PaulBoud

Great Idea for a forum!!

I'm definetly not a jazz expert, but my collection is pretty decent. Most of my favorites have already been mentioned. I guess my all time favorite is Coltrane, but if you are not familiar with him you have to be CAREFUL!!!.
Here's why, several of his later albums were so avant-garde that they're pretty much unlistenable for 99% of the population, (and the other 1% are just trying to be elitist snobs). As mentioned before, My Favorite Things is a great starting point, but his masterpieces are Giant Steps and A Love Supreme. This is not jazz that is accessible as most stuff mentioned here, it may take a few listens for your brain to get around it, but it is worth the effort. Another classic is Blue Trane. If Alice Coltrane is in the band, forget it, too experimental.

I also want to mention that if you buy a Cannonball Adderly disk you should try to get one that has Sack O'Woe on it.

And don't forget vocal jazz!!!! I love Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and of course Billie Holiday. They all have so much material out there. Most is great, some is not. I really enjoy Louis & Ella, and Louis & Ella Again. Also, a great modern singer is Cassandra Wilson. Hope this helps some of you.

Mike Broadman

Paul, I pretty much agree with your statements about Coltrane. I picked My Favorite Things because I think it's a great demonstration of what jazz can do with a song. I actually like some of his later stuff, but not all. Ascension is too much for me, but I dig Interstellar Space and Meditations. For Coltrane fans, it's worth it to check out both First Meditations and Meditations, to see how those musical ideas developed. Meditations was the one released originally, when Coltrane starting adding members to the band. First Meditations is almost the same material in an earlier stage, performed just by the quartet. That one is actually more "listenable."

Albums like Transition and Sun Ship have the best of both worlds: experimentation and great music. That's before he went off the deep end.

While I don't like or understand some of his later work, at least he was constantly trying new things. I think that if he'd have lived longer, he would have worn himself out with the insanity and found a middle ground. Chalk that up as another Great Tragedy of art.


Since this thread is colored by my taste and knowledge, I left out vocal music, as I don't particularly care for singing in general. Tomorrow I'm posting the next two recommendations for April. Maybe one should be vocal- I'm thinking Ella. Any suggestions?

My awesome music collection

Wade

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy (also recommended previously by PaulHeroy)

I crank it up for this one. This whole album is great especially Games, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy & Sack O' Woe. Nat's blowin' on Sack O' Woe sends chills down my spine. Highly recommended

Wade

Mike Broadman

It's that time, again, folks. I'm back with two new selections for April.

1st selection: Kenny G
April fools!
(I know, that joke was awful. Please, don't let my terrible, terrible sense of humor prevent you from picking up the following music).

1. Charles Mingus- Ah Um

Well, this one shouldn't come as a surprise. Mingus is my idol, and I'm damn well gonna include him in this thread. Ah Um is his more well-known and one of his more "accessible" albums. The first of two albums recorded for Columbia, these tracks are finished, cleaned-up versions of pieces he was working on for a number of years. Earlier, sometimes rougher but also more more interesting versions of these pieces can be found on CDs released on smaller labels.

Charles Mingus was a rare kind of musician: a complete musician. Like Duke Ellington (whose band he played in and who was one of his idols), he was true musical leader and invented his own musical language. He assembled musicians of all types of backgrounds and put them together in all sorts of congifurations- everything from small groups to big bands. His composition style was constantly developing, but revolved around the practice of coming up with musical frameworks that he would sing and play to his band, allowing them to fill the gaps via improvisation. The piece would be tailor-fitted to the musical personalities of the players- a practice learned from Ellington.

Personally, Mingus was infamous for being quite moody. He had difficutly controlling his temper and was prone to violence, but was fiercely loyal to his friends. Because of his erratic and difficutlt personality, musicians didn't stay with him for very long. One exception is the drummer Danny Richmond. However, musicians who "did time" with Mingus all claim they learned more than with any other experience. Mingus' passionate and moody temperament comes forth in his music, making it all the more personal.

Before all of this, however, Mingus was a bass player, and a damn good one at that. He hits the strings hard, and isn't afraid of shaking up the time and sliding up and down the neck, but he doesn't play "flash." Every note means something, because he is more concerned with the composition than with the individual playing.

Some of the songs on Ah Um:
Better Get It In Your Soul- one of Mingus' most profound influences is gospel and church music. Though Mingus can get pretty complex and abstract, he can come back at you with powerful sould and blues music, that reaches in to the very heart of black American history. And just try not to clap along.

Goodbye Pork Pie Hat- Mingus' most famous ballad, and probably his most famous song. It is a tribute to Lester Young, a legend in his own right. The sad beauty of the melody conveys the tragic last few years of Young's life.

Fables of Faubus- This sarcastic piece was written in "honor" of a southern governor (whose name escapes me) who was staunchly opposed to racial integration in schools. The clown-ish melodic theme pokes fun at that sort of ignorance and arrogance.
Mingus had is own issues with race. Not only was he black, which was hard enough, but his skin was light, which caused ire within the black community. One story about his relates a black man who accused Mingus of not being able to play the blues because he wasn't "black enough." After his friends managed to convince him not to fight the guy, Mingus picked up his bass and played some of the meanest blues they ever heard, silencing the accuser.

Jelly Roll- The titles and the music itself recalls one of the first recorded jazz piano players, Jelly Roll Morton. This songs gently mocks and pays tribute to early New Orleans jazz.

Ok, I've rambled on enough. Get this, you won't regret it.

CD: Columbia, make sure to get the remastered one (should be labeled as such, with a transparent jewel case spine).
SACD: Those of you into SACD are in for a special treat- this is a wonderful presentation of this music.

2. Mahavishnu Orchestra- Birds of Fire
Welcome to the wonderful and strange world of fusion. The Mahavishnu orchestra was lead by John McLaughlin, an English guitar player who got noticed playing with Miles Davis.

The "fusion" refers to a combining jazz and rock music: basically, the music is in the jazz idiom, but using electric instruments and pounding rock-style rhythms. The end result is something that feels like hard rock- it's loud, it's brash, it upsets your parents. But, when you scratch the surface, they're using jazz scales and theory.

McLaughlin is considered a guitar hero, in the same sense that Hendrix or Clapton are to many people. His playing is really the focus of the music, though the other musicians do their fare share of showboating.

CD: this is also a Columbia release, and is also remasterd. As much as I'd love a SACD of this one, there ain't one out. Oh well, you can't have everything.


Note: I want to recommend some vocal jazz, but I don't know anything about it, as I don't listen to it. If anyone can recommend a good Ella Fitzgerald disc, that would be greatly appreciated.

My awesome music collection

Bob Turnbull

I really can't second Mike suggestions strongly enough.

I mentioned previously in this thread that "Better Git It In Your Soul" was the song that really got me into jazz. The insanely infectious horn riff, the hollering all over, the pounding piano and the relentless energy of the whole piece just completely won me over. Worth the price of the disc alone (but you get so much more on top!).

A few others that are great: The Clown (with the freaking great "Haitian Fight Song" - the song that's playing in the background while Tom Cruise and Renee Zellwegger are making out for the first time in Jerry Maguire), Blues And Roots (with "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting") and for something a bit more out there, Let My Children Hear Music (with my favourite name for a song ever - "The Shoes Of The Fisherman's Wife Are Some Jive Ass Slippers").

As for Mahavishnu, yowza! Both the recommended Birds Of Fire and Inner Mounting Flame are searing records. Astounding musicianship from everybody involved. And though I love McLaughlin's electric guitar playing, I must say my favourite moment of his is from the first Shakti album. The lead track is an eighteen minute long tabla-driven acoustic guitar/violin duel called "Joy". No better title could have been given...

I realize that I never managed to pump out a review of Art Blakey's Moanin'. My apologies...Suffice it to say that I bought it due to the thread and love it. It pulses and swings all the way through and the title track has quickly become a fave. No weak moments, no lulls.

NP - Grant Green - Live At The Lighthouse

Films Watched in 2008 , 2007 , 2006 , 2005
S&S List , HTF Top 20 Films
My Blog , My DVDs (horribly out of date)

PaulHeroy

Sorry to not chip in here again after some comments I made a few weeks ago, but I've got a break and feel like responding so here goes. Before going on though let me admit that I'm at least somewhat a fan of a number of more "avant" type jazz musicians... certainly not everything but my tastes tend a little more to the "out there" stuff than most.

On current jazz musicians (i.e. living folks currently making music): I find most of the younger mainstream jazz musicians to be rather boring (with Wynton as the archetype) with a few exceptions, mainly recreating in a music that has to feel a spirit of creation to work, IMO. Two guys I really like are Marty Ehrlich and Ken Vandermark.

Ehrlich is part of the "NY downtown scene" (i.e. a blend of avant and more mainstream jazz) and has played with an incredible number of great current musicians. He's also led or leads several different ensembles of his own. Typical of a growing number of folks, he follows in the steps of Eric Dolphy and Rahsaan Roland Kirk by playing several different instruments: alto/soprano sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute. I highly recommend his record "Malinke's Dance" from a couple of years ago, on the OmniTone label. The title track has an incredible groove with passionate horn playing, melodic and energetic.

Ken Vandermark is another multi-instrumentalist, based in Chicago, and has almost singlehandedly re-energized the jazz and avant/creative music scene there. Of course there is a great tradition in that city, e.g. Art Ensemble of Chicago, Muhal Richard Abrams, Henry Threadgill and other AACM folks. Vandermark has been one of the hardest working guys in music over the last 10 years, leading something like 10-12 different bands each playing at least somewhat different styles including rock, funk, jazz, avant jazz. His focus these days is on his Vandermark 5 unit, which includes Ken on tenor sax/bass clarinet/clarinet, Dave Rempis on tenor/alto sax, Jeb Bishop on trombone (and guitar on the early records), Kent Kessler on bass and Tim Mulvenna on drums. I highly recommed the latest record, Acoustic Machine. It's more accessible than the earlier work, and more in a recognizable jazz direction compositionally with some memorable tunes.

Ken's other main outlet these days, the DKV Trio (Hamid Drake percussion, Kent Kessler bass, Ken Vandermark reeds) is less composition oriented and more improv based, but does some incredible things. The best record available is Live In Wels & Chicago on the Okkadisk label (check their website at http://www.okkadisk.com/artists/vandermark.html, it's a 2CD set for $15). They have an affinity for the music of Albert Ayler and especially Don Cherry (trumpet player with Ornette's classic original quartet and jazz/world music pioneer). The first disk of Wels/Chicago is a suite based on Cherry's "Complete Communion (which is a great record too!); the latest 2CD DKV set includes several Cherry tunes.

Ok enough rambling there... will have to reply on other things in separate posts!

[Edited to clean & clarify a bit.]

PaulHeroy

More comments, on late Coltrane and "experimental" jazz...

I also find late Coltrane to be a mixed bag, though over the years I have definitely been able to sort of "tune in" to more of it. Music is a journey, and a very personal experience; the first time I heard A Love Supreme (not "late" Coltrane), it didn't make sense but now it's an incredible and powerful piece for me. It took a long time for Interstellar Space to reveal itself. Some other things still haven't. While I'm no expert on late period Trane, I also like Alice Coltrane and her own records, but it seems that the contributions which give me the most trouble are from Pharoah Sanders. (I'm not always sure it's him since he plays the same horn as Trane.) I find Sanders' playing on his own records to be more accessible and broader, including more melodic things. Maybe as part of Trane's band he was free to be just the angry, shrieking type of sound without balancing it. Anyway, I think there is a strong element of very simple "ecstatic" type music in late Trane: it's as if they are trying to channel something way beyond human capacity thru a musical instrument, and it comes out with that full bore intensity that blasts your consciousness.

Anyway, as for actually listening to the music, for me the only way to handle it is to listen to it as energy, not notes or traditional musical structures. More impressionistic or abstract than representational, for a painting analogy. But I'm dancing about architecture. (For those who think I just went of the deep end, that's an apocryphal Zappa? reference. See http://home.pacifier.com/~ascott/they/tamildaa.htm )

PaulBoud

A very interesting newer artist you might want to check out is Charlie Hunter. For those of you getting into jazz that are also fans of rock, you might know him from his days in Primus. I really enjoy Ready, Set, Shango! Check him out!

Mike Frezon

How about Ella and Oscar (you get the extra bonus of Oscar Peterson & Ray Brown on this one!)? Pablo Records/Polydor-Japan Originally Recorded October 1975.

Tracks:
Mean To Me
How Long Has This Been Going On
When Your Lover Has Gone
More Tan You Ever Know
There's A Lull In My Life
Midnight Sun
I Hear Music
Street of Dreams
April In Paris

BTW, Michael, have you experienced the Diana Krall - Live In Paris DVD? WOW!

Mike Broadman

Paul, I just ordered two of the CDs you ordered. So, if I don't like them, I'm going to hold you personally responsible, young man.



Yeah. I gave up on trying to "figure it out" a long time ago. I don't dig music that only works for composers or hold advanced degrees in Music Theory. The "weird" stuff is very subjective, which is why I find it funny that people debate so strongly over its "merits." For some reason, I hate Ascension, like Interstellar Space, and find the different versions of Meditations interesting and enjoyable but not wonderful. I own and enjoy a few Ornette Coleman CDs and one Eric Dolphy CD, but don't see myself becoming a huge fan.

Paul, I have two Charlie Hunter albums. Pleasant music. This guy plays a guitar that has two bass strings, so he can play two voices at once. Pretty neat.

Mike, remind me about the Ella disc at the end of April, so that I can include it in the monthly recs. I personally won't be getting it because I don't like singing, so I'll leave it up to you to write up a little something about it. (What, you didn't think you were gonna get out of this without doing some work, did you?)

Sorry, I don't dig Dianna Krall. Again, singing, not my style. However, I did hear Cassandra Wilson, and that sounded pretty decent.

NP: Mozart, Piano Concertos, SACD

My awesome music collection