Marsh anoraks?

[Serial_Apologist]

When I saw the title of this thread, I thought it would be about the late lamented Tony. Ah well, I will follow it up, nonetheless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQU_ozpJe5c

[Tenor Freak]

Tori Freestone is a subtle, somewhat early Marsh-influenced player who, for me at any rate, bears out the 50s Cool way of being able to shape a solo that builds a story. Add a capacity for listening, and I think you have a player with more of value to come, as she leaves herself and her bandspersons room for manoeuvre and forward thinking in the immediate and longterm growth. At first her gentleness seemed to leave me out, but as the evening progressed I found myself more and more drawn in, disappointed when time was eventually called. See what you think:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG78wLmTRpk

I enjoyed that, thanks Serial...a new player to me, but one to look out for...

[Tenor Freak]

Bruce

With players like Marsh you feel it is the way the improvisation takes place and the line that are spun which are more important than the overall result. It is as if the journey take priority over the eventual arrival at the destination. This is something that I would also say is typical of Lee Konitz whilst there are contemporary players like guitarist Jeff Parker and the late Chicago tenor sax legend Fred Anderson that I feel also fit in to this category.

I always felt that the greatest jazz musicians have a degree of architecture in the way that they construct their solos. There seems to be a degree of logic with how the soloists start , where the go to and how they conclude their improvisations so that they are almost like mini-compositions. I suppose Louis Armstrong is the prime example of this with Charlie Parker being probably the next greatest exponent. You would also have to include Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young in to this category whereas as pianist such as Paul Bley seems to my ears to be the ultimate creator of improvised solos. His blues "For Roy E" on the fabulous solo album "Tears" always struck me as being absolutely perfect and I think the Kenny Barron solos I linked to from the Abbey Lincoln album is yet another example. I haven't listened to Marsh enough to say all his work was the polar opposite but that is the impression I have of him playing. He seems to typify what someone once wrote of jazz as being the imperfect art form.

Meant to reply to this last weekend, anyway...

The main reason I enjoy Tristano school players like Marsh, Konitz, and Sal Mosca, and their musical descendants like Mark Turner is the spontaneity of their soloing. Does this mean that every solo will end up with some overarching architecture? Almost certainly not, given that they are working in the moment, but there's no denying that there is logic involved - even if it's not obvious at first listen. But I prefer to hear a musician taking risks and failing as a price worth paying to escape cliches or obvious hot licks which have never interested me much. But when it works...now we're talking...