Chicago Expat

Wow, I'm gonna have to look into that more based on the samples I just heard. I really want to hear more of what comes after second number thirty on a lot of those tunes. In fact, I might have to revisit the Unheard Music Series. Aside from the excellent Gruntz/"Mental Cruelty", I didn't much care for a lot of what I heard in that series. Perhaps my ears are ready to come around on some of that music now. Thanks for the reason to give them another chance.

You should be able to get Return of the Prodigal Son pretty cheap too. It was part of the same release (kinda) as Bluish Bag. I remember they were both available on my old BMG account, which always indicated plentiful and cheap on the general market. Both worth having, but I also really love Turrentine's music, so keep that in mind.

Well, now that the Paris Hilton spam video thread has been deleted, my Jazz in Paris thread doesn't look so clever anymore sitting out there on the board all by its lonesome. Here's a Dizzy Reece video as my last post on this thread before letting it drift off into cyberspace... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zY4bHZLXTU&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=MLGxdCwVVULXfSSIMHQO_StxTkPqv4jX3d

The always scandalous Kenny Clarke... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV-8r3K5xfc&feature=related

Morris Nanton Trio - "Soul Fingers" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmVNA26OX1c

Well said. Hey, thanks. I indulge my nostalgic ramblings, but I don't expect others to have the same level of appreciation, lol. Glad you mentioned The Gigolo. Search for the New Land and The Sixth Sense lead my favorite albums from my favorite Lee Morgan period/sound, but The Gigolo really explodes from that first note and doesn't let up. Doesn't get mentioned nearly enough, IMO, in Lee Morgan conversations. I'd listen to it on my ipod while walking down N. Broadway for a place to eat dinner between bar shifts; something about the pounding tempo and bright notes was terribly symbolic of living in Chicago in the middle of the night life. Well, anyways, like I warned above, nostalgia...

A dark horse selection might be Gabriela, who is accompanied by Bill Frisell's eerie guitar sounds. The words 'dark', ethereal, and 'Bitches Brew' in your post made me think of her. Here's a link to her producer/label site and samples from the album "El Viaje"... http://www.songtone.com/discs/index-gabriela_ev.php

I hate that I now want to buy a copy of Tomcat with that new cover, even though I own the previous version already and don't even like it that much. I think that magic from early on in my jazz listening, when I'd pick up cds from Jerry's Record Exchange and walk home, the cover art burning holes in my head as I anticipated what all great music I had in my hands, then popping in one cd after the next and reading the liner notes and looking at the photos as the music played... I know cover art is secondary to the music itself and I've long stopped religiously reading liner notes, but I don't think I'll ever stop feeling a visceral reaction to cover art.

My rec would've been for "Triangle", a solid session. I also own "The Art of Jazz Piano" and "New Beginnings" (and I was sure I had another one, but don't see it on my shelf). His solo efforts are understated and have an enjoyable presence to them. I don't know if I would seek them out at any price, but if you're flipping through the racks and see it in front of you, you might want to pick 'em up. I was fortunate to catch Bonner perform live a few times when I was living in Denver.

Since learning of great new jazz being released today is the primary reason I'm here, I figured I'd start a discussion thread where we could post a quick rec of new releases that are getting repeat plays in our stereos. I'll start... Fabrice Sotton - "L'attente" I discovered Fabrice almost exactly a year ago when I picked up his (then) new release "Terre Inconnue" while roaming the emusic catalog. Now, one year later, he has a new album out (L'attente). He's a piano player, switches between traditional and electric keyboards, sometimes within the same song (to great effect). His typical sound is a bit on the quiet introspection side, but no so much that you'd think you were listening to some ECM piano trio. He does seem to prefer the trio setting, but on both the albums of his I own, guest musicians sit in from song to song and add horns or strings or odd effects. If I had to compare Fabrice to other musicians, I'd say his music has the quiet resonance of an Abdullah Ibrahim solo piano while still able to incite some of the playful bounciness of a Vince Guarldi tune. He's one of my repeat first-of-the-morning plays. I've only started listening to L'attente, but like it very much. Terre Inconnue I've owned for a year now and it still gets played a couple times a month. Here's his website, which lets you listen to all his albums in full... http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://sottonclub.musicblog.fr/&ei=zeohTcaTEIuusAP0irmaDw&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEUQ7gEwBg&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522fabrice%2Bsotton%2522%2B%2522l%2527attente%2522%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DYRS%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26prmd%3Divnso

Joel Dorn introduced me to some music that I might not otherwise have discovered on my own with his 32jazz label. That Laroca/Turkish Women and the Brooks/Free Slave were two mentioned on this thread. Clifford Jordan's excellent "Night of the Mark VII" is probably my favorite release from that label (I think it was actually called "Higher Mountain" on Muse, though Clifford seemed to have a studio and live album with that title). When I see these in the store, I pretty much just pick 'em up blind. I'm glad someone has picked the label up, but I don't have any objective feedback if Savoy is treating the titles with the reverence they deserve. I always imagined the North Sea Jazz Festival as being some magical jazz adventure. Hearing that there was a tent full of 32jazz titles on discount is as unsurprising to me as if you said they were selling wishes in a bottle at buy-one-get-one-free.

Your forum has a new member... and a Bears fan. Bear down.

That Lepore album has been interesting me the last month or so. I've recently discovered Tim Collins, and by doing that whole sideman-investigation-thing, Lepore was one of the names that has most intrigued me. I have to say, though, I'm a little disappointed in Osby's site (and Lepore's own site as well) that there's so little to preview the album. I'm just at a point now where I'm not gonna buy an album if all I've got are a bunch of thirty second samples and maybe one full track to hear, y'know? There's too much great music out there to risk my limited cash. Poor album previews aside, I think what Osby is doing with Inner Circle is pretty damn admirable, and there's some fine music coming through there. He's making one of those rare labels that I want to support just for the principle of it, yeah? And anything with Marty Ehrlich playing on it is probably gonna be excellent.

Hey, thanks! I'm pretty happy with the newly recorded music I've been gratefully listening to. A couple years back, my listening habits kinda flipped on their head and I severely curtailed my listening and purchases of jazz made back in the 50's and 60's and focused more on jazz being recorded today. It's been terribly rewarding. Though there's an ironic element to it (or maybe it's to be expected) that some of the new releases music I'm listening to now has rekindled my interest in music made decades ago. I'm currently getting into a big band phase (a jazz subgenre that's never really captured my attention), and current big band composer artists like Darcy James Argue (whose "Secret Machines" could easily have made the above list), Dave Chisholm, Thomas Barber, Guillermo Klein, and Kelly Fenton (and others I'm forgetting currently) have got me scanning the discographies of musicians who haven't recorded a big band album in decades. Anyways, thanks for the welcome.

Off the top of my head... 1. Todd Sickafoose - "Tiny Resistors" 2. Jeremy Udden - "Plainville" 3. Bill Frisell - "Disfarmer" 4. Tim Collins - "Fade" 5. Guillermo Klein - "Filtros" 6. Marcin Wasilewski Trio - "January" 7. John Zorn - "Alhambra Love Songs" 8. Brian Blade - "Season of Changes" 9. Esbjorn Svensson Trio - "Strange Place for Snow" 10. Matthew Halsall - "Colour Yes" and an extra one for the controversial included year... 11. Robert Glasper - "In My Element" All of these are likely to change the moment I remember all the other albums I meant to include on a list like this.

That's something that always keeps me from creating these lists. I feel like I've just now caught up sufficiently to give my definitive best of 2008 list. My premature 2010 list... 1. "The Adventures of a Polar Expedition" - Ulrik, Koppel, Balke, Danielsson, and Riel. 2. "Goddess" - John Zorn/Alhambra Love Quintet 3. "In Search of the Miraculous" - John Zorn/Alhambra Love Quartet 4. "Terre lontane" - Michel Godard, Maurizio Aliffi, Marco Bianchi, Niccolò Faraci, and Francesco D'Auria. 5. "Royal Toast" - Claudia Quintet 6. "Radioactive" - Dave Chisholm 7. "Guiding Spirit" - Nat Birchall 8. "If Not For You" - Our Park 9. "Domandor De Huellas" - Guillermo Klein 10. "Prima" - Carlos Bica + Materia 10. "Beautiful Dreamers" - Bill Frisell

I actually canceled my account today, but one of my last downloads was off the excellent Clean Feed label... Carlos Bica + Materia - "Prima" Personnel include Bica, pianist João Paulo, guitarist Mário Delgado, drummer João Lobo, and trumpeter Matthias Shriefl. Taken from three different live performances, jazz based on old folk songs but viewed through that oddly tuneful Clean Feed prism. Here's the myspace page, which has several songs off the album to listen to... http://www.myspace.com/carlosbicamateriaprima Um, it's my first post on the board, and I know giving a rec for an artist screams PR flak, but I'm really just a listener.