Schoenberg: Five Pieces for Orchestra From this Boulez recording: Haunting piece of music and one of Schoenberg’s best, IMHO. This piece comes from his free atonality period before finally devoting himself to the 12-tone method of composition.
This is more challenging than my normal hard bop fare but I really like it. Ghost Town is a really unique haunting song, but the whole album is good. Trombone, Alto, and vibes front line offer interesting combinations and Tony Williams complements everyone. Edit: and you don’t see too many Blue Note liner notes written by the artist, in this case Jackie McLean.
I've just bought the three DSD downloads of Bill Evans at nativedsd.com. There's a great deal on 20 jazz albums right now in case someone is interested Special Deal on 20 Jazz Favorites | NativeDSD Blog
...that’s a good one Dan. One of my faves. Unfortunately, my copy has a glitch where the end (about 2min) of the alternate take of “Saturday & Sunday” is on the beginning of the next track “Frankenstein”. Hopefully yours doesn’t have that issue. I’ve tried two copies and they are the same.
This is also Bobby Hutcherson's recording debut with Blue Note; previously, he'd been working with Al Grey and Billy Mitchell. So I guess Jackie deserves credit for bringing Hutch into the Blue Note family. That whole series of McLean-Hutcherson albums--One Step Beyond, Destination... Out!, Action, as well as Evolution by Grachan Moncur III--is really wonderful. A peak in Blue Note history.
This afternoon is part 2 of my 4 album discovery binge on Wayne Shorter. This afternoon’s offering is this one. Absolutely love how everything just falls into place musically! So good.
The weekend is here, friends! I've been really starting to develop a thing for Sonny Clark recently, now I have two of his leader dates (Dial S... which I played yesterday, and Cool Struttin', which I'm about to play) and I also just noticed that he's the pianist on Lee Morgan's Candy. I've been listening to so much jazz lately I've decided to go through my CD collection, pull out all the jazz albums, and store them separately in order to make it easier on myself to find them for listening, while doing that I'm going to be sure to look out for Clark's name (and also Freddie Hubbard, who I've really been paying attention lately). Sonny Clark: Cool Struttin'
When I read of Alvin Fielder's passing the other day I remembered that I hadn't picked Rose Mitchell's Before There Was Sound which Fielders plays on. But I have it now courtesy of Ebay... I didn't really pay much attention to the titles when I was playing it earlier...but got to Track 4 and did one of those "Wait. I know this..." I had no idea that "Carefree which is really just a coda to "Magg Zalma" on the Art Ensemble's Full Force went back as far as it did. A bit of a shame that it only lasts for 50 seconds on FF.
RIP Alvin Fielder and Joseph Jarman. There are also three takes of 'Carefree' on the box set The Art Ensemble* - 1967/68 that I believe don't appear on any of the subsequent releases of these sessions. The box set is out of print.
Took my first dive into Brad Mehldau's work with his latest Trio album, it's pretty great. Really liked the take on the Beach Boys' "Friends", but the whole thing is great.
I was in a record shop recently Jason and I saw this and remembered you going on (and on and on) about this album in a series of posts a long time ago so naturally I picked it up. (I love Pepper Adams too so I had no doubt. ) Love this on first listen. Thanks for the heads up.
Well, that's a bit embarrassing since I have that box but it must be so long since I played it that it didn't register today. Note to self - dig that box out again...
NP: 2x45MM - Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Free For All Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – Free For All The band is simply on fire for this session. It's not my #1 favorite Blakey but it's still a favorite. SQ is absurdly great... I can't imagine anything could possibly be missing that would warrant purchasing the new MM33SRX. Could there be?
Had several Blue Note purchases this week, my favorite one so far is Sixth Sense, picked up a TOCJ version at a local store. Despite owning 25+ Lee Morgan albums, this had somehow eluded me. Solid songs throughout with Mclean and Frank Mitchell on sax. Recorded in 1967-1968 and realeased in 1970. Tragic liner notes though by Ed Williams, NY DJ: “His second wife Helen, is giving him the encouragement and support a man needs from a woman.” If a bullet between sets is support count me out.
That's on my list to buy as well. I've come to love those later Morgan albums since getting the Lighthouse set.
Yesterday, first time playing: Beck, Joe Beck. Today 2nd and 3rd. Thought I knew all the good CTI/Kudu records...
That kind of thing happens to me fairly often these days. Records or CD's I thought were in my library but aren't. Records or CD's I can't recall exactly how they were filed or that I have to look up on discogs or hraudio. That hard drive upstairs is full and it makes the decisions as to what to throw out when new stuff goes in without consulting me. I happen to have those takes of Carefree on the Ipod though and they come up on random play in the car every once in a while. An excellent box set that I'm sure will get some play indoors this weekend.
Now rockin’ to: The Ornette Coleman Quartet –This Is Our Music Label: Atlantic – 8122731372, Warner Jazz – 8122731372, Warner Strategic Marketing – 8122731372 Series: Atlantic Masters – Format: CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Digipak Country: Europe Released: 2005 Genre: Jazz Style: Free Jazz Happy Friday
Bobby, not a bad song on there. You know I have a bias against ballads and I even like the slow song on here, The Cry of My People, a beautiful emotional song. Afreaka is the one that would really fit in the Lighthouse session.
Thanks for the replies. I am enjoying "Pastoral Symphony" very much -- this is lovely stuff, and something I can definitely imagine myself coming back to again. And I certainly hope I am not giving the impression that I'm not being open-minded. I've listened to a lot of this stuff over the years in a variety of settings, if never in a deep-dive-type context where I've bought albums and really paid close attention to individual recordings and composers and performers on a granular level. I think there's a big difference between how much experience/exposure it takes to be an expert on something and how much it takes to be able to make generalized statements about your own preferences, and sometimes it seems like people won't accept the latter unless you're speaking with the full range of knowledge of the former. But I'm really not trying to wave my hand and dismiss a massive genre of music wholesale. I am open to having my mind changed. But I concede perhaps it's best to not force it.
Tim Berne’s Snakeoil: Live at The Shedd Institute, Eugene OR 2/29/12 Tim Berne: Alto Saxophone Oscar Noriega: B-flat Clarinet, Bass Clarinet Matt Mitchell: Piano Ches Smith: Drums, Percussion, Vibes Label: Ax’s Private Stash Recording Chain: Schoeps Mk4/CMC6 > Grace Design Lunatech V2 > Tascam HD-P2 (24/48) A new project for Berne at the time that had just released their eponymous debut album a few weeks prior and marked his first release for the ECM label. A bass-less quartet but a concept not new to Berne so it’s never missed as a result of the compositional style and the sonorities of the instruments. In fact, based on his longtime association with guitarists like Nels Cline and Marc Ducret you can hear a guitar fitting nicely into this music; something that would occur on their third release with the addition of Ryan Ferriera. It’s a great venue, a repurposed church, with decent acoustics and minimal intrusion necessary from sound reinforcement and while the space holds several hundred people there were......about a dozen of us in the audience that night. Pitiful for a so-called enlightened and hip college town that has two colleges within walking distance, both with vital Jazz programs. To make matters worse, students get in free or at a significant discount, annnnd, Ches Smith grew up here and cut his sticks in local bands. Ah well, travelling these veins of music my wife and I were unfortunately not overly surprised at the turnout. Just saddened. (The same thing happened soon after with a Michael Formanek performance, one that I made sure to enlist {read:force} a few friends to attend, musician friends no less, that “just didn’t get it”. Guess what? We don’t get this type of music anymore.) So what happened as a result of this poor turnout? Tim thanked us sincerely for coming and instead of playing the scheduled single set that night told us they would take a short break and play another set for us! That set, which is playing now, was a 43’ single piece that developed like a through-composed suite of “New Music” that involved large amounts of improvisation. And maybe it was ALL improvised. Mesmerizing, and there were about 10 of us left. That’s what you get sometimes in these circles. Luckily, the entire performance was “captured” for posterity in excellent live sound as though you were in the front row
Let this be a lesson: when you do have a supportive woman, who has effectively managed your career, provided a stable home, and helped you get off drugs, it's probably a bad idea to run around with a girlfriend who encourages you to do drugs with her. And if you insist on hanging around the club with your side girlfriend, and your main support shows up one snowy night, you may think twice about telling the bouncer to throw out your supportive woman without her coat. That may be the last straw for your supportive woman, and things subsequently may go badly for you.
