So, What Are You Listening To NOW?

[Bluesnik]

Fresh from the oven. I just got this from Duty Groove, from whom I hadn't bought in nearly 20 years. A papersleeve double CD, something I hadn't seen before. Well I have some with two albums, but on one CD. Like a Charlie Mariano and a Max Bennett.

[JSngry]

Interesting (enough) "post-genre" composed music from the New Amsterdam label of families.

What I get a kick out of is the etiquette(?) of this world including "composer's notes" for each piece. Here's what you're going to hear, here's how it came to be composed, and here's who it's dedicated to, stuff like that, Some are unintentionally revealing, some are delightful, some are just...like,, wow, seriously? and all illustrate why a good liner notes writer is needed now more than ever.

Ultimate story...any music that can encompass composers who make overt references to Bach, Bowie, The Cure, endless practice hours, and a distrust of  the supposed "white, Eurocentric" roots of the violin and the "colonizing impact" of "western tonal harmony" is the music of a set of people who are, hopefully, working some shit out, and again, hopefully, better than the last bunch that tried this. I wish time luck, perseverance, and maybe, just maybe, some improvisation up in those heads of y'all's (although, we're seeing several decades running of proof positive that improvisation alone don't mean shit, it can be just as much a trap as anything else). Because, ultimately, you know, at some point, you got to go to where it is to get to where it is. And lord knows, the road is already heading that way from the other side(s), so...step true, people!  It's there if you want it.

I hope the next 20-30 years I plan on living shows that they can and that they do. Otherwise, I'm wasting my time with this, all of it, and I should just keep listening to all that old shit forever and ever, awman.

[Peter Friedman]

[John Tapscott]

[John Tapscott]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Not really "surprisingly"...Maynard always had excellent bands, didn't always make excellent records though...then again, I came of age in such a way that I knew the older Maynard records before the whole "MF HORN thing got out of control and the shitshow took over. If that's how you came to know Maynard, then, yeah, finding out that he made records like THIS would be a surprise! But I heard more or less that same band live around that time, and, yeah, this was how they played live. Fun!

I have a good number of pre-MF HORN Columbia records and don't shy away from them....Color Him Wild on Mainstream is particularly wonderful. Check it out if you don't know it.

I hadn't heard Live at Jimmy's in quite a while and while I knew it was good, it seemed to sound particularly good today when I played it. It was one of those albums I cut my jazz baby teeth on back in the mid 70's. Yes, Color Him Wild is a really good one, and so too is this recent reissue of his 2 Cameo recordings (between the Roulette and Mainstream years, I believe).    

[JSngry]

I knew of earlier Maynard threw a really weird twist of fate. When I came into high school, it was with a new band director, who was a jazz/lounge pianist. The band director he replaced was a former big band trumpet player who had spent some time with the Harry James band in the '50s. So he had instilled a love of big band, and especially Maynard, and the existing band members. so one of the kids who was a freshman with me had a brother who had just graduated the year before and who had a manner to collection. For some reason, I don't know, freshman aspirationioalism, he brought a copy of Color Him Wild to school. And guess what, he never got it back!

To this day, it's crazy to me how all this music fell into my lap, totally at random. West Coat, big band, the black music from the newly integrated school system, just, hey here it is if you want it. Blue Notes and Pacific Jazz in the coutout bins, want a Coltrane record, find Transition. Didn't even know any of it existed, and then BAM, that's all there was. And then fusion...there was no escape from some kind of jazz, who knew THAT was where life was going?

Life is crazy.

Those Cameo records ARE good, quite good. Mike Abene and Ronnie Cuber had come on board, Lanny Morgan was still onboard, and as always, the GREAT Willie Maiden!

People who don't like "Maynard Ferguson", I get it. But people equate that with the bands he led, especially the prime ones, they either ain't paying attention or just ain't wired for it. Otherwise, hey, those bands were  on time.

[ghost of miles]

[HutchFan]

6 hours ago, JSngry said:

Not really "surprisingly"...Maynard always had excellent bands, didn't always make excellent records though...then again, I came of age in such a way that I knew the older Maynard records before the whole "MF HORN thing got out of control and the shitshow took over. If that's how you came to know Maynard, then, yeah, finding out that he made records like THIS would be a surprise! But I heard more or less that same band live around that time, and, yeah, this was how they played live. Fun!

I have a good number of pre-MF HORN Columbia records and don't shy away from them....Color Him Wild on Mainstream is particularly wonderful. Check it out if you don't know it.

In my mind, before my 70s jazz project, my line of thinking went like this: The 60s was where you'd find the cool Maynard Ferguson, and the 1970s was where you'd find the cheeseball Maynard Ferguson. 

But listening proved that "truism" to be untrue.  So maybe it was just my own surprise and not others'.

... I haven't heard Color Him Wild. I'll look into it.   

 

 

[soulpope]

13 hours ago, HutchFan said:

I think Claudio Roditi sounds good in just about any context. 

Yep ....

[BillF]

with Dmitry Baevsky, Frank Basile, Grant Stewart, Jerry Weldon and Michael Weiss.

[JSngry]

 

 

almost 20 years ago...

[Peter Friedman]

[jazzbo]

Chet Baker, Art Pepper, Phil Urso et al "Pictures of Heath," Pacific Jazz/Sony Superbit Jazz Classics lp facsimile cd

with Carl Perkins, Curtis Counce, Lawrence Marable--a super group.

[JSngry]

I hope there's more Cassandra Wilson records in the future. I very much like what she brought to the table.

[Dub Modal]

1 minute ago, JSngry said:

I hope there's more Cassandra Wilson records in the future. I very much like what she brought to the table

As long as she's able to break out of that Q spell. Otherwise she very well could be bringing plates of broken glass and calling it gourmet. 

[jazzbo]

???? Cassandra Wilson and Q?

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It's been a while since I listened to this classic . . . this time it's the mono Platinum SHM-CD

Superb sound.

[Dub Modal]

2 minutes ago, jazzbo said:

???? Cassandra Wilson and Q?

See her Twitter feed. She hasn't posted since Jan, but all back in 2020 she was reposting and hashtagging it. She's conservative, fine, but went off the deep end unfortunately. 

[BillF]

47 minutes ago, jazzbo said:

Chet Baker, Art Pepper, Phil Urso et al "Pictures of Heath," Pacific Jazz/Sony Superbit Jazz Classics lp facsimile cd

with Carl Perkins, Curtis Counce, Lawrence Marable--a super group.

and Jimmy Heath compositions. 

[jazzbo]

6 minutes ago, Dub Modal said:

See her Twitter feed. She hasn't posted since Jan, but all back in 2020 she was reposting and hashtagging it. She's conservative, fine, but went off the deep end unfortunately. 

I am not a twitter person, thanks. I didn't know that about her political views, didn't get that sense from her facebook page. I'm a huge fan. Sad if she fell down the Q rabbit hole.

Edited April 1, 2021 by jazzbo

[Dub Modal]

6 minutes ago, jazzbo said:

Sad if she fell down the Q rabbit hole.

Yeah, it's a real tragedy because it typically involves alienation from friends and family. I hope she gets out of that cult. 

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Edited April 1, 2021 by Dub Modal

[jazzbo]

6 minutes ago, Dub Modal said:

Yeah, it's a real tragedy because it typically involves alienation from friends and family. I hope she gets out of that cult. 

 

 

How well I know. I have a hard time being civil to certain in-laws.

[JSngry]

I saw her on an Austin City limits supporting the Coming Forth By Day record, and her voice was....not too fit. 

That was a really dark record so it all worked there, but hearing her voice naked like that was a bit...startling.

Haven't heard anything since.

Whatever it is, I hope she's still got her voice, it is/was a wonderful and unique instrument, and she had totally figured out how to frame it on her terms, a singer with a true, whole vision. A rarity in this or any other time.

 

[John Tapscott]

[HutchFan]

Masterful. Sublime, even.

 

 

4 minutes ago, John Tapscott said:

 

[ghost of miles]

20 minutes ago, JSngry said:

I saw her on an Austin City limits supporting the Coming Forth By Day record, and her voice was....not too fit. 

That was a really dark record so it all worked there, but hearing her voice naked like that was a bit...startling.

Haven't heard anything since.

Whatever it is, I hope she's still got her voice, it is/was a wonderful and unique instrument, and she had totally figured out how to frame it on her terms, a singer with a true, whole vision. A rarity in this or any other time.

 

All true—as are the reports of her going down the Q rabbit hole, unfortunately. Strange stuff.

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