So, What Are You Listening To NOW?

[soulpope]

[JSngry]

I remember being kind of pissed off about this one back in the day, I mean, c'mon. Brackeen, Izenzon, Motian and this is the record you get? Fuck you, ECM, you suck the life out of jazz (is there one period of sustained ride cymbal on this record? Maybe?). Etcetcetc….

Heard today, it's a marvelously high-level program of "chamber jazz" played by a trio of masters. The silence and space is in the music itself, not in the record label, it's how the musicians played the music themselves, and I don't think any of those three would have played it like this if they didn't mean it. Yesterday, it pushed me away, today it pulls me in. Same record, same music, different me.

Fashion fades, substance doesn't. Substance is there for you to dind it when you want it, but it's also there even if you don't want it.

If facts are stubborn things, then substance is the apex of facts.

[mjazzg]

And maybe some preconceptions about the label played their part too back then? We hear what we think we're going to hear sometimes, the noise gets in the way 

stone cold classic in this house, always has been, always will be

[Peter Friedman]

[BillF]

[JSngry]

34 minutes ago, mjazzg said:

And maybe some preconceptions about the label played their part too back then?

Oh, most certainly.

Although, also the preconception that a record by that particular trio was going to be a lot more...extroverted was also a factor. I was expecting driving momentumfire, not finely wrought steely icelace.

But that was my bad.

[mjazzg]

3 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Oh, most certainly.

Although, also the preconception that a record by that particular trio was going to be a lot more...extroverted was also a factor. I was expecting driving momentumfire, not finely wrought steely icelace.

But that was my bad.

If we liked everything the first time we heard it it'd be a lot less rewarding world, that's for sure

[duaneiac]

Disc 1, Fort Yawuh

[Peter Friedman]

[duaneiac]

[Justin V]

This one leaps from the speakers.  Some hot trumpet!

[HutchFan]

6 hours ago, JSngry said:

This Motian/Haden thing...a constantly roiling cauldron always ready, willing, and able to accommodate any additional ingredients.

Perfect description of their hook-up.  Nowhere they couldn't go.

 

 

3 hours ago, JSngry said:

I remember being kind of pissed off about this one back in the day, I mean, c'mon. Brackeen, Izenzon, Motian and this is the record you get? Fuck you, ECM, you suck the life out of jazz (is there one period of sustained ride cymbal on this record? Maybe?). Etcetcetc….

Heard today, it's a marvelously high-level program of "chamber jazz" played by a trio of masters. The silence and space is in the music itself, not in the record label, it's how the musicians played the music themselves, and I don't think any of those three would have played it like this if they didn't mean it. Yesterday, it pushed me away, today it pulls me in. Same record, same music, different me.

Fashion fades, substance doesn't. Substance is there for you to dind it when you want it, but it's also there even if you don't want it.

If facts are stubborn things, then substance is the apex of facts.

Yes!!!  For me, Dance is the pinnacle of Motian's work as a leader. 

 

 

 

NP:

I love the almost floating simplicity of this music.  No flash, all feeling.  ... Or perhaps the feeling of no flash?

 

Edited July 18, 2020 by HutchFan

[duaneiac]

Includes the albums The Burner and Red Soul

[duaneiac]

[JSngry]

Ok, the mix/production does bother me on this one. The  music is fine, but the mix calls too damn much attention to itself.

Or maybe it's jsut more obvious playing this one on my "best" hi-fistereosoundsystem (which is pretty much a POS 101)...maybe ECMs are actually mixed to sound best on these and a 15 yr old Discman? Because, they do...

 

[dicky]

22 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Ok, the mix/production does bother me on this one. The  music is fine, but the mix calls too damn much attention to itself.

I'm listening to a ripped CD version of this and it sounds spectacular. 

Charles Brackeen dates are to be cherished.

[JSngry]

1 minute ago, dicky said:

Charles Brackeen dates are to be cherished.

Indeed they are, but one should be at least a little pissed off when that splendid tenor sound is neutered by pulling it waaaaay down in the mix, swarthing it in too much damn reverb, and making it sound like background commentary to the bass player. That's not how he sounded, not even slightly. And that's why "ECM" can still rankle. This mix is more about itself than it is the music. It happens/happened with them sometimes.

Oddly enough, his soprano playing on the same record is mixed just fine.

[dicky]

1 minute ago, JSngry said:

Indeed they are, but one should be at least a little pissed off when that splendid tenor sound is neutered by pulling it waaaaay down in the mix, swarthing it in too much damn reverb, and making it sound like background commentary to the bass player.

We might be hearing different mixes. Your LP vs the CD. ECM recordings do tend ECM- ize things. Either way, it's a killer session along with the other Motian/Brackeen set, "Dance".

[JSngry]

Not my LP, my CD.

[mjazzg]

4 hours ago, JSngry said:

Not my LP, my CD.

Any excuse to get the LP out.  On my copy Brackeen's very front and centre to me; yes Jenny-Clark's prominent too but that's a very good thing in my book.

9 hours ago, HutchFan said:

Yes!!!  For me, Dance is the pinnacle of Motian's work as a leader. 

Read that and thought, really with so much more to come from him as a leader? 

Then I sat back and thought long and hard, maybe just maybe but I'm very very fond of some of the later VV / On Broadway recordings where I think it all cohere's to near perfection for a late-career flourish. And then there's the EBBB...and the trio with Rava and Bollani.  Too many favourites

[jazzcorner]

Among the earliest Stereo big band recordings is the following Item - Sound quality outstanding!
Originally issued on RENOWN RECORDS

Drive Archive DE2-41066 -Les Brown " Lullybye In Rhythm" - rec. Dec 1954 / Jan 1955 live at the Hollywood Palladium - Engineer: Gerry McDonald

 

 

[JSngry]

In this case, it ain't the motion, it's the meat.

And I mean that in a positive way.

[jlhoots]

Bob Belden: Turandot

[EKE BBB]

[jazzbo]

SF Jazz Collective "The Music of Antonio Carlos Jobim & Original Compositions".. . Listening to disc 1, the Jobim material.

Both discs are great. What I like most about the Jobim disc is how they've taken the Brazil out of most of the arrangements and added other Latin elements and straighter ahead jazz components. I love Jobim in all forms!