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The Jazz Thread

Started by kalowski, February 05, 2021, 10:24:26 PM

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NoSleep

Some favourites:

Duke Ellington & His Orchestra: Never No Lament - Collects all the sides he cut for RCA Victor from 1940-1942. Often called the "Blanton-Webster band" because they all feature bass player Jimmy Blanton and tenor sax Ben Webster, both awesome, but they aren't the only stars that shine across this set, which also features alto sax genius, Johnny Hodges, Barney Bigard - clarinet, Cootie Williams on trumpet, Rex Stewart on cornet (big influence on Miles Davis), the introduction of Ray Nance on trumpet, violin and vocals (taking over from Cootie Williams). Also on vocals are Ivie Anderson and Herb Jeffries, not to mention the awesome trombonist Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton, who makes the trombone almost literally speak. This is Duke Ellington at his peak with possibly the best band assembled ever. Special mention must go to the track "Ko-Ko" on which Ellington precurses Cecil Taylor by a decade and a half. Also, a few of these tracks were recordings of pieces performed in Ellington's almost-forgotten all black musical "Jump For Joy", which the band had provided the music for around 150 performances.

Sun Ra: Horizon - Live at the Balloon Theatre, Cairo 17th December 1971. Sun Ra plays in the city of the Sphinx and the Pyramids; of course he was going to make it best set he ever played. This album is the nearest he ever achieved in all his recordings to capture what it was like to see him and the band in the flesh.

Miles Davis: Live/Evil - My most-played album. How can you go wrong with a band consisting of Jack Dejohnette on drums, Michael Henderson on bass (fresh from Stevie Wonder's band), Gary Bartz on saxes, Airto Moriera - percussion (and wordless vocals!), Keith Jarrett, but you put him on electric piano and electronic keyboard instead of his beloved grand piano, then add John McLaughlin into the mix for good measure.

Ornette Coleman - Dancing In Your Head - Ornette goes electric and makes it full Beefheart for good measure (they were buddies, btw; obviously Don owed a huge debt to Ornette anyways).

Joe Zawinul - Zawinul - Precursor album to the formation of Weather Report, including the first recording of Doctor Honoris Causa (later performed by Weather Report) and Zawinul's own arrangement of his composition In A Silent Way, featuring all the chords that Miles took out for his version. Features both Zawinul and Herbie Hancock (with his echoplex) on keyboards as well as Wayne Shorter and Miroslav Vitous, three percussionists and more. Jazz Impressionism.

Dirty Boy

Not enough on the real McCoy - Walk Spirit, Talk Spirit.
Fingers like a centipede.

Focal Point is a good introduction.

Prime Mingus: Hobo Ho
Hog Callin' Blues
Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting

Sun Ra has so many records he's difficult to navigate. His biog by John Szwed is going to be read as soon as i finish the one i'm reading about Henry Cow. Looking forward to it, although i gather it's the usual sad and unfair story that seems to come with visionary artists.

NoSleep

Quote from: Dirty Boy on February 10, 2021, 07:10:40 PM
Sun Ra has so many records he's difficult to navigate. His biog by John Szwed is going to be read as soon as i finish the one i'm reading about Henry Cow. Looking forward to it, although i gather it's the usual sad and unfair story that seems to come with visionary artists.

Szwed's book is excellent. Really puts Ra's work into historical context and shows how his performances were keeping older traditions alive into the modern era while pushing the boundaries of music into the future at the same time.

Which Henry Cow book is that? Is it "The Henry Cow Book" (I think that was its title, something like that) that compiles clippings, photos and notes together from their history?

Now that Cab Radio is back I could recast my two part Sun Ra special (or do a new one) (or a bit of both).

Dirty Boy

Quote from: NoSleepWhich Henry Cow book is that?
This one. It's overly academic at times, but fascinating reading about them forging their musical and political alliances during the 70's (and getting Wyatt back on stage after his accident in the process). It's unexpectedly salacious in places as well, if you want to know who Frith was shagging back then[nb]everyone[/nb]

RenegadeScrew

Quote from: NoSleep on February 10, 2021, 06:45:48 PM
Some favourites:

Miles Davis: Live/Evil - My most-played album. How can you go wrong with a band consisting of Jack Dejohnette on drums, Michael Henderson on bass (fresh from Stevie Wonder's band), Gary Bartz on saxes, Airto Moriera - percussion (and wordless vocals!), Keith Jarrett, but you put him on electric piano and electronic keyboard instead of his beloved grand piano, then add John McLaughlin into the mix for good measure.

I only discovered this relatively recently after realising I was an idiot for not listening to everything Davis made in that period from 69-74/5.  What I Say is incredible.

RenegadeScrew

Quote from: shagatha crustie on February 10, 2021, 04:55:15 PM
I don't rate Monk's quartet stuff as much as some but I'm loving his solo piano work at the mo.

That cheerfully unhinged, elegantly pissed quality, the sheer joyous aggression with which he smashes each key down, the deliberate 'mistakes.' Perfect for trying to keep it together while stuck in your flat. So all of Solo Monk, and this completely mad performance of 'Don't Blame Me.'

Have you heard this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelonious_Monk_Trio

Cheers, I recently watched a monk documentary and was mesmerised by those live bits but didn't know where they were from.  Full two shows are youtube!

Mobbd

Quote from: Petey Pate on February 10, 2021, 10:42:40 AM
If you're keen on 'third stream'/chamber jazz, give Eberhard Weber - The Colours of Chloe a spin/stream/download.



I couldn't find it on YouTube Music (daresay it's on Spotify or another service) but I at least found a bootleg from a live gig containing one quarter of it. It's so immediately beautiful that I biffed off to Discogs and bought it on vinyl. Fuck it! Something to look forward to.

kalowski

I'm just listening to my Duke Ellington 56/62 record and I've just noticed that the brilliant Clark Terry was one of Duke's trumpet players.
These boys could play.

NoSleep

Quote from: Dirty Boy on February 10, 2021, 07:10:40 PM
Sun Ra has so many records he's difficult to navigate.

Just get them all as you find them. Really.

buttgammon

Just heard that Chick Corea has died. I must check out some more of his stuff as leader, but he played with Miles Davis during his classic late 60s/early 70s run, and also did great things with Circle.

NoSleep

Shit that's very sad. One of my absolute faves throughout all his phases. But I particularly like his pre-Scientology work, central to which are his two albums "Is"[nb]Which features one of my favourite album covers


[/nb] and Sundance, later compiled on The Complete "Is" Sessions, which feature a unique, brilliant and precocious take on free jazz. I only saw him perform a couple of times with Return To Forever, once with Bill Connors on guitar and once when Al Di Meola took over, and like his sense of playfulness and humour even whilst in the midst of playing this powerful intense music. They were performing musical pranks in an attempt to throw one another off track (none of which worked of course). Equally entertaining repartee between numbers (I especially remember this from a solo piano concert he performed on Radio Three despite having the flu).

RIP Chick. I think I may have to fire up CaB Radio in the next couple of days to pay tribute to him.

NoSleep

Rick Beato pays tribute (and reads out Chick's farewell message):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LHuv0I-qbA

NoSleep

More sad news. Near the end of that video Rick Beato says that Keith Jarrett suffered two strokes in 2018 and can no longer use his left hand!

Petey Pate

Sad to hear about Chick. Not many OGs of American jazz left and he certainly earned his place among the greats.

I think the first two Return to Forever albums with Flora Purim are probably the best, but there's a lot of great stuff in the later more prog rock sounding ones. The 15 minute Song to the Pharoahs is outstanding. I should revisit his free jazz period as well, I've also never heard any of the albums he played on for Stan Getz.

NoSleep

Another nice early album he appeared on was Pete La Roca's Turkish Women At The Bath which also featured a rare date away from Sun Ra's band for tenor sax giant John Gilmore (one of the very few saxophonists whose work interested Coltrane as a contemporary).
Turkish Women At The Bath later got reissued as a Chick Corea album in one of its editions, retitled Bliss! and then again as Love Planet and then again as The Very Best Of Chick Corea.

darby o chill

:( Didn't realize he was almost 80. Some of those guys are eternally 40 in my mind for some reason.
On the playfulness mentioned a few posts above by Nige, I love this little back & forth with Chick on minimoog and Maynard Ferguson on trumpet.

https://youtu.be/tiabnx7r_rY?t=210

kalowski

Now He Sings, Now He Sobs is a brilliant Chick Corea album.

jobotic

Don't know much beyond the vary basics when it comes to jazz, but I used to enjoy browsing the Aquarius Records (RIP) website genres and listening to the clips - one that immediately jazzed (ha) me was Lloyd Miller's "oriental" jazz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=478hfvZ9Tqw

(actually made in 1968)

thugler

Quote from: NoSleep on February 10, 2021, 07:43:16 PM
Now that Cab Radio is back I could recast my two part Sun Ra special (or do a new one) (or a bit of both).

Believe this show was what got me to investigate sun ra proper, so cheers for that!

And recast for sure!

SpiderChrist

I discovered this the other day, and got my first proper erection since 2017. The two occurences may be connected.

https://youtu.be/kc56GtietHM?t=610

Chiasma - Yosuke Yamashita Trio


Chedney Honks

Quote from: thugler on February 13, 2021, 06:01:25 PM
Believe this show was what got me to investigate sun ra proper, so cheers for that!

And recast for sure!

Me too, that was absolutely brilliant, NoSleep. Almost too dense to comment on but it opened up a massive door to a room I've still not explored enough.

buttgammon

Quote from: SpiderChrist on February 13, 2021, 06:09:15 PM
I discovered this the other day, and got my first proper erection since 2017. The two occurences may be connected.

https://youtu.be/kc56GtietHM?t=610

Chiasma - Yosuke Yamashita Trio



Really great album, with some absolutely pornographic drumming, so the two things are no coincidence.

I'm not hugely knowledgeable on Japanese jazz but another album that's good is Hip Seagull by Terumasa Hino, which I discovered in this very thread!

Dirty Boy

Quote from: NoSleep on February 11, 2021, 07:37:05 PM
Just get them all as you find them. Really.
Albums of Ra that i've enjoyed so far: Angels And Demons At Play, We Travel The Spaceways, Super-Sonic Jazz, Space Is The Place, Celestial Love, Languidity, Sleeping Beauty, Atlantis, Bad And Beautiful... and a few compilations. Where next considering i'm not a newbie?
Quote from: NoSleep on February 11, 2021, 07:37:05 PM
Just get them all as you find them. Really.
Not helping there mate.

chveik

Quote from: Dirty Boy on February 13, 2021, 07:18:22 PM
Albums of Ra that i've enjoyed so far: Angels And Demons At Play, We Travel The Spaceways, Super-Sonic Jazz, Space Is The Place, Celestial Love, Languidity, Sleeping Beauty, Atlantis, Bad And Beautiful... and a few compilations. Where next considering i'm not a newbie?Not helping there mate.

you've already mentionned some of my favourites, maybe you should explore some live albums: It's After the End of the World, Disco 3000, Nothing Is, Sunrise in Different Dimensions, Nuits de la fondation Maeght Vol. 2

NoSleep

Quote from: Dirty Boy on February 13, 2021, 07:18:22 PM
Albums of Ra that i've enjoyed so far: Angels And Demons At Play, We Travel The Spaceways, Super-Sonic Jazz, Space Is The Place, Celestial Love, Languidity, Sleeping Beauty, Atlantis, Bad And Beautiful... and a few compilations. Where next considering i'm not a newbie?

Not helping there mate.

These all seconded, especially Disco 3000, Nothing Is and Nuits De La Fondation Maeght volume 2 (my intro to Ra via its release on Recommended Records):

Quote from: chveik on February 13, 2021, 07:49:38 PM
you've already mentionned some of my favourites, maybe you should explore some live albums: It's After the End of the World, Disco 3000, Nothing Is, Sunrise in Different Dimensions, Nuits de la fondation Maeght Vol. 2

And adding to those, of course, the one I mentioned earlier: Horizon: it's his best album.
Another really good live album (and better recorded than Horizon) is Live At Montreux

Regarding Disco 3000: this is unlike any other Ra album apart from one other, recorded at the same time in Italy: Media Dream. They both feature a quartet comprised of John Gilmore on tenor sax, Michael Ray on trumpet, Luqman Ali on drums and Ra on piano and, more importantly, a Crumar Mainman, probably gifted directly to Ra from the Italian company. I can't seem to find any other record of this keyboard, so it may have been a prototype, although I do recall hearing a recording by somebody else that sound similar - can't remember any details, it was nearly 30 years ago. Anyway get both, but start with Disco 3000.

I really like his more out-there albums: Space Probe featuring an epic solo electronic expedition in the title track. And while we're out-there (albeit not solo electronics; well, a bit) check out The Rose Hue Mansions Of The Sun

Which Space Is The Place do you have? The OST of the film or the actual album? Make sure you have both. The actual Space Is The Place album features the track Images which is a firm favourite of mine.

Get his first ever album Sun Song (AKA Jazz By Sun Ra). It was this era Sun Ra that inspired Daevid Allen to depart Australia for Europe in the late 50's (he even named one of his bands after the opening title - Brainville).

Get the collection Sun Ra - The Singles, as it's a truly wonderful tour of many aspects of Ra delivered in tiny packages that would each fit on the side a 7" single on his own El Saturn label. Not just works of Ra and the Arkestra, but experiments in pop (from doo-wop to christmas songs to synth rock) and the outright crazy (where they back up street singer Yochanan). Also features four straight out blues sides by Lacy Gibson (Buddy Guy on one of his tracks).

Some late period Ra studio albums, comparatively well recorded are Blue Delight and Purple Night. Also check out Strange Celestial Road: I think Sun Ra got his hands on the mixing console for this one - some dub moves), and Mayan Temples

I better stop for now.


Mobbd

Don't forget The Futuristic Sound of Sun Ra, folks.

I own two of his records on vinyl (the other being Supersonic Jazz) and the Futuristic Sound is the superior one by about 10%.

This is IMHO, of course. For all of its for all its considerable merits, I find SJ a bit uneven and eclectic but Futuristic Sound hangs together perfectly and feels more like an album.

I think Space is the Place (the studio album: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Is_the_Place_(Sun_Ra_album)) is his best record ever and that cover is sublime but I don't own it yet. It tends to be a bit expensive at £30 or so. One day! But it'll need to be an occasion. *rubs legs, Vic Reeves-style, to denote covetousness*

Petey Pate

CaB Radio is currently doing a Chick Corea tribute night. Listening links here:

http://s1.myradiostream.com:34552/listen.pls   
http://s1.myradiostream.com:34552/listen.m3u
http://s1.myradiostream.com:34552/listen.mp3

And you can enter the chatroom here: https://chat.mibbit.com/?channel=%23cabradio&server=irc.mibbit.net

Chatroom info if you have an IRC client:

Server: irc.mibbit.net
Port: 6667
Room: #cabradio

NoSleep


Mobbd

Quote from: Petey Pate on February 16, 2021, 09:06:34 PM
CaB Radio is currently doing a Chick Corea tribute night.

I've never tuned in before. These are live events with no catch-up option, right? And is there a schedule?

NoSleep

Petey's doing regular Tuesday nights from 9 and he plays a lot of jazz (amongst other things). Don't just tune in; join the IRC chatroom and give some live feedback (what's said in the chatroom can affect what next gets played).