Alon Marcus

A surprisingly interesting Ron Carter album. (Well maybe not surprisingly cause all his albums I heard were interesting).

That's the album that got me through college, along with Undercurrent, Jim and Bill Evans. Joe C. One of the best versions for St. Thomas (IMHO).

You can be sure they did !

I like it a lot. Somewhat "in the pocket" for Ra, but not without his musical signature or nuance. It also was very well-recorded, which adds to the listening pleasure. Check out "There Are Other Worlds They Have Not Told You Of" on headphones. A trip. Thank you, I'll try it. Already have the headphones, now it's only left to get that disc

One strange observation: I didn't want to listen once again to the album. I think this recording is good in the same way as cream cake is tasty. You know it is tasty but you just can't eat too much of it. The same with this album: I know it's good, but it seems that each time I tried to listen to it seriously I found something else more interesting to listen (like Trane's Ascension). Well, I'll try once again tonight…

Lanquidity is a nice album though not as much revolutionary as Sun Ra could do even when recording tonal music.

I think that virtuosity means applying a certain skill to a certain task . In that sense Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman are not in the league of Parker and Gillespie when playing fast bebop lines with chord changes. Their true virtuosity is in improvising in the context of "free jazz" the way it was designed by their end of the fifties group. Nobody ever discussed Dizzy's skills in that field cause probably he never tried to go there. Don and Ornette were obliged to go at least partially through the bop tradition. Personally I like very much the quartet recordings from "Tomorrow is the question" to the Atlantic recordings. I find both Don's and Ornette's sound to be very pleasant and their improvisations are mostly melodic. To sum what I was trying to say: Don could use more practice and experience to play like Dizzy but he was virtuoso when playing like himself. Now these are some nice dialectics. B-)

more dialectics! I love that stuff and it is one of my favourite words too! Damn! I wish I knew what these dialectics are anyway... I could supply you with more of that stuff.

Sorry, but I feel like reviving this small thread is a must, since Dianne Reeves will celebrate her 48th birthday tomorrow. This is a great album, she has a style of her own while improvising, fertile imagination and one of the most pleasant voices (IMHO) presented by female singers ever, matching young Ella. Most songs presented in challenging arrangements which make them sound fresh and reveal more of their melodic and harmonic content. The choice of the first track is very important and this album is very successful with his opener "Loads of Love". Great album, Happy Birthday Dianne!

I wonder what could happen if Crouch or Marsalis joined this board. With all the antagonism displayed here I still think they would be politely welcomed.

I think the classic example could be: Herbie Hancock - Inventions and Dimensions another album that seems appropriate Joanne Brackeen - Invitation

Voted "No room for squares". Mostly modal album, also contains good work by Lee Morgan and Herbie Hancock on half of the tracks (actually these are among the best "early" Hancock solos IMHO).

It took me sometime to like him. At first his playing seemed a bit slow for me. I was young and foolish (now I'm not that young!) and preferred more technique like in the playing of George Benson, Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass. I still think they are great players but the fact is their playing is denser than Jim's. A few recommendations had been given previously on the thread and I can only say once again that the recordings with Bill Evans, Art Farmer, Petrucciani ("The power of three"), Desmond and Ron Carter are all great. Hall contributed immensely to guitar players. Personally I consider him as one of the greatest guitar innovators after Christian and Django (together with Pass and Wes). First of all is his sound: Jim has been always giving this aspect of his playing a special care. Second is his phrasing: in that respect every single guitarist on the scene probably owns him something, especially; Metheny, Scofield, Abercrombie and Frisell. Third are his imaginative improvisations that seem to expand the sonic and harmonic possibilities of his instrument. Beautiful lines, extensive use of countermelodies, clusters of sounds (he said he was influenced by Pullen) etc. My recommendations will be two albums he recorded on Telarc. The first is a duo with Metheny, which contains great playing and compositions by both and the second is his "Dialogues" album with Harrell, Lovano, Frisell and more.

What so hilarious about it?

This is a bit off topic but since Wolfgang Muthspiel was mentioned: there is a great album by Paul Motian EBBB called: "Reincarnation of a love bird". Wolfgang is teamed with Kurt Rosenwinkel and their playing sounds mutually inspired. The same goes for the rest of the team, which includes Chris Potter and Chris Creek on tenors, Don Alias and Steve Swallow in the rhythm section.

Thank you, just watched the recent LMO on TV. I don't want to talk about politics but the music is great. The same irony you mentioned: minor version of "America the beautiful". Many good players - Tony Malaby is the one I liked the most.

A very interesting album. An insight to Carla's arranging talent through a small group. Nice instrumentation contains Joe Daley on Euphonium. Gary Valente on trombone is very dominant. Good work by the reeds section from Carlos Ward and Dagrady. Best composition is Copyright Royalties which contain a part where only the brass instruments play (a beautiful combination of tuba, trombone, trumpet and euphonium). I'm familiar with some other Carla works but will gladly receive more recommendations.

Are you talking about an acoustic guitar or classical guitar? There is a difference. Charlie Byrd played on classical guitar and he also played classical music – great musician IMHO though many of his jazz albums are more fun and entertainment and not too deep or thoughtful. Ralph Towner is probably the most interesting and creative jazzman and composer on classical guitar. I also recommend a new guitarist Ferenc Snetberger who really improvises on the classical guitar (which is a hard task considering the small number of his colleagues).

Here is a nice comparison between few big "free" groups. http://www.jazzinamerica.org/l_stylesheets.asp?StyleID=15

A few observations after listening to the record once again: 1. It sounds much better to me now than two years before. The ideas are clearer. Still I think it was much more fun for the musicians to make the album than for me listening to it. 2. I like the diversity of the album, this time I survived with no special problems the two editions (both clock at about 40 minutes) mainly because of the interesting solos. Each player's personality shines through these solos. 3. My favorite solos are by Shepp and Tyner. 4. The piece has an obvious tonal center and the improvisations are being launched from there. In that sense it is not a totally free of harmony. It is also based on a melodic motif similar to "Love Supreme". 5. A quick research that anyone can do on the web shows that there are pre planned modes on the tutti parts: B flat natural minor, D Phrygian, G flat Lydian and F Phrygian (actually the three modes except for D Phrygian are the same series of notes just being started from a different tonic).

Till now it was unlistenable for me too. Though I like Ornette Coleman's small groups (especially the Atlantic years) and Coltrane's "Meditations" I couldn't survive till the end of neither "Free Jazz" nor "Ascension". It's just too intense and too long. I prefer more "organized" groups like Wayne Shorter's "The all seeing eye" and I like combinations of free improvisations with structured compositions (like on Dave Liebman's "Conversations"). I'll give Ascension a few more tries; it's been more than two years since I've heard it. Another record, for that matter, with a similar concept is Alan Silva's "Alan Silva & the celestial communication orchestra – Seasons". Is there anybody familiar with that one? A few of the participators in that musical orgy are: Silva, Steve Lacy, Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Robin Kenyatta, Michel Portal, and Joachim Kuhn.

It's a good choice since I have the album but for sure I wouldn't have chosen it were it my decision. The disc has a nice relaxed feeling, Mehldau and Abercrombie are among my favorite musicians (that are active on the scene today), Grenadier is probably one of the most talented young bassists (even his walking lines are very melodic), Higgins is always great and Lloyd too. Still there is nothing special in the album: it's not controversial, ground breaking, classic, very bad, unknown or underrated. I'm glad nevertheless that it was chosen since it deserves a few more close listens. One thing I noticed is that Lloyd tenor is very untypical; sometimes he sounds like an alto or even soprano (the pitch and also the texture/sound of the notes he plays). You made me curious. What stories? What do you mean? Can you give examples please?

Make that an alto sax poll, I'll vote for Bird anyway ... Bird played tenor in Earl Hines' band in 1944. I wonder what he sounded like.

I like what Steve Coleman did with Dave Holland and also his M-base stuff. Recently began listening to Osby. You can find here some examples of his music http://www.gregosby.com/mp3.html But my favourite for sure is Kenny Garrett, I like his sound, the simplicity of his ideas and their development. I also think he has a very unique way of playing "out" a bit.

I love listening to many of the players that were mentioned but Chris Potter and David Murray are probably the most obvious choice for me. I also happen to like very much Joshua Redman and can't understand why he was mentioned so little on the thread. Many jazz fans are cold to his music and claim he is a promotional success. Maybe there is a part of truth in that claim but Joshua is great on his record "Wish" (especially the first track, Ornette Coleman's tune "Turnaround"), the VV live recording is great with a humorous and original version of "St. Thomas" but recently I enjoy his record "Beyond" the most. This one got some cold reviews on some websites (AMG is one). I really can't understand the detractors. Very interesting tunes and great playing by Joshua and Goldberg.