The Jazz Workshop #2

[Six String]

Booked

Anyone seen him lately? I missed Tyner last time around, I need to see these giants while they still are active.

It's been probably eight to ten years since I saw him and he had lost a little of the fire then. I've heard from people that have seen him lately that he moves pretty slowly these days but once seated plays well, probably shorter sets and less intense. I wouldn't hesitate to go see him though.

[nev gash]

Fab, he's only appearing in the second half so hopefully won't blow himself out.

[Six String]

Fab, he's only appearing in the second half so hopefully won't blow himself out.

Do you mean he's on a double bill of some kind?

NP Miles Davis Quintet - Four & More (Columbia) 2005 remastered cd.

[nev gash]

Yeah it's a triple bill


Tonight sees a showcase of artists inspired by and who worked with the Coltranes, headlined by the Cosmic Jazz icon Pharoah Sanders. Sanders’s saxophone sound provided a crucial contribution to the anarchic music of John’s later ensembles – a teeming, irregularly structured mixture of sound for sound’s sake – as well as participating in the spiritual intensity of Alice’s music.

Fellow saxophonist Denys Baptiste’s latest project, The Late Trane, reflects the visceral emotions and celestial references that encompass John’s final work, with Steve Williamson adding a second saxophone voice; while harpist Alina Bzhezhinska‘s quartet with saxophonist Tony Kofi displays ‘an abiding love for Alice’s transporting and ineffably mystical compositions…’ (Jazzwise). All fifty years after John's, ten years after Alice’s passing – shortly before she was due to play here – and in the same year when the release of her ecstatic music has captured the imagination of another generation

I've heard of (but never heard) Baptiste and Williamson.

[Six String]

Sounds like an intense but spiritually rewarding evening.

[Six String]

NP Oscar Peterson - Exclusively For My Friends (MPS/Verve) 4 disc set of six lps made for the MPS label.
These were recorded in front of a small audience at the villa of producer Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer between 1963-1968.
I find his technique exhausting sometimes as a listener but these albums are really fine imo. He seems more relaxed, not that his prodigious skills aren't on display but they seem less so than his studio albums. It's the music I usually grab when I'm in the mood for OP.

[Six String]

NP Masabumi Kikuchi - Black Orpheus (ECM)
One of my favorite releases last year. A beautiful way to say goodbye.

[fange]

NP

McCoy Tyner - Horizon

[Six String]

Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane (Prestige) OJC stereo lp

One of Kenny's best? One of my favorites.

[fange]

Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane (Prestige) OJC stereo lp

One of Kenny's best? One of my favorites.

Yep, it's a gem.

NP

Steve Lacy - The Flame

[nev gash]

[toomanyhatz]

Picked up a Yusef Lateef anthology used recently. Don't know his stuff well, but a lot of it's from what I find a very interesting period in jazz history - mid 60s - early 70s. I guess similarly to what was going on in the rock world at the time, a lot of experimentalism was encouraged - maybe even insisted on. Some of the experiments are great - there's a track that basically grows out of the percussion track and is really minimal. On the other hand, there's a few blues jams that - as well-played as they are - don't interest me any more than, say, Johnny Winter.

Enough there to intrigue me, though, and I don't know much about him. Can anyone point me in the direction of specific albums that might be consistently good and interesting?

[fange]

The Blue Yusef Lateef would be right up your alley, hatzy. An excellent mix of the bluesy and the spiritual.

[Six String]

Picked up a Yusef Lateef anthology used recently. Don't know his stuff well, but a lot of it's from what I find a very interesting period in jazz history - mid 60s - early 70s. I guess similarly to what was going on in the rock world at the time, a lot of experimentalism was encouraged - maybe even insisted on. Some of the experiments are great - there's a track that basically grows out of the percussion track and is really minimal. On the other hand, there's a few blues jams that - as well-played as they are - don't interest me any more than, say, Johnny Winter.

Enough there to intrigue me, though, and I don't know much about him. Can anyone point me in the direction of specific albums that might be consistently good and interesting?

You can't go wrong with any of his Impulse titles, actually all of his albums are very good I think. I've heard most, not all and they are pretty consistent. He got into ethnic, i.e. reed instruments from Asia and Africa and inccorporated them into his music. Fange's recommemdation should be taken seriously. He did some early work on Prestige as well ai think. Most of my collection is Impulse.

[George P. Smackers]

Maybe you all know this already--I'd seen some of the quotations myself before, out of context.

But I just came across this "3rd Blindfold Test" from Down Beat, 1964, in which Miles Davis listens to new jazz records without seeing them, identifies the players, and has some choice comments about them (including Eric Dolphy, Cecil Taylor, etc.) Found it funny/illuminating--

http://www.forghieri.net/jazz/blind/Davis_3.html

[Six String]

I like those Blindfold Tests in Downbeat. That Miles one is pretty famous. Doesn't he dis Dolphy and Ct?

I used to have parties where people brought jazz albums and we took turns playing tracks and see how many musicians the rest could pick out without any information. It was a fun time, good at honing your listening skills.

WP Charles Kynard - Afro-disiac (Prestige) reissue by QRP. A cool soul jazz organ group with Grant Green and Houston Person and some other excellent misicians turning out some cool grooves, heavy on groove.

NP Clifford Brown /Max Roach group with Sonny Rollins and Richie Powell.-pure Genius (a private live recording from 1956)

[Six String]

Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra - Monday Night (Solid State)
I'm not a a huge fan og big band but I really like this one. Great soloists.

[Six String]

Wynton Kelly - Whisper Not (Jazzland) burgundy stereo label
With Kenny Burrell, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones.

[Six String]

I've been spinning 45 RPM Pressings of great jazz albums tonight.

Kenny Dorham - Una
Lou Donaldson - Here 'Tis
Art Blakey - Indestructible
and NP Johnny Griffin - The Kerry Dancers

They do take more energy to play of you consider getting up from your comfy chair a problem. I guess I am listening pretty actively and not doing other things so it isn't interrupting anything. They sound fantastic so they are worth the extra expense and exercise.

[nev gash]

Reissue on Everland, they're putting out Pharoah Sanders' Izipho Zam too.