Milestones

I think I went from maybe my most active thread ("bassists") to my least active ("Ted Nash").

I suppose the Wynton Marsalis connection will put some off. I don't care. I'm also a big fan of Wycliffe Gordon, who has had many associations with Wynton.

Ted Nash is quite a discovery for me. I've heard the name for quite some time, but only just recently picked up Sidewalk Meeting. He knows his tradition with versions of tunes by Duke and Monk. But for the most part we have originals, and what I would call a rather original band. Nash seems to be a multi-instrumental somewhat in the vein of Dolphy. He plays tenor, clarinet, and bass clarinet. He sound fine on all them, including bass clarinet--though quite different stylistically from Dolphy. The marvelous Wycliffe Gordon plays growling trombone--and probably more tuba than bone. He have a violinist! We have an accordian player! And, oh yeah, drums. To my ears, this music is creative and playful. However you choose to describe it (and not easy to describe), the players are one in purpose and spirit. Yep, this is an artist worth exploring.

Haden's stuff with Ornette is iconic: Ramblin', Lonely Woman, Peace, Una Muy Bonita, and more.

Hard to say what is meant here. What is modern? And do we mean bands that are together on a regular or frequent basis? Certainly I like the stuff by Carla Bley, her own stuff and the late Liberation Orchestra by Haden. There have been some very infrequent but interesting big band records by people like David Murray and Anthony Braxton. Tom Harrell did at least one big band record--and a pretty good one IMO. McCoy Tyner used the form at least a half-dozen times, and some of this music is great. Of course, it's been at least 20 years..and quite awhile since he released anything. Joe Lovano has been involved in some big band projects too--perhaps most notably parts of Rush Hour.

Just to express an opinion...nice work by Reggie Workman on the original of "Footprints" (Adam's Apple), but Ron Carter created what may be the ultimate jazz bass riff on the Miles Davis version (Miles Smiles).

Wow, this may have turned into the biggest thread of all those I have started. Just curious--anyone interested in throwing in some electric players? There certainly seem very few mentioned. These are ones I spotlighted: "Round Trip/Broadway Blues"--Jaco (Metheny) "The Giant Guitar and the Black Stick"--Steve Swallow "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat"--Stanley Clarke (Shorter's Manhattan Project)

For the record (since I got this thing rolling) here are some of my spotlight bass performances: "Two Folk Songs"--Haden (Metheny) "The Left Hand of God"--Haden "Jade Visions"--LaFaro (Evans) "Bottoms Up"--Ron Carter "Nature Boy"--Jimmy Garrison and Art Davis (Coltrane) "Alfred"--Richard Davis (Andrew Hill) "Sepia Panorma--Blanton (Ellington) "Travelin'--Percy Heath (MJQ) "Walk-A-Way"--Dave Holland "Think of One"--Miroslav Vitous (Corea) "Blue Moses"--Jamil Nasser and Alex Blake (Weston) Just a few...

Jimmy Blanton certainly makes my list. He is usually regarded as the pioneer, though Page was playing earlier. I like the bassists on Randy Weston's records, such as Jamil Nasser and Alex Blake. I've had some exposure to bassists more on the avant garde end: Mark Dresser, William Parker, Mark Helias, Ed Schuller, Michael Formanek. But some from Steve Reynolds' list I don't even know by name. This thread really took off. Clearly a lot of us pay attention to the bass--and I guess that's no surprise.

I’ve put together a couple of playlists of bass playing—well over 2 hours. The bass is certainly essential to jazz, as can been by seen in the fact that few jazz groups drop the instrument and it can be found in numerous piano/bass settings—many by the late Charlie Haden, as well as a new record by Kenny Baron and Dave Holland. Mingus, and certainly Holland, can really drive a group with their bass playing. Mingus was one of the first guys in jazz that really impressed me, though of course he was a multi-threat with those skills in composing, arranging, and band-leading. I’m a big fan of Charlie Haden, but also a whole host of players: Ron Carter, Richard Davis, Ray Brown, Eddie Gomez, Christian McBride, and many more. In electric bass, the top players (for me) are Jaco, Stanley Clarke, and Steve Swallow (not much beyond them). I’m looking for your favorite bassists, but even more particularly favorite performances. I’m not necessarily talking about long bass solos, but rather uses of the bass that are very striking and effective.

While I'm more interested in politics at this stage in my life than earlier, it is something I very much avoid in forum discussions. Note that I never used the word "political" in regard to Wright.

Gotta say, that's pretty amusing!

Just thought it was amusing to find a nut of one sort on a record by Wynton, whom everyone thinks is a nut of another. Plus it's getting tough anymore to get a discussion going on "jazz."

I don't know what world you live in.

Hannity is a nut, but they don't come any nuttier than Jeremiah Wright.

Remember The Majesty of the Blues by Wynton? I thought it was a pretty good record except for the "sermon," with some crazy pastor going wacky about the death of jazz. It almost ruined the record; it's definitely something to skip. Who was the pastor? None other than Jeremiah Wright. I wonder if he contributed to any other jazz records.

I played live music from France and from Monterey (both 1963).

I've been intrigued by Coleman for some time. I've never acquired any of his own records, despite some interesting titles and concepts. I know his work almost exclusively through his membership in Dave Holland's groups; there is a lot of his work there, and all of it sounds good to me.

Any fans of Bob Berg? Seems like he was a pretty fine player on both tenor and soprano. I'm getting perhaps my biggest exposure now by listening to his work on Corea's Time Warp. I know he worked a lot with Mike Stern, but most of my Stern is from the past dozen years. I've caught some footage of him on YouTube as a very young man playing with Horace Silver. I get the feeling he was too much under my radar.

There are definitely some titles listed I would check out if they were not so obscure and hard to find.

I for sure meant "underrated." I will edit. For a time I was more a fan of Prestige than Blue Note. For the work alone of Miles, Coltrane, Rollins, and Monk....it is label of great distinction and prestige (sorry).

Let's think about the works by Eric Dolphy and Yusef Lateef recorded for Prestige.

We should not forget that Sonny Rollins did a good amount of work on Prestige, and of course we all hold Saxophone Colossus as a classic. But one that may be underrated is Worktime. The mere fact that Max Roach drummed on most of Rollins' Prestige sessions makes them classics. I think Soul by Coleman Hawkins (with a big assist from Kenny Burrell) was on Prestige, or some offshoot. Very nice session. Didn't Red Garland record extensively for Prestige? Soul Junction I'm sure is highly regarded, but one should look at some of the others.

A towering figure--in some ways equal in importance to Bird. I certainly play his music more often than I play Parker's.

Anyone ever run into this problem, where the Windows Media Player simply won't come up--something about server error? I tried some troubleshooting online, but got nowhere. Would it make sense to use System Restore? Would it make sense to download a new media player? By the way, I'm using windows 8. That alone probably accounts for this mess.