Anti Loping

[Serial_Apologist]

Night jam jars given that we've had a few repeats of the below announcements:

Sat 24 Sept
5.30pm - J to Z
Kevin Le Gendre pays tribute to innovative trumpeter and composer Jaimie Branch, who died last month, aged 39. Featuring highlights of an interview she recorded for J to Z in 2019, in which she discussed her influences and her philosophy on music. Plus highlights of a concert given by Chicago percussionist and spiritual jazz giant Kahil El'Zabar recorded last month at the We Out Here festival.

Half an hour later than usual start time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001bryn

12midnight - Freeness
Corey Mwamba with new jazz and improvised music. Plus guests, today with US drummer Jason Nazary discussing his musical journey. He also talks about Pink Dolphins - the recent release from Anteloper, his avant-garde duo with New York trumpeter Jaimie Branch, who died last month, aged 39, and to whom Corey pays tribute by revisiting his interview with her from last year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001bzbg

Sun 25 Sept
4pm - Jazz Record Requests
Alyn Shipton includes recordings by saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, pioneering fusion group Weather Report, and bassist Ron Carter.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001c789

11pm - The Voice of the Vibraphone - 3/3
In this final instalment Corey Mwamba showcases the lyrical possibilities of the vibraphone. With music by Stravinsky and recordings by Milt Jackson, Marjorie Hyams and Bobby Hutcherson, plus the reggae stylings of Lennie Hibbert.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001bz6v

[Jazzrook]

Night jam jars given that we've had a few repeats of the below announcements:

Sat 24 Sept
5.30pm - J to Z
Kevin Le Gendre pays tribute to innovative trumpeter and composer Jaimie Branch, who died last month, aged 39. Featuring highlights of an interview she recorded for J to Z in 2019, in which she discussed her influences and her philosophy on music. Plus highlights of a concert given by Chicago percussionist and spiritual jazz giant Kahil El'Zabar recorded last month at the We Out Here festival.

Half an hour later than usual start time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001bryn

12midnight - Freeness
Corey Mwamba with new jazz and improvised music. Plus guests, today with US drummer Jason Nazary discussing his musical journey. He also talks about Pink Dolphins - the recent release from Anteloper, his avant-garde duo with New York trumpeter Jaimie Branch, who died last month, aged 39, and to whom Corey pays tribute by revisiting his interview with her from last year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001bzbg

Sun 25 Sept
4pm - Jazz Record Requests
Alyn Shipton includes recordings by saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, pioneering fusion group Weather Report, and bassist Ron Carter.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001c789

11pm - The Voice of the Vibraphone - 3/3
In this final instalment Corey Mwamba showcases the lyrical possibilities of the vibraphone. With music by Stravinsky and recordings by Milt Jackson, Marjorie Hyams and Bobby Hutcherson, plus the reggae stylings of Lennie Hibbert.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001bz6v

S_A
Just to point out that Alyn's blog with JRR playlist for Sun 25 Sept is missing.

JR

[Old Grumpy]

It's up there:

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

[Serial_Apologist]

It's up there:

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

Thanks OG!

[Ian Thumwood]

Wierd to see Kahil El Zabar referred to as "spiritual jazz." i am a fan of this percussionist but felt the performances were stretched out too long. There were some great solos but everytime I hear El Zabar I am reminded about the comment about performing with animals and children insofar that he is such a character that he becomes a scene stealer. I have a DVD of him performing with a band that inckudes the great Billy Bang and the underated Ari Brown on tenor and he is mesmerising to watch, his feet bedecked with bells as he stands behind his congas and gets lost within the music. If there is a word that sums up his approach I would say it would be "organic." He takes simple ideas and then creates something fantastic out of it, mixing up elements of African music, Coltrane and soul into a gumbo I find difficult to resist. I sometimes wonder if there is n element of Butch Morris style "conduction" at play here.

The jaimie branch interview was interesting and difficult not to concede that there was more, fantastic music to come from her.

[Serial_Apologist]

Wierd to see Kahil El Zabar referred to as "spiritual jazz." i am a fan of this percussionist but felt the performances were stretched out too long. There were some great solos but everytime I hear El Zabar I am reminded about the comment about performing with animals and children insofar that he is such a character that he becomes a scene stealer. I have a DVD of him performing with a band that inckudes the great Billy Bang and the underated Ari Brown on tenor and he is mesmerising to watch, his feet bedecked with bells as he stands behind his congas and gets lost within the music. If there is a word that sums up his approach I would say it would be "organic." He takes simple ideas and then creates something fantastic out of it, mixing up elements of African music, Coltrane and soul into a gumbo I find difficult to resist. I sometimes wonder if there is n element of Butch Morris style "conduction" at play here.

The jaimie branch interview was interesting and difficult not to concede that there was more, fantastic music to come from her.

The Don Cherry influence on her was obvious from the first moments I heard of her music - more in terms of formal frameworks than her actual improvising style. Very much looking forward to Freeness in an hour's time for more about her own work.

[Serial_Apologist]

I just caught the end of Roscoe Mitchell's NONAAH on the New Music Show, which I might have included in the regular listing had I known it to be featured. The Norwegian Naval Band - of all things - seems to have made a good fist of it. I believe it's an old work. Tonight's fare is more interesting than it has been for some time, with a pretty Neo-romantic violin concerto from Michael Gordon, who I used to think of as a Postromantic avant-gardist, if that's not a contradiction in terms; here's a link for anybody who might be interested:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001c748

[Serial_Apologist]

I heard a clear prequel to the sort of music that would be used to caricature fuddy-duddy Colonel Blimp-type leftovers in trendy 1960s British spy movies in the Sauter/Finnegan track on today's JRR. Funny how it would come to be used - I would never have placed it as American.

The track after the Miles currently on might interest denizens of the furthermost reaches of Brit Fusion - Network seems to have featured a floating personnel, often with the fabulous Peter Jacobsen on keys, favouring exploring boundaries between Prog, Metal and Free. I hadn't realised Larry Coryell had been roped in: it would be nice to learn more about this grouping and who the central mover[s] was or were.

BTW that Miles track showed how advanced the group already was, ahead of Plugged Nickel. Tremendous stuff.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

There's a great version of Stella by Starlight on the Berlin CD, which wasn't as far as I recall, on the original vinyl. Or listed on the CD sleeve which I've got. Wayne doing his imperious ballad bit...here tis:

http://youtu.be/NHZ6a7CW2Xc

[Ian Thumwood]

I heard a clear prequel to the sort of music that would be used to caricature fuddy-duddy Colonel Blimp-type leftovers in trendy 1960s British spy movies in the Sauter/Finnegan track on today's JRR. Funny how it would come to be used - I would never have placed it as American.

SA

I am surprised that you had never heard that track by Sauter / Finegan orchestra before as it is really famous. I got into jazz through listening to big bands as a teenager and belonged to a club in Portsmouth where this track was used every month to open up proceedings. Along with the re-working of a piece by Prokovief, it is the most well known thing they recorded.

This big band is perhaps one of the best examples of the dangers of looking at big band orchestration purely from a jazz perspective. I must admit that I am not a fan because it was not really a jazz unit but, by the same token, it is a group that I admire. This was a hugely innovative band which gave way to the imaginative writing of Bill Finegan and Eddie Sauter. I seem to recall that there is one LP they made which focused on percussion and remember hearing something by this orchestra which was pretty experimental. It is dangerous to make assumptions about how big band writing changed in the late 40s / early 50s and culminated in the likes of Gil Evans. However, this is only part of the story as there are other writers not necessarily writing jazz who were no less innovative.

I am not sure if you were aware but Bill Finegan was responsible for the many of Glenn Miller's hits including "Little Brown Jug." In big band circles, he was highly respected as an arranger, producing effective charts in spite of Miller who was a hard taskmaster. He later studied with Darius Milhaud and therefore it is not surprising that he had the tools in the box to be an extremely effective writer. His partner in this venture is, for me, more interesting. Eddie Sauter is probably best known for his writing on Stan Getz's "Focus" but he cut his teeth with Red Norvo's "chamber" big band in the late 1930s before totally transforming Benny Goodman's band of the early 1940s. For my money, this band was much better than the group Goodman led in the 1930s and effectively pushed Goodman in to the vangard of orchestral jazz writing of that time. Most people listening to jazz think of Goodman's work with Christian around the same time as being highly adventurous yet the charts Sauter produced were no less adventurous. Sauter effectively made Goodman's band the most modern around the early forties. He later wrote charts for Artie Shaw including "The maid with the flaccid air" which similarly took that band into more modern areas. (As well as featuring pianist Dodo Marmarosa.)

The Sauter / Finegan orchestra is a rather strange band and something of a venture for the two co-leaders to experiment with their more advanced ideas which would generally have been discouraged by some of the bandleaders they worked for.

[Serial_Apologist]

SA

I am surprised that you had never heard that track by Sauter / Finegan orchestra before as it is really famous.

Everyone has gaps in their musical appreciations - mine has always been the 1950s for jazz, and roughly 1820-1860 in classical music, excepting certain works in both fields, one of them not being Sauter/Finegan. At least I got to hear of this before 'twas too late!

[Serial_Apologist]

11pm - The Voice of the Vibraphone - 3/3
In this final instalment Corey Mwamba showcases the lyrical possibilities of the vibraphone. With music by Stravinsky and recordings by Milt Jackson, Marjorie Hyams and Bobby Hutcherson, plus the reggae stylings of Lennie Hibbert.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001bz6v

Just bumping this up as a reminder it's on in 14 minutes' time.