What Jazz are you listening to now?

[Jazzrook]

An alternative take of Eric Dolphy's 'Hat and Beard' with Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, Richard Davis & Tony Williams from a hard-to-find expanded Japanese edition of the 1964 album 'Out To Lunch!':

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=xhTDQdAOg4o

JR

[Tenor Freak]

Bennie Maupin Ensenada from The Jewel in the Lotus (ECM 1974) recorded 50 years ago this month.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

This popped up on my YouTube feed this morning -

Akira Miyazawa Qrt - "Now's the time" a Japanese album from around the mid/late 60s. He was apparently a key name in the post war Japanese scene and is an obviously Rollins inspired tenor player, indeed the first side of the LP is all Rollins related. But it's no copy and he's a v interesting player with chops. Fascinating what the Japanese etc were doing at that time.

http://youtu.be/FtkKdxrUC6A?feature=shared

[Tenor Freak]

Freddie Hubbard - Arietis from Ready For Freddie (Blue Note, 1961). This is one LP that had completely flown under my radar and I don't know why because it's not like he's a new name. Anyway, excellent stuff.

[Ian Thumwood]

This popped up on my YouTube feed this morning -

Akira Miyazawa Qrt - "Now's the time" a Japanese album from around the mid/late 60s. He was apparently a key name in the post war Japanese scene and is an obviously Rollins inspired tenor player, indeed the first side of the LP is all Rollins related. But it's no copy and he's a v interesting player with chops. Fascinating what the Japanese etc were doing at that time.

http://youtu.be/FtkKdxrUC6A?feature=shared

Bluesnik

When I was first getting into jazz as a teenager, the big band programme on the local radio station would often feature some Japanese big bands from the 60s/ 70s/80s . A popular outfit was Nobu Hara's Sharps & Flats. The whole premise centred around the fact that the presenter was amazed that this music would exist in Japan and that the quality was so good. It did provoke a lot of interest at the time.

I am not familar with Miyazawa but the quality of music does not surprise me even if the repertoire is a bit hackneyed by today's standards. Since the America occupation of Japan after WWII, jazz became hugely popular in Japan. For me, the larger question was how Japan managed to adopt American musical culture so quickly or indeed Western musical culture if you look at classical music. I have read a few books about the savagery of the Japanese towards the Filipinos during the occupation of the Philippine and whilst their army and marines were barbaric even by IS standards, I thnk that the Japanese secret police called the Kampeti also meted out violence to their own citizens too. The pre-war sentiments in Japan would not have been favourable towards most western culture let alone jazz ( even though there was plenty of jazz / ex-pat musicians playing in Asia in the 20s and 30s) I wonder how much the Japanese were ready to embrace modern jazz post-1945 and it has always struck me as curious that musicians like Toshiko Akiyoshi were embracing musicians like Bud Powel so early on. I feel that post-War Japan was savvy towards jazz in the same way that had happened in France in the 1930s. Miyazwa is just the tip of the iceberg. There are loads of musicians like him in Japan. There is more to jazz in Japan than Blue Blue addicts. The BBC did documentary on this about 10 years ago, if I recall correctly.

By contrast, the jazz scene in the Phillipines should be buz given the American occupration 1899 - 1942 but there does not seem to have been a scene as vibrant as in Japan. Most Filipino jazz musicians like Susie Ibarra and John Irabagon are American citizens these days.

[Serial_Apologist]

Bluesnik

When I was first getting into jazz as a teenager, the big band programme on the local radio station would often feature some Japanese big bands from the 60s/ 70s/80s . A popular outfit was Nobu Hara's Sharps & Flats. The whole premise centred around the fact that the presenter was amazed that this music would exist in Japan and that the quality was so good. It did provoke a lot of interest at the time.

I am not familar with Miyazawa but the quality of music does not surprise me even if the repertoire is a bit hackneyed by today's standards. Since the America occupation of Japan after WWII, jazz became hugely popular in Japan. For me, the larger question was how Japan managed to adopt American musical culture so quickly or indeed Western musical culture if you look at classical music. I have read a few books about the savagery of the Japanese towards the Filipinos during the occupation of the Philippine and whilst their army and marines were barbaric even by IS standards, I thnk that the Japanese secret police called the Kampeti also meted out violence to their own citizens too. The pre-war sentiments in Japan would not have been favourable towards most western culture let alone jazz ( even though there was plenty of jazz / ex-pat musicians playing in Asia in the 20s and 30s) I wonder how much the Japanese were ready to embrace modern jazz post-1945 and it has always struck me as curious that musicians like Toshiko Akiyoshi were embracing musicians like Bud Powel so early on. I feel that post-War Japan was savvy towards jazz in the same way that had happened in France in the 1930s. Miyazwa is just the tip of the iceberg. There are loads of musicians like him in Japan. There is more to jazz in Japan than Blue Blue addicts. The BBC did documentary on this about 10 years ago, if I recall correctly.

By contrast, the jazz scene in the Phillipines should be buz given the American occupration 1899 - 1942 but there does not seem to have been a scene as vibrant as in Japan. Most Filipino jazz musicians like Susie Ibarra and John Irabagon are American citizens these days.

Ideas of present-centredness and immediacy are very much embedded in Japanese culture longer than authoritarianism, so the fact that "the West" represented what the extreme nationalism of the interwar period had not, and America being prima inter alies in cultural terms, would obviously be two sorts of draw towards jazz. Takemitsu, who was very strongly attracted towards jazz before re-assessing his own Japanese roots in the 1970s, would speak of being part of a common post-WW2 generation who initially rejected Japanese cultural associations as too immediately redolent of fascism. Fascism, of course, had banned jazz.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

There is a very VERY good & long interview with Toshiko Akiyoshi on YouTube where she talks about her early childhood days and the culture surrounding her. Very impressive as a player and a human being.

http://youtu.be/iMgrt3UekSU?feature=shared

Japan had and has that very strong jazz scene that runs to the present. The jazz coffee shop phenomena, the extensive album re-release program and the recording of US & European players who were no longer commercelly fashionable in their own country. I also feel a "guilt" if that's the right word because while I was absorbed in the US and UK scene in the 60s, there was some fascinating stuff going on say in Japan, Germany, Italy et al. I'm not saying it was all innovative, probably not, but there was a high competence and inventiveness within the form. To generalise, Brit jazz fans (me) could be pretty Brit centric at times. The local "heros" certainly had their match elsewhere.

[Serial_Apologist]

There is a very VERY good & long interview with Toshiko Akiyoshi on YouTube where she talks about her early childhood days and the culture surrounding her. Very impressive as a player and a human being.

http://youtu.be/iMgrt3UekSU?feature=shared

Japan had and has that very strong jazz scene that runs to the present. The jazz coffee shop phenomena, the extensive album re-release program and the recording of US & European players who were no longer commercelly fashionable in their own country. I also feel a "guilt" if that's the right word because while I was absorbed in the US and UK scene in the 60s, there was some fascinating stuff going on say in Japan, Germany, Italy et al. I'm not saying it was all innovative, probably not, but there was a high competence and inventiveness within the form. To generalise, Brit jazz fans (me) could be pretty Brit centric at times. The local "heros" certainly had their match elsewhere.

I think it partly came down to what one could afford at the time - both pricewise and in terms of free time. I also don't remember much publicity or broadcasting time in the 1960s being devoted to jazz that wasn't either British or American, so one didn't have much other than that to "go on".

[Jazzrook]

Tubby Hayes with Louis Stewart, Kenny Baldock & Spike Wells playing ‘The Syndicate’ live at the Hopbine pub, Wembley,1968:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=WiBqe9rStA0

JR

[Serial_Apologist]

Tubby Hayes with Louis Stewart, Kenny Baldock & Spike Wells playing ‘The Syndicate’ live at the Hopbine pub, Wembley,1968:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=WiBqe9rStA0

JR

Very few Tubby recordings with a guitarist as far as I know; also a reminder just how good Louis Stewart was, though I never actually got to see him.

[Tenor Freak]

Tubby Hayes with Louis Stewart, Kenny Baldock & Spike Wells playing ‘The Syndicate’ live at the Hopbine pub, Wembley,1968:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=WiBqe9rStA0

JR

Just looked up the Hop Bine in Wembley. Apparently Tommy Whittle organised weekly jazz nights there in the '60s: https://www.closedpubs.co.uk/middles...y_hopbine.html

BTW the Way Out West group has organised a series of gigs down at the Turk's Head in Twickenham: https://wowjazz.org/gigs/

Sorry to have missed that Jimmy Hastings gig on St Pat's.

[Jazzrook]

Very few Tubby recordings with a guitarist as far as I know; also a reminder just how good Louis Stewart was, though I never actually got to see him.

Have been trying to find the recent CD reissue of Stewart’s acclaimed solo album ‘Out On His Own’.
Seems to be only available from Livia Records in Dublin:

https://liviarecords.com/product/out-on-his-own/

JR

[Serial_Apologist]

Just looked up the Hop Bine in Wembley. Apparently Tommy Whittle organised weekly jazz nights there in the '60s: https://www.closedpubs.co.uk/middles...y_hopbine.html

BTW the Way Out West group has organised a series of gigs down at the Turk's Head in Twickenham: https://wowjazz.org/gigs/

Sorry to have missed that Jimmy Hastings gig on St Pat's.

Jimmy has passed away, according to Jon Altman just now on the Jazz in Britain site. Same age as me - born 1945.

[burning dog]

Complete Tubby Hayes at the Hopbine 69.

https://jazzinbritain1.bandcamp.com/album/the-complete-hopbine-69

[Ian Thumwood]

There was a review on All About Jazz this week regarding a similar set of recordings by a quartet led by Bobby Wellins. I think some of these recordings were made in a similar kind of venue and they also featuee the pinaist Peter Jacobsen who was mentioned in this bored a few weeks back. It is funny how the likes of Tommy Whittle, Spike Wells, Tubby Hayes and Bobby Wellins have gone from musicians who could hear regularly to almost niche musicians who are totally unfamiliar to alot of today's players. More alarmingly, it is noticeable how rate rare gigs seem to be down here these days with the closure of so many pubs. There is a regular gig near the village where I work that is held once a month and I did not realise that a country pub about 5 miles from me puts on blues and jazz once a month, Winchester has never really been a city for jazz as it always strucke as being more concerned with folk. the local BBC station used to run a feature on jazz gigs in the Southampton area throughout the 80s and90s but there has not been any jazz on this station for over 20 years so that live pub gigs are rarely aired in this part of Hampshire. At one point you good easily go to a number of jazz gigs mid-week in Southampton but if it is still happening, the publicity is really low-key. I cannot remember the last time I went to hear jazz in a pub. In the early 1990s I was in Goblets every Wednesday to hear my piano teacher's trio. Strange to think that there were place like Goblets which still had a reputation of live jazz back then. The number of pubs has reduced massively in the last 20 years.