Everything is back to Norma, albeit with a dollop of Hines sight

[Serial_Apologist]

Sat 12 Jan
4pm - Jazz Record Requests

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

5pm - J to Z
Jumoké Fashola presents a session from Norma Winstone, one of the UK's finest vocalists, known for developing a highly influential style of wordless vocal improvisation, once described by the Los Angeles Times as "state-of-the-art, imaginative, virtually beyond-definition singing". Backed by her quartet, she performs music from her latest album, Descansado: Songs for Films. Also on the programme, New York pianist Fred Hersch breaks down tracks that have inspired him and shaped his sound - including a poetic recording by Joni Mitchell and a piece by trad jazz innovator Earl Hines. Plus, classic tracks and new releases.

Fred Hersch has worked a few times with Norma Winstone, in case this doesn't get mentioned.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bf8n78

The world should know that Norma is due to perform at The Vortex on Sat 26th Jan, in company with the Welsh pianist Huw Warren and Worcestershire- (not Italian) born guitarist John Parricelli. Though he does look Italian. I always forget the number of R's, C's and L's in his name. More than worth the tenner, I'd say.

Round about Midnight - Geoffrey Smith's Jazz
Geoffrey Smith showcases the later work of Billie Holiday, recorded before her death in 1959, aged 44.

Aged being the operative word. Prematurely. Unless yours is made of stone, this is heartbreaking stuff.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05pqr6f

Mon 14 Jan
11pm - Jazz Now
Soweto Kinch presents a concert by the Espen Eriksen Trio and saxophonist Andy Sheppard, recorded at the PizzaExpress Jazz Club during the 2018 EFG London Jazz Festival.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00020s3

On Radio 2, Tuesdays, Jamie Cullum's regular shimmy moves to 9 pm from this coming week (15th).

[Old Grumpy]

New Year, new puns!

Things can only get better...

... and better

Thanks, S_A

OG

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

JRR looks "a real good one"...Bird*, Chet, Zoot, Burrell, etc., come one, come all...*Duke Jordan may not have been Miles's pianist of choice with Bird, but he played some sumptuous intros to Comrade Parker's boppery.

[Serial_Apologist]

JRR looks "a real good one"...Bird*, Chet, Zoot, Burrell, etc., come one, come all...*Duke Jordan may not have been Miles's pianist of choice with Bird, but he played some sumptuous intros to Comrade Parker's boppery.

I've tried playing that tune "Jordu", from the Clifford Brown quintet album, and though it looks easy, it sure ain't.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I like Ella's ballads etc etc but that extended scatting...I reach for my Kalashnikov (carved balsa barrel).

And if Alyn's looking for records of pianos that have been drinking...Eric Dolphy/Booker Little/Mal Waldron at the Five Spot, although after all these years I wouldn't have it any other way. It's a key part of the atmosphere.

[Serial_Apologist]

I like Ella's ballads etc etc but that extended scatting...I reach for my Kalashnikov (carved balsa barrel).

It's very gymnastic, but one's impressions of spontaneity get dimmed over time, the quotes too knowing, the rest of the band too prepared as they come along.

And if Alyn's looking for records of pianos that have been drinking...Eric Dolphy/Booker Little/Mal Waldron at the Five Spot, although after all these years I wouldn't have it any other way. It's a key part of the atmosphere.

Yes, that being one of the first things I noticed on that otherwise favourite album. My betting is that Mal would have probably taken it in his stride (no pun), as had Monk and Stan Tracey, making it part of his personal sonority. The same with the Bull's Head piano a couple of weeks ago for Art Themen. I didn't say anything as Barbara Thompson was next to me, and Art was a huge encouragement and mentor in her early days. But you'd think one of the nation's best known venues they'd see to something as basic as keeping the piano in good nick. Fiona always insisted on having the one in our local gig tuned every month, out of respect for the visiting player, even though it was only one gig per month there and beer mug receipts paying the band. And it's always the upper register nerves which get bejangled!

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

What I do think is fairly unforgivable is to use a really bad piano in a modern recording. Clubs are bad enough but a record date is for keeps...it is, after all "a record". Warne Marsh's "All Music" Quartet album on Nessa lumbers Lou Levy with a piano he has to fight. It's a really great record and I've got accustomed to the piano sound after all these years, but you would have thought the label and producer (Nessa) would have got it fixed before. Actually, I think there's a Von Freeman recording using that same piano. Itza nota fair.

[Serial_Apologist]

What I do think is fairly unforgivable is to use a really bad piano in a modern recording. Clubs are bad enough but a record date is for keeps...it is, after all "a record". Warne Marsh's "All Music" Quartet album on Nessa lumbers Lou Levy with a piano he has to fight. It's a really great record and I've got accustomed to the piano sound after all these years, but you would have thought the label and producer (Nessa) would have got it fixed before. Actually, I think there's a Von Freeman recording using that same piano. Itza nota fair.

Absolutely agree.

On another topic, I continue to be most impressed by Ms Fashiola's engaging and respectful presenting manner on J to Z. I'd go so far as to say she's turning out to be one of the best jazz presenters since Charles Fox. I do wonder what choice she and the other presenters, Julian and Kevin mainly, have over whom they interview and the recordings, sometimes wondering if Kevin get's the bum's steer when it comes to having to enthuse over pretty naff stuff at times. Jumoké really empathised with Norma Winstone in today's interview slot, having, unlike the presenters on the R3 weekday morning programmes, really done her homework on her subjects - that "Kind of Blue" influence so crucial for helping Norma find her own approach, and name-checking her work with Fred Hersch, which I wrongly had forebodings would be overlooked.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I did find her a bit "gushing"? But maybe that's me being habitually grumpy! What did make me smile (and not her fault, mine completely) is that when I was in the kitchen preparing my fish...bream to be told, I thought I heard Norma introduced as "Norman Wisdom". Well, it's my kitchen acoustics! My excuse ... my age...Still, Norman Wisdom on ECM?

[Old Grumpy]

Still, Norman Wisdom on ECM?

OG

[Old Grumpy]

I did have a sense of having heard this Just to Z before. I presume it was a repeat as Tomasz Stanko (RIP) was referenced.

OG

[Ian Thumwood]

I caught a bot of J-Z driving back from the football but was switching between the music and the football reports. Just wanted to pick up on a couple of things. The biggest problem for me with recordings is out of tune pianos. They can ruin the listening experience. I think that there is terrible piano on Brad Goode's "Tight like this" which is effectively a tasty Dave DOuglas style quartet which works it's way through some material from the 1920s. This would otherwise be an exceptional record. I can understand pianos going out of tune on gigs but would have thought that a tuner should be to hand in the studio.

As for the Norma Winstone set, I love her work usually but am not enthused by he current European band she has. I feel I have grown out of this kind of austere stuff. Got to admit that I find all the presenters on A-Z too gushing. Could do with some more incisive criticism like wot Humph used to do.

[Serial_Apologist]

I caught a bot of J-Z driving back from the football but was switching between the music and the football reports. Just wanted to pick up on a couple of things. The biggest problem for me with recordings is out of tune pianos. They can ruin the listening experience. I think that there is terrible piano on Brad Goode's "Tight like this" which is effectively a tasty Dave DOuglas style quartet which works it's way through some material from the 1920s. This would otherwise be an exceptional record. I can understand pianos going out of tune on gigs but would have thought that a tuner should be to hand in the studio.

As for the Norma Winstone set, I love her work usually but am not enthused by he current European band she has. I feel I have grown out of this kind of austere stuff. Got to admit that I find all the presenters on A-Z too gushing. Could do with some more incisive criticism like wot Humph used to do.

I too have mixed feelings about Norma's Anglo-Italian-German trio, but of a different kind, eg in the way proceedings have become a bit too polished as compared with the line-ups with John Taylor, Kenny Wheeler, and the likes of Robert Mitchell, which offered complex time signatures and trip ups she always said she preferred to the safe routes preferred by many singers. But the challenges have changed, and I have to admire her ability as a lyrics writer for other people's materials, which are now going beyond relatively conventional frameworks such as Ladies in Mercedes and The Peacocks.

[Ian Thumwood]

Just think that music has moved on. Norma Winstone was the first jazz singer that ever turned my head. She has always sounded unique and as much of a genuine "jazz singer" as say Betty Carter. I loved her music with Wheeler and Taylor and I don't see a great deal of difference with the new group. It is not a bad line up but I think that so much ECM seems austere these days. Back in the 80's the label seemed a lot more varied so that NW was very much amongst a range of styles. Since the 1990s, I feel the label has become more homogenous and whilst I was addicted to the label for about 10 years, the recent stuff holds little appeal. I just don't like Eicher's production values so that even interesting line ups pass me by. The European stuff is particularly unappealing albeit not to the extent of the ACT label which sounds totally wrong to my ears!