mhatta

Al Haig recorded a snippet of Rachmaninoff's Rapsodie sur un thème de Paganini on his 1977 recording of "Parisian Thoroughfare." Bud Powell recorded Chopin's Prélude Op. 28, No. 20, though it was a private recording made by Francis Paudras. I think Phineas Newborn Jr. used part of Ravel's Sonatine in the intro to 'Lush Life'. There are rumors that Phineas recorded some Scriabin in his later years, but I have not been able to confirm them. Well, also Bob James covered Mussorgsky's 'Night on Bald Mountain'... Ah, I've just realized that this was supposed to be "in a classical music setting." Sorry about that! I already typed it all out, so I'll leave it here anyway. Russian composer Nikolai Kapustin was apparently a former jazz pianist; although he incorporated jazz harmony and idioms, he was essentially writing classical pieces. Well, sounds like Chick Corea a bit...

Actually, I was torn about including this one in my five as well — I just wasn't sure it quite qualified as jazz. It's a wonderful record all the same.

A lot of what Tzadik puts out isn't to my taste, but I do think some of its more conservative jazz releases are genuinely good. It would be a shame if they were overlooked because of the label's "avant-garde" image. Some of my old favorites. Thankfully, Apple Music still has them: Camp Songs / Ben Perowsky The Storyteller / Uri Gurvich Midnight Minyan / Paul Shapiro Trouble: The Jamie Saft Trio Plays Bob Dylan Flutter / Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Quintet

One track is available on Bandcamp. Sounds like not only is the performance great, the recording quality sounds excellent too. Looking forward to it. https://ceciltaylorunit.bandcamp.com/track/kimo-b1

I'm not certain, but it sounds to me like a heavily slowed-down version of the first (1936) recording of Caravan by Barney Bigard And His Jazzopators. https://youtu.be/M17eZcf_hOw?si=G7msgL8E3CT2ByVb

I'm glad the great music finally saw the light of day, but as someone who bought Joe's Milestone 8-disc box set long ago, I can't help but wonder why it wasn't included. Then I took another look at the box set, and it was titled "The Milestone Years." So that's why it didn't say "Complete" or such...

As far as I know, I don't think those three people have ever all been together at the same time. Sato's essay, written in 1989, does mention being trained by Watanabe and Miyazawa, but it's not entirely clear whether he was put through the wringer by them "at the same time." According to Sato (born 1941), he was scouted for George Kawaguchi's band at age 18, which would have been around 1959 or 1960. In 1958, George Kawaguchi reformed his band, Big Four Plus One -- whose lineup had been unstable for several years before that -- settling on Hidehiko "Sleepy" Matsumoto, Sadao Watanabe, Masao Yagi on piano, and Shinya Kimura on bass. However, it seems the band broke up the following year, in 1959. So while there are recordings of Sadao Watanabe playing in George Kawaguchi's band, I'm not aware of any recordings featuring Akira Miyazawa in the lineup. I suspect he was there around 1957, during the period when the members hadn't yet been fixed. https://youtu.be/UKZvCndXV7w?si=pIfUYiN9CRPF55TR

I was in San Francisco from late July to early August, and instead of Black Cat, I ended up going to Keys Jazz Bistro and SFJAZZ. I remember seeing Eric at the San Jose Jazz Fest back in 2018 or 2019, and if I recall correctly, it wasn't Farnsworth but Eric who was telling jokes like a stand-up comedian the whole time—it felt like he talked even longer than he played. For better or worse, maybe that’s just what you have to do to make a living as an entertainer in this day and age. Keyon Harrold is supposed to be coming to Blue Note Tokyo in September, so I'm really looking forward to seeing him.

I think Jazz At Oberlin stands out for its musicality, while Dave Digs Disney has the edge in popularity — but either way, none of it would have happened without Time Out. Personally, I love Angel Eyes, though it was never going to be a big hit.

In the set I saw, they played 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' and it really got the crowd going. They bookended it with Butch Morris–style conduction funk at the start and finish, sandwiching a Summer of Love medley in between.

This time I saw a group called Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber at the Joe Henderson Lab. The Joe Henderson Lab was smaller than I expected, but the performance was great, and it was nice to see the musicians up close. Maybe because it was early on a Friday, the audience skewed older, and I got the feeling I might have been the youngest person there…

Tubby Hayes did travel to the US occasionally, but unlike Dizzy Reece or Victor Feldman, he never fully relocated there, so it's understandable that he's less well known in the US. In Japan, he's popular because most of his recordings have been reissued on CD. Tubby Hayes is a musician with little gap between his good and bad days, so I think you can enjoy pretty much anything from the '50s and '60s (at least as far as his own playing goes). Personally, I think Tubby's true value comes through in his live performances, and I'm especially fond of the 1962 albums "Down in the Village" and "Late Spot at Scott's" (I personally prefer the latter for its wilder, more unrestrained feel), as well as "Mexican Green" from 1967 (a studio album) and its live counterpart of sorts, "For Members Only." Once the '70s arrived, his health seems to have deteriorated rapidly due to drug addiction and heart trouble, but even so, if you listen to the live bootleg-ish album "Symphony," you can hear him playing full of inspiration despite the poor sound quality. The Jazz Couriers, the group he formed with Ronnie Scott in the '50s, are also quite good — the live album "Some of My Best Friends" is excellent.

Two weeks ago I was in San Francisco and caught a show at SFJAZZ for the first time — I was surprised by how similar the lineup was to Blue Note Tokyo's. BN Tokyo has been around for more than 30 years now (I'm not entirely sure how it relates to the other Blue Note franchises), and I go there pretty often. It's basically got a high-end supper-club vibe, with a lot of acts leaning toward the popular side, but last week the Maria Schneider Orchestra did a five-day residency there, and it was fantastic. These days Schneider mostly either conducts local orchestras or performs in concert halls, so it was great to see her in an intimate club setting. I might be a little biased, but I think it's wonderful that you can catch a performance of that caliber for around $70 plus food and drinks.

DiskUnion has several branches, and the ones specializing in jazz are JazzTOKYO in Ochanomizu and Shinjyuku Jazz Kan. Two big Jazz brick-and-mortar stores, possibly the biggest in the world. Since DU's inventory is spread across multiple stores (branches that don't deal much in jazz can sometimes have secondhand stock lying around), if you have a clear idea of what you're looking for and can read Japanese to some degree, it's a good idea to register as a member on their website and search their stock online. Tower Records still exists, but it doesn't carry that much jazz. RecoFan is in Shibuya, though it's moved from where the old store used to be. There should also be one in Akihabara. It's not that Japanese people are especially into physical media, but vinyl is popular worldwide again, and CDs tend to end up for sale as people pass away, so I imagine the inventory is pretty abundant. Also, secondhand CDs that aren't available on streaming tend to be popular. Anyway, enjoy your stay in Tokyo!

To be honest, I’d never actually heard it before (strictly speaking, I think I had heard it, but I didn’t remember a thing). Since everyone was talking about it, I gave it a good listen this time, but honestly, to my ears now, I find it boring. Not that I think it’s bad, though. Still, I think I understand why Alfred Lion released this. This kind of slow, sweet performance must have sold well back then. The arrangement feels more like Atlantic R&B than the usual Blue Note jazz. I suppose part of it is because it’s from Ray Charles’ repertoire…

Nice! However, it seems that Back On The Scene by the Joe Van Enkhuizen Quartet—which I really like—isn’t included. It still hasn’t been released on CD or made available for digital download; I wonder if it’s due to contractual issues?

A life well spent. RIP. I hope he gets to see Bird, Monk, Trane, and the others again.

When Karl Berger plays with Don Cherry, he uses a lot of dissonance, so he sounds a bit like Monk, but his choice of notes is quite different from Monk’s. https://youtu.be/Z62wpWSraTU?si=ns11I4Ga1KQea0Bt

Speaking of Lou Donaldson in 1953, there’s a bootleg recording of a New York live performance with Horace Silver on piano—it’s a really great, Parker-esque performance. That said, I get the feeling that Lou returned to the Parker style in his later years anyway (like on “Forgotten Man” from Timeless). That said, personally, I prefer the rich tone Lou had during his Soul Jazz days. Opinions are probably divided on his use of Varitone, though... I still listen to the live album "The Scorpion" quite often.

Almost all of these have been released on CD (at least in Japan) and are available for digital download. It seems a few previously unreleased bonus tracks have been added, but I wonder how much the sound quality has actually improved? Personally, these are my favorite Oscar Peterson albums. I think We Get Requests, Night Train, and West Side Story are well-known, but The Oscar Peterson Trio Plays in particular is a hidden gem—it’s wonderful. The groove on Shiny Stockings is especially great! The Sinatra songs and Jazz Soul are a bit understated for Peterson, but that’s what makes them so good—he doesn’t overplay them. Con Alma from the latter album is a personal favorite. Canadian Suite, which showcases his compositional skills, is also excellent. While I feel the MPS recordings have become a bit flashy and clichéd in their performance style, they do a great job of capturing the beauty of Peterson’s piano sound.

Since Sarah Vaughan’s Continental recording (as “Interlude”) was made on December 31, 1944, this one might be slightly earlier. Dizzy is also featured on it. It appears Boyd Raeburn first performed it during a live show in New York on January 17, 1945, and Dizzy was there as well. Tristano recorded “Interlude” in New York in October 1946, which was quite early in its adoption. It’s unclear where Tristano first heard “Interlude”—perhaps he heard Raeburn in NY, or maybe he was already friends with Dizzy at the time. Interestingly, Stan Kenton was performing a song titled “Interlude” around the same time. However, when I listened to the March 1947 recording included in the Mosaic box set, it turned out to be a different song with the same title, unrelated to “A Night In Tunisia.” This might be a distant reason why Dizzy changed the song’s title and, in later years, didn’t have very favorable things to say about Kenton.

While there have been a few Japanese bassists who moved to the United States, Kitagawa was the most successful of them all. He was a cheerful guy from the Kansai region (Japan has regional differences too; in American terms, he was sort of like someone from Chicago). He wasn’t even 70 yet, so it was a tragic death. RIP.

Sadao Watanabe is a pioneer of modern jazz in Japan, but he is perhaps best known in Japan for songs from fusion albums like "My Dear Life", "California Shower", and "Orange Express"—which were not really "smooth jazz", but influenced by African-inspired world music and Brazilian music—that were frequently played on radio and television throughout the 1970s and 1980s. I’ve heard that this style of Japanese crossover music is also popular overseas these days. Incidentally, Watanabe is 93 years old and still performs live regularly; he’s full of energy.

Both the performance and the sound quality far exceeded my expectations. I think this is a fantastic live recording. “Giant Steps” is great, but “Satellite” is this good (including McCoy) —I wonder why it never made it into their live repertoire. I definitely want to hear the rest of the recordings.

My personal favorite BGO reissue.