What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Tenor Freak]

I have been spinning some of Steve Lacy's earlier records from about 1958 and 1962 plus Miles Davis' 'Miles smiles.' It is fascinating to see how the approach to jazz changed so quickly. I love all of this music but thr Davis album just seems like Lacy was toying with more advanced and freer music. I never realised that there was a 2 year gap between the first and second MD 2ND qt studio albums.

"The Straight Horn of Steve Lacy" is a good LP.

[Ian Thumwood]

I have almost given up listening to jazz but went through a mixture of recordings on Youtube which reflect various aspects of 20th century avant garde. It was quite salutary.

Amongst the musicians i listened to were Paul Bley with Surman , Frisell and Motian (second album not as good as the first ) , Eberhard Weber , AEoC and Edgard Varese' Ameriques. The latter was prompted by SA's comment.

I feel that the Weber track has not aged well. Some of the more outside elements of jazz from 1980s seems quite bland now. I think that a label ECM seems quite dated. I never imagined this would have happened when i was a fan.

The music which really impressed was Sonny Rollin's The Bridge , AEoC and the Varese. The Rollins disc still seems contemporary and it seems far more savvy than alot of jazzfrom 1962. However , the music that really impressed wax AEoC which is a joy to listen to. I much prefer them to so much contemporary jazz. The music is not too different from Ameriques which is the best new piece if music i have heard for ages.Thanks for the heads up , SA.

[Serial_Apologist]

I have almost given up listening to jazz but went through a mixture of recordings on Youtube which reflect various aspects of 20th century avant garde. It was quite salutary.

Amongst the musicians i listened to were Paul Bley with Surman , Frisell and Motian (second album not as good as the first ) , Eberhard Weber , AEoC and Edgard Varese' Ameriques. The latter was prompted by SA's comment.

I feel that the Weber track has not aged well. Some of the more outside elements of jazz from 1980s seems quite bland now. I think that a label ECM seems quite dated. I never imagined this would have happened when i was a fan.

The music which really impressed was Sonny Rollin's The Bridge , AEoC and the Varese. The Rollins disc still seems contemporary and it seems far more savvy than alot of jazzfrom 1962. However , the music that really impressed wax AEoC which is a joy to listen to. I much prefer them to so much contemporary jazz. The music is not too different from Ameriques which is the best new piece if music i have heard for ages.Thanks for the heads up , SA.

You're welcome - as everybody seems to say these days, Ian!

I largely agree with the gist of what you have been saying for some time now, though this is not to criticise. I am one of today's unreconstructed unfortunates who happens to think that once something enlightening insofar as it offers fresh perspectives without harming anyone has been stated or invented, it can't be rolled back on as if it never happened without being in denial. I think once ideas and gestures from past ages are introduced to re-imagine mythologised versions of pasts for escapist purposes, using era-appropriate materials and gestures irrelevant to the world of today (Land of Hope and Glory), it is akin to constructing buildings (eg Poundbury) pretending one can have the facades without the underpinning structures they originally depended on - in the case of music the structures and procedures that both produced and came out of the kind of thinking about life and society etc expressed in the politics, literature and science of theor time. Until humanity manages to find solutions to its systemic problems we need to hold to what complexity teaches, wherever it rears its ugly head, otherwise is to be in denial, and denial means suppression, and we all know where that ends up. Just to present the outer shell as merely cosmetic detailing is to degrade the lessons of history - a lot of which seems to be the way things are now going - so we should learn from that. I still think this, and every day seems to confirm it. Here ends the first lesson, hey ho!

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

The best thing(s) I've heard recently is the BBC R3 broadcast of Bartok's "Concerto for Orchestra" from a week or so. And the Bluenote CD of Hank Mobley's "Far Off Lands", late 60s which I had never heard before and has some very very strong playing from all, especially Hank and Cedar Walton. No slacking on that one

I tend to avoid YouTube now, with its endless masturbatory Beatles & deadbeat heroes obsessives, but joy of joy, Trevor Griffith's play "Occupations" about Gramsci, the 3rd International and the Turin Fiat factory occupations of 1920 is now up. Brilliant. And also his later play "The Party", reform & social democracy Vs revolutionary socialism, the "John Tagg" as Gerry Healy debate is a classic.

[Ian Thumwood]

SA

in my opinion i think there is an issue with all musics and how they survive for posterity. It is more a matter of how a piece of music can seem relevent going forward as opposed to it's antecedents. The obvious example is 80s pop music which my wife likes but which i think is ruined by the production values of the time. It is often little more than karoake.

I think it takes about 20 years before you can judge whether something has staying power. The issue for me is that there is little really compelling or urgent about much of today's jazz. I really buy jazz these days and i have been disappointed with the few recordings i thought would be good. Very little has the shock value that i loved when i started listening to jazz.

The same problems apply to Classical music where i am discovering that the more popular composers cannot be taken seriously and i am wondering whether we are eeaching a point where ,say , alot of late 19th century music disappears from the repertoire.

i like the creative element in music but find that i am bored by the predictable. Loved the AEoC tracks because the music meant something. Same with the Varese. I also like the shock element in jazz yet find that increasingly rare. The only record that made me feel like that recently was the Jessop Wagon disc by James Brandon Lewis. It is a wierd situation to find alot of Classical piano music more edgy than alot if today's jazz. For most of this year i have been listening to Messiaen which reminds you of what real innovation sounds like.

It is interesting to consider what music really matters and to appreciate may no longer do this.

[Ian Thumwood]

SA

in my opinion i think there is an issue with all musics and how they survive for posterity. It is more a matter of how a piece of music can seem relevent going forward as opposed to it's antecedents. The obvious example is 80s pop music which my wife likes but which i think is ruined by the production values of the time. It is often little more than karoake.

I think it takes about 20 years before you can judge whether something has staying power. The issue for me is that there is little really compelling or urgent about much of today's jazz. I really buy jazz these days and i have been disappointed with the few recordings i thought would be good. Very little has the shock value that i loved when i started listening to jazz.

The same problems apply to Classical music where i am discovering that the more popular composers cannot be taken seriously and i am wondering whether we are eeaching a point where ,say , alot of late 19th century music disappears from the repertoire.

i like the creative element in music but find that i am bored by the predictable. Loved the AEoC tracks because the music meant something. Same with the Varese. I also like the shock element in jazz yet find that increasingly rare. The only record that made me feel like that recently was the Jessop Wagon disc by James Brandon Lewis. It is a wierd situation to find alot of Classical piano music more edgy than alot if today's jazz. For most of this year i have been listening to Messiaen which reminds you of what real innovation sounds like.

It is interesting to consider what music really matters and to appreciate may no longer do this.

[Serial_Apologist]

The best thing(s) I've heard recently is the BBC R3 broadcast of Bartok's "Concerto for Orchestra" from a week or so. And the Bluenote CD of Hank Mobley's "Far Off Lands", late 60s which I had never heard before and has some very very strong playing from all, especially Hank and Cedar Walton. No slacking on that one

I tend to avoid YouTube now, with its endless masturbatory Beatles & deadbeat heroes obsessives, but joy of joy, Trevor Griffith's play "Occupations" about Gramsci, the 3rd International and the Turin Fiat factory occupations of 1920 is now up. Brilliant. And also his later play "The Party", reform & social democracy Vs revolutionary socialism, the "John Tagg" as Gerry Healy debate is a classic.

Thanks for letting us know! I'll be looking those up.

[Tenor Freak]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM6vIURo5OI

[Tenor Freak]

Bimhuis live stream: Joe Sanders’ Parallels ft. Logan Richardson, Seamus Blake & Greg Hutchinson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvcJ4qjPWA8

[elmo]

Earl Hines plays Duke Ellington 'The Jeep is Jumplng'

Just reminding myself of this amazingly creative pianist, the Great Earl Hines

https://youtu.be/DXaf-kbtCe8?feature=shared

elmo

[Ian Thumwood]

I got into jazz piano through Earl Hines. In my opinion he was always pretty outside . There was an interesting interviewi read in a book where Hines was aaked about this and he admitted to taking things so outside that he got lost.

The thing i love about his playing is that the right hand sometimes ignores the rhythm in the left. I think he he was far more outside than many bop players yet no one recognised this. I love rge Weather Bird duet with Armstrong...this too abandons the original Oliver composition and was effectively Free Jazz.
There are orher solo performance callef 'Child of a disorders brain ' which also demostrates Hines' unique style.

[Serial_Apologist]

I got into jazz piano through Earl Hines. In my opinion he was always pretty outside . There was an interesting interviewi read in a book where Hines was aaked about this and he admitted to taking things so outside that he got lost.

That reminds me of a 2-hour lunchtime solo session in the first floor bar at the Festival Hall with each half given to Pete Saberton and Liam Noble. It was the first time I'd seen the ways Liam would deal with standards, usually starting out with little variation away from conventional chord changes then increasingly varying the harmonies until they were totally unrecognisable before either returning to square one for the usual recap or transitioning to another tune entirely, which might even turn out to be Elgar's Salut D'Amour, of all things. After the session I asked him if he ever got lost in all the elaboration, this being the reason for changing his tune - as they say. Liam answered that no, this was not the intention, though he did admit to sometimes getting completely lost! There were some lockdown blogs he posted from his own living room of this happening.

[eighthobstruction]

.....listened to a lot of stuff like this in 70's were ever I could get it, though I don't know that I heard this or the album....it's what my son and I call "running music".....Don was born a Plymouth boy....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHIkU7RgifI

[Serial_Apologist]

.....listened to a lot of stuff like this in 70's were ever I could get it, though I don't know that I heard this or the album....it's what my son and I call "running music".....Don was born a Plymouth boy....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHIkU7RgifI

What Ian might call a Milestones contrafact.

[Ian Thumwood]

.....listened to a lot of stuff like this in 70's were ever I could get it, though I don't know that I heard this or the album....it's what my son and I call "running music".....Don was born a Plymouth boy....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHIkU7RgifI

I went to Wavendon in 1990 and Don Rendall was one of the teachers. He was a really nice bloke and had an excellent , dry sense of humour that a number of us appreciated. I really liked him. The teachers were really helpful. My favourite was Simon Purcell but Don Rendall was a gent. Really felt Simon Purcell was an excellent teacher.