W w w

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Well, "Jazz" seems to have a place for Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, the Trad revivalists. But not Braxton?

The last time I heard him on Jon3, I was reminded of the early Ellington bands.

In the meantime Jezz Nelson is enjoying himself with the ProgRock scene.

the early Ellington was much better to my ears ....

oh play the stuff play the stuff .... call it what you will .... as you point out Jez is playing all sorts ...

[burning dog]

It Jazz FM were 50% soul I'd listen to it. They tend to go for the sophisticated sounding but essentially banal examples of whatever genre they play. I'd prefer basic, direct, but good on a pop station

[Quarky]

Thanks for clip Calum.

Duke - simply the greatest.

[Richard Barrett]

pianist Keith Jarrett and saxophonist Anthony Braxton are set to receive America's prestigious Jazz Masters Award.

I trust they'll be playing together at the awards ceremony!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

indeed

[Ian Thumwood]

I can't believe that Jarrett would accomodate Braxton. Jarrett is amongst a small group of jazz musicians who seldom (if at all) play outside of their own , regular groups. Probably only Miles has been quite as isolated in this respect but even he changed the line ups of his groups quite frequently. For what it is worth, I am a huge fan of Jarrett's trio even if the leader can sometimes meander . When he is on his game, I can't think of a better piano trio . The solo work is less appealing - again, as with Braxton, the fact that the music sometime moves away from jazz means it loses it's edge for me. I'm quite happy for jazz to be a broad church but I have a difficulty where some musicians seem to reject the heritage and lose sight of the music's more robust origins.

An encounter with Braxton and Jarrett would probably be more interesting from a human persepctive as opposed to the musical result. Both have an affinity towards standards with the pianist being more conservative and the saxophonist (from what little I have heard) become somewhat exposed as an improvisor in this field. I certainly wouldn't rate him in the category of a master-improvisor like Lee Konitz.

The Ellington-esque Braxton numbers referred could possibaly be the group on Youtube that includes Taylor Ho-Bynam and the exceptional Nicole Mitchell. If this is the case, I was put more in mind of Charles Ives. Mitvhell is someone I greatly admire. She is an exceptional composer herself and I would have to say, easily the best flautist I've heard. Mitchell also seems adept at putting together really great bands too - whether it is the Indigo Trio or the groups on her last two Delmark records which are as good as any of the best jazz records recorded in the last 60 years.

I would have to say that the issue of "jazz composers" is now a topic that could easily be thrown wide open when considering candidates for CotW. I suppose that when I first got in to jazz in the 80's the principle names were Ellington, Monk, Mingus and Evans with Shorter seemingly losing his way amongst Fusion. At a push, you might have added Herbie Nicholls or Andrew Hill but thrity years ago neither had been properly re-discovered and their music remained over-looked by must fans. Nowadays, I think most jazz musicians are more capable with the pen and those who specialise in writing such as Schneider, Hollenbeck, McNeely, Argue , etc perhaps standing out. If you want to come up with the name of an alto player who is seriously thinking about what jazz could be, I would have to single out David Binney whose music is clearly jazz but frequently a kind of jazz that takes a less obvious route. Technically, he is light years ahead of Braxton as a soloist and whilst he doesn't dick around with idiosyncratic styles of notation or extended forms, he does look for the unexpected and his pieces are often multi-thematic as opposed to simply being changes to blow a line over. You could also make a case for Dave Douglas too. If you were to broaded the scope, any of these composers would have a good call for "CofW.

[Richard Barrett]

Of course I wasn't seriously imagining that Jarrett and Braxton would consider playing together!

I have a difficulty where some musicians seem to reject the heritage and lose sight of the music's more robust origins.

But Anthony Braxton would say that he in no way rejects jazz heritage. He just sees it as one part of a wider heritage that he can draw on, so that the legacy of Ellington's music is respected to the same degree and in the same way as that of Stockhausen. For me his work is most successful and original when these different strands of influence are interwoven to the point of indistinguishability, as in for example the "12+1tet" and other groups featuring the musicians you mention. But his most Ellingtonesque charts are actually to be heard in earlier work like the Creative Orchestra Music 1976 album.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

...and on the other hand

that could knock the Met off it's self congratulatory perch [not to mention any Ws]

way to go St Louis ... check the number of new works .....

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

that's all folks

with w every where is there a resurgent movement about us? a sudden penchant for uniforms and iconography? is it springtime? did i need a tax break, was i doing that well?