Traps: not for the Unwary

[Serial_Apologist]

Sat 8 Oct
4.00 Jazz Record Requests
Alyn Shipton plays music by Grammy-winning American singer Dianne Reeves, and follows up the recent challenge to find different interpretations of the 1939 standard Darn That Dream by Jimmy Van Heusen and Eddie Del Lange

To me Kenny Hagood sounds almost Victorian in Miles's "Birth of the Cool", though others tell me his voice was right up to the minute for the time. I would choose the juggernaut version on the 1990 album by the Elton Dean/Howard Riley Quartet, "All the Tradition" on Oxford-based sax player George Haslam's appropriately-named Slam label, with Paul Rogers and Mark Sanders respectively on bass and drums. Maybe I should take it along to the pop up studio at the Southbank, if now's not too late.

http://www.alynshipton.co.uk/blog

5.00 Jazz Line-Up
Julian Joseph interviews contemporary jazz pianist Neil Cowley, who discusses his musical inspirations and creative process

Not my thing at all, have to say.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07y9nln

12.00 Geoffrey Smith's Jazz
Geoffrey pays tribute to his favourite drummers, including Chick Webb, Gene Krupa, Max Roach, Philly Joe Jones and Buddy Rich

Some of us here would be angling for a Mr Haynes to be included, I would imagine.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04b226q

Mon 10 Oct
11.00 Jazz Now
Soweto Kinch presents highlights of September's Danish Jazz Season at London's Jazz Club, including music by Hess is More, [so gifted for wordplay, those Vikings] Hess/AC/Hess Spacelab, and Girls in Airports [ahem]

London's Jazz Club?????

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07y9x01

Tues 11 Oct Radio 2
7.00 Jamie Cullum
As BBC Music's My Generation season reaches the 1970s, the jazz star picks his favourite jazz from the era. He's joined by John McLaughlin (ex-Mahavishnu Orchestra).

Just thought some might be interested.

Addendum: Only just noticed that Andy Sheppard is among the interviewees on In Tune this coming Tuesday (11th) at 4.30 pm. Be patient - it comes at some time in the succeeding 90 minutes.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Sat 8 Oct
4.00 Jazz Record Requests
Alyn Shipton plays music by Grammy-winning American singer Dianne Reeves, and follows up the recent challenge to find different interpretations of the 1939 standard Darn That Dream by Jimmy Van Heusen and Eddie Del Lange

To me Kenny Hagood sounds almost Victorian in Miles's "Birth of the Cool", though others tell me his voice was right up to the minute for the time. I would choose the juggernaut version on the 1990 album by the Elton Dean/Howard Riley Quartet, "All the Tradition" on Oxford-based sax player George Haslam's appropriately-named Slam label, with Paul Rogers and Mark Sanders respectively on bass and drums. Maybe I should take it along to the pop up studio at the Southbank, if now's not too late.

http://www.alynshipton.co.uk/blog

5.00 Jazz Line-Up
Julian Joseph interviews contemporary jazz pianist Neil Cowley, who discusses his musical inspirations and creative process

Not my thing at all, have to say.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07y9nln

12.00 Geoffrey Smith's Jazz
Geoffrey pays tribute to his favourite drummers, including Chick Webb, Gene Krupa, Max Roach, Philly Joe Jones and Buddy Rich

Some of us here would be angling for a Mr Haynes to be included, I would imagine.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04b226q

Mon 10 Oct
11.00 Jazz Now
Soweto Kinch presents highlights of September's Danish Jazz Season at London's Jazz Club, including music by Hess is More, [so gifted for wordplay, those Vikings] Hess/AC/Hess Spacelab, and Girls in Airports [ahem]

London's Jazz Club?????

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07y9x01

Tues 11 Oct Radio 2
7.00 Jamie Cullum
As BBC Music's My Generation season reaches the 1970s, the jazz star picks his favourite jazz from the era. He's joined by John McLaughlin (ex-Mahavishnu Orchestra).

Just thought some might be interested.

Dexter, Bud Powell, JRR, Autumn, Leaves, Belgian beer, trains...perfection!

BTW, if looking for a "Darn that Dream", Dexter's 60s definitive Bluenote take, Harold Land's feature with Max Roach, Art Pepper's wonderful one from the late album with Joe Farrell, Charlie Mariano smoldering a la West Coast, Hamp Hawes trio, Barney Wilen's Nostalgia album, Stan Getz with an atmospheric Polish trio in 1960...Ron Coltrane, from "Ron plays slowly" (1957 Tempo acetates)...

BN.

And Bill Evans, Benny Golson, Art Farmer from Modern Art....

[Alyn_Shipton]

So BN send in a request to that JRR address for some/all of these. (Except Ron - rather overdone lately...) Go on, you know it makes sense.
And if you didn't hear Jason Rebello playing it on Monday night's Jazz Now (3rd tune in from the top) go and check the iplayer. It was pretty sensational (and, dare I say it) rather different from Mr Cowley's offerings on today's JLU.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I will do both those things Alyn! Ashamed to say I have never heard Jazz Now but having recently discovered the Iplayer, well, I was trying to thread a C120 into a Samsung's screen, I will go in search.

Very enjoyable program btw; funny when I was very much younger and Blakey buttoned down I never really "got" Buck Clayton or his associates but now I do.

[Ian Thumwood]

I have been busy this week doing cost reports but worked at home on Thursday to get some peace and quiet and listened to the Jason Rebello set which I had wanted to post about because I thought it was so good. It reminded me a lot of the Herbie Hancock solo piano record ingeniously called "The piano" which came out in the late 70's and is one of Herbie's best. Rebello seemed to me to be one of those typical "New Neos" who emerged on the late 1980's who generated a lot of buzz in the press at the time but seem to have been overlooked as they have grown over, perhaps not being quite as fashionable as they once were. This is shame as I felt that Jason Rebello seemed to have matured as a player and this set was really worth listening to. By contrast, the young "chamber Jazz" group that followed were nowhere as near as compelling. ""Girls in airports" next week is likely to appeal to a more fusion orientated audience. Never really followed them but "All about Jazz" was raving about this Danish group about five years ago.

"Jazz Now" is an intriguing programme as it almost seems to be "anti-modish", the artists seemingly chosen by what they produce as opposed to whether they seem to be what Jez used to call "Cutting edge." I wasn't too impressed by the Dave Douglas session as the trumpeter player has had other, more interesting projects I'm recent years, but I think there is a commitment on "Jazz Now" to steer away from the more fringe elements of the music and concentrate on stuff that most people would recognise as jazz. Paul Dunmall is coming up shortly in a group which features the legendary drummer , Hamid Drake. I am always struck just how few people actually know about Hamid Drake, including professional drummers as well as students of percussion I sometime bump in to. For me, he is one of the very greatest even though his playing is totally unfussy. This is one to look forward to and may even appeal to Bluesnik, especially is coming to HD's music for the very first time. Drake is a drummer with a reach back to other great drummers of yore such as Jo Jones, one of his idols yet he seems to bring his approach to some pretty outside projects. Worth while checking out his work with William Parker and the late, Fred Anderson. I would also think that he would be another to add to Geoffrey Smith's list which is welcomed insofar that it is nice to hear Chick Webb rescued from undeserved obscurity.

Regarding "Darn that dream", I think that the Dianne reeves version is probably the definitive one. The album from which that track comes from is absolutely brilliant. I think jazz singers are a very personal thing when it comes to preferences. However, these days there seems to be surfeit of jazz singers and the whole oeuvre is in danger of being watered down by the host of technically brilliant singer intent on exploring the Broadway repertoire. Generally, this is a recipe for total boredom but Dianne Reeves is certainly amongst the five greatest female jazz singers of all time ( Billie, Ella, Sarah, Betty Carter are the others.) Her voice is one of the most beautiful sounding musical instruments in jazz since the late 1980s and I would have to say, I find her to be one of the very best jazz artists I have heard perform live. Catching her in concert as I have been fortunate enough to have done on about three occasions immediately reveals her a having the kind of presence I would suggest that I have only ever seem matched by B.B. King, Gregory Porter and Kurt Elling. The Gil Evans arrangement of the tune is good but I agree with S.A's assessment of the vocalist on that track, This is why Dianne Reeves seems so good - she just transcends her era.

[Ian Thumwood]

Did anyone listen to the Danish edition of "Jazz Now?" It was a really strange combination of three groups which shed light on a scene which seems to fall under the shadow of Norway but the bands featured really seemed to offer very little jazz. The best of the three was the piano trio - very much in the kind of fusion mould that is popular these days but at least the band seemed to write some really good melodies. I didn't mind this trio at all. Perhaps it was as hard edged as you would expect from a more typical piano trio but it was pleasant none-the-less.

My perception of "Girls in Airports" was a bit wrong. I had thought that they were more of a fusion outfit but the music they produced was far more ambient. A mixture of Jan Garbarek Scandi-cool with the feel of Nik Bartsch's group. The music was demonstrative of just how stretched the notion of Fusion has become as "Girls in Airports" did not sound too edgy nor really improvising in a more "post-bop" manner. Listening to groups like this does make me think that I am becoming increasingly detached from a lot of contemporary jazz and I am sure that this is exactly the kind of stuff that some of the younger people I meet up with in Vienne are in to. If you like a group like "Snarky Puppy", it isn't too much of a leap to like "Girls in airports." - snappy name which doesn't sound like an "old" jazz group and a style of music which is really easy to listen to.

The final band were not really playing jazz at all. The music was ok but I felt that this was more akin to the kind of stuff JLU might play. The impression the three groups left was that the Danish jazz scene wasn't particularly superior than the current UK scene and maybe just as prone to populism. I got the impression that Soweto wasn't over-impressed - he didn't enthuse as much as he has done with more hard-hitting American musicians who are more in the traditional side of things. Did any anyone else listen?

It would be interesting to hear more Danish jazz and I think there is more orthodox stuff out there. I heard Niels Lan Doky's trio a few years back and felt they were pretty good even if very much in the mainstream style of things and not too "outside." I really like their album of Scandinavian standards which covers works by a number of Classical composers as well as pop material like "Ah ha's" "Living Daylights" which worked really well as a bass feature. I also seem to read a lot about Pierre Dorge's New Jungle Orchestra which flirted more with the avant garde. Not sure if this kind of stuff is still fashionable or even considered contemporary anymore.

[Serial_Apologist]

Did anyone listen to the Danish edition of "Jazz Now?" It was a really strange combination of three groups which shed light on a scene which seems to fall under the shadow of Norway but the bands featured really seemed to offer very little jazz. The best of the three was the piano trio - very much in the kind of fusion mould that is popular these days but at least the band seemed to write some really good melodies. I didn't mind this trio at all. Perhaps it was as hard edged as you would expect from a more typical piano trio but it was pleasant none-the-less.

My perception of "Girls in Airports" was a bit wrong. I had thought that they were more of a fusion outfit but the music they produced was far more ambient. A mixture of Jan Garbarek Scandi-cool with the feel of Nik Bartsch's group. The music was demonstrative of just how stretched the notion of Fusion has become as "Girls in Airports" did not sound too edgy nor really improvising in a more "post-bop" manner. Listening to groups like this does make me think that I am becoming increasingly detached from a lot of contemporary jazz and I am sure that this is exactly the kind of stuff that some of the younger people I meet up with in Vienne are in to. If you like a group like "Snarky Puppy", it isn't too much of a leap to like "Girls in airports." - snappy name which doesn't sound like an "old" jazz group and a style of music which is really easy to listen to.

The final band were not really playing jazz at all. The music was ok but I felt that this was more akin to the kind of stuff JLU might play. The impression the three groups left was that the Danish jazz scene wasn't particularly superior than the current UK scene and maybe just as prone to populism. I got the impression that Soweto wasn't over-impressed - he didn't enthuse as much as he has done with more hard-hitting American musicians who are more in the traditional side of things. Did any anyone else listen?

It would be interesting to hear more Danish jazz and I think there is more orthodox stuff out there. I heard Niels Lan Doky's trio a few years back and felt they were pretty good even if very much in the mainstream style of things and not too "outside." I really like their album of Scandinavian standards which covers works by a number of Classical composers as well as pop material like "Ah ha's" "Living Daylights" which worked really well as a bass feature. I also seem to read a lot about Pierre Dorge's New Jungle Orchestra which flirted more with the avant garde. Not sure if this kind of stuff is still fashionable or even considered contemporary anymore.

I couldn't stay awake for much of the programme =- such were its attention-gripping qualities! So I'm in agreement here. The Pierre Dorge unit was very high in our esteem back in the 1970s, so I'll have a listen to that clip. Iirc Don Cherry was involved sometimes.

Brit pianist Andrea Vicari has a new album due out. Its debut is advertised as taking place this Thursday at the Vortex, but I see the band is on tomorrow at the Bull's Head, and so, preferring the atmosphere there, I'll be wending my way over to Barnes. Strange (but with the kudos always attending the place) unsurprising that the Vortex gets the publicity: the place will be as ram-packed as a Jeremy Corbyn railway trip. Andrea and her bass-playing hubby Dorian Lockett (brother of the better-known Mornington Lockett: we called him Dorian Mode!) were running the Bedford, a regular weekly gig in Balham until about 6 years ago, when I think noise from the karaoke in the front bar of the pub, together with lack of heating in the room/annexe, brought what had been a great and always well-attended introduction to upcoming people associated with F-Ire and the Loop Collective beginning to show promise barely out of the teens to a very sad close; since when, she has not been so much in the limelight, concentrating, I presume, on teaching - they run an annual summer school in the S of France for those with enough time and dosh at their disposal! Pete Wareham and Mark Lockheart were on the last recording of about 5 years ago.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Talking of jazz in Scandinavia, I got hold of the "Jan Allan -70" CD at the weekend. Very very good, five stars and a trophy in Morton/Cook. They call it a kind of "answer record" to Gil and Miles and there are of course similarities but its also it's own thing with a dream Scandinavian band . Allan was one of Sweden's major names on trumpet, besides being a particle physicist. Them Scandis eh...

"Despite its title, this set does not feature trumpeter Jan Allan at the age of seventy. Actually, it consists of a couple sessions from 1968-1969 that were originally released as an LP in 1970 that gained very good reviews in Europe at the time. Allan is featured with a Swedish orchestra that plays six originals (three by Nils Lindberg) and includes on various selections altoist Arne Domnérus, pianist Bobo Stenson, guitarist Rene Gustafsson, and bassist Palle Danielsson in the personnel. The music is tonal and generally swinging but unpredictable in spots, challenging Allan to play at his best. Well worth searching for."

There are two longish tracks on Utube.

BN.

[Ian Thumwood]

When I heard Norwegian jazz for the first time I was struck by the shear originality and there are still certain records which really appeal. The country seems to have produced increasingly modish jazz since the late 1990s but I always felt that Denmark had been divorced from these developments. Whilst I am aware that there are plenty of Norwegians who have up-sticks and built successful careers in more orthodox jazz scenarios such as Ingebrigt Haken Flaten and Paal Nilssen-Love, I always had the perception that the Danes were more prone to stick within the jazz mainstream. When I went to Copenhagen in 1996 I certainly got this impression and the audiences seemed really savvy. I think jazz has clearly evolved in the intervening 20 years and can appreciate why a group like "Girls in airports" might evolve to meet the demands of a younger audience for whom the likes of Rollins, Miles, Coltrane, etc are pretty meaningless but the three groups featured on Monday didn't seem so wide ranging. The impression was almost as if these bands were chosen to suit a young demographic and maybe not so representative of the more "orthodox" jazz played in Denmark. I'm not even sure the third ( and least featured group) was really playing jazz - the musicians interviewed did stress that there wasn't actually much improvising in their music.

Generally I think "Jazz Now" has got the balance right and maybe this programme was an attempt to cater for the old audience for "Jazz on 3." Anyway, Hamid Drake is on next week which will probably appeal more to the limited population of this "bored."