Now playing something that sounds like Herbie's finest jazz-funk. But it's not Herbie... Patrice Rushen - Before The Dawn
Just another random Sunday morning grab from a box marked Jazz. The cover design gives me flashbacks of my childhood.... I want to tear open a few packs of 1960 Topps baseball cards.
One of my favorite Cecil Taylor albums. And one of the easier Taylor albums to "get" I think. At least it's a Taylor album from the period (together with the stuff from Into the Hot) that I feel like I'm following and not just experiencing (by contrast, Unit Structures moves too fast for me). To my ears the title piece seems to have a broad, three part construction, with fast-slow-fast sections, almost like a classical movement type structure, with solos as the sort of "exposition." The three broad parts to me are the opening fanfare-like section and solos, the slow trumpet solo section, and the closing swinging section with the almost Latin rhythm feel and the repeated almost hard boppish ensemble line. But there are a couple of other themes too. There seems to be little coda section, which as the piece closes almost sounds like an inversion of the opening piano fanfare or an answer part to its call, but maybe I'm nuts; and there are two short melodic passages at the end of the slow Dixon solo section which the horns join the piano in stating before that section with the hard boppish melody ensembles and the Blakey-ish Latinate beat enters. I'm not sure if that material is part of the B section, an entirely different section, part of the C section, or if it matters at all. Those last 10 minutes or so of the piece mostly consists of that hard boppish line framing a piano solo, or kind of a piano-drum duet, and framing a piano-basses section, before giving way to that little coda. A lot of times with free jazz, and with Taylor's music in particular, I hear a lot of people who come to it from other kinds of jazz, describe it as formless or going nowhere or things like that, but "Conquistador" is so clearly not formless and so clearly goes somewhere with sections with beginnings and middles and ends and parts that even harken back to other kinds of jazz, that I suspect that most people with any familiarity with modern non-pop music would be able to at least broadly hear the shape and development of it. The record is also one of Taylor's easier to enter I think because of the beautiful, memorable melody of "With (Exit)" -- that theme that opens and closes "With (Exit)" stays with me all day. There's also a fair amount of space in the music. Taylor's music always worked by massing and releasing density, but the '60s and '70s stuff could get extremely dense and stay there, which can make for difficult, or at least exhausting listening. On Conquistador, here's a lot of air and space in the music, with lots of breakdown sections where its a duo or trio improvising together, not the whole ensemble blowing (and there's variety of mood and theme as the title piece progresses, which isn't as much the case with later piano improvs like Silent Tongues, or later ensemble works like 3 Phasis, both of which I love but which I think are more one-dimensional). Maybe it's just me. And maybe I'm all wet. Maybe I'm reading the music wrong. Maybe it's just something I'm bringing to the music, not what the musicians put into it. I dunno. But I know that shape and form and beginning-middle-end are things that really ring my bells and satisfy something in me as a listener -- I don't know if that's because of a psychological need to feel like the world or life has some kind of shape or direction or meaning. But I know that when I can get inside the shape and flow of a musical performance and follow it like a story or a tale, not in a programmatic way, but because the music itself has it's own beginning-middle-end shape, it just really makes me feel deeply satisfied. It's like an emotional sense of closure. And I get that in spades listening to Conquistador.
Benny Goodman: "The Madhattan Room Broadcasts 5" I like these broadcasts, air Plays, transcription Services, Camel Shows, Treasury Shows (Duke Ellington) or Town Hall Shows (Eddie Condon)
Someday My Prince Will Come from this set: I haven’t heard this album in ages, I had forgotten just how good it really is. After this album, it took Davis awhile to get another group together before deciding on Coleman, Hancock, Carter, and Williams. He had asked Victor Feldman to join his band, but he declined citing that touring was definitely out of the question for him as he wanted to remain a session player.
I have been wanting to play this for awhile, but the deed is done now. Beautiful, buoyant Coltrane to put a nice touch to an other wise dreary, wet overcast Sunday morning. Love all the players on this and Fuller's trombone buzz adds to the enjoyment--trombone is becoming a favorite instrument in the jazz journey.
Maybe the fifth album I've listened to in the new Art Ensemble box. No disappointments yet. This one is a gas! A big as life recording with fabulous playing, charm and humor.
NP Bill Evans Trio - Very Early (Resonance) Missed the vinyl version on this release but the cd does sound good.
A good friend of mine, now deceased, was a close friend of Bob Dylan from when he was 18-22. He often stayed at her upstate home. She had many rare photos of Bob, and she promised me copies of them. It took ages and ages. Every time we met, she told me not to worry and that "Someday Your Prints Will Come" She liked Miles too! It is interesting that another close friend of hers was Sonny Rollins, and she had photos that her husband had taken of Sonny on her wall.
Bill Evans Trio: On A Monday Evening I’ve owned this album for awhile and I believe it’s a first-listen. Sounds great so far.
All the time, or at least 12 hours per day (often as much as 16-18 hours). I study music from many time periods, styles and cultures constantly, and share it weekly on the air as well. Sometimes, I have two different systems in my house playing different music simultaneously in different parts of my house. Fortunately, my wife is very tolerant and loves music as well. I spend much time providing music to my friends and family too. Why do you ask?
Because I don’t ever see you post what you’ve listening to but rather anecdotes or personal stories, which is fine, but I’d like to have a better idea of what musicians you dig.
Now that 2018 is coming to an end I would like to ask you: What was your best buy? or What great new/old artist did you discover/rediscover ? or Which album got more plays from you? or What was that great concert that you were fortunate to attend? or Anything that you find relevant in your 2018 "Jazz" life.
Yes i experience it in a similar way. I appreciate the open space within it too. They are not on top of each other or at least most of the time and i love that the piece collapses upon itself and then the little coda. I feel i am ready for that at that point . I also just let the music wash over me at times with the melodic remnants and rhymic variations like pulses. I get different things from it every time i listen and learn it more. I think i will still be seeing further into it 10 years from now and i love that. I also just picked up Colemans’ The Great London concert on your recommendation Found a cheap copy of the Arista mid 70s 2 lp set. Looking forward to that too.
I "dig" all of the musicians that I might post about, and many, many more. I love their music and immerse myself in their life stories and those who inspired them. Many of them I have been lucky to meet, and a number of them have become friends (or I get to know their children) Considering jazz: I have a great love for the entire history of the music, and have tremendous respect for the artists who created the music. All of them. I think of @Lonson and his original post that started this thread I suppose I could post album covers of whatever I am listening to at any moment. But personally, I do not care to do that. I have also never joined Facebook and posted about whatever I am doing on any particular day. Additionally, there would be a lot of non-jazz albums if I did that. But your comment gives me a chuckle about the many encounters I have had with people who sell me their albums, or strangers who visit my home (like the plumber and the carpenter who came over this week) and see four rooms of records and CDs. They may say something like, "What do you DO with these records?" or "Do you actually listen to those records?" But of course!
Cheers @Tribute Thread duty - Tomasz Stanko: Wolność W Sierpniu (Freedom In August) A short album (only around 28 minutes in duration), but it’s just so gorgeous. For my fellow Stanko fans here (I’m not sure how many of you there are out there), this album is a must-own.
Keep being you, @Tribute. I only know jazz through labels, liner notes, and an intense fling with the bari sax in my youth. The anecdotes and first-hand accounts are what make these kinds of threads fun for me.
My best buy was trading a copy of the first Germs record for a beautiful second stereo repress of Blue Train. As someone posted earlier today, that record makes the grey winter skies just a touch more bearable. The greatest artist I discovered was Phil Woods. I'm partial to the saxophone, so finding his European Rhythm Machine recordings from the early 70s was an eye-opening backdoor into the avant garde scene for me. I feel like, because of him, I'm more slightly more open to other artists that I would have dismissed only a year or two ago as being too far "out there."