PDA

View Full Version : For hipsters only . .



jimdgoulding
19-01-2009, 09:50
More specifically, lovers of JAZZ! Let's share some special examples, vinyl or silver. If you shouldn't happen to know any- if it hasn't been your thing- you WILL if you got a mind to!

Bop and post bop, classic jazz from the late fifties and sixties. Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers recorded a gang of stuff on the Blue Note label. A ripping one is "Free For All". A sextet with Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter (before he starting his musing way of playing on the soprano saxophone), Curtis Fuller, and Cedar Walton on piano. For you guys who download stuff, download the title track. This one you play LOUD. It's positively a burner!! Then look up "Live at Keystone 3" (Concord Jazz) and download "A La Mode". Likewise, it's high heat, clean cooking with gas, more meticulously played. Wynton and Branford Marsalis were a part of the Messengers on this one with a young pianist named Donald Brown. Might want to have a fire extinquisher nearby for these. They are very accessible, no worries, and very inventive. Good sound, too, I'd be interested to know which one you like best in that regard. The latter has the perspective of a seat in the club.

I've been listening to a little Horace Silver today. "Tokyo Blues" in point of fact, also on Blue Note. If you download my recommendations, and you should at the first opportunity, make a copy for a friend. Good listening.

Any other knowledgable fans about here?

Beechwoods
19-01-2009, 19:07
Jazz isn't my speciality, but there are a few special jazz recordings that I love. 'Consecration 2' by Bill Evans features probably my favourite ever jazz recording. Bill Evans is regarded by many as one of the finest jazz pianists ever. The album was recorded live in San Francisco, late August and early September 1980 a matter of weeks before Evans died of multiple complications - cirrhosis of the liver, pneumonia, a bleeding ulcer, after years of cocaine use and (in the fifties and sixties, heroin use).

The thing is though that he doesn't play like a man with days to live. His performance, especially the 10+ minute version of 'My Romance' is absolutely stunning. He plays as a trio with Marc Johnson on bass and Joe LaBarbara on drums.

The review below is of the 16 disc set from his last 8 shows. I have a cut-down box of 3 discs on Timeless Records and they are available individually too.

Review > http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=13679
Amazon > http://www.amazon.com/Consecration-Vol-Bill-Evans-Trio/dp/B0000242LP/ref=pd_rhf_shvl_3

About Bill Evans > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Evans

Here's a Youtube clip of a shortened version of 'My Romance' from around the time the recording I mention was made. It's not as good, but gives you a good flavour of what I'm getting at. TBH I've never seen him perform before so I found it realy enjoyable. If you like. Please check out the album!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=E6CS8h_JSk4

John
19-01-2009, 22:10
I think John Coltrane was a true genius Ballads has some great melodies
Tend to like Fusion
Think most rock blues and Jazz owe a big thank u to Louis Armstrong his licks can still be heard today
My all time favourite guitar player is Django just love playing his music on guitar another genius
Of course classics like Miles Davis A Kind of Blue and Keith Jarrett Koln Concerts are hear from time to time
Every now and again I go to the odd jazz concert or listen to the odd record but like Beechy admit this is not one of areas of expertise, but can enjoy music from trad jazz to swing to bebop to Fusion I even like some John Zorn he is an amazing composser but generally find Avante Garde hard to get into
Just think its healthy to have a open mind about music in all forms

Filterlab
19-01-2009, 23:14
Only jazz I've really listened to is Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong, other than that I have yet to experience enough to really get into it. Always seems well recorded though and a pleasure to listen to.

John
20-01-2009, 08:22
Yes often Jazz has a lot higher production values than most pop and rock

Clive
20-01-2009, 08:47
The Jazz I have in my collection is the most moving music I have. I'm still getting to grips with the different sub-genres and developing my taste. For sure there's some that I don't get along with, ie what I call greasy hotel foyer jazz, maybe it has a proper name , MoR Jazz?

What do I like?
- Coltrane
- Freddie Redd
- Rollins
- Getz
- Brubeck
- Zoot Simms

Standard stuff really but I love it. Any other recommendations along similar lines would be gratefully received.

Beechwoods
20-01-2009, 08:53
Lounge Jazz :)

Clive
20-01-2009, 08:58
Lounge Jazz :)
Yes, of course....thanks.
BTW, I missed Glenn Miller, Ellington etc on my list.

John
20-01-2009, 16:31
Hi Clive here are a few names that might be worth a trying out as most of you list seemed to fall into the benop style

Cannonball Adderley
Miles Davis
Dizzy Gillespie
Dexter Gordon
Lee Konitz,
Charles Mingus
Thelonious Monk
Wes Montgomery
Charlie Parker
Chet Baker
Bud Powell
Sonny Stitt

Clive
20-01-2009, 17:22
Hi John,

I'll take that as bebop :)

Indeed Mingus, Parker, Davis, Baker, Monk and Gillespie I enjoy and already feature in my collection, the others I will investigate!

Many thanks and may your ZYX be with with you and your Terminator.

Beechwoods
20-01-2009, 21:57
Other jazz stuff I like...

John Coltrane. 'Coltrane', the Impulse! album from 1962 is wonderful. Strangely my favourite track being 'Miles Mode' which is I assume him in Miles Davis 'mode'. To me it sounds like Soft Machine's Elton Dean at times. Extraordinary how the influences come through.

Bill Frisell. Frisell is a contemporary jazz guitarist. His stuff veers from straight jazz to ambient to blues to noise. 'Before We Were Born' on Nonsuch from 1989 is particularly eclectic. He loves playing round with genres and styles, particularly within songs. The highlight is an amazing 13 minute track called 'Hard Plains Drifter, or: as I take my last breath and the noose grows tight, the incredible events of the past three days flash before my eyes' and they do. It was arranged by John Zorn and Zorn and Frisell also worked together in Naked City around the same time. Perhaps one for John to check out!

I love Pat Metheny too, though some of his later stuff is a bit MOR for me. I like his early stuff through to Offramp, which is a great album by the way.

I should also say I've added a great Youtube clip of Bill Evans live in 1979 to my earlier post - do check it out:
http://theartofsound.net/forum/showpost.php?p=31061&postcount=2

jimdgoulding
20-01-2009, 23:04
Thanks, guys, for taking an interest in this topic. I wonder if I could persuade you to list some recorded examples and some reason why they are important to you?

Coltrane was mentioned. I can tell you that the best sound you can get of him will be on The Impulse! Albums: Volume One (Verve). Sure, that is an opinion, but I do have a lot of experience with this artist and own most of the original albums re-mastered here (and elsewhere). If there is one song that will give you a complete experience of his music/playing, I think it is Out Of This World from the album simply titled Coltrane (there are five albums in this collection and it is expensive). Later in Trane's career he began to abandon melody for more free form improvisational playing. But, on this song, he is very respectful of the melody and returns to it again and again. From the melody he launces his explorations. And THOSE explorations will take you deeper into his head/art than any known to me. And I mean to say with all the force I can muster, this is great, great work. It will kill you (in the Sufi way) if you can get your head into it.

The thing about jazz musicians is that they are so advanced (they have to be) on their instruments that they can translate ideas and feeling into music limited only by what an instrument can do, or their understanding of it. Coltrane makes things up on his instrument (tenor sax, in this case) that sound impossible. And they are methodical. He is going someplace. If you listen to this, I'd like to suggest that you listen very loud. Give him the most direct connection you can. This is a transcendent moment in music, nothing less.

Beech- You should have no trouble doing this and thanks for being so specific with your replies.

The Grand Wazoo
24-01-2009, 12:10
Dexter Gordon - "Go!"
Tommy Chase - "Groove Merchant"
Julian Bahula's Jazz Afrika - "Son of the Soil"

Two of the best gigs I ever saw were Julian Bahula's Electric Dream with Dick Heckstall-Smith on Sax(es). Both at the Concorde in Brighton. During one of them, they turned into Julian Bahula's Acoustic Dream because of a power failure.

I also have a direct from the mixing desk cassette of a fantastic gig Tommy Chase did at the same venue (I got my then-girlfriend to tap-up the sound man (poor innocent fool!)).

jimdgoulding
28-01-2009, 04:11
Old school: Bass on Top- Paul Chambers
New school: Nik Bartsch and Ronin- Holon

jimdgoulding
31-01-2009, 22:29
Two new sides I got are very satisfying: Tom Cat- Lee Morgan (Blue Note); Beyond The Wall- Kenny Garrett (Nonesuch). The former is a remaster of some tracks layed down in the sixties with Jackie McLean and McCoy Tyner in the line up. Smokin!

jimdgoulding
26-03-2009, 12:37
Miles (live) in Tokyo (Sony)

Spectral Morn
26-03-2009, 18:17
Hi Guys

Like John I am more of a fusion Jazz lover.

Just heard about the death of a guy called Ian Carr....the obituary show on Friday afternoons on Radio 4 played some of his music. Loved the Nucleus tracks, a late 60's through the 70's band. I bought the first two albums on CD via Amazon to get a feel for Nucleus (I sometimes find that you can like a few tracks but not them all) and avoid me buying stuff I may not like. Moneys to tight for mistakes.

The albums are Elastic Rock and We'll talk about it later. Sounds interesting but I can't say much more at this early stage CD only came today.


Regards D S D L

jimdgoulding
26-03-2009, 20:34
Hi Guys

Like John I am more of a fusion Jazz lover.

Just heard about the death of a guy called Ian Carr....the obituary show on Friday afternoons on Radio 4 played some of his music. Loved the Nucleus tracks, a late 60's through the 70's band. I bought the first two albums on CD via Amazon to get a feel for Nucleus (I sometimes find that you can like a few tracks but not them all) and avoid me buying stuff I may not like. Moneys to tight for mistakes.

The albums are Elastic Rock and We'll talk about it later. Sounds interesting but I can't say much more at this early stage CD only came today.


Regards D S D L

I like Ian Carr, also, tho I havent listened to my lone album of his a long while. Think I'll remedy that. His album is not on my property at the moment and I don't remember its name. It has a distinctly yellow album cover. Ring any bells?

jimdgoulding
01-04-2009, 03:41
I like Ian Carr, also, tho I havent listened to my lone album of his a long while. Think I'll remedy that. His album is not on my property at the moment and I don't remember its name. It has a distinctly yellow album cover. Ring any bells?


Supreme dude, that album is In Flagranti Delicto (Capitol) which I will be spinnin later. Cheers

John
12-04-2009, 21:00
For a great Jazz programme watch this
It Talks about 4 classic albums from 1959 that still have a legacy today
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00jf64y/1959_The_Year_that_Changed_Jazz/

The Grand Wazoo
29-12-2009, 01:04
This post is mainly for the benefit of Phil (Eckythump) who wanted some jazz recommendations.
http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=4940

Phil - you should know that my love of jazz is pretty much revolving around bop, though I do like some other stuff too. Phil was saying his rock roots were showing, so I'd say the first port of call ought to be:

Miles Davis - 'Kind of Blue'
The best selling jazz album ever - perhaps because it's considered to be structured like rock music, it reached a newer bigger audience.

Just possibly the coolest album ever released.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/adaptiveblue_img/music/kind_of_blue/miles_davis

http://open.spotify.com/album/4sb0eMpDn3upAFfyi4q2rw

Still with Miles you should try 'Sketches of Spain'
Very different from Kind of Blue

http://www.10bestthings.com/userFiles/itemImages/92d0b5dd9a9282356ffd36b2bc85ab20.jpg

http://open.spotify.com/album/4Gg3siRefHW8r2CndJxIiJ



Maybe next a little Dex.

Dexter Gordon - 'Go'
http://twentydollars.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/acae225b9da080da88d8f010-l.jpg

http://open.spotify.com/album/2QiY0nNhNcVfwGdqaQej0Y



Then some Trane.

John Coltrane - 'Blue Train'

http://dkpresents.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/blue-train.jpg

http://open.spotify.com/album/5Xyo1KrfdYLM4LtXKAz8r7



Dave Brubeck - 'Take Five'
Maybe the second best selling jazz album of all time. Great drumming & a fantastic sense of the acoustic it was recorded in!

http://hurtom.com/torrents/forum/photos/09030322002917746_f0_0.jpg

Not available on Spotify, but the live version is:
http://open.spotify.com/album/2FPcqic8Ul5HMeWGN2jtA2


Charles Mingus - 'Mingus Ah Um'

http://jldlap.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/mingus-ah-um.jpg


Released the same year as Kind of Blue & Take Five

http://open.spotify.com/album/3SsvRumJjzwBfSmVdo3KKO



Cannonball Adderley - 'Something Else'

http://www.musicdirect.com/shared/images/products/large/capsa1595.jpg

http://open.spotify.com/album/3ruKLoXdZ7o8E8zJzcnBsd


Apart from all of the above, my favourite jazz album ever is:
Tommy Chase - 'Groove Merchant'

Manic drumming and just a fabulous groove. Hard to find, so snap it up if you see it!

http://www.discogs.com/image/R-150-1206244-1200860097.jpeg

http://open.spotify.com/album/2qsmUXOboStEbZqxj17DSr

I didn't know it was on Spotify till just now - Go listen (but make it loud)!!!