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CJ Shearn

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Posts posted by CJ Shearn

  2. New Hank Mobley Blue Note Set

    in Mosaic and other box sets...

    Posted

    I received mine today! Looking forward to digging in.

    3 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

    Any reports about the liners on the new Hank box would be great, especially anything even remotely revelatory (or small details not previously known).

    (I couldn’t justify buying the box myself, since I already had all the music on CD - every last track iirc.)

    I believe it was stated by others in this thread, but there are parts of a Hank interview where he basically claimed he was feeling stifled artistically at Blue Note and everything at a certain point was the same record.  I'll see for myself shortly.

  3. Your audio equipment?

    in Audio Talk

    Posted

    What I have been digging AND loving since I upgraded six months ago... really perfect for my apartment

    The biggest change:

    Focal Chorus 716 floor standing speakers

    Yamaha RS 202 stereo receiver

    Still use my old 80 GB Sony Playstation 3 as CD transport... it's a tank

    Schiit Modius DAC.

     

    Excellent audiophile system on a budget, the Focals bring a matter of factness and realistic image and presentation I really enjoy... horns and vocals and drums sound great... lots of dynamics.  The Schiit Modius DAC for $200 is really nice, brings out a warmth and there is no digital glare, nice separation too.  The Cirrus Logic DAC inside the PS3 is too forward and aggressive   For my first system, I love it!

     

  13. Is this Jimmy Smith "Midnight Special" legitimate?

    in The Vinyl Frontier

    Posted

    My friend sent me this eBay listing.  https://www.ebay.com/itm/JIMMY-SMITH-Midnight-Special-ORIG-BLUE-NOTE-JAZZ-LP-RED-WAX/124333177622?hash=item1cf2d5bb16:g:YmkAAOSwTyhfWok1  The seller claims this is a DG mono RVG original with the ear and there were only a few copies made.  I don't recall hearing about any "classic" Blue Note on colored vinyl nor have I seen any other than modern day limited edition pressings.  When did Blue Note do this ever in the classic era? Is it a cleverly disguised great market version?

  18. Ambrose Akinmusire

    in Artists

    Posted

    2 hours ago, jazzbo said:

    CJ, I do have wide tastes and parts of this music I do like. I really do like the piano trio backing him on his latest and the live double, I think their playing is very good and I even like a lot of the composition.

    It's actually the trumpet playing I don't connect to. Especially the "sounds" he plays instead of notes (how I hear it.) I'm not against abstract/avant garde playing--my best friend in the world, Dave Laczko, is an avant garde trumpeter and I understand and enjoy his work, but I always find that he has melody and lyricism as a component in his playing. I find that a lot less so in much of Akinmusire's leader work. . . .

    And as time goes by I do find myself liking "purer jazz" more than "some jazz with big dollops of other music blended in or grafted on" (as the song goes. .. "It could happen to you," in time). But that's not really my issue with his work outside the pentultimate recording. I just honestly don't get into his actual playing.

    We're all different and thank goodness.

    Sam Harris is a really good player...  hey, as I said before I respect your taste, and the depth of listening you do, so no issues there :)

  19. Ambrose Akinmusire

    in Artists

    Posted

     

    3 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

    I'm agreed.  My view from listening to his last three albums is that he is a talented trumpeter in a more traditional vein, but that he gets let down by his ideas.

    I thought that the rapping and syrupy strings on Origami Harvest in particular were just embarrassing: stale and out of date, and seemingly aimed at the kind of music that a "cool aunt" is into. Guardian music pages / Mercury award stuff. It brought back bad memories of Soweto Kinch from my younger days. 

    (and that's before you get into the rapper in question...).

    There's such a strong crop of younger jazz musicians with strong sounds and fresher ideas (whether of the sort that Steve Reynolds mentions, who I love and who really do have fresh ideas, or at the more mainstream end) at the moment that I don't really understand why he gets so much bandwidth. 

    The rapping on Origami Harvest was absurd, I agree.  He tends to go at extremes in his work and almost intentional absurdity to test the limits.  I think he gets that bandwidth because mainstream jazz media is always functioning on biases, and as a freelance writer doing my own thing I see that.  I mean, we all have bias' but just like Grammy awards, if you look to those things as a means of validation for what you are doing, that's the wrong track... however, rightly or wrongly it builds connections.  There's a tremendous Bay area bassist named Chris Trinidad whom I think has fresher ideas than say the direction Derrick Hodge is going with his projects (even though I reviewed Color of Noize favorably, it is something I listen to when the mood strikes) but it just is what it is

    4 hours ago, Steve Reynolds said:

    I’ve only heard bits & pieces but I’m much more interested in other more abstract modern day trumpeters like Susana Santos Silva, Nate Wooley, Axel Doerner, Taylor Ho Bynum, Peter Evans, Josh Berman, Kirk Knuffke, Stephen Haynes, Purcy Pursglove or even the great 80 year old Joe McPhee on his pocket trumpet. Not sure what all the buzz is all about exactly...

     

     

    Standing on a Whale Fishing for Minnows

    Checking out Santos Silva's Quarantine Concert on Youtube now... she has a gorgeous tone.  Thanks for the heads up.  Again, this is not something I'd listen to all the time, but when the mood hits, this stuff is perfect.  Like mjazzg said all this stuff can co exist.

  20. Ambrose Akinmusire

    in Artists

    Posted · Edited by CJ Shearn

    7 hours ago, jazzbo said:

    I've listened to the last three multiple times. I really want to like his playing. . . but when others gush about his playing on these it seems like the Emperor's New Clothes to me!

    Fair enough, I can respect that because you also have a very wide taste.  Personally for me, he's been one of the more interesting players in the last two decades in the so called "mainstream" along side Christian Scott.  I think they are working to push things forward and jazz is in a place where things are evolving in a way that it's not palatable to everyone.  I think to  recent conversations with some of my musician friends,  that a lot of musicians, particularly from my generation,  and those who are now coming up like Joel Ross, are using their jazz background but are using it to do something else. Sure, Ambrose can play hard bop, probably the closest thing is the Blue Note All Stars Our Point Of View which I dig very much, but opts for a more expansive take in his own work, or what his heart sees as valid, and I dig that.  I applaud Ben Williams for doing the same thing, with I Am A Man which is excellent with the jazz flavorings.  As much as hard bop is part of my personal listening palette, and comfort food,  when I review on my blog I almost never do hard bop records, because as fine as albums on Smoke Sessions (and I have a fair amount) and the like are... there is not much to say.  What can be said about that stuff that hasn't been said of all the classic Blue Note stuff already? 

     

    Lenny White made a great point in a podcast with Vince Wilburn, Jr with Emilio Modeste and Malick Koly, who were in Wallace Roney's last band.  They were talking the "future of jazz" and Lenny said for new generations, there has to be a way to take home cooking, and because younger folks have different tastes figure out a way to make that home cooking palatable-- so integrating that jazz flavor in a way that can bring folks to the music.  I mean we all know that kind of argument has been around for years-- the kind of raise a red flag to purists.  I guess I react so strongly to pro purist type feelings because I was one, and then my mind opened.  I like what Antonio Sanchez said when we caught up last week, jazz is a freedom and a spirit, and I think that's exactly where it is today.  I'm starting to think of all the artists I like, their music is their own universe, I'm trying not to think oh this is jazz, this is rock, this is funk, this is electronic... it's all music.

  23. Ambrose Akinmusire

    in Artists

    Posted

    5 hours ago, mjazzg said:

    Same opinion.

    I really liked the FSNT and earlier BN releases. I admired rather than liked 'Origami Harvest'. The double live left me bewildered as I saw the band about the time of the recording and thought they were red hot but it didn't transfer onto that release to my ears. I haven't given 'On the tender spot...' enough time yet but first impressions didn't grab.

    There's enough to keep me coming back but returns do seem to be diminishing. Maybe the next one...

    All of those records you gotta hear more than once.  He has such an abstract way of approaching things that it can be a challenge, but I accepted the challenge.  He's wonderful  on  Wolfgang Muthspiel's ECM albums and I think Ambrose will sound great doing albums as a leader for them.  I also think because he's of my generation it may be easier to grasp, I'm not sure... I just keep an open mind and dig what he's saying

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