More Favorites: Reflections on Jazz in the 1980s

[kh1958]

Ornette and Prime Time/James Blood Ulmer/Ronald Shannon Jackson--all were at the apex of the best live music I heard in the 1980s. Very fortunate to have seen them all multiple times.

[HutchFan]

8 minutes ago, kh1958 said:

Ornette and Prime Time/James Blood Ulmer/Ronald Shannon Jackson--all were at the apex of the best live music I heard in the 1980s. Very fortunate to have seen them all multiple times.

I wish I would've had the chance to see/hear those guys perform back then.

I was in high school in the mid-80s -- and only just beginning to dip my toes into jazz at that point.

 

[danasgoodstuff]

Yeah, I get that electric Ornette/Ulmer/RSJ isn't easy or for everyone.  Not all of it works for me either.  The Odyssey band worked for me because of the fiddle, RSJ because of the writing, and eventually Ornette's Prime Time players learned to not step on each other's toes.

[kh1958]

On 12/14/2022 at 12:22 PM, HutchFan said:

I think this Phalanx record -- with Blood Ulmer & George Adams -- is astounding and magnificent.  I included it my survey.

But it doesn't feel like a "regular" Blood Ulmer record.  With George Adams, they go somewhere else.

So... there's that.

 

Jazzbuhne Berlin '85 volume 12 is actually the best Ulmer/Adams collaboration recording.

[John L]

This is a nice thread in reminding us how much fine jazz was recorded in the 1980s.  That said, I can't help but feel that the 1980s were, comparatively speaking, a down time, and not only for jazz, in what was an extraordinary century for American music.  More precisely, it may have been more the like late 70s-late 80s.  Yes, there were Michael Jackson and Prince but...  

I find both the 1970s and 1990s to be stronger than the 1980s.  

Edited December 16, 2022 by John L

[HutchFan]

40 minutes ago, kh1958 said:

Jazzbuhne Berlin '85 volume 12 is actually the best Ulmer/Adams collaboration recording.

O.K. I'll add that one to my list & see what I think.

 

[HutchFan]

52 minutes ago, John L said:

This is a nice thread in reminding us how much fine jazz was recorded in the 1980s.  That said, I can't help but feel that the 1980s were, comparatively speaking, a down time, and not only for jazz, in what was an extraordinary century for American music.  More precisely, it may have been more the like late 70s-late 80s.  Yes, there were Michael Jackson and Prince but...  

I find both the 1970s and 1990s to be stronger than the 1980s.  

I guess I agree with you, John.  Sort of.  Let me put it this way:  If I were forced to pick jazz from the 1970s or jazz from the 80s -- strictly speaking, one or the other -- my preference would be for the 1970s.  I think there was more interesting stuff happening in the 1970s.  When I say this, I'm speaking about recordings -- because that's all I have to go by.  (I'm too young to have been a part of it in-person.)

But I'm glad that I don't have to make that one-or-the-other choice -- because I think there was a tremendous amount of terrific music made in the 1980s as well.  Working on this 80s project has been an eye-opener, because I discovered all sorts of amazing, new-to-me music.  If I hadn't been deliberately looking, I'm sure I wouldn't have ever heard a great deal of it.

And, at the end of the day, the whole decades thing is just an abstraction anyway -- an arbitrary notion to help us make sense of things.  In reality, jazz has always been a continuous, ever-evolving stream that's too complicated to ever sort out fully.  And that's one of the best things about it.   

 

Edited December 16, 2022 by HutchFan

[Chuck Nessa]

Nostalgia isn't as good as it was in the past.

[JSngry]

If it ever was 👁️‍🗨️

[Rabshakeh]

Are you going to do round up posts like last time?

[Rabshakeh]

Is the blog finished? @HutchFan

Last time round you did Round up posts

[felser]

The 50's and 60's are crying out for the same exercise!

Edited April 7, 2023 by felser

[clifford_thornton]

On 12/16/2022 at 9:16 AM, kh1958 said:

Jazzbuhne Berlin '85 volume 12 is actually the best Ulmer/Adams collaboration recording.

I'll have to check that out. I have the DIW and Moers LPs, and like them very much.

[kh1958]

34 minutes ago, clifford_thornton said:

I'll have to check that out. I have the DIW and Moers LPs, and like them very much.

The Big Ears store had several James Blood Ulmer CDs I've never seen before, including Phalanx Live with George Adams, which I did purchase. 

[Rabshakeh]

3 hours ago, felser said:

The 50's and 60's are crying out for the same exercise!

Or the 90s? These kind of blogs are hugely helpful for uncovering records for undiscovered periods.

[Gheorghe]

5 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

Or the 90s? These kind of blogs are hugely helpful for uncovering records for undiscovered periods.

I missed a lot of what happened in the 90´s . 

[T.D.]

6 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

Or the 90s? These kind of blogs are hugely helpful for uncovering records for undiscovered periods.

I thought the '70s and '80s really filled a hole, as the '50s and '60s have widely chronicled. Like Rabshakeh, I'd rather see the '90s, which I know far less about, next.

Needless to say, grateful to Scott and Dan for their effort whatever (even if nothing) comes next.

[Eric]

1 hour ago, T.D. said:

I thought the '70s and '80s really filled a hole, as the '50s and '60s have widely chronicled. Like Rabshakeh, I'd rather see the '90s, which I know far less about, next.

Needless to say, grateful to Scott and Dan for their effort whatever (even if nothing) comes next.

Oh yeah, the blog led to some very cool discoveries for me, in both decades.  I too am very grateful for all the effort put forth by Scott and Dan.  Agree with the 50s/60s sentiment.  More than anything, this “up” tells me I need to dig back into the 70s/80s pages and re-think what bias may have led me to overlook something the first time around.

[HutchFan]

Thanks all for your kind words and encouragement.    

Dan & I are done with the 80s blog.  I may circle back and add commentary to the few remaining entries without write-ups -- but I haven't had the gumption to do it lately.

So far this year, I've found that I'm burrowing back into the 1970s and discovering much more there -- Japanese jazz, Latin jazz, and more off-the-beaten-path stuff.   Without a doubt, it's the period that I feel the most affinity for.  I'm hoping, at some point, to return to my original idea of a writing a book about jazz in the 1970s.  It would be an expanded version of my 70s blog -- with many more albums and much more details.

But that may not happen until I'm retired from my day job ... and that's a few years away.  In the meantime, I'm doing "research."  

 

Edited April 7, 2023 by HutchFan

[felser]

1 hour ago, HutchFan said:

In the meantime, I'm doing "research."  

And the day job funds the research!  I know the drill well!

[HutchFan]

9 minutes ago, felser said:

And the day job funds the research!  I know the drill well!

Yes indeed!  And the "research" makes the daily grind a bit easier to shoulder.   

 

[felser]

1 hour ago, HutchFan said:

Yes indeed!  And the "research" makes the daily grind a bit easier to shoulder.   

 

Yep.  My experience also for many decades.   One of the perks of working IT.