The bassist played on several Frank Zappa albums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_hu3iTnxj0

JR

His daughter is the singer Gretchen Parlato

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Shelly Manne - "My Son the Jazz Drummer! (subtitled Modern Jazz Versions of Jewish and Israeli Songs) - an album by drummer Shelly Manne performing jazz adaptations of traditional and contemporary Jewish music, recorded in 1962 and released on the Contemporary label"

With Shorty Rogers, Vic Feldman and a booting Teddy Edwards. One of the most off the wall marketing ideas, but oddly endearing. And once you're past the "themes" ...they get stuck in.

Don't boycott Shelly....

Man.

BN.

[Ian Thumwood]

But this isn't at all original as Terry Gibbs also made a similar record with Alice Coltrane on piano around the same time.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Plays-Jewish-Melodies-Jazztime-European/dp/B00006DU0I/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505242669&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=terry+gibbs+plays+jewish+themes

You can go back even further to some of Benny Goodman's work , especially with the trumpeter Ziggy Elman. I think that there is a lot of Jewish influence in much of the jazz of the era 1930-60 and I know that certain bands were popular in neighbourhoods which had a big Jewish presence. It would probably be more interesting to consider which of the white big band leaders were not Jewish - probably Miller and the Dorseys are the most obvious examples but they must surely be in the minority.

I don't know what Shelly Manne's stock had crumbled quite so spectacularly as I have always felt he was a terrific drummer and easily the best on the West Coast. I suppose he is associated with the typical West Coast jazz of the 1950s but let's now forget he also played with Ornette as well as having an established career in the studios. Gibbs is still playing in his 90's but probably more appreciated by fans of big band jazz than his small group stuff. Never seen Terry Gibbs mentioned in a thread on this board.

Of course, these days John Zorn has made a whole career out of this with the original Masada line up taking it's cures from the original Ornette Coleman quartet with a stellar line up that included Dave Douglas, Greg Cohen and Joey Baron. Odd to think of these musicians as largely being pensioners when, for so long in my jazz listener experience, they have been at the cutting edge of the music. Wonder if Zorn's music have slipped into the comfortable slippers of mainstream when people consider their music 50 years hence?