So, What Are You Listening To NOW?

[Rabshakeh]

7 minutes ago, Д.Д. said:

I saw this quartet live with this program. I thought the tunes were cute but formulaic and I am really not a fan of Halvorson's playing. She has her tricks (a trick?) that is exciting the first time you hear it, but gets tiresome when repeated many many times. I thought Okazaki was more interestigng a guitarist. 

I wasn't that impressed by the record. There were two tracks where there was a good meeting of minds "Rachmiah" and "Ruhiel" but otherwise just Halvorson noodling at speed, I thought.

I like Halvorson when I like her, and I think she is good with brass orchestration (of which there is none here). But there's a lot of Halvorson that I think is boring and uninventive. I am pleased that she is a part of the current jazz scene, and she is always worth paying attention to, but for me her playing is an either/or thing on a project-by-project basis. This was one I didn't much enjoy.

Overall, I am not that impressed with the second Masada book/ Book of Angels stuff. I just think that the underlying compositions are much weaker to start with than the original Masada material. They feel tossed off and unconsidered. I love the idea of so many varied styles being applied to a set pool of compositions, but the pool needs to be tighter to start with, I think. I'd have preferred it if it was the same tunes that the original Masada group and Bar Kochba records had used.

The Kang was more interesting, at least in parts. It seized on the bit of Zorn's more recent (Circle Maker onwards) writing for small group strings that I like the least, which is the (to my ears) Cairene monophonic string arrangements that he often resorts to. But Kang uses Moog orchestra synths and brass and woodwind orchestrations to make it into a retro-futurist thing that I found interesting, at least on a few tracks. Worth checking out, if you haven't previously. I'm not otherwise a fan of Kang at all.

Edited September 30, 2023 by Rabshakeh

[Д.Д.]

5 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

I'm not otherwise a fan of Kang.

Yeah, me neither. I have a bunch of his CDs, don't think I liked any of them that much. 

10 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

Paul Shapiro – Midnight Minyan

 

I have this one by Shapiro, "It's in the Twilight":

It's quite good with some excellent Peter Apfelbaum solos. 

[Rabshakeh]

John Zorn – Elegy

I liked this one as a kid but hadn't listened to it for around 20 years. Listening now it just seems pointless and arid.

3 minutes ago, Д.Д. said:

I have this one by Shapiro, "It's in the Twilight":

It's quite good with some excellent Peter Apfelbaum solos. 

I have this on my list. 

Midnight Minyan is a bit of a fail, I thought. It looked promising. In contrast to a lot of the Radical Jewish Culture stuff (Bernstein is the exception, and my favourite from the series), it is actual traditional tunes from Jewish liturgy. And there are some good musicians there, but I found it disappointing. The version of "Etz Chain He" is good and there is a tune dedicated to Lester Young that is at jazz level. But otherwise it is very straight and there is not really much in the way of actual quality moments. 

He's also on that Daniel Zamir / Satlah album that I posted above, which is quite interesting. Alto trio playing Jewish folk and older Israeli pop tunes, with a saxophone choir in conversation with it. The playing is a bit one dimensional but it is very exciting. A sort of Chassidic / Dabke hybrid. Again, it helps that the underlying tunes aren't mawkish 'explorations of heritage' but actually are the original classics from that heritage.

[jazzcorner]

Metronome BP 7763 - comp. rec. 1958 to 1961 - Engineer (remastering): Rune Persson

 

[jazzbo]

Antonio Carlos Jobim “Passarim” Verve cd

 

This is a beautiful album. I certainly wish Universal would remaster and remix this one, it would really shine.

[jazzcorner]

11 hours ago, optatio said:

👍  One of the early 'cool' Stan Getz (have the vinyl from Mr. Tanno)

[BillF]

11 hours ago, optatio said:

👍

[Rabshakeh]

Merzbow – 1930

Playing this to my oblivious children.

Edited September 30, 2023 by Rabshakeh

[jazzbo]

Miles Davis “Live in Europe” Sony SRCS 9756 lp facsimile DSD remastered cd

I’ve loved this performance ever since I first heard it on my fake stereo lp copy in the mid-seventies. Just amazing music! This mono disc sounds much better.

Edited September 30, 2023 by jazzbo

[Д.Д.]

Going to see these guys live today, so playing some of their stuff in anticipation:

 

 

[Chuck Nessa]

[BillF]

[Peter Friedman]

[optatio]

3 hours ago, jazzbo said:

Miles Davis “Live in Europe” Sony SRCS 9756 lp facsimile DSD remastered cd

I’ve loved this performance ever since I first heard it on my fake stereo lp copy in the mid-seventies. Just amazing music! This mono disc sounds much better.

👍 - this copy is from 2001, my copy SRCS 9303 from 1997.

[optatio]

4 hours ago, jazzcorner said:

👍  One of the early 'cool' Stan Getz (have the vinyl from Mr. Tanno)

Ha 😄, I found also a vinyl on my shelf: Prestige/Victor VIJ-5016 M!

[jazzbo]

38 minutes ago, optatio said:

👍 - this copy is from 2001, my copy SRCS 9303 from 1997.

Boy Sony reissued these Miles discs over and over. I've also kept a Blu-Spec CD version that has "I Thought About You" added in where it belongs (I LOVE that track).

[BillF]

[Balladeer]

Nenad Vasilic - Bass & Strings (Galileo)

[John Tapscott]

5 hours ago, BillF said:

 

👍

4 hours ago, jazzbo said:

Miles Davis “Live in Europe” Sony SRCS 9756 lp facsimile DSD remastered cd

I’ve loved this performance ever since I first heard it on my fake stereo lp copy in the mid-seventies. Just amazing music! This mono disc sounds much better.

👍

1 hour ago, BillF said:

👍

Now:

Edited September 30, 2023 by John Tapscott

[mikeweil]

[Peter Friedman]

[jazzcorner]

3 hours ago, optatio said:

Ha 😄, I found also a vinyl on my shelf: Prestige/Victor VIJ-5016 M!

Yep! That's it!

 

Highly recommended

 

Edited September 30, 2023 by jazzcorner

[jazzbo]

Alex Koo “Appleblueseagreen” Clever Tree Records cd

Composed By, Piano, Keyboards, Drums – Alex Koo
Tenor Saxophone – Mark Turner
Trumpet – Ralph Alessi

[Peter Friedman]

Gene Krupa Big Band sessions

[BillF]

1 hour ago, jazzcorner said:

 

 

Highly recommended

👍 👍