busy busy weekend bbc4 and R3 too!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Library Alyn does another bass player and jolly fine one too!




JLU takes a dive into the deep boredom of Mark Murphy [yet last week was a great gig]


Jon3 continues the european explorations for which many thanks ....

music from the 2011 Saalfelden Festival in Austria. Established over 30 years ago, it has become one of the biggest annual get-togethers of cutting-edge jazz musicians. The 2011 event included performances by drummer Jim Black, Turkish free-jazz outfit Konstrukt teaming up with saxophonist Marshall Allen, and US trio The Bad Plus. Also on the programme, Jez rounds up the best new jazz releases.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

The Jazz on 3 team have been like kids in a sweet shop this week, such was the selection of treats that came our way from last year's Saalfelden Festival in Austria. It was, frankly, impossible to choose just two or even three sets to play on the show, so we've gone for a pick 'n' mix approach, with a selection of local Austrian delicacies as well as some gobstopping international acts.

First up, a group that combines both – US drummer Jim Black with a trio that includes a young pianist from nearby Salzburg, Elias Stemeseder. It's a striking performance from him, distinctively leading the line despite being the junior of the three. Then it's time for Ingebrigt Håker Flaten's Chicago Sextet, recently upgraded from quintet with the addition of hot new vibes player Jason Adasiewicz. And what an addition – his dramatic shimmering is all over the opening of the piece we're playing, and the group has a really driving coherence, for all the free playing within it.

Next, something from the jar in the back corner – what we believe is the debut of the theremin on Jazz on 3, which nestles alongside accordion in saxophonist Max Nagl's finely blended octet. And after Jessica Pavone takes us down some unexpected paths in the company of her Army of Strangers, trumpeter Lorenz Raab leads his band on a comic, lurching night-time adventure.

There's nothing light-hearted about 'Black Death', and that's the thrashy piece that follows, by The Dead Kenny Gs (they even wear curly wigs onstage). There must be something in the Seattle water, because Cuong Vu 4-Tet – also from that city – then give us a dark and other-worldly version of Coltrane's 'Giant Steps'.

We still had some pocket money left over and blew it all on a couple of classic pieces from US trio The Bad Plus featuring guest saxophonist Joshua Redman, to finish the programme. Redman's liquid improv gives the backline something different to bounce off in 'Big Eater', before 'Silence Is The Question' slowly reveals a tangy, sherbert finish.

yeh yeh jez how about getting the playlist up

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

yep Red Mitchell does it every time!

[Jazzrook]

An excellent programme, but I'm surprised no mention was made of his 1957 album 'Presenting Red Mitchell' which features James Clay on tenor & flute, pianist Lorraine Geller and drummer Billy Higgins.
Red also appears on Ornette Coleman's haunting tune 'Lorraine', which is dedicated to the pianist on the previous album and can be found on Ornette's 1959 album 'Tomorrow Is The Question!'
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwfG4XBxoNQ

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i would appreciate a little checking of forum threads before starting new ones ..... it ends in a merge

[Tenor Freak]

Enjoyed that programme a lot - I can understand why RM liked playing in duos. It sounds to me like he had a great life towards the end; up all night, sleep during the day. I hope to emulate that if I ever manage to retire.

[handsomefortune]

Enjoyed that programme a lot - I can understand why RM liked playing in duos. It sounds to me like he had a great life towards the end; up all night, sleep during the day. I hope to emulate that if I ever manage to retire.

yes, what a magical retirement that sounded!

i admire any musician that extends their personal interest in their chosen instrument, beyond the usual routes of playing, tuning etc more common to the norms of a standard instrument, played in a conventional manner.

i think red mitchel not only adapted his instrument imaginatively, and to suit his then unique personal objectives, but stretched the potential role of the bass early on....form and content are neatly adapted and to great effect.

red mitchel's adaptations resonate particularly in contemporary times, as bass fx pedals create unusual sounds, and tunings at the press of a button ....just not very many players are that successful at manipulating technology and style in the way that red mitchel managed, minus electricity, and today's 'short cuts', such as gadgets.

plus, imv an interesting discovery via the red mitchel 'jazz library', and a strange sense of relief to find that fellow red mitchel player, lorraine geller, is actualy female ....(unlike pianist clare fischer, for instance! though that mistake of mine was comforting, whilst it briefly lasted)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKJQalE1aSs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interna...arts_of_Rhythm (Despite the impact of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm being repeatedly ignored in popular histories of jazz, the band enjoyed a resurgence in popularity among feminists in the 1960s and 1970s. and the 'ignorance' referenced apparently continues, none of the wiki links actually work, despite resurgence in interest and a film about 'the international sweethearts')

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorraine_Geller

which puts this week's 'jazz library' into a slightly different perspective, as far as larger bands, breaks in legendary racial divisions, and the dominant history of jazz in 40s and 50s US perhaps?

[handsomefortune]

* (soz, please add an extra 'l' to red's surname)

[Alyn_Shipton]

Handsome, there's half a page on the International Sweethearts in my New History of Jazz, including details of their star soloists, and brief mentions of other all-female bands, including the Leona Henderson Twelve Vampires and the Harlem Playgirls. And nor has the band been ignored by Radio 3. In 1997, when I was deputising for Digby on Jazz Notes, before becoming its full time presenter, I went to the US and interviewed Evelyn McGhee Stone who had been one of the band's vocalists and her husband Jesse Stone who trained the group after Eddie Durham left. The Jesse Stone interview ran over three editions, I think, and not only included his original territory band, but also work with George E Lee, setting up Louis Jordan's second incarnation of the Tympany Five, and then his later career in R and B, writing Shake Rattle and Roll (for big Joe Turner) and making his own records as Charles Calhoun. Evelyn was still singing in the Orlando area until quite recently - one of the few surviving links to the International Sweethearts.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

"In 1997, when I was deputising for Digby on Jazz Notes, before becoming its full time presenter, I went to the US and interviewed Evelyn McGhee Stone who had been one of the band's vocalists and her husband Jesse Stone who trained the group after Eddie Durham left. The Jesse Stone interview ran over three editions"

ALYN, any chance of a repeat of those interviews? I missed them first time around but Stone does seem a remarkable figure, not least for his session and arragement work for Atlantic, inc. some early Ray Charles sides.

BN.