Jazz Beat - Part 21

Christy Doran - What a Band

 

Thanks. When I took the dogs out last night and saw the weather the idea just came to me. My wife was kind enough to agree to do it so we walked over there and after I set up the camera she made a few great images. Sorry for the off topic stuff.... I am aware the thread is titled Jazz Beat, so on with it.

Lee Morgan - Candy

Music Matters I managed to pick up the other day with credit when I dropped some albums off at Dusty Groove.



Lee Morgan - trumpet
Sonny Clark - piano
Doug Watkins - bass
Art Taylor - drums

 

Watertown is WAY too far away from where I am. That being said, and at the risk of sounding "snooty", Vandermark is not someone I would go out of my way to hear live. Don't get me wrong -- I do like some of his stuff, but not all.

 

For some reason Django's music makes me happy! It's got some good energy for the most part, and I just thought it might help get the spring mindset here faster. 3 inches of snow in Ann Arbor last night isn't helping. Swingtime In Springtime!!!!!

 

Sonny Clark - Leapin' and Lopin'

I absolutely love "Melody for C" off of this album. What a great song.



Sonny Clark - piano
Tommy Turrentine - trumpet
Charlie Rouse - tenor saxophone
Ike Quebec - tenor saxophone (only on "Deep in a Dream")
Butch Warren - bass
Billy Higgins - drums

 

Stanley Turrentine - Look Out!



Stanley Turrentine - tenor saxophone
Horace Parlan - piano
George Tucker - bass
Al Harewood - drums

 

New from Steeplechase. It's been a while (maybe 3 or 4 years?) since they released one of these:



http://www.jazzmessengers.com/en/64831/dexter-gordon/candlelight-lady

 

Sweet! How is it?

 

I don't know. I just received an email about it today from Jazz Messengers in Spain. Fwiw, the latest in the Swiss Radio Days series is also a Dex:

 

Continuing on the Max theme:



with Cliff Jordan, Eddie Khan and Mal Waldron

 

Spent most of last weekend at the 52nd (yes 52nd) annual Reno Jazz Festival with my dad, and it was fantastic. Beyond all the great high school and college big bands competing (many killer performances, including arrangements of stuff like Joe Henderson's "Recorda Me," many Thad Jones pieces, Duke's "Chonoiserie," etc), trumpeter Avishai Cohen blew our minds playing with University of Reno music dept faculty (including the excellent saxophonist Peter Epstein) on the opening night. We also got to hear Avishai talk about music and life in two different clinics over the weekend. Great musician and person.

Listening today:

Scored a relatively inexpensive copy of the Classic Records 33 1/3 rpm LP pressing, after reading all the positive comments about it. Utterly wonderful sounding (and of course the music is timeless - I have long had it as a pretty good sounding French RCA import double CD edition, which I prefer to the later American Bluebird 2 CD version - different mastering and partly but not fully overlapping content - meaning I had to keep both sets!!!).


INITIATION (ARC, 2009). Erica Lindsay (tenor sax) and Sumi Tonooka (piano) plus Bob Braye on drums and Rufus Reid on bass. This is a new one for me and I'm still just really getting into it. Very centered, beguiling, non-showy playing. So far my favorite piece is the 2nd track, the thoughtful ballad "Mingus Mood."

 

Ah yes, "Melody For C," such a happy piece - the kind you end up humming under your breath all day long. I love that there's an alternate take on the CD, it's one of those songs I always wish was twice as long, so having the alt sort of achieves that!

 

In your notable absence I posted this:
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/jazz-beat-part-21.348931/page-11#post-10334274

Much better live I'm sure. I'm impressed that Reno had Avishai and Peter. That's very forward looking. Need to keep that fest on my radar.

 

Abdullah Ibrahim - African Piano



Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim) - African Market

 

Eddie Harris - Vexatious Progressions

 

Recorded right in your backyard Great record!

 

Got this wonderful Helen Merrill CD for $3. Recorded 6/56 with arrangements by Gil Evans. Also includes bonus tracks from a 2/54 session with arrangements by Johnny Richards. A fine singer and (at the risk of being sexist) a really cute one.

 

I had heard good things about this one & they are all true. My first time hearing Regina, who is considered one of the best singers ever in Brazil. All songs written by Jobim, who also sings on four of the numbers. Recorded in Los Angeles, 1974.

 

Rudy Royston - 303

 

Cool, nice review, thanks for pointing me to it (I've been too swamped to go back through the posts I missed while away).

I ordered TRIVENI II while sitting at the festival, going for that one simply because on opening night Cohen and Epstein and Co. played a couple of pieces that are on that recording, most notably Cohen's very tasty composition "Safety Land." Haven't received it yet. I need to get that first recording as well. Cohen and Nasheet ought to be a dynamite combo. At his clinic, Avishai mentioned Nasheet and how much he (Avishai) had learned from him, benefiting from Nasheet's growing up in a "jazz family."

This was my first year at the Reno fest - my parents now live there, so very convenient. It's smaller than the Monterey Next Gen Festival, but not by much and the content was just as good. I was sitting in the very front row at Avishai's Friday clinic, right in front of him, my head about 6 feet away from the bell of his trumpet. What a gorgeous sound he gets, and with unbelievable command of dynamics and pitch.

You mentioned "elongated swing" in your review of the first Triveni CD - that's an apt description of Cohen's playing. More than many otherwise modernist players, no matter how far out things go, he still swings like mad (and the lines in his compositions have that swing built in). The imperative to swing was something else he spent a lot of time talking about in the clinics, as something he values and strives for. He's a big proponent of budding musicians using transcription of solos and whole pieces by the masters to help with learning aspects of jazz including how to swing. This is something he did a lot of when learning, and still does - to the point he can now apparently transcribe an entire piece on the subway WITHOUT HIS TRUMPET (i.e. in his head) - he just checks his work on the horn once he gets home, "to make sure there were no mistakes" (!!!!???!!! ).

Peter Epstein is actually the Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Reno.

 

Masterpiece alert! I am still trying to find a copy of that original U.S. Verve CD. I have a recent CD reissue that is OK - higher res transfers, but too bright and compressed (sigh...what else is new...)

 

Gerald Clayton - Life Forum