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Post by The Cap'n on Mar 10, 2019 16:55:17 GMT -5
Had Bill Evans's great Interplay playing while reading, but I had to pause and post after track three, which is take seven (got that?) of "I'll Never Smile Again." Freddie Hubbard's muted trumpet calls to mind a certain you-know-who (but a much nimbler version), while there are some really great moments from Evans and Jim Hall (guitar), who has some really cool interplay--no pun intended--with Evans during his solo. Oh, and Percy Heath is on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. This is an amazing band.
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Post by The Cap'n on Mar 10, 2019 17:22:28 GMT -5
I haven't had a lot to say on the subject, not really having listened much even to my existing collection in a while (much less gotten into anything new). Today it just happened to have been my background music of choice as Yuval Noah Hariri blew my mind.
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Post by jk on Mar 7, 2020 4:40:15 GMT -5
Sadly McCoy Tyner, Trane's pianist on this extraordinary track, died yesterday aged 81. I had a conversation about Tyner only yesterday. I'm not a jazz buff but back in early 1965 I was knocked out by this extended piece I heard on a French jazz and pop station. It was Coltrane's "Afro Blue" from his Live at Birdland LP. Admittedly it was Elvin Jones's insane salvo of toms and cymbals in the coda that grabbed me first. Later I came to appreciate what McCoy was doing--the build-up in his long solo is white-knuckle stuff, underpinned by Jones's "thrashing and cursing", as Leroi Jones describes it in the excellent liner notes. May he rest in peace. www.nytimes.com/2020/03/06/arts/music/mccoy-tyner-dead.html
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Post by jk on Mar 27, 2020 5:47:34 GMT -5
Bumped into this cool Chet Baker performance last night (thank you, Mr. Tubey!). Chet sings and plays "My Funny Valentine" in Turin in 1959, not too incredibly long after I was born:
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Post by jk on Mar 30, 2020 4:52:11 GMT -5
OK so this jazz fusion, the brooding "Sanctuary" by John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra. With thanks to aeijtzsche for alerting me to this gem of an album. I have and love their debut (I even saw them once with a later lineup) but something kept me away from its stunning successor until now. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birds_of_Fire
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2020 7:32:48 GMT -5
OK so this jazz fusion, the brooding "Sanctuary" by John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra. With thanks to aeijtzsche for alerting me to this gem of an album. I have and love their debut (I even saw them once with a later lineup) but something kept me away from its stunning successor until now. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birds_of_FireI saw Mahavishnu at Winterland on their US tour for The Inner Mounting Flame. I had been following John McLaughlin for a while. Billy Cobham was a monster, plus he played his hh's with his left hand - made me think of Dennis. I started listening closely to McLaughlin's playing and watching him do incredible runs and unbelievable left hand stretches to create crazy chord inversions and arpeggios. I got pretty discouraged. Up to that point I thought I was a pretty good guitarist. I was, but I knew I'd never reach his level. That night I pretty much decided to concentrate more on piano - I knew I'd never be Bud Powell, but it didn't matter. I was going to dedicate myself to what I did best, compose. Before the set was over I made my way to the top level, lay across a couple of seats and napped till the end of the set. The concert ended and we drove the 100 miles back to Fair Oaks.
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Post by jk on Mar 30, 2020 8:53:49 GMT -5
I saw Mahavishnu at Winterland on their US tour for The Inner Mounting Flame. I had been following John McLaughlin for a while. Billy Cobham was a monster, plus he played his hh's with his left hand - made me think of Dennis. I started listening closely to McLaughlin's playing and watching him do incredible runs and unbelievable left hand stretches to create crazy chord inversions and arpeggios. I got pretty discouraged. Up to that point I thought I was a pretty good guitarist. I was, but I knew I'd never reach his level. That night I pretty much decided to concentrate more on piano - I knew I'd never be Bud Powell, but it didn't matter. I was going to dedicate myself to what I did best, compose. Before the set was over I made my way to the top level, lay across a couple of seats and napped till the end of the set. The concert ended and we drove the 100 miles back to Fair Oaks. That's some story, Steve. Thanks for sharing! I was lucky enough to see them in Amsterdam, just after moving to NL—it must have been in 1974, as I see the pre-75 lineup featured Jean-Luc Ponty on violin, Gayle Moran on keyboards and vocals (shamefully, I can't remember her at all!), the astonishing Ralphe Armstrong on electric bass and drummer Narada Michael Walden. I do remember a string quartet and two Hare Krishna types, one of whom played trumpet and the other two saxes simultaneously. What musicians, all of them! We were sitting behind two gents with a pipe. They had this large cloth which went over their heads so that they made the most of the contents of their pipe. Hilariously, most of the smoke leaked out of the back of this setup and straight into my face! A week later I was still having flashbacks! After that show, I decided to buy The Inner Mounting Flame. So I know that first lineup better than the one I saw. I had to smile at Jean-Luc Ponty during the pre-concert meditation, where they all stood together in silence for a couple of minutes. J-L’s eyes were certainly raised heavenwards but with an expression of “How long are we going to have to stand around like this?” So no, I don’t think he was really happy there. What a joy to see him smiling from a Zappa album cover not long after.
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Post by jk on Apr 5, 2020 16:21:18 GMT -5
I've never been a fan of Free Jazz. It was Ornette Coleman's use of a strange instrument that made me check out "Buddha Blues". And what an extraordinary track it is too! Adapted from the extensive and informative YouTube blurb: "This appears to be Coleman's only recorded use of the suona, a kind of wooden oboe with a distinctive loud and high-pitched sound. "Coleman is accompanied by the bassists Charlie Haden (who provides a more up-front, supporting role) and David Izenzon (who takes on a more free-floating, unpredictable, colouristic function); on drums is Ed Blackwell, digging into his New Orleans heritage to provide a funky backdrop for the leader's slurring stream-of-consciousness." One pertinent Comment by TheKarsino... "Because of Ornette's interest and playing with the Master Musicians of Joujouka/Jajouka isn't this more likely to be a Moroccan Ghaita or Rhaita rather than a Suona which is Chinese. The Ghaita or Rhaita is often known as the Arabic Oboe and the Chinese version is called a Suona." ...and two for shits and giggles: Kristopher Wilkerson: "YOU CAN DO ANYTHING WHEN U ARE FREE.... EVEN RAPE BEES..AND ITS STILL FUNKY" cinnomonsinner: "A bee getting raped? That really rustles my jimmies" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornette_Coleman
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Post by jk on Apr 8, 2020 9:05:20 GMT -5
The Jimmy Giuffre 3 (JG: saxes and clarinet, Ralph Peña: contrabass and Jim Hall: guitar) perform the languid "The Train And The River" from their 1957 self-titled debut album: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Giuffre
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Post by jk on Apr 9, 2020 7:23:33 GMT -5
This is another of those tracks I heard late at night in the mid 60's on that excellent French jazz show. The most extraordinary aspect of Shelly Manne's "A Bluish Bag" is the walking bass played by Monty Budwig with the bow. I nearly fell out of bed when I heard it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_Gunn
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Post by E on Apr 22, 2020 7:55:50 GMT -5
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Post by jk on May 15, 2020 7:55:25 GMT -5
Allan Holdsworth manages to avoid being pigeonholed as a so-many-notes-per-second merchant, as his compositions have wonderful tunes and pensive moments aplenty. I'm not a jazz person at heart but I liked Mr H. enough to buy his 2000 album The Sixteen Men of Tain, with the lineup as featured in this video of them playing the closing track of the 2003 special edition. Wonderful stuff. Mr. H was a Yorkshireman with a keen interest in cycling and ale (not necessarily in that order). He died two years ago.
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Post by jk on Jun 17, 2020 6:31:21 GMT -5
This is for Joshilyn Hoisington , who I know is a huge Mahavishnu Orchestra fan. Hearty congrats on attaining 200+ subscriptions to your Youtube channel!
"Lockdown Blues" starts two minutes in:
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Post by E on Jun 17, 2020 9:28:06 GMT -5
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Post by Joshilyn Hoisington on Jun 17, 2020 12:02:18 GMT -5
OK so this jazz fusion, the brooding "Sanctuary" by John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra. With thanks to aeijtzsche for alerting me to this gem of an album. I have and love their debut (I even saw them once with a later lineup) but something kept me away from its stunning successor until now. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birds_of_FireI saw Mahavishnu at Winterland on their US tour for The Inner Mounting Flame. I had been following John McLaughlin for a while. Billy Cobham was a monster, plus he played his hh's with his left hand - made me think of Dennis. I started listening closely to McLaughlin's playing and watching him do incredible runs and unbelievable left hand stretches to create crazy chord inversions and arpeggios. I got pretty discouraged. Up to that point I thought I was a pretty good guitarist. I was, but I knew I'd never reach his level. That night I pretty much decided to concentrate more on piano - I knew I'd never be Bud Powell, but it didn't matter. I was going to dedicate myself to what I did best, compose. Before the set was over I made my way to the top level, lay across a couple of seats and napped till the end of the set. The concert ended and we drove the 100 miles back to Fair Oaks. McLaughlin must have gigantic hands; I experience the same sort of discouragement every time I pick up a guitar and try to play those picked arpeggios. He could hook his left thumb under on chords where I can barely get my thumb to peek out over the back of the neck. He really is the greatest guitar player of all time, I think. A little more taste than some of the other fusion monsters (although that's gone a bit downhill recently IMO), unbeatable speed, unsurpassed harmonic knowledge, and total mastery of rhythm. Superhuman. In some ways, I blame my lack of success in the music industry on Mahavishnu Orchestra. I wanted to do music like that, but nobody else was good enough to play it, so I never was able to form a group.
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Post by jk on Jun 18, 2020 3:47:07 GMT -5
McLaughlin must have gigantic hands; I experience the same sort of discouragement every time I pick up a guitar and try to play those picked arpeggios. He could hook his left thumb under on chords where I can barely get my thumb to peek out over the back of the neck. He really is the greatest guitar player of all time, I think. A little more taste than some of the other fusion monsters (although that's gone a bit downhill recently IMO), unbeatable speed, unsurpassed harmonic knowledge, and total mastery of rhythm. Superhuman. Wonderful to see JH gracing these often empty shores. On the subject of John McL, how about this out-of-left-field collaboration with our Mike? It works too! I believe this Speakeasy episode dates from 23 June, 1974:
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Post by jk on Jun 20, 2020 16:00:52 GMT -5
Most music is no fun at all right now (I lost a good friend earlier this week) but this track by Alice Coltrane, the opener from the album of that name, is one exception. A gorgeous texture to drift away on (see the wiki link for who does what): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_in_Satchidananda
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Post by jk on Jun 22, 2020 7:19:43 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Jun 22, 2020 13:19:52 GMT -5
Hope her music offers you a little cosmic soothing right now.
I used to listen to KPFA, Berkeley. In 1971, they aired a live concert of Alice Coltrane & Archie Shepp. It was a moving, marvelous experience. I recorded it, I might even still have the reel to reel...
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Post by jk on Jun 23, 2020 6:56:00 GMT -5
Hope her music offers you a little cosmic soothing right now.
I used to listen to KPFA, Berkeley. In 1971, they aired a live concert of Alice Coltrane & Archie Shepp. It was a moving, marvelous experience. I recorded it, I might even still have the reel to reel...
Thanks, Steve, it does. And time heals all wounds (or so they say). Now that must have been something!
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Post by jk on Jun 26, 2020 7:29:06 GMT -5
Is this jazz? Would Dvořák have approved? Would he have approved of the big tune from the slow movement of his New World Symphony being given lyrics and retitled "Goin' Home" (see first link)? "Going Home" is the extraordinary closer to an extraordinary album, Lords Of Lords (1972), which also sees Alice Coltrane tackling excerpts from Stravinsky's L'Oiseau de feu. Grateful thanks to aeijtzsche for pointing me at it! www.americanmusicpreservation.com/GoinHome.htm pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/alice-coltrane-lord-of-lords/
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Post by jk on Sept 22, 2020 9:06:22 GMT -5
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Post by jk on Sept 23, 2020 15:36:07 GMT -5
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Post by jk on Oct 8, 2020 15:43:34 GMT -5
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Post by E on Oct 11, 2020 9:27:18 GMT -5
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