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Post by Rich on Jan 27, 2015 22:03:03 GMT
Jimmy Smith, Groovin at Smalls' Paradise for me today..."Indiana" came up on shuffle on my phone last night and man, that it one smokin' number!
Also in the mood for "Gypsy Blue" in the spirit of LJC's new post.
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Post by gregorythefish on Jan 29, 2015 18:32:53 GMT
Today and yesterday I enjoyed a WLP Impulse issue of "Fate in a Pleasant Mood", which I like, but it doesn't WOW me the way some Ra stuff does. I also listened to my scruffy original of "The John Coltrane Quartet Plays" with just a tiny lateral skip to discredit it. It was still a nice listen overall. Of course, I'd be remiss without mentioning that I took a chance and bought an NYC original of Mose Allison's "Back Country Suite" on Prestige. I didn't hate it, but I will have to listen again. The singing caught me off guard. What are the rest of ya'll enjoying?
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Post by dottorjazz on Jan 31, 2015 9:14:46 GMT
singing in Jazz never raised my enthusiasm. I've got a couple of exceptions: Lady Day and Helen Merrill. I fell in love with Billie some decades ago and remember that the first track I used to listen to every first day of the year was Body and Soul. I think I have most if not all what is published on record. I like her singing from the 30's to the 50's, different indeed: in the years it went from light shrill to dark and unprecise, the only voice that got me. I've never been with better educated voices like Ella's or Sarah's and I can't say why. Merrill is a recent discovery, quite different, polite but very expressive. Never liked men's voices, in Jazz. Anyway my heart goes to instrumentals and, as you may know, the man from Hamlet, Alabama, is my top musician. Always interested into anything related to Trane.
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Post by alunsevern on Jan 31, 2015 10:47:51 GMT
Another Saturday morning and I'm starting with Steve Lacy and Mal Waldron's knotty interpretations of Monk on REFLECTIONS. I wish I had a better sounding copy of this than the 80s Fantasy reissue LP which is all I possess. It's an LP to be listened to with careful attention and I'm just playing side one for the second time.
Next? I've no idea. I'll let you know when I get there.
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Post by alunsevern on Jan 31, 2015 20:57:10 GMT
And then on to the first side or OUT TO LUNCH, which was a great pleasure. And then -- quite fortuitously -- the doorbell rang and my copy of Aki Takase and Alexander Von Schlippenbach's SO LONG, ERIC! was delivered.
Now, I had read good things about this, but was not entirely sure what to expect. This is a live recording, which took place on the 19th and 20th June 2014 in Berlin on the fortieth anniversary of. Dolphy's death.
Half of the arrangements are by AvS and half by his wife, Takase. The band is, I think, a thirteen or fourteen-piece line-up. And Takase and Von Schlippenbach are stalwarts of the European free improv scene.
Yes, I know what you're thinking. But it isn't like that. Had dear poor Eric lived to hear such a hommage I think his head would have exploded with pleasure -- perhaps after some initial slight puzzlement... But this is marvellous, ferociously disciplined music -- an augmentation, an interpretation, of Dolphy, and without doubt a loving and respectful celebration too. This is jazz looking both backwards and forwards at the same time. I found it utterly enjoyable and I would urge anyone with an interest in Dolphy, in avant garde music, in the legacy *and* the future of jazz to hear this at least once. It is superb. It's on Intakt Records.ss
And I meant to add, Von Schlippenbach and Co. also sent me back to OUT TO LUNCH with a refreshed understanding of that LP as a challenging and radical chamber work, which I suppose I had never quite understood it to be before. What SO LONG, ERIC! does, I think, is put Dolphy back into the context of a Mingus band -- that sensation of flying by the seat of your pants, anything might happen, stand back and be amazed...
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Post by gregorythefish on Feb 1, 2015 14:10:02 GMT
wait, alun... you have an original out to lunch? very nice!
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Post by alunsevern on Feb 2, 2015 9:50:52 GMT
wait, alun... you have an original out to lunch? very nice! No, far from it -- mine is (I think) a 1990s EMI reissue.
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Post by gregorythefish on Feb 2, 2015 16:51:01 GMT
ah, i was gonna say! anyhow, today I've listened to side one of my new upgraded M- copy of coleman hawkins "today and now". My previous one had such a bad warp that it used to throw the needle across the record, so this is a beautiful thing indeed. and now i can listen to it! it sounds very nice. side two will be coming up shortly, but first i need to turn in some writing. i also plan to listen to the chico hamilton quintet featuring buddy collette. it is a common record, but very rare in good condition. people seem to have loved it! i got a very nice copy of the record, with the cover leaving a little to be desired, but that's fine with me! i'm excited to hear what it sounds like without all the dust and gunk solos scattered throughout. anyone else doing any listening today?
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Post by dottorjazz on Feb 3, 2015 21:07:00 GMT
as I'm at home with flu, today's Mingus' time: I've relistened to his two Bethlehem, The Jazz Experiments and East Coasting. now Pithecanthropus Erectus is on. if not too tired I'll go on with The Clown. anytime I go back to Mingus, more than his bass playing, is how his groups perform his music, I would say he plays the group, not his single instrument. you can easily know which music is on.
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Post by gregorythefish on Feb 4, 2015 14:36:12 GMT
dottor, you inspired me! this morning i through on my favorite mingus: ah um! i have a reasonable mingus collection: most of the impulse, columbia, candid, and a few other things. the bethlehems and earlier things are very hard to come by. but someday, i hope!
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Post by alunsevern on Feb 4, 2015 17:56:14 GMT
as I'm at home with flu, today's Mingus' time: I've relistened to his two Bethlehem, The Jazz Experiments and East Coasting. [...]. Dott, Get well soon. Mingus will help. What a terrific -- and under-rated -- record EAST COASTING is. One of the other early Minguses that I never tire of is MINGUS AT CAFE BOHEMIA -- which I think was also issued as CHAZZ. It has two absolutely marvellous Mingus mix-ups on it: Septemberly (which combines 'September in the Rain' and 'Tenderly'), and is also a brilliant title), and All the Things You C# (which combines Jerome Kern's 'All The Things You Are' with elements from the Rachmaninoff's 'Prelude In C# Minor' and Debussy's 'Claire de Lune'). He was a bear of a man but he knew his music -- and that of others -- inside out.
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Post by dottorjazz on Feb 5, 2015 17:53:27 GMT
I'm flu-free now! and on with the underdog. I've two Prestige twofers only: Mal Waldron One and Two and Charles Mingus which I listened to this afternoon. While the first will be substituted with the originals, the second will stay in my collection. This record collects recordings published originally on Debut 123 (Mingus at Cafe Bohemia) and what was supposed to be published on Debut 128 (Chazz) but never was. Fantasy printed it later on 6002, Chazz! as I'm a FPF (first pressing fundamentalist) for this records I've always given up because the original Debut was printed on bad vinyl and the sound was terrible. at least the three copies I could listen to were almost unlisteneable. I dig this Mingus so much, that's why this is one of the rare exceptions to my rule.
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Post by alunsevern on Feb 6, 2015 18:57:42 GMT
I'm glad to hear you're flu-free, Dott. I've got a nice Fantasy CHAZZ! on red vinyl. Maybe I'll play it tomorrow as part of my Saturday listening. That's a good idea.
I'm not, as you know, a FPF, but I am have pretty much cleared my collection of those old Prestige twofers. The more I listened to the ones I had, the more lack-lustre they seemed to be. Not bad, just rather indifferent. But in the 70s -- and even into the 80s as they all got sold off cheap in cut-out bins -- they were a great way to buy jazz and one of there few ways I could afford. I used to buy them from an incredibly fierce Welshman who ran a record shop where I live. Sometimes -- for reasons I could never ever understand -- he would have the bargain racks covered with sheets of brown paper, and if you tried to peek underneath he would shout, "Those are not for sale today!"
I never had the balls to ask him why. Strange, really. But I was very young and he was exceptionally fierce.
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Post by alunsevern on Feb 7, 2015 13:47:46 GMT
Inspired by Dott's suggestion, last night I played the first side of Mingus's CHAZZ! and continued this morning with the marvellous PITHECANTHROPUS ERECTUS. I do wish I had this in a better version than the Rhino or Doxy LP reissue -- I don't even know which one it is. I would perhaps even settle for a remastered CD if I could work out which one is generally considered to be good. Even so, the extraordinary music speaks for itself.
And then on to SOUND, SPACE AND STRUCTURES a by John Escreet (piano), Evan Parker (tenor and sop. sax), John Hebert (bass) and Tyshawn Sorey (drums).
I'm not sure this ranks amongst the finest of Parker's own trio or quartet recordings, or his work with Von Schlippenbach, but it's nonetheless a great listen -- invigorating free-improv in the European tradition, with some hints of melody here and there. Immensely enjoyable. It's on the little US label Sunnyside Records and was recorded it Sear Sound Studios, NYC, on the 25th Sept 2013.
And now on to the Howard Riley Trio's ANGLE, from 1969, just reissued on Hux Records along with the impossible to find (in any format except download) THE DAY WILL COME (1970).
I've been playing these a bit recently and I think I have now concluded that the slightly earlier ANGLE is not quite as coherent a set as the later DAY. Playing of the highest order, of course, especially the great Barry Guy on bass, and also shot through with the at very hard to define but quite distinct cusp-of-the-70s sensibility that could weld together free jazz, intense lyricism and rock. (Although don't get me wrong -- any rock influences on ANGLE are subtle, almost subliminal. This isn't, say, Nucleus.) It's the later DAY that is the real eye-opener, but ANGLE is hugely enjoyable.
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Post by dottorjazz on Feb 7, 2015 17:41:30 GMT
today's highlights: I'm gettin' on with Mingus and Lady Day, strictly mono. as I wrote elsewhere, I'm trying to listen to ALL my records which are well documented on my Mac. There are artists with a lot of recordings, Miles, Trane, Dolphy, Mingus...I'm about 2/3 way and hope to come to the end by 2015. My worst enemy is TIME: it took almost a year to take pictures of covers and labels and to catalogue almost everything. I only need to go through my 7" but they are few. 10" and 12" are completed. Another artist I'm listening to is Miles: I'm trying to collect all is Columbia output in originals but I need 16 more. well, not all, my deadline is Jack Johnson. I've got all others on CD but I'm not gonna look for them on vinyl. so if you have got some double Davis let me know: two features only, original and in great conditions.
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