Jazz: Band Camp recommendations.

Using the excellent app, Band Camp, lets recommend some good jazz music. These bands usually get little exposure.

I’ll start. Jewish jazz that will have you tapping your feet...
Warriors, by Zion80

Over to you...

 

Gold Sparkle Band

Gold Sparkle Band - Live at WREK 1998, by Charles Waters

 

And

East Atlanta Passover Stomp, by 4th Ward AfroKlezmer Orchestra

 

Lots of good stuff available via the Cuneiform Records label.

For some fine exploratory fusion there's the Yo Miles! project from Henry Kaiser & Wadada Leo Smith:
Sky Garden
Upriver

Large ensemble fun with a penchant for Zappa covers from The Ed Palermo Big Band:
Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance
Eddy Loves Frank
Oh No! Not Jazz!!
One Child Left Behind

 

For fans of the Charlie Brown’s Christmas jazz album..
R4ND4ZZO BIGB4ND Live, Tribute to Vince Guaraldi, by R4ND4ZZO BIGB4ND

 

I don't do bandcamp but if I did I'd order this, looks great: Work (Complete, Volumes 1-6), by Miles Okazaki

If anyone has heard it and can recommend it . . . thanks. The samples I've heard are very interesting.

 

Seconded for Cuneiform Records. Also, anything on the Firehouse 12 Records and Pi Recordings labels. Automatic buys for me.

A lot of the new wave of British jazz are also on Bandcamp. Shabaka Hutchings, Maisha, Binker & Moses, We Out Here (compilation), and the like are all on Bandcamp. Its not all to my tastes, but they are all very popular so don't take my word for it.

Dave Douglas, William Parker, David S. Ware and some other outstanding artists are very well represented on Bandcamp. Do some listening and find out what you like.

 

White Blinds - Get to Steppin' classic organ trio stuff Get To Steppin', by The White Blinds

Similar Fashion. Art rock/jazz Portrait of, by Similar Fashion

 

Restless, by Steve Lawson and Pete Fraser



Favourite track: Cathing Up

 

Jacob Duncan w/ JD Allen, It's Alright to Dream
It's Alright To Dream, by Jacob Duncan

 

Lest We Forget What We Came Here To Do, by Sons Of Kemet



Favourite track: Afrofuturism

 

Resonance, by Dave Rudolph



Favourite track: Whimsy

 

Voyage West, by Stefan Bauer



Favourite track: Caravan

 

Changing Perceptions, by Tomasz Kowalczyk Trio



Favourite track: Into the Light

 

I've been enjoying Bandcamp a lot this year. I've used it both to buy physical media and digital downloads.

I'll recommend a couple of relatively recent records that I think are only available digitally (after limited edition LPs sold out):

The New American Songbooks Vol. 1
by Greg Saunier, Mary Halvorson, Ron Miles

Roadwork 1 / Roadwork 2 / Homework 1 (3CD Box Set)
by Marker

The first is an excellent set of covers that run the gamut of (original version) genres. Great band and part of Mary Halvorson's huge winning streak of great records.

The second has three live sets from a terrific Ken Vandermark band. I like when KV plays tunes (as opposed to the total improvisation he's been focused on for a while), and this fits the bill. Groovy stuff. I'm still absorbing this one.

On a non-jazz tip, my favorite rock band, The Hold Steady, has been releasing "official bootlegs" on a pay-what-you-want basis, as well as some recent non-album singles. I've been picking them as they are released. Great way to stay connected to a band that hasn't put out a new full album in a while. And I even went to the released Chicago shows, so it's been fun to re-live them.

 

By the way, I think the two I recommended above are both still on a sale through Catalytic Sound.

Catalytic Sound

The code is "holiday20" when you check out on Bandcamp for 20% off.

 

Incredible one mic recording, normally only available as a Hi-res flac download but Carmen is selling redbook CD's via her Don't You Cry, by Carmen Gomes site.
Superb audio quality and perfect for speaker placement as it is a completely phase coherent recording.

 

Recently discovered London based Sarah Tandy after hearing a track on Jazz FM late one night from her debut album which I can't stop playing.


Infection In The Sentence, by Sarah Tandy