The Brice of everything

[Serial_Apologist]

Sat 18 Jan
5pm - J to Z
Presented by Julian Joseph, today featuring an interview with six-time Grammy-winning jazz bassist Christian McBride, who shares some of the music that inspires him. Plus a live performance by UK saxophonist Leo Richardson and his quartet, with music from their hard-swinging 2019 album Move. First broadcast last September.

Nice of them to remind us, mind...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00089n5

And there is no Jazz Record Requests this weekend, as America's greatest musical gift takes second fiddle to... yes, right first time - Beethoven . No wonder we're in such a snot.

12midnight - Freeness
Corey Mwamba looks ahead to the ideas of Noise festival in Birmingham, starting on Thursday and running to 9 February, which champions sound art, noise and adventurous improvisation. The line-up includes the premiere of Oli Brice's new group with saxophonist Paul Dunmall, and New York drummer Tom Rainey's trio with Mary Halvorsen and Ingrid Laubrock. PLus music from pianist Daniel Bernardes's latest album Liturgy of the Birds, on which he and his trio bring Messiaen's compositional processes to the 21st century.

Sounds like a good idea - I'm still coming to terms with the 20th century - but isn't it the case that Messiaen hated jazz? I remember one British musician getting a block on recording an instrumentalised transcription he had made of a short Messiaen choral work from the master's "estate".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000dhsf

Incidentally, for anyone interested, there's a piece by Leo Brouwer included on next Friday's Lunchtime Concert - it isn't often that we get to hear modern classical music from Cuba, of which most of Brouwer's music is a pleasant albeit "accessible" example. He is held by many to be Cuba's most important composer.

[Old Grumpy]

And there is no Jazz Record Requests this weekend, as America's greatest musical gift takes second fiddle to... yes, right first time - Beethoven . No wonder we're in such a snot.

Yeah, it's time the guy was put back on the leash and someone told him to get his tanks off the Jazz lawn

I'm heartily sick of the Beethoven Unleashed trails already - and there's almost a year to go.

OG

[Serial_Apologist]

Yeah, it's time the guy was put back on the leash and someone told him to get his tanks off the Jazz lawn

I'm heartily sick of the Beethoven Unleashed trails already - and there's almost a year to go.

OG

Thank you for being the first person on this forum to agree with me!

[Jazzrook]

Yeah, it's time the guy was put back on the leash and someone told him to get his tanks off the Jazz lawn

I'm heartily sick of the Beethoven Unleashed trails already - and there's almost a year to go.

OG

Agreed, OG.
JRR seems to be disappearing every other week at the moment. Can't be helping the audience figures for the programme.

JR

[Ian Thumwood]

Tim Garland was blocked by the Messaien estate.

[Serial_Apologist]

Tim Garland was blocked by the Messaien estate.

Oh thanks for that info, Ian - I just couldn't remember who it was.

[Old Grumpy]

Thank you for being the first person on this forum to agree with me!

You're welcome, these R3 semi-immersive experiences really bug me - in fact it was the Mozartfest in 2011 that brought me to these boards (good outcome).

I have just cashed in the virtual beer token for a real one.

Cheers!

OG

[Serial_Apologist]

You're welcome, these R3 semi-immersive experiences really bug me - in fact it was the Mozartfest in 2011 that brought me to these boards (good outcome).

I have just cashed in the virtual beer token for a real one.

Cheers!

OG

I'm listening right now to J to Z: really enjoying this particular propgramme, even though it's a repeat. Proof that a good live gig can really set one up for the next day! That Melba Liston track truly is a peach. (Apologies if anyone has already bagged that particular one!)

[Ian Thumwood]

I'm listening right now to J to Z: really enjoying this particular propgramme, even though it's a repeat. Proof that a good live gig can really set one up for the next day! That Melba Liston track truly is a peach. (Apologies if anyone has already bagged that particular one!)

I caught a large chunk of J-Z as the traffic coming out of Southampton after the football match was horrendous and exacerbated by the roadworks coming out of the Avenue. The Leo Richardson quartet sounded really good and played their brand of jazz with particular affection. It is nice that more younger players are coming around to unadulterated jazz sounds than was the case perhaps 10 years ago. I enjoyed the set by this group. I was less taken by the Melba Liston track - sounded very much of it's time despite being pretty clever and well written. I think the "Trolley Song" is pretty unredeemable , though.

The conversation with Christian McBride was interesting. I was surprised by his enthusiasm for Bootsy Collins as I had anticipated he would be more of a jazz purist. He offered some interesting point although the Charlie Parker disc was a weird selection insofar Mingus' bass parts were allegedly dubbed on later. I was intrigued by some of his comments and it did make me listen harder to "Havona." "Weather Report" always sounded like they wanted to be a big band yet the comment about eschewing the muscle -flexing stuff was well made. You could hear the creativity in parts of the arrangement and I concur that the sophisticated stuff was not incorporated to jeopardise the quality of the appealing writing. I am a fan of McBride even though I found him pretty imposing on the one occasion I was on a workshop where he was present. I get the impression he is probably a lot more conservative than my initial perception . Wondered what McBride would make of someone like William Parker or even a musician like Barry Guy ?

[Serial_Apologist]

I caught a large chunk of J-Z as the traffic coming out of Southampton after the football match was horrendous and exacerbated by the roadworks coming out of the Avenue. The Leo Richardson quartet sounded really good and played their brand of jazz with particular affection. It is nice that more younger players are coming around to unadulterated jazz sounds than was the case perhaps 10 years ago. I enjoyed the set by this group. I was less taken by the Melba Liston track - sounded very much of it's time despite being pretty clever and well written. I think the "Trolley Song" is pretty unredeemable , though.

The conversation with Christian McBride was interesting. I was surprised by his enthusiasm for Bootsy Collins as I had anticipated he would be more of a jazz purist. He offered some interesting point although the Charlie Parker disc was a weird selection insofar Mingus' bass parts were allegedly dubbed on later. I was intrigued by some of his comments and it did make me listen harder to "Havona." "Weather Report" always sounded like they wanted to be a big band yet the comment about eschewing the muscle -flexing stuff was well made. You could hear the creativity in parts of the arrangement and I concur that the sophisticated stuff was not incorporated to jeopardise the quality of the appealing writing. I am a fan of McBride even though I found him pretty imposing on the one occasion I was on a workshop where he was present. I get the impression he is probably a lot more conservative than my initial perception . Wondered what McBride would make of someone like William Parker or even a musician like Barry Guy ?

I understand that Mingus dubbed his bass on after the recording revealed how faint it was, as a consequence of the poor placement of his tape recorder for the concert. There is a recording without the dubbing which I have heard: the bass is audible on it, and probably sufficiently to satisfy anyone but Mingus's ego. My recording (with the overdubbing) places "All The Thing Are You" last, whereas I have been told it was the first number of the band's set; it certainly sounds like they were in the process of warming up - there was a famous boxing match simultaneously being broadcast on Canadian TV, and it is said that various band members were unable to resist leaving the bandstand in mid-performance to see how the match was going! It is also said that Bud Powell was very distracted - there are moments during "Salt Peanuts" in which Dizzy's alleged antics while Parker is steaming ahead into his solo were what was drawing laughter from the audience, and if one listens Bud seems to have lost his place in the chord sequence! This may be apocryphal - this is a recording that has drawn strongly verbalised disagreements regarding factuality - but I would love to believe it's true, this being one of those recordings it is difficult to know what to put on after it!

Listening again to McBride's enthusiasms, the impression I gleaned is of someone with firm ideas about what he approves - his statement to the effect of liking to hear every detail stand out clearly - and that the closer another bass player approximated to this requirement, the better from his pov. Barry Guy's "approximative expressionism" would not accord, I think, though of our freer players Paul Rogers would probably pass muster, given the premium Paul places on precision where it is needed.