montg

I know of two ted nashes--the uncle who played in big bands and the current LCJO player. Who's the third?

Lately, I've been exploring West Coast jazz, after being dissmissive for a number of years (doesn't swing, stiff, overly formal etc.). My preconceptions have been mostly wrong, particularly in the case of the Baker & Mulligan early quartets. I just picked up this CD the other day and it's a revelation. This is desert island stuff, I can't believe I've overlooked it for so long. The music is light and open and it's intense in an understated way. Chet Baker surprised me too--I always thought of him as technically limited and although he's no Clifford Brown, he gets around pretty well on the horn. And he doesn't sing on these sides, which is a plus for me. Any other fans of this music? I've enjoyed it so much, I went ahead and ordered the Mosaic Mulligan, after deciding I was going to let it pass.

'Love for sale'. Hate the lyrics and don't care much for the tune either.

The reissue policy seems to be 'Coltrane for lovers' types of comps, downloads, and Mosaic. Recently, Mosaic has reissued the Jazztet, Eldridge, Gillespie, Mulligan, Buddy Rich, Basie... While this window of opportunity is available, I hope Mosaic keeps plowing forward: DeFranco, Tjader etc. all stand in need. Japanese reissues seem to be spotty and more expensive than the Blue Note TOCJs. As pathetic as Verve's reissue program is, their new release program for jazz is even worse.

Here it is .... a fine, chamber jazz album ... with Bill Smith (clarinet), Barney Kessell, Buddy Collette, Red Mitchell, and Shelly Manne ... OJC 1015 (Contemporary 7534) Any other thoughts about this one? I like the players on it--Kessell, Manne, Norvo etc--but the description 'chamber jazz' conjures up images of stiffness and pretentiousness.

here's an npr feature on this new disc from sony/rca: fatswaller

I feel that way myself sometimes on this board

cduniverse Harris' take on some Ellington suites (including the Queen's Suite and the New Orleans Suite) as well as Harris' own compositions. Due out on Blue Note October 3. It features Harris' regular quartet along with an expanded ensemble. Gregory Tardy and Steve Turre are among the guests. A further description of the CD is here: african tarantella excerpt: Indeed, the key to African Tarantella's artistic transcendence is Harris' unique ability to manifest his identity within Ellington's sound. "I re-orchestrated the instrumentation and changed a few voices, but I was hoping to maintain the core character of Ellington. I wanted to create a different sound but with the same vibrations. “ Instead of assembling a standard big band in Duke’s image, Harris opted for a unique chamber jazz ensemble. Built upon Harris’ acoustic quartet (pianist Xavier Davis, bassist Derrick Hodge, drummer Terreon Gully), the ensemble also features clarinet (Greg Tardy), trombone (Steve Turre), flute (Anne Drummond), viola (Junah Chung), and cello (Louise Dubin). Looking forward to it.

Red Clay would be at the top of my list. Along with Dexter Gordon. There's an impressive list of favorite recordings from the 70s and 80s on the Bad Plus blog: badplus

This reminds me of the nature-nurture issue in psychology. Is change/development largely the product of cultural/environmental forces or is change produced by natural and organic forces intrinsic to the individual. Applied to the music, does jazz change largely because of the nature of the music itself or do cultural forces somehow compel the change. I'm trying to think, from the perspective of a layperson and a naive one at that, where culture may have had somewhat of an active hand in moving the music. Maybe Lincoln Center and the cultural climate of the 80s mandated a change, so the path the music took was not really an organic one? Maybe some of the Black militancy in the late 60s and early 70s was awkwardly grafted into the music?

As I said, I haven't read through this enitre thread so my earlier post was more or less out of context. I didn't use the phrase 'old coot' to refer in even the remotest sense to anyone on this board. I know that's not what your're saying--you apparently object to the term, which seems reasonable enough--but I wanted to clarify that I intended no disrespect to any individual. But I did want to give a little love to SY because I found his work in the AMG helpful to me.

Now you have me curious!! What kinds of doubts and suspicions? The particulars, the broader themes, or both? I guess I gleaned two points from the book. One, the meaning of jazz is important for a lot of people--historically, a lot has been invested in creating a meaning for the term. And second, every generation or so there has been an innovation, a reaction, and then a broadening synthesis and consensus on what jazz means. At least until the late sixties, when consensus seemed to no longer be possible, which brought about the current divisiveness (Lincoln Center and all that). There just seems to be no way to synthesize John Zorn and Wynton Marsalis into some coherent meaning of jazz.

I don't think I'll like this thread, so rather than read it, I'll make like an old coot and say whatever I feel--regardless of how on-task it is. Yanow's All Music Guide was the first jazz guide I really used when I was first learning about this music in the mid 90s. He steered this neophyte (at the time) toward some mighty fine music, and I'm thankful for that.

Ghost, you and I appear to have similar reading interests. I've been reading a ton of Hammet, Raymond Chandler etc this summer. I can hardly get enough of it! Lately, I've been reading Ross MacDonald (the Lew Archer stuff). I just finished the Galton Case. Have you read Paul Elie's biography of Merton, Dorothy Day, Walker Percy, and Flannery O'Connor? Really enjoyable and interesting to see the intersections among those great lives.

Lately I've been really, really, digging Worktime (from the 50s) and Alfie (from the mid 60s).

I'm listening to Time Out, for the first time in ages, and I think I'm finally beginning to appreciate it (and Brubeck). In the past, when Dave would seem to be stuck on one of those repeated figures I just felt like shouting "MOVE". Now, maybe I'm just letting Brubeck be Brubeck rather than expecting him to be Red Garland or whatever. The locked hands thing has kind of an orchestral quality to it, maybe...like he's trying to build up tension or something. Anyway, Time Out's working for me today. Maybe it's time to check out the boxed set. Hard to beat the BMG price.

I was curious about those too. Any stand outs (aside from Red Clay perhaps)?

Generally I have a preference for Dylan albums that have a rough, sort of impromptu quality to them--an 'in the moment' feel. The mid sixties stuff, John Wesley Harding, street legal, shot of love (perhaps may favorite) all have this quality. It's always astonished me that someone as famous as Bob Dylan would allow himself to be overwhelmed in the studio by a slick-sounding producer (Arthur Baker's automatized hand claps on Empire Burlesque perhaps being the nadir). Even though stuff like Slow Train and Oh Mercy is 'critically acclaimed', it has never connected with me, it just sounds too slick. Modern Times is produced by Dylan and is all the better for it. Sorry Lon, I'm usually right there with you when it comes to likes and dislikes in music, but BOTT, though not overproduced perhaps, sounds a little too note-perfect and pretty and a little unreal to me (I know most think just the opposite--that BOTT is very real, reflecting the marriage breakup and all). To each his own, at least when it comes to music

High praise for this by Doug Ramsey this morning: artsjournal blog It reads in part: Hart's compositions are as hip as his playing. I see no reason why his ballads "Charvez" (with allusions to Rachmaninoff) and "Lullaby For Imke" should not become jazz standards. Taken together, his four tunes, those by Iverson, Turner, John Coltrane and Charlie Parker, and resourceful playing by all hands, add up to one of the freshest albums I've heard this year. Does Joe Fields run Highnote (the label for this recording)? Is he the same one that owned Muse at one point?

Another vote for Art Hodes.

I have the Birks Works CD and I find it pretty enjoyable. There are just a few vocals and only one that I recall that was pretty dire. These are 3 complete LPs--it's not a compilation: "Dizzy in Greece", "World Statesman", and "Birks' Works".

I thought the sound was sort of off too. Too bright, kind of like the saxes were out of pitch. It wasn't enough to detract from the music, but something certainly sounded off center to me.

Earma Thompson from Chicago. Sirens Records has recorded her. I heard her live last spring, she has an Earl Hines type of thing going. sirens records