Hancock's whole hour - Time and Emulsion? My Iris!

[Serial_Apologist]

Sat 11 Feb
4.00 Jazz Record Requests
Alyn Shipton with listeners' requests across the full spectrum of jazz

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

5.00 Jazz Line-Up
Claire Martin presents a performance by saxophonist Courtney Pine and pianist Zoe Rahman, recorded in April 2016 on the Jazz Line-Up stage as part of the Gateshead Jazz Festival.

A repeat.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b079lt47

12.00 Geoffrey Smith's Jazz
The focus is on Herbie Hancock, a seminal force in jazz-rock fusion, still touring at the age of 76

Another repeat.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08dnj9r

Mon 13 Feb
11.00 Jazz Now
Soweto Kinch presents a concert by former Radio 3 New generation Artist Trish Clowes and her new band My Iris, in concert in January at MAC Birmingham as part of the Emulsion Music Festival

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08dnnnt

BTW if anyone's interested, Richard Rodney Bennett's song cycle "Spells", which he composed when he was still writing genuinely innovative and thrilling music, before he gave up using serial methods, is broadcast on Afternoon on 3 this coming Monday, at 3.25 pm. Basil Kirchin, who employed many British jazz musicians in conventional big bands before going on to write fascinating experimental stuff using free improv and electronics, has next Tuesday's Late Junction starting at 11 pm on 3, devoted to him. And the great Maurice Ravel, who arguably turned more creatively to jazz as a major inspiration in his later years, is next week's Composer of the Week. He titled the slow movement of his 1925 Violin Sonata "Blues", remarking in so many words with genuinely misplaced modesty that being a Frenchman meant that this could obviously not be a genuine blues.

[CGR]

BTW if anyone's interested, Richard Rodney Bennett's song cycle "Spells", which he composed when he was still writing genuinely innovative and thrilling music, before he gave up using serial methods

Yep. I still treasure my Julian Bream recordings of the Impromptus and Guitar Concerto.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

JRR looks good today? Bechet's Blues in Thirds (a favorite) and Coltrane's Ole (a double favorite). And its Valentine time. Jim et Bill.

BN.

[Serial_Apologist]

Did anyone hear Country Pine and Zoe Rahman on JLU?

To me they sounded like Courtney Pine had taken on the role of a British David Murray - same clod-hopping outsize Doc Martins approach, no line - with Ms Rahman doing a sort of McCoy Tyner parody, all stiff lipped and on the beat - such a disappointment given the promise of the young CP, when he and Julian Joseph really were Somethin' Else.

[Manupstairs]

Thought the first album they worked together on (Europa, I think) was quite a lot more interesting than the second. I also caught the tours for both and the performance for Europa was more exciting.

[Ian Thumwood]

Did anyone hear Country Pine and Zoe Rahman on JLU?

To me they sounded like Courtney Pine had taken on the role of a British David Murray - same clod-hopping outsize Doc Martins approach, no line - with Ms Rahman doing a sort of McCoy Tyner parody, all stiff lipped and on the beat - such a disappointment given the promise of the young CP, when he and Julian Joseph really were Somethin' Else.

The comment abut David Murray is interesting as this was originally my perception of his playing which, I admit, is based on seeing him perform live more than his recorded output. He is a player that I was initially really negative about, largely due to the grandstanding / ego thing associated with his music and the tendency to go from Ben Webster mode to thermo-nuclear mayhem in the next phrase. I would also say that the big bands he has put together have not been great. That said, the last time I saw him perform with a quartet he was fantastic. His small group records are also pretty impressive and the album he put out last year was really well received by critics and getting cited in a number "best of " polls. I can appreciate the negative assessment but it is not one I would particularly agree with.

The music he has produced is has been pretty impressive as a while. I am not so sure by Courtney Pine and I can see where your assessment is coming from. Since the initial hype has died down, I feel that Pine has done well in trying to maintain a profile for contemporary jazz. There is plenty out there that is better but, as the recent "hype" given to artists like Neil Cowley, Portico Quartet and more recently Laura Jurd, there is still a tendency to overpraise anything that is new.

[Serial_Apologist]

The comment abut David Murray is interesting as this was originally my perception of his playing which, I admit, is based on seeing him perform live more than his recorded output. He is a player that I was initially really negative about, largely due to the grandstanding / ego thing associated with his music and the tendency to go from Ben Webster mode to thermo-nuclear mayhem in the next phrase. I would also say that the big bands he has put together have not been great. That said, the last time I saw him perform with a quartet he was fantastic. His small group records are also pretty impressive and the album he put out last year was really well received by critics and getting cited in a number "best of " polls. I can appreciate the negative assessment but it is not one I would particularly agree with.

The music he has produced is has been pretty impressive as a while. I am not so sure by Courtney Pine and I can see where your assessment is coming from. Since the initial hype has died down, I feel that Pine has done well in trying to maintain a profile for contemporary jazz. There is plenty out there that is better but, as the recent "hype" given to artists like Neil Cowley, Portico Quartet and more recently Laura Jurd, there is still a tendency to overpraise anything that is new.

That can be true, it's true! On the other hand, I tend to make allowances for the genuinely new, even when it flops, for where would jazz be without it?! And as one free improv exponent once put it to me, "Our approaches may lack the finesse of well-practiced conventional jazz, but when something unexpected happens and then really takes off it's more than worth all that".

That said, I've never much liked David Murray's stuff since his contributions to James Blood Ulmer's No-Wave funk band in the early 1980s, where his emotive honks and falsetto effects fitted well with the bluesy ethos. To me there seem to be limited returns in deconstructing, or rather destroying an idiom which is out of its time, because jazz can be no equivalent to the pre-postmodernist gesture of exhibiting a urinal in an art gallery or reproducing the Mona Lisa to spit at the commodification of the arts; as long as jazz pushes at wherever the boundaries are at the time it's fulfilling its role. I'm probably alone here in quite liking Mr Ulmer and that whole area, which we hear less of nowadays. The big band was interesting in having established Free players such as Olu Dara improvising on Mingus-type materials and structures. Much as people used to anger Keith Tippett by asking "Why don't you ever play a standard?" I've often enjoyed hearing a normally free improviser doing a standard cover version. Lol Coxhill loved to do this, and his only partial absorption of the gestures if not mannerisms of pre-Free improvisers in company with Veryan Weston, Mike Garrick, Bruce Turner or, yes! Bobby Wellins, often if not always produced something more interesting than the ubiquitous standard interpretation at a pick-up Sunday afternoon pub jam in Croydon! I often wonder what happened to the duets with Bobby that Lol spoke of, with my tissues close to hand.

[Quarky]

[B]Sat 11 Feb

12.00 Geoffrey Smith's Jazz
The focus is on Herbie Hancock, a seminal force in jazz-rock fusion, still touring at the age of 76

Another repeat.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08dnj9r

.

Herbie Hancock. Casting my memory back to Ian's thread on content of US Jazz Radio Stations, it seems to me that if there is such a thing as "The Jazz Movement", and if this movement is advancing in a single direction, but on a broad front, then Herbie is perhaps the key directional sign post.

[Ian Thumwood]

The thing with players like David Murray is that they push the boundaries within the idiom. If you look at his work, he has always tried different formats but the efforts are always firmly within the "jazz tradition." When he reins in his excesses, he is hugely compelling. I wouldn't analyse his music in the way you have done and setting aside the fact that free jazz / improv is itself a music that has it's own heritage of 50 years, David Murray has recorded a wealth of music which will stand the test of time and is completely relevant to what jazz is about. The only odd thing that struck me when I heard him last was the he no longer seems so fashionable or at the forefront of any movement. I would suggest that this has a lot to do with the way jazz has evolved since 2000's - I would suggest that the 1980's when Murray was at his peak represents a kind of heyday for jazz.

On the subject of 1980s jazz, I have played nothing except Andrew Hill all weekend. The box set of Soul Note records captures two visits to Italy, one in 1980 and one in 1986. Each visit produced two LPs. It is odd to listen to the 1980 efforts which includes a solo session which is pretty hard work and takes a while to get going and a trio which is more like Cecil Taylor than anything else you might associate with Hill, The 1980 session is completely uninhibited and there are moments where the music is almost coruscating. I cannot imagine this kind of record being issued these days unless on a very "niche" label like Leo. It is fascinating to recall the state of jazz in 1980 whereby the music had nothing whatsoever to do with any popular music / populist take on jazz. There is no compromise. Of the two 1986 sessions , I have only paid the quartet session. This is terrific but perhaps the most "accessible" Andrew Hill record I have heard. Of the two sessions, I think you would prefer the first (both solo and trio) but the interesting thing for me is that this may have been a record by an avant garde player yet it is centred totally within the "jazz tradition." It is pretty timeless, to be honest and you could imagine pretty much the same record being made by Blue Note in the eaely 1960's. This is where I totally differ from you in the "pushing the boundaries" argument. These days, this is really nothing to do with pushing anything and more to do with ticking boxes. Where you argument falls down is that I don't think Andrew Hill was ever someone who rested on his laurels or coasted as a soloist. He never really looked to advance jazz or re-invent himself as Miles did (and look where MD's music eventually ended up!!) but he was always true to himself. The bloke had integrity. I feel this is the same with the likes of David Murray but there are plenty of players in jazz who have stuck with what they do best yet still remain at the creative vanguard whether you are talking about Jimmy Heath or Steve Lacy.

The other thing I don't buy is the "deconstructionist" agenda. This was a massive thing in the 1980's but to accuse David Murray of being part of this is not what I have always thought his music has been about. I think Murray is an honest performer but not everything he does is to my liking or works. The deconstructionists were largely part of the Downtown scene in the 1980s and this has dated. No one is really in to the Microscopic Sextet anymore and even John Zorn has done serious. There was so rubbish produced around this time although some really great stuff too. Even bands led by the likes of Steve Bernstein are still great fun. especially if pulling apart repertoire rfrom the 20's and 30's. If this seems frivolous, what about Thomas Chapin's work? Chapin enjoyed an almost mythical reputation in the 1980s / 90's and was terrific at full pieces apart and using different inspirations. The end results justified the means and were probably the last example of avant garde jazz having the ability to appeal to a mass audience - something entirely due to people making a connection with the emotional clout of his music which even the most cloth-eared of jazz fans could sense was the real deal. If you are going to go down the "earnest route, I don't think that citing Lol Coxhill is a book example because he was probably the arch-deconstructionalist par excellence.

[Quarky]

Nick Luscombe's Sonic Safari last night (Wednesday) deserves a mention I think. Albert Ayler and Tyondai Braxton (son of Anthony) among the artists featured.

[Serial_Apologist]

Nick Luscombe's Sonic Safari last night (Wednesday) deserves a mention I think. Albert Ayler and Tyondai Braxton (son of Anthony) among the artists featured.

Speaking of Late Junction, did anybody listen to last night's item on Basil Kirchin? I suppose in some ways it was remarkable for a British big band leader in 1966, though the impression I gleaned was of a small boy let loose in a toyshop. There's more stuff on him on tonight's Free Thinking, at 10 pm, and again on Late Junction at 11.