Chicago Expat

I'm thrilled by this whole approach. I wish other musicians would take up this model. I can think of several to whom I would pay $8-$12 a month to for download albums and additional VIP-type material and googaws. I also wish labels could do this. P.S. Bonus points for the Peanuts reference.

Track one was real enjoyable. Appears to have been guessed. My first thought when I heard track two was to think how I don’t seem to be listening to much Hank Jones lately. That seems like too much of a coincidence. Track 3. I’m not gonna be much good on any of the tracks that were recorded before 1950. It’s just not an area of jazz I’ve ever spent much time listening to. I do, however, have an album by Meade Lux Lewis, and it sure does sound like it. Nothin’ on track four. I could throw out a bunch of names of musicians I’ve never much listened to, but that doesn’t really seem to be the spirit of the BFT. I do very much enjoy how the vibes come in. It also ends on a pretty note. It’s really a lovely tune. Looking forward to learning the identity of this one. Nothing on track five, either. Wow. Track six sound really familiar, and thus, it’s gonna be the hardest to figure out. Lemme get back to you on that one. Track Seven has me thinking in two directions: It’s either Lonnie Liston Smith, something like “Expansions” or “Cosmic Funk” or it’s one of those gems that Joel Dorn reissued on the 32 jazz label, which would also make me choose a Woody Shaw album, but we know where that went. Track 8, the percussion is totally throwing me off. It really has a modern take on the song to my ears. It would be my guess that this album was released in the last handful of years, but that statement may do more to embarrass myself than actually identify the tune. Very enjoyable. Track 9. No guesses I’m afraid. Track 10. Don’t know, but it’s very cool. I’m not much into jazz vocals, but this is a song that would make me want to investigate the rest of the album. Haunting tune. Track 11. Nothing, I’m afraid. Like I said, I’m just out of my depth on pre-1950 jazz. Track 12. First time listening through, can’t come up with any guesses. Too much going on to pick out something specific to track down an identity. The song was a lot fun to listen to, though. Track 13. My favorite songs on the BFT. Earlier I made the comment that it sounds like Gianluca Petrella’s Cosmic Band, but that’s Italy, and it appears from comments above that South Africa is where I should be aiming my gaze. Track 14. Is that George Coleman? It’s a powerful sound. George always a had a New York sound to him, strong and would push you out of its way if you weren’t looking. I'm listening to track nine again, and it's making my cat go bonkers. She's suddenly sprinting across the room, crashing into anything that's in her path, and apparently all the notes coming out of the speakers look like tiny edible mice based on the way her eyes are darting in every direction possible. When the song is over, I'm gonna have some cleaning up to do. Thanks for that.

"Dear Brian" from Ellipsis's "Edge Hill Road" - just some random jazz quintet I came upon while wandering the Bandcamp site. Honorable mention: The Bad Plus's version of "Tom Sawyer"

Man, I am always a sucker for the photo threads. Plus, I love bridges. Thanks for that.

It's my routine to tear through a hundred pages of jazz new releases samples on emusic over the course of a night while watching sports on mute. I find it relaxing, though I can't really put my finger on why this is so. Me, I've been watching season two of Justified. New episode tonight.

In the Frisell Category: Bill Frisell - "Intercontinentals" (owned since it came out in like 2001, listened to it at least once a week since then). In the non-Frisell Category: Clifford Jordan - "Night of the Mark VII" (32jazz, formerly "Highest Mountain" on Muse; I owned both at one point or the other; owned since approx. 1995, listen to at least once a month, and when I'm not listening to it, I'm thinking I should be listening to it).

I only skipped through it to confirm that it uploaded into my itunes okay, will give it a first spin tonight. However... Track one was great. Not normally the kind of thing I listen to, but it really jibed with the springtime weather we're having down here. You couldn't have started a playlist for me today with a better choice. Bravo. Track thirteen forced me to listen all the way through. I started the song somewhere in the middle and after a few notes, I had no choice but to start the song at the beginning and listen all the way through. It reminds me of some of the stuff Gianluca Petrella is doing with his Cosmics band (when he doesn't have a crush on his IDM machine), a real big sound that soars overhead. Whoever this is, if the rest of the album is anything like this, it just shot to the top of my to purchase list. But there's a lot of Ibrahim out there that I haven't listened to yet, so I could see that being an avenue to pursue as well. And I thought maybe I heard a Pullen cover of a Monk tune in there, but I'll have to give it a better listen later. Thanks for putting this together. Cheers.

Other than a couple vinyl album when I was a young teenager, all of my initial excursion into jazz was on the cassette medium. Of the BNs, I had a Monk on Blue Note (can't remember which volume), I'm pretty sure I had Coltrane's Blue Train, huh, this is harder than I thought it was gonna be to remember. I had a whole lot of cassette at one point, and lemme tell ya, all those thick orange Impulse spines looked pretty cool on my shelf. Damn, now I'm gonna be totally distracted all day trying to remember all the BN cassettes I used to own. P.S. That Mobley "Far Away Lands" wasn't one of them. I definitely remember the first Mobley I purchased was on cd "Hi Voltage". EDIT: Ah, the memories are beginning to flow. I had a Kenny Dorham "Una Mas", I may also have had "Quiet Kenny". I had several Turrentine on cassette, but the only BN, I think, was "The Spoiler" (but it might've been "Joyride"), also "The Other Side of Around Midnight". Man, I know there were a bunch more, but the cassettes and the memories are long long gone.

That's very understandable. I would imagine others would feel similarly. I think part of the appeal of Ronin's sound to me is that the austerity of his sound provokes an underlying anxiousness in me while I listen, leaving me feeling like I'm watching a movie that I know is going to have an unhappy ending but I enjoy the way the story is being told until it gets there. But I could see how some people wouldn't much care for that.

Does Mal play hang drum on that one? (Not really sure of the purpose of this smiley)

I hear what you're saying, but I'm not sure that it applies as generally as you might think at first.... You mean like an adaption period? Yeah, I agree with that. Most great albums (and I should add, I've been talking about great to me, not in the historical sense) don't always start as anytime-anytime, but they become that pretty quickly. But again, I was a bit lazy with my earlier post, I was only using the word great as synonymous with favorite and only from my point of view, not anybody else's. And I can't tell from your post if you interpreted my post accurately. I wasn't referring to Portico as great individually or as a unit. I was slotting them in my personal ranking system as a band who there's a time and a place for.

I think I understand what you mean by Starbucks music. For me, with Portico, there's a time and a place for it. That kind of designation kind've indicated, in my book, that it's not great music, since great music, well, it works with most times and most places. But I appreciate my bench players, too, albums that only fit certain moods or moments but which I can rely upon to do their thing, regardless of historical scope and talent-hype ratios, and make a part of my day that much more enjoyable. Portico is definitely a bench player for me. (Sorry, my analogies were all over the place there)

If you liked "Isla", you should pick up "Knee Deep", too. I enjoyed Knee Deep more. There's a bunch of youtube videos to preview the album. Here's one song which links to others... Portico "Knee Deep" on youtube I don't want to hijack the Ronin thread, but all this talk of Portico and now Penguin makes me want to bring up the band Klabbes Bank. They have a sound similar to Portico's (minus the hang drum), but with more advanced melodies. I'm a really big fan of theirs, having discovered them on emusic not long ago. Here's their myspace where you can hear some of their stuff... Klabbes Bank myspace Their album "Je Suis la Mer" is my favorite. I also have Kalsater and really like that one, too. I haven't yet picked up their first album, but I'll be arranging for that to happen when my finances take a turn for the better. Again, my apologies to the OP for the detours. I can create a different thread if anyone objects. Cheers.

Thanks for that post. There's a whole lot of bio on the ensemble that I wasn't aware of until just now. I'm gonna have to commit to picking up more of their stuff. I had meant to when I first got "Signs of Life", but, well, it's pretty easy to get sidetracked when the next new discovery comes along and then the next one and so on.

Your impression of Portico isn't an unusual one it would seem. I don't know if they're simply a victim of the high expectations that come with early hype or if they're just not that good live. I haven't seen them live. I own "Knee Deep" and have listened to "Isla" all the way through (Lala, RIP) with the intention of picking it up on my emusic account eventually. I enjoy both. One thing I've experienced is that I've been evangelized to about them and so got really pumped up to hear them, and then did feel a bit let down when I first heard "Knee Deep". The thing is, when someone else gets me all pumped up about an album, if the music itself doesn't have the emotional bombast of some Rush-like stadium rock album, I almost have an emotional reproach toward the music. It isn't until I'm able to step away from the external excitement/hype about the music and approach it more objectively/dispassionately that I get a more honest listen to the music. Portico ain't a great band, but they have an enviably languid sound, and I'm glad to have one (and eventually two) of their albums on my shelf. Are they deserving of all their hype? Maybe not, but if it was that hype that allowed word of their music to reach my ears, then I'm grateful for it. But that's just what I think. I'm making a lot of assumptions about a lot of stuff up there. I agree that Ronin's compositions are more advanced than Portico's... big time. Even though there's less layering of sounds as compared to Portico, there does seem like there's much more going on, like how one can sense activity behind a thick wall of fog. How was Penguin Cafe? I only discovered them about a year and a half ago and really liked the cd I bought ("Signs of Life"). I can imagine that a live show would be pretty special.

And that hang drum is too cool. Here's some Ronin videos from the album... From Holon... Holon on youtube Another Holon Another Holon Another Holon From Lyria... Lyria on youtube Another Lyria youtube Hm, don't appear to be any from Stoa. I'm pretty sure I didn't dupe any of the songs.

That's an interesting question. I had never thought to compare those two before, but now that you've said it, it makes some sense. In general stylistic terms, I think Portico has more of a meandering sound, at least comparatively to Ronin's driving pedal-to-the-floor rhythms. Y'know, I'm struggling with an answer here. Let me think about it for a bit. But I will mention that I've never bundled those two bands before in terms of, like, hey, I'm in the kind of mood to listen to a Ronin kind of sound... I can't imagine substituting Portico for them, y'know? Hey, here's one... Nik's Ronin is more tethered to the modern-day ECM sound, whereas Portico Quartet reminds me more of old-school ECM, like an Eberhard Weber album like "Endless Days". But it's a good question and deserves some thought. Cheers.

I never sit down to listen to Joachim without first getting my RPHSO off the shelf. It takes care of all the "bonus" sounds. Here, you can borrow it...

"Holon" is my favorite. I thought "Stoa" was good, also, and I'm struggling to remember what differentiated it in my mind from "Holon". My only guess is that "Holon" was my first Bartch album, so it made the lasting impression. I haven't yet heard "Llyria", and due to ECM's general stinginess with allowing people to listen to their albums before purchasing, it's likely I won't be picking it up any time soon. There is, however, a video of one track floating around, both on their myspace page and on youtube. I do enjoy the torrential rain fervor of his sound. There's a blizzard-like quality, elemental I guess, to the effect it provokes (in me, at least). I would love to hear them live in person. I picked up "Holon" with my old BMG account, so that should tell you that there's lots of cheap copies out there. For those of you still clinging to a YourMusic account, it's on there still, I believe. For those of you who can't get enough of that sound, Bartsch did put out a solo album years ago built on the same sound pervasive in his Ronin ensemble. Here's the samples on emusic... http://www.emusic.com/album/Nik-B%C3%A4rtsch-Hishiryo-Piano-Solo-MP3-Download/11421277.html

P.S. You're right about the music being solid throughout. I'm still blown away by the genius of using Material's "Seven Souls" for the opening montage of season six. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzNB_Y9cXi4

Yes, I like how you refer to the Sopranos as a messy show. That's a rather apt description. I'm still bugged by the lack of resolution on the "missing Russian". As far as the cognitive dissonance resulting from liking a bad character, it's an experience I commonly enjoy in my tv/movie/books/etc. Nuance and contradiction are some of favorite character building tools. The Sopranos did it very well. I would've been okay with jail, too. The image of Tony Soprano in a supermax prison works just fine for me.

Yeah, despite the overall negative tone of my posts so far on this thread, The Sopranos is one of my favorite series. It pushed a lot of buttons on me, too. Though in my case, I wanted Tony to get killed. He was such an evil guy and caused so much unhappiness in others, he just deserved no happiness for himself. The whole thing about a guy who causes so much misery going to a psychiatrist because he's depressed was a beautiful contradiction and it really was a forceful undercurrent to the whole show. Tony's mother was right... "Poor you," she'd shout at Tony. The thing is, he really isn't deserving of sympathy (not that I can blame anyone who watched the show for feeling it for him anyway. I certainly found myself hoping throughout the series that he would "get away", up until the end, when I just wanted everyone on the show to get killed. I'm not sure there was anyone who didn't deserve it by the end, except the psychiatrist I suppose.)

Damn, that thread sucked me right in. I may as well be watching the show.

Interesting to hear a different take on the last seasons. I'm not sure how evenly the opinion is split over first three vs. last three. I agree, if the POV-pattern and what that means the darkness represents, that's pretty cool. And I also agree that a bloodbath would've been, I dunno, kinda melodramatic. But the story arcs in the last couple seasons really came of as stilted, in my opinion. There were some good ideas here and there to be sure, but the way the ideas were written into the story was where the big fail occurred. It was like they knew it was winding down and they had all these themes and concepts they wanted represented in the story and they got them in there at the cost of plausibility and consistency. The story arcs came off as forced. They were gonna find a way to cram all those concepts and themes in there. The actor who played AJ never really sold me on his character, except in the early parts of the series when he was still just a little kid. I did enjoy how they handled Junior's story arc. The gay gangster thing just seemed out of place; I'm not sure if it was supposed to draw some sharp comparison between the reality of the NJ gangster life they were living vs. the life each of them wanted to lead or what, but the whole arc was sluggish. The final scenes with the psychiatrist were pretty useless, though I would've liked them to delve further into her alcoholism and the effect on her for having to treat a sociopath. Actually having a hard time recalling some of the other aspects of the last couple seasons, which I suppose is sort of damning of the series (and/or perhaps my memory, which has never had an enviable reputation). I did enjoy that final scene, however, in the diner. I'm sure there were other things about the last seasons I enjoyed. I sure looked forward to watching a new episode each week, grumbling and all. Hm, I'll have to think about it more. Oh, hey, one actor who wasn't dialing it in was Edie Falco. Damn, she turned it up those last few seasons. The "Whitecaps" season ending episode inre her "affair" with Furio. Well, never mind, that's season 4, which was pretty good. I had a problem with 5 and 6.

Thanks for the link to the site, Dave James. I found that interesting. There's a compelling argument to be made regarding the POV pattern and what that signifies about the darkness at the end. I buy it. I still think it was a mediocre finale to a great series. The last few seasons were tragically weak when compared to the standard set by the first three seasons, which were brilliant. It seemed like there were some good ideas there at the end, but most everything fell flat, writing and acting alike. It just seemed like they never really fleshed out Soprano's character. I liked the ambiguity of the character, but they got sorta wishy-washy at the end in exposing how truly evil Tony was. As a point of comparison, the way the Shield wrapped up, and how the writers made the viewer feel dirty for ever having cheered for Vic Mackey and crew for all those seasons by taking away the soft lens and shining the spotlight on how evil Vic was, that's how you wrap up a show with a charismatic bad guy. I still can't watch a re-run of the Shield and it's been over for years. I hope there's no Sopranos movie.