Rabshakeh

Marsalis did a series of teaching videos from his bleak looking music room over lockdown. They were surprisingly poor for such a professional talker, which is a shame, because I was so starved of entertainment at that point that I'd have watched Marsalis making a cup of tea at that point. The rap and hip hop thing is an old talking point and Marsalis and his ilk need to move on. In 2021 rap music (no longer just hip hop) is not so much a genre as it is just popular music, full stop. As far as I can tell, the primary lyrical subject matter these days is just depression and teenaged angst. The old gangster rappers spend most of their time posting confused Facebook memes on Twitter. I doubt Marsalis has listened to rap music since 1994, which might explain why his talking points are as stale as his views on jazz history.

I'd never seen this cover. It looks great. Distinctly un-Xanadu.

He’s not the only one…

Herbie Hancock - Mr. Hands (Columbia, 1980) Underrated.

I remember getting blown away by IASWIn A Silent Way so hard. My closest friend's dad is a bit of a fried ex hippy, and gave my friend the middle name "Zawinul". Noone knows why, because he's not a bit Weather Report fan, but it meant that we hit Heavy Weather and Mercy Mercy quote early on, long before proper jazz investigations began. But In A Silent Way was the first time I really got into Joe Zawinul.

I'd actually not heard of this until today

I got these in a twofer a few years back for effectively no money. One of my favourite LPs.

Count Basie At Newport (Verve, 1957) There's no better record to show why so many musicians were so confused at being labeled as "jazz artists". You could call this, jazz, swing, R&B, big band or blues and you'd be 20% correct each time. It makes no sense for a record like this to be marketed to a jazz audience and not a rowdy blues crowd. It could easily satisfy either, because it is all of those things. Yeah!! I just finished with that one.

Impressive original to own.

I've been very impressed so far.

It is a symphony, isn't it? It's called a symphony. Or isn't it? I forget which was round jr went. If I can't pick The Song, I'll go with 7. What led to the question?

Can I pick Das Lied von der Erde?

Great cover art concept too.

Max Roach Quintet in Europe with Sam Rivers (Condition West) Not a great deal of info on this one available out there. If anyone knows when it was recorded or who was in the group, let me know. Some of them get called out, but not all. It doesn't seem to be on Discogs even.

Johnathan Blake - Gone, But Not Forgotten (Criss Cross, 2014)

The whole Ezz-Thetics series has suddenly popped onto Bandcamp.

He never seemed to get the recognition that his peers and sidemen got, which is strange, because everything about Mr. Moondoc was great. I'd sooner listen to his albums than many of those who did make it.

Same here. Exeter University had an excellent AV section in its library, with lots of LPs. I remember my first encounters with Heliocentric Worlds and Agharta there. I often wonder who bought the LP collection when they were sold off.

John Zorn's overtures to the metal world were quite important to me in increasing the amount of jazz that I listened to. I don't listen to that stuff at all anymore, but it was important then. I have met a lot of other people who crossed over that same bridge. On The Corner always struck me as the much more intimidating and 'advanced' album of the two, but I have also never understood why BB was so well received - it has none of the catchy hooks you get in other fusion hits of the time. Looking back on it, and as I have mentioned in other threads, I remain cross at the extent to which predatory major label marketing and unchallenged jazz education assumptions held me back as a teenager in the 1990s from getting into jazz - leading my tottering first steps down paths that were never going to appeal to a 15 year old listener. There's a reason why my younger family members who grew up in the internet age are jazz fans whereas my own peer group who came of age pre-MySpace were not.

Rene Thomas et son Orchestre - Meeting Mr Thomas (Barclay, 1963)

You can hear them moaning about USPS in Orkish from here.

Currently listening to Paul Brusger's Go To Plan B, which someone mentioned here a week or two ago. A really nice high definition modern bop record with John Hicks and Ronnie Cuber both in great form.

I did actually make my wife sit through this. She was really entranced by Cecil Taylor, but formed a visceral dislike of Paul Bley. Everyone in this film looked like they were going through a tough patch at the time. Bley pontificating with rotten teeth, Shepp welling up constantly, and Dixon, still largely unknown, talking about himself, drunk. I'm not sure how Taylor compared to himself at his height. I really felt for them all: I got the sense that they felt left out in the cold at the turn of a rough decade, during which they must have been made to feel like irrelevancies. Regardless, i second the recommendation.

That’s an interesting order. How did that occur?

Oh no.