Rabshakeh

Peter Magadini, Don Menza, Dave Young, George Duke – Polyrhythm (Briko, 1975)

My post was intended to be read as ironic. "Mythos" was in inverted commas for a reason. Likewise the reference to the "last New Generation", forty years ago, and to Wynton Marsalis' role as a talking head on the KB Jazz documentary. I am not suggesting that the 1980s was Blakey's greatest era. All that I am saying is that lots of people have traded off being in his band, and that's elevated his standing retrospectively. "The School of Jazz", as Wynton calls the group, he being a graduate.

Blakey's late 70s and early 80s records are core to the Blakey "mythos". A lot of his stature sits on his having supposedly reared the last ever Next Generation, who would go on to highly important positions in jazz as talking heads on universally acclaimed 10-part documentaries. Of course Roach did that too, Pope and Harper next quite went over in the same way.

All interesting stuff. Despite a couple of fence-sitters, this ship leans pretty heavily in one direction.

Bheki Mseleku – Home At Last (Sheer Sound, 2003) Right up there with my favourites from the 00s.

Apparently this is confirmed. The Carroll will be out next year. Apparently Byard Lancaster's too.

Joey DeFrancesco – Live At The 5 Spot (Columbia, 1993) What an insane line up of guest musicians to showboat over. (Not a criticism.)

I agree with this. But it's the groups they led and albums that they released I'm thinking of here, rather than their drumming styles. Roach has Dorham/Rollins +4, Little/Coleman, Turrentine Bros / Priester, the Ray Draper records, Harper / Bridgewater, Pope / Bridgewater, plus all those great 60s vocal records with civil rights themes like Members, Percussion, Deeds, We Insist, etc. Blakey has the Hardman/McLean/Griffin, Morgan-Hubbard/Shorter/Fuller, Ponomarev/Watson, and all the Young Lions groups. Both release streams of great hard bop records. Blakey probably releases more consistent product than Roach until 1965, but Roach has his strong 70s and 80s. I think I'd take Roach's groups by quite a long way. Just writing out the line ups above made me excited. There's such variety and risk taking. Not that I'd want to do without Buhaina's Delight or Free for All or Moanin'. I do agree with JS about that trumpet player.

Signed up.

Oh hell yes! Orange Fish Tears by Baikida Carroll too, please.

Serious question. Two drummers who sit at the centre of the hard bop genre (although both ranged, Roach more than Blakey), who led numerous groups from the 50s to the 80s. Roach's groups and records never seemed to get quite the recognition that his peers' got, perhaps because they were on the wrong labels. Who do you prefer as a leader?

Instant Composers Pool - Tetterett

I think we've just solved the problem of perpetual motion.

Not always easy to tell. All the "How Do You Know A Person Is A Vegan? Ask them any question." jokes apply seem to apply equally to Northern Soul fans.

How/where?

I deliberately excluded blues fans for this reason. There's some very clear cross over there, so it seems too easy. It's maybe a bit harder to think of jazz that would appeal to fans of harder edged soul music though: anything with a solo of over a few bars is going to turn them off. Either way, though, much easier to find crossover than for fans of modern, post-soul era pop music.

The price tag seems to be there to indicate worthiness and collectability. I bought the second one, Pursuance (I think), with JC on the cover, and was pretty disappointed at that price to discover that quality wise it was essentially a vanity publication filled with the usual inane hyperbolic content that infests the jazz discourse these days. This one is a lot better. The Smooth Jazz article is a proper essay, of the quality I would have expected, save for some self-congratulatory opening remarks and a bit of meaningless scholastic padding.

I should add that the quality of the Tetragon issue of We Jazz seems significantly higher than the first two. The Smooth Jazz article referred to above is one of a few substantial essays, whereas the previous issues sometimes just seemed made up of filler.

Just read it. A good article, although points lost for smug self satisfaction.

Dave Liebman – Homage To John Coltrane (Owl, 1987)

This is a good one.

These are all great! Some good ideas. By "dumb" I just mean, not particularly seriously, "not music for intellectuals / sophisticates", which is definitely how I think 99% of the human race perceives jazz. I mean music that would get the average person's hips moving. Rump shakers for normies. Class A bangers. I don't know this comp. Is it stuff like Graham Bond, and mod stuff? I'm into that.

Most people these days are introduced to jazz as music for intellectuals. Polo neck shirt wearing sophisticate nods head subtly to Miles Davis' Second Quintet in smokey jazz club. I'm try to create a playlist of tunes from after the post world war collapse of jazz' popular appeal, which are (i) completely awesome, whilst at the same time (ii) viscerally satisfying - rump shakers and tear jerkers - specifically for a non jazz or blues fan. However, (iii) the songs must not be so overplayed that they are recognisable to the average listener (e.g. The Sidewinder or Watermelon Man). Examples so far: Listen Here by Eddie Harris (from the Electrifying) Gibraltar by Stanley Turrentine (from Salt Song) Take Me To The Mardi Gras by Bob James (from Two) Winelight by Grover Washington Jr (from Winelight) Pezulu by Dudu Pukwana (Dudu Phukwana And The Spears) I've Just Seen A Face by Hank Crawford (from Tico Rico) I have played each of these tunes time and time again, and they always get killer responses from non-jazz fans. What are other some examples that could be included?

I had not clocked that record before. I listened to volume 1 last night and it is really exactly what you'd hope for. It is also nice to heard Whalum getting a chance to really wail, which you don't always on the more cuddly records designed for radio play. Are the other volumes as strong?

Anteloper – Pink Dolphins (International Anthem, 2022) I liked Anteloper's first record better than this, and Jaimie Branch's own stuff more. Feels like International Anthem is putting out too many weak or mediocre records nowadays, after such a strong start. It doesn't help that I have just been listening to this classic: Ray Bryant – Alone With The Blues (New Jazz, 1959) Now on to this recent release: Moor Mother - Jazz Codes (Anti, 2022) I think this one was summed up in my eyes by the review in the Guardian, which called it "essential", before going on to give it a generous, but not very "essential"-looking, four stars out of five. Nothing here that wasn't already making the rounds among smug grad student hip hop listeners back in the early 00s, and not even really up to that low bar. It seems squarely aimed at desperate relevance-hungry middle aged critics, rather than any demographic of listeners.