What jazz music are you listening to?

[bart]

The Best Blue Note Album In The World ...Ever!




A 2-CD set brought out for Blue Note's 60th birthday.
It played on the 'vintage' system while dining.

[bart]

Originally Posted by bart

It was my newspaper that raved about this album 2 years ago.
No easy listening.
Modern jazz, with a faint influence of fusion (post-fusion?).
Threadgill knows his classics, but has a unique sound.

This is a review:
A year ago Pi Recordings released the first new Henry Threadgill recording since 2001: This Brings Us To, Volume I. This is the second release from the same recording sessions of November 2008. Threadgill's Zooid band is a quintet, with Liberty Ellman on acoustic guitar, Jose Davila on trombone and tuba, Stomu Takeishi on bass and Elliot Humberto Kavee on drums, with Henry alternating between flute and alto sax. Volume II (about 44 minutes long) was again mixed by Liberty Ellman, in June 2010, and mastered by Steve Fallone.

According to the liner notes, which are not included with the disc, but can be found on the Pi Recordings website, the five pieces found here represented the second set of the live touring band. Whereas on Volume I Threadgill played flute on the first three numbers and alto on the last three, here he plays flute on the first and third tracks, "Lying Eyes" and "Extremely Sweet William," and alto on the other three. The five compositions form a satisfying whole, leading off with the mid-tempo "Lying Eyes," which features Ellman's guitar and Davila's trombone, then the slower title track, and then the up-tempo "Extremely Sweet William," with a fiery guitar solo and piercing flute. "Polymorph" slows down again, with a compelling, rolling rhythm that brings to mind a strange entity changing form as it shambles across the landscape. Takeishi takes a bass solo, and Threadgill the composer and Kavee the drummer masterfully create a constant sense of forward motion. Finally "It Never Moved," another faster number to close.

This is a tight unit, and they only entered the studio after extensive live touring with these compositions. The liner notes on the Pi Recordings website, explain that Threadgill has developed a new system of improvisation since his last recordings in 2001: "[t]he compositions are organized along a series of interval blocks comprised of three notes, each of which is assigned to a musician, who is free to move around within these intervals, improvising melodies and creating counterpoint to one another." This is something the listener can use in order to hear the parameters of the compositions, but in any event one has only to hear the record to immediately recognize Threadgill's sound world. The music is rhythmically propulsive and tight in the way that only a band that has played together for years can achieve.

Threadgill has been mining the same distinctive sound for 30 years now, and it is still a rich vein. Threadgill's Air trio of the '70s, which came out of Chicago's AACM, explored the intersection of composition and free improv. The Sextett of the '80s and Very Very Circus of the '90s (with twin guitars and tubas!) both featured complex compositions that emphasized unusual textures, and utilized a dark, minor key harmonic palette, and the 2008 Zooid THIS BRINGS US TO sessions do not mark a sharp stylistic departure. There is improvisation, but it is tightly constrained, as described above. Threadgill has never been known primarily as a virtuoso alto soloist, rather his strength is as a composer and arranger. He utilizes rhythmic structures from Jellyroll Morton, sophisticated counterpoint, and subtle harmonic shifts that do not resolve.

The return of Henry Threadgill is one of the great events of jazz/improv of 2009 and 2010, with much of his back catalog reissued in addition to these new recordings. If you are new to his music, you are in for a pleasant surprise, and if you are a long-time listener like me, you know what to expect -- the best!

Revisiting this album on the tube system.

[bart]

Earlier today, we listened to this album:

The Red Norvo Combo - The Second Time Around
via Qobuz




It was not nearly as good as I remembered.

[bart]

Originally Posted by bart

Blue Mitchell - The Thing To Do
Qobuz 24/192



Recorded July 30, '64.
5 stars from AllMusic.

Blue Mitchell - trumpet
Junior Cook - tenor saxophone
Chick Corea - piano
Gene Taylor - bass
Al Foster - drums

Revisiting this great album.
Wow, the 50s and 60s were truly fantastic for jazz. What a wealth...

[bart]

Originally Posted by joel_hifi

Nina Simone - Little Girl Blue (Jazz As Played In An Exclusive Side Street Club)

Nina Simone's debut album, recorded in 1957

Nina Simone – Piano & Vocals
Jimmy Bond – Double Bass
Albert Heath – Drums

Streaming this again.
I've mentioned before that I'm not her biggest fan, but this is a nice effort.

[bart]

Originally Posted by bart

Bill Evans & Jim Hall - Undercurrent
via Qobuz




Fantastic interplay, it's almost magical.

Other than four piano solos from April 4, 1962, this set was pianist Bill Evans' first recordings after a hiatus caused by bassist Scott LaFaro's tragic death in a car accident. The first of two meetings on record in a duo format with guitarist Jim Hall, the collaborations are often exquisite. Both Evans and Hall had introspective and harmonically advanced styles along with roots in hard-swinging bebop. There is more variety than expected on the fine set with some cookers, ballads, waltzes, and even some hints at classical music. Recommended. [Some reissues include four bonus tracks, including two alternate takes and previously unheard versions of "Stairway to the Stars" and "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You."] ~ Scott Yanow

Great way to end the day...

[PierreB]

Paul Bley : Fragments
ECM 1320 (lp)

[Antonmb]

Coleman Hawkins Meets the Big Sax Section
Savoy Jazz (1958/1979), vinyl

[bart]

Introducing Paul Bley
with
Charlie Mingus
Art Blakey
Qobuz 24/44.1




Quite a nice debut as a leader for the 21 year old Bley.

[bart]

Paul Bley - Play Blue - Oslo Concert
Qobuz 24/96




Again Paul Bley, but now in 2008, when he was 75 years old.