The place for jazz videos

[Joseph K]

Bruce

Thanks for posting the Paul Motion documentary. I have watched quite a bit of it but need to play the whole film this weekend. I love Paul Motian's music, bioth from the persepctive as an exeptional and original drummer and as a composer - something he never really got enough credit for. What is shocking is seeing just how many musicians in the film have now passed. I will have to dig out some of my Paul Motian records this weekend.

Joseph's posting of the Miles Davis gig from 1971 makes a fascinating contrast. Early 1970's Miles is a bit of a marmite experience for me. There are moments when the music feels like it is the fruition of what the second quartet did and, although effectively something as much created by Teo Macero in the studio, "Bitches Brew" took this to the ultimate extreme. However, it always struck me as something of a rabbit hole for Davis. What came out the other side was often just soloing over repetitive vamps and the glorious sound of his trumpet playing which reached it's apogee on an album like "Seven steps to heaven" has been abandoned as his plugged his horn in. I am afraid that I quickly got fed up with the music in this concert but it does make a fascinating juxtaposition with what you can hear in the Motion film where there is clearly a lot of thinking going on about creating the music. If you take the point that both musicians had reached by the 70s and 80s and compare the two, the only conclusion can be that Paul Motion was involved in all sorts of projects that were consistently producing better jazz than Miles Davis at that time. Even if you discount Mile's most pop-orientated stuff from the 1980s (which I bought in to at the time btw),it is Motian whose work is creative. When you think of the musicians Paul Motian was involved with at that time including the likes of Paul Bley, Charlie Haden, Dewey Redman, Bill Frisell, Marilyn Crispell, John Surman, etc, there is a body of work there that could be construed as being as good as the best work of Miles Davis. As much as I love Miles Davis (his music probably outnumbers anyone else's in my collection) seeing these two videos together did make me think just how divorced his music ultimately became from where the music was really "happening." In the end, he was little more than a poseur.

The Miles video is from 1973, not 1971 - but that's still the most accurate thing about this ridiculous post of yours.

[Ian Thumwood]

Joseph

I was around at the time Davis came out of retirement around 1980 and can remember reading reviews in newspapers like The Guardian at college which gave the comeback albums almost hagiographical reviews. The one I remember most was for "Star People." From recollection, the autobiograhy mentioned something along the line of Davis being completely out of touch with the jazz that was emerging in the 1980s other than his contempt for Wynton Marsalis. Personally, I think that the 1980s will go down as one of the most creative periods on jazz , no so much because there was a clear figurehead to direct where the music might be heading but because the music seemed to split up in to so many possibilities. At the same time, there were still musicians from the 20s and 30s who were still performing whereas a lot of Hard Bop musicians were still effectively middle-aged. There was so much creativity and originality and a good proportion seemed to come out of the underground scenes of the 1970s when Jazz-rock had ensured that acoustic forms could not get much of a look in. There is a really good chapter in Jimmy Heath's book about how the influence of rock caused record producers to meddle with the output of musicians who were not really interested in this route. On top of this, labels like ECM were taking an original approach to jazz which often reflected European ideals. It is quite fascinating to rattle off names of musicians who emegred from that decade and see just how wide-ranging their music was and how innovative. You can go from the likes of David Murray, Henry Threadgill, goerge Gruntz, John Surman, John Taylor, Keith Jarrett, Bill Frisell,AEoC, Arthur Blythe, Cecil Taylor, Billy Bang, Paul Bley, John Scofield, Abdullah Ibrahim, etc, etc and pretty much all of this music is superior to anything put out by Davis from 1980 until his passing. Even if you take a more fusion - orientated route, you can find people like Pat Metheny creating better jazz than Miles was doing in his last decade. When you go back to the 1970s and pick up the antecedents of a lot of this music, it does strike me that jazz was more "happening" in say the Loft Scene than what was occuring in Davis' groups. Once the likes of Shorter, Hancock, Holland, Corea , DeJohnette, etc had left, the musicians he was left with were either not of the same calibre of were of the likes of Dave Liebman, John Scofield, Branford Marsalis or Kenny Garrett who made better music with their own bands.

I think the unfortunate thing for Miles was that his resurgance became more of a struggle to remain relevant. I don't think that much of his post- early 70's stuff really amounts to much. I appreciate your opinion is different but you might want to check out the work of someone like Paul Motian before dismissing it. Motian offered many possibilities , all of which were relevant and respectful of what jazz had been and where it could go. The trio with Frisell and Lovano was exceptional. They could play standards absolutely straight and grab your attention whilst simultaneously playing completely outside. The body of work they produced ranged from Broadway material through Monk and on to Bill Evans as well as a hugely impressive library of originals. Dispensing with a bass instrument, all three musicians had to work for each other to maintain the momentum.

I can appreciate some of Miles' early 70's work but would argue that his last "great" studio albums were "Filles de Kilamanjaro" and "Bitches Brew" plus a number of good live albums. After this point, I feel you need to be selective and, as you get into the 1980s, maybe only "Aura" is worth the money albeit "The man with the horn" features some of Davis' better post-retirement improvisation. Other than that, there is not a great deal going on. It is all veneer. I grant you that mine is a personal opinion but I would suggest that most of the people on this board are likely to share my point of view. I don't fel that the music he produced in the 70s and 80's stacks up as his best work by a long chalk. There is nowhere as much "happening" in the music as was the case in the 50s annd 60's when his bands were effectively the Rolls Royce's of jazz.

There is an interesting article on one of the wbesites this week about Keith Jarrett's debut solo album "Facing You" which is now 50 years old. Quite shocking to learn how old it is and also to appreciate that it was made during a hiatus during a tour if Europe of Miles' band. It almost seems like a different kind of music let alone something made by a member of Davis' then-current group.

[Jazzrook]

Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Nathan Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Jaki Byard & Reggie Workman playing 'Crisis' in 1965:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=rjuwqnFNON0

JR

[Joseph K]

[Joseph K]

Anyone heard of this fine saxophonist, Aaron Burnett? I saw a video of him playing 'Beatrice' today on Instagram but haven't been able to locate it on youtube, so I'm sharing this instead:

[Jazzrook]

Charles Mingus with Charles McPherson, Bobby Jones, Jon Faddis, John Foster & Roy Brooks playing 'Blues With The Saw' in Europe(?), 1972(?).
This was the same sextet as on the recent 3-CD set 'The Lost Album From Ronnie Scott's':

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=k-b77CgSlys

JR

[Joseph K]

[Joseph K]

Happy 77th birthday, Keith Jarrett!

[Jazzrook]

Roland Kirk with Andrew Hill, Vernon Martin & Clifford Jarvis at Newport J.F., 1962:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=O0WVSUW0sZU

JR

[Ian Thumwood]

I thought that the clip Joseph posted of Keith Jarrett was fascinating. The music is pretty incredible yet I find it extremely difficult to watch this pianist perform. I saw him with the same trio about 30 years ago and was a little under-whelmed at the time. Jarrett is one of those musicians you would consider to be a bit "marmite" but I am more of the persuasion that this trio is nothing short of incredible when they are in the zone. Thanks for posting.

[Ian Thumwood]

Tommy Dorsey - "Twilight in Turkey"

I love Dave Tough's drumming on this record.

[Joseph K]

I thought that the clip Joseph posted of Keith Jarrett was fascinating. The music is pretty incredible yet I find it extremely difficult to watch this pianist perform. I saw him with the same trio about 30 years ago and was a little under-whelmed at the time. Jarrett is one of those musicians you would consider to be a bit "marmite" but I am more of the persuasion that this trio is nothing short of incredible when they are in the zone. Thanks for posting.

You're welcome.

[muzzer]

In honour of the anniversary of Rabbit’s passing I’ve fished out my Ellington dvds, that haven’t seen the light of day since I was learning the sax. Lordy but that gang were good. This is a lazy question, but where in London do you go these days to hear big band music?

[Jazzrook]

Archie Shepp with Horace Parlan, Wayne Dockery & Steve McCraven playing 'Here's That Rainy Day' in Amsterdam, 1994:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=61N0Xzo6aH4

JR

[Jazzrook]

Monksiland Band: Steve Lacy with Roswell Rudd, Dave Douglas, Jean Jacques Avenel & John Betsch playing Monk's 'Nutty':

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=szBmkJQKis4

JR