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Who are you just discovering?


Hardbopjazz

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I never, ever feel like I'm knowledgeable about Jazz. I have this constant feeling when I discover "new to me" musicians that I should have heard about them years ago. Right now for me it's George Van Eps and Tommy Tedesco!

Yes! One of the glories of jazz: It's seemingly inexhaustible. There's always more to discover.

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Herbie Nichols!

 

I've had the 3 disc Blue Note set for years, but i always found it a tedious chore to get through a single disc of it. Interesting player, and i think i was hearing him, but for whatever reason i just didn't connect with him. It was like, yeah i get what all the fuss is about, but i'm just not feeling it. Anyway, i only recently heard Love, Gloom, Cash, Love and it was like "aaaaahhhhhh." Sent me running back to the Blue Note set and it's been on repeat for the last few days.

I'm still discovering new-to-me artists, part of the old 'the more you know the more you know you don't know' thing. There's also re-discovering which can sometimes bring an even stronger buzz than initial discovery. I thought i'd already had my discovery moment with Bud Powell, had listened to him plenty, but man just recently it's gone to another level and it honestly feels like i'm just discovering him.

These posts really register with me. This has been my experience for quite some time!! That is the beauty of this topic, I think. Others may be prompted to listen to artists that either they have not heard, or have not listened to in a long time. Jazz is an evolution as we all know! :D

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  • 1 year later...

Love Bill Barron. Biggest regret: we were rehearsing to record together when he got sick. A similar thing happened with Jaki Byard. Do I discern a trend? Anybody here want to record with me?

Funny thing is that I find Kenny Barron....un-moving. He plays great but the music leaves me inert.

Edited by AllenLowe
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11 hours ago, AllenLowe said:

Love Bill Barron. Biggest regret: we were rehearsing to record together when he got sick. A similar thing happened with Jaki Byard. Do I discern a trend? Anybody here want to record with me?

Funny thing is that I find Kenny Barron....un-moving. He plays great but the music leaves me inert.

About Kenny Barron -- hmm. Maybe he won't back you up against a wall, but the sheer elegance of his playing? And he's also consistently inventive IMO, never formulaic, always thinking, pushing ahead. Actually, FWIW his brother's music may not have been the best setting for him; its highly patterned/highly personal harmonic frameworks, which of course were right for Bill's ear and approach, seemed to impose their will, so to speak, on Kenny's own ways of doing things.

2 hours ago, Chuck Nessa said:

yes

I like my son Jacob's very present-day modular synth pieces. Check 'em out:
 


 

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well, I have a lotta new stuff. Time to spread it around a bit.

As for Bill Barron; nice, nice, nice man. I didn't get to know him real well, but there was a time I had just listened to the Savoy recording where he was up against Booker Ervin, and I told Barron how even a thing it was, that he had really played beautifully and matched Ervin; he was so flattered he got completely flustered. The only other time this ever occurred with me and a musician of that generation (or near-generation) was when I played Al Haig the recording of Bud Powell saying he was a "perfect pianist." This left him beyond speechless. 

 

oh what the hell; to make Chuck happy: we recorded this last year; these are some of MY 'new discoveries' - Nicole Glover on tenor; Lisa Parrott on baritone; Nicole Davis on trumpet; Ray Suhy on guitar (and passing through is me, on alto); and drummer Carolyn Castellano; this is an excerpt from the suite:

 

Edited by AllenLowe
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If you have a low tolerance for "Caravan" as a blowing vehicle (and I do), skip ahead to 7:54.

As for Kenny, I was talking a few days ago with somebody whose jazz tastes run very much parallel to mind, and we both same that Kenny Barron was a really hip motherfucker early on, then started making a lot of "hi-quality good records", at which point, oh well, but - goods still deliverable, definitely, and you never know when or where that will be. He's kind of like Hank Jones that way, great sample size means greater exposure, and greater exposure means that magic is not magic if it always happens, so, do the math, like that guy over there says.

I like the thought process here

Not at all a "mature" solo, but that comp tells no lies, and the solo sounds to me like a guy who knows he's got more deepening to do, and that such things don't happen by magic, so wtf? let's swing and keep going there as best we can, no doubt that the movement will happen. That ain't exactly Clueless Bob The Barefoot Clowndog, if you know what I mean.

OTOH, did anybody ever play with Booker Ervin and not sound hip to the trip? That guy just exuded it to the point the it clung on to you. If Booker Ervin wore cologne or after-shave, I bet it was something like Hiptrip 247, all his people didn't need no English Weather or else nothing at all, they had Hiptrip 247, no, don't ask for it by name, that's the most surest way  to not get any of it. You just let that shit get up on you and then leave it be until you die. Wash every palce and wash everything, just make sure the Hiptrip 247 gets let be.

And ok, Jan Arnet, how 'bout THAT guy?

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Obviously Kenny Barron had quite a long lasting prolific recording career - with a more "safe" approach in the course of time as consequence .... dear to my heart and (IMO) one of the highlights in the 70's are his performances on Buck Hill's first two releases on SteepleChase ....

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A bunch of the young musicians on Barry Guy's incredible Tensegrity 4 CD box set which are small formation improvisations by the members of his Blue Shroud band.

The three reed players that stand out are Per Texas Johansson, Julius Gabriel & Torben Snekkestad.

listening to this set has given me new respect for Peter Evans who I have had issues with due to what I've perceived as a lack of self-control and lack of a filter/editing of his awesome technique. I think his partenership here with the great pianist Agusti Fernandez helps him reign himself in a bit.

another newer name to be is the great Portuguese drummer, Gabriel Ferrandini who I've been listening to with Rodrigo Amado's Motion Trio and the piano, bass & drums trio known as The Red Trio. New kind of altered groove from this guy and his energy level is off the charts.

saw a wonderful pianist who was new to me last month, Leo Genevese, who I will see again in April. 

Of the local NYC stalwarts I've become fans of the following have been most impressive to me recently:

Ches Smith, Tyshawn Sorey & Randy Peterson on drums

John Hebert, Pascal Niggenkemper & Trevor Dunn on bass - too bad not many appearances by Pascal. To my ears he is as exciting a bassist exists in this music right now. Try Larry Ochs The Fictive Five & Dave Rempis' From Wolves to Whales to hear why. Rempis also belongs on some sort of list for me as I'm all in with his playing. Will see him live in August when he visits NYC. He is always elevating every session/recording he's on - especially the various Ken Vandermark large ensembles.

Lucien Ban on piano was so magnificent on March 10th it's difficult to explain

Nate Wooley on trumpet

Edited by Steve Reynolds
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