xybert

Yeah that's happened to me. That endless cycle of struggling through the day and getting my hopes up that something will be waiting for me at home... "If even one of the CDs i'm waiting for finally arrives then life will be okay (while quietly getting my hopes up that everything will arrive... hey, it's all due so it could happen!)"... and then, nothing... but oh that glorious day when it does arrive! Rinse and repeat.

This is a really nice concert film with Victor Lewis on drums: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJRclNAg9us

I feel like i've pulled this out before when we've wrestled with Irabagon and Evans but my 2 cents FWIW: Irabagon i can take or leave, neither ruins or makes a date for me although i've never listened to his leader stuff. Evans wise, i really, really dig the jazzier leader stuff i've heard (Live in Lisbon, Ghosts, Zebulon) but i can't stand MOPDTK. Have you guys heard Zebulon? I though it was pretty darn good.

I picked this one up also and was really surprised by how much i've enjoyed it. I think i know what you mean by the 'squareness' of Lewis's piano and it not being a bad thing... it sounds quite hip to me. My self imposed perceptions of Lewis and the MJQ continue to change. Sound wise the Lewis sounds good to me, however i picked up a couple of Art Farmers which are basically unlistenable for me, which is saying something as i'm normally not that fussy.

Ha ha, the funny thing is i just picked this album up a couple of weeks ago and have been really enjoying it but was too lazy to post it. Not an album i would have dug a couple of years ago but my tastes have really mutated.

I'm definitely stating the obvious here but it's crazy that he was only 33 when he died in 1972. Crazy for the amount that he did in his short life and for the fact that he still had his whole life ahead of him.

I don't love his playing, i don't hate his playing.

same here Same here too... i really hope a copy ends up in the hands of someone who can give it the wider exposure it deserves.

Aftab posted it in the 'What are you listening to?' thread... caught my eye and i regret not asking him about it at the time... hopefully he'll see this post and chime in...

Thanks for posting. I'm definitely interested in this. I actually found it quite hard to connect with the Parallax album on clean feed, although everything is in it's right place; there's something there and i keep coming back to it. Split in particular is a standout track. I think i need to hear more Revis to put Parallax in to context. The trio album with Kris Davis is getting more and more appealing to me but although i usually have really broad tastes i'm just not digging that style of piano or piano trio at the moment (belatedly digging in to fifties hard bop pianists and loving it)... although i must say i really dig the shades of Tyner/Corea/Hancock that she filters through her own style on Matt Bauder's Nightshades. I'm about due for some new Darius Jones too which is a bonus.

I know that threads going off topic is a pet peeve for some and can be an extremely touchy subject. For me i really don't mind it; conversations evolve organically and anyone can bring it back to the original topic at anytime. For some reason conversation can thrive in random places and stopping it cold to start a dedicated thread (or bump an old thread) somehow tends to pour cold water on it... and we're not exactly drowning in conversation here, so... just my two cents.

Continuum and his playing on Jonathan Finlayson's Moment and the Message have definitely got me interested to hear what comes next from him.

Whoa, had never heard of the Reflex Trio. Haven't got time to watch the full youtube video right now, but would seriously love an album from that line up.

Some really interesting points have been made. I think the other thing to be conscious of is that Steve's list is not a be all and end all of contemporary jazz. I'm a reasonably avid follower of new releases (although i am 'stuck' in the zone of keeping up with new releases while catching up on 80+ years of music) and as much as i respect Evan Parker and Schlippenbach and co i just don't find them particularly exciting at the moment. I have been really in to them in the past, ask me again next month etc... I think one of the hard things is that The Greats aren't always love at first hearing, and that goes for old greats and new greats. Years before i was really in to jazz i picked up Ellington, Monk, Coltrane and Miles records and they basically did nothing for me. When i did get seriously in to jazz they still took me ages to really click with. I guess my point is that sometimes the greats take a lot of listening to get in to, but you persevere due to the critical concensus (among other reasons). What's to make the dubious listener persevere with contemporary stuff?

I've ordered from them a few times at least. No complaints product or service wise but their stuff would take AGES to get here. Just to put it in to context, i pretty much always choose standard international post as the shipping method from the states unless it's a large/expensive box and it usually takes 1-2 weeks max to get here in New Zealand. Crazily i've had stuff arrive within 4 days on a few occasions. Import CDs stuff always took at least 5-6 weeks to get here. I'm not sure why, and they charged slightly more for standard shipping than Amazon and other sellers so it wasn't like it was a tradeoff for a cheaper shipping option. Although their CDs are cheap i decided i'd rather pay slightly more with other sellers and get my stuff in a more reasonable time... i can be patient but when it's getting up to 6 weeks you start having that "is it lost in the mail?" aggravation...

I checked out "Everything for Somebody" on Spotify enjoyed it. Thanks. Might buy list. Anything with Darren Johnston is worth consideration IMO. Agreed. Love Darren Johnston. There's so many genuinely amazing trumpet players out there of, i guess, his generation and if i was to do a list of my favourites he would definitely be on it. Hey, xybert--I don't think we've actually met (unless we've somehow met in person), because I haven't been on this board in nearly a year--but I'd be curious to hear how you came across these guys. They're all in my regular axis--Aram is a fantastic player whom I've collaborated with now and again (and whose projects are actually far more diverse and aggressively experimental than what you'll often hear on record), and Darren is a fairly inspirational, really omnivorous man about town. The Bay Area is virtually a press vacuum, though, so unless you got to this music via the Chicago connection, I'm really surprised it's gotten to you at all. Hi ep1str0phy, I can't remember exactly where i first came across Darren Johnston, i do know that The Edge of the Forest was one of the first CDs that i ever ordered directly from Clean Feed. I can't remember what piqued my interest but i probably just listened to the samples and liked them. I loved it, really thought that Johnston had something and sort of semi followed him from there. The funny thing is when Cylinder came out i passed on it for some reason, although it did get wish listed... later on i picked up The Big Lift, dug it, but still didn't go back for Cylinder... with Aram Shelton, i stumbled across the Soundcloud posting of Anticipation from Everything For Somebody and it was love at first hearing... picked up EFS and the Arrive album, There Was, on Clean Feed and really, really dug them both... it was only then that i clicked that Cylinder featured both Johnston and Shelton and it became a no brainer to say the least... Anyway, that's my story. They both have albums on Delmark and Clean Feed so they're not completely invisible i guess... although yeah they're not as well known as i think they deserve to be. I rate both Johnston and Shelton very highly, both are on my mental watch list. I know it's tough out there for musicians but Johnston and Shelton are two guys that i particularly fear ever stopping. I'm pretty sure we haven't met before so nice meeting you by the way. I gather that you're a musician; best wishes. Cheers.

I checked out "Everything for Somebody" on Spotify enjoyed it. Thanks. Might buy list. Anything with Darren Johnston is worth consideration IMO. Agreed. Love Darren Johnston. There's so many genuinely amazing trumpet players out there of, i guess, his generation and if i was to do a list of my favourites he would definitely be on it.

Hmmm... honestly, he's never struck me as being retro, if that's what you mean. For me, whatever Shelton is doing he's doing it right. His playing speaks to me and overall his music just has a flavour that i dig. But yeah, Shelton's never given off an overtly retro vibe for me, anyway. Now that you mention it though, i can kind of see it. I can't gather my thoughts at the moment on the whole 'retro = bad, overtly futuristic = good' thing, suffice to say as the years have gone by it's become much more murky and less black and white for me. Basically if the music that's been created has that magical quality that moves me then i'm in, simple as that. Substance over style, not that you can't have both. Thanks for putting it out there, by the way. I feel like we should question each other more around here.

Thanks. I really enjoyed his playing with Arrive but for some reason never invetigated his leader dates. Time to change that with this, I think Everything for Somebody, also on Singlespeed, is also worth checking out. There's a song from it on the label's website. Not a leader date as such but Cylinder on Clean Feed with Darren Johnston, Lisa Mezzacappa and Kjell Nordeson is also well worth checking out.

Aram Shelton's new Ton Trio ll album, On and On, is out now on Singlespeed: http://singlespeedmusic.org/store/current/onandon/ Really been looking forward to this.

Love my iPod touch, just chuck a selection of albums that i'm listening to at the time on it, all lossless, and either bluetooth, 1/4 inch jack cable or USB it up to my stereo.

I've been really tempted to pull the trigger on the Mosaic for a long time... there's something so appealing about it. Some day.

I love it, at the time I was more interested in SAWII. But I kept checking his music out as it came out and got stranger and stranger. Now, I really dig how he makes use of all the flutering, echo and reverb...those little production details. It's amazing stuff. Clearly the amount of work that went in to the construction is astounding and yet it doesn't sound contrived or like it's overtly trying to be mind blowing or anything, if that makes sense. Just fantastic music.

I'm really in to hard bop at the moment. It's a side of jazz that i've only really warmed to in the last couple of years, hence i have some major gaps in my collection. Some recent accuistions: Sonny Clark - Sonny's Crib Sonny Clark - Cool Struttin' Sonny Clark Trio Red Garland's Piano Wynton Kelly - Piano Kenny Drew Trio

Confession time: i actually thought it was Bob Seeger that had died, thought about how much i hate his music, and consciously thought "whoa, i can't believe he was that old."