The Jazz Thread

[Laurence]

I'm not sure how successful this will be, but what the hell. This is for jazz - modal, bebop, hard bop, avant garde, acid, whatever you like - but it's also for blues, gospel, soul, R&B if we're in a pinch. You can fuck off with your smooth muzak however.

What are you into? What are you listening to right now?

Personally I'm a bit of a newcomer, only having moved towards this area in the last two years or so. I've mainly been excavating the vast contributions of Miles Davis and have come to the standard conclusion he's the greatest artist of the 20th century (he or Bird). I'm also into the "holy trinity" of John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders and Albert Ayler, although I find Ayler really really difficult. Cecil Taylor and Sun Ra about round it off for the weird shit, and after that I like Horace Silver, Ark Blakey, Thelonius Monk and Sonny Rollins.

On a side note (perhaps just to spark discussion) I read a contentious statement in the letters of Federico Garcia Lorca when he was staying in New York, claiming that the US has virtually no major cultural contributions besides what their black community, with whom he felt an affinity, had produced. While he overstates his case it's inarguable that there is at least a blues route for almost all 20th century rock and pop music, and it seems to me that the likes of Cream and Led Zep are actually a bit of a step down from the folk and blues they appropriated. Howlin' Wolf is the man.

[jesse_custer]

A jazz thread and ardent praise for Miles Davis and Howlin' Wolf in the first post? This stuff makes me hard.

Hyperbole aside, I'm into Davis (A Tribute to Jack Johnson is his best work from my standpoint), Coltrane (even after dozens of listens, A Love Supreme strikes me as alien), Weather Report ("Birdland" might be the happiest song ever), and Gerald Beckett (check out his album Flute Vibes if you haven't), as well as many others.

I like a lot of jazz-influenced music, too, like Morphine, The Sea and Cake, A Tribe Called Quest, and Steely Dan.

[Karl O'Neill]

My only experience with Jazz is Art Blakey.

Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers: The Art Of Jazz is fantastic. It's a live album with his greatest hits.

[Adam C]

I'm not sure how successful this will be, but what the hell. This is for jazz - modal, bebop, hard bop, avant garde, acid, whatever you like - but it's also for blues, gospel, soul, R&B if we're in a pinch. You can fuck off with your smooth muzak however.

I'll just get my fussy anal retention out of my system now so it doesn't bug people later and say that discussing "blues, gospel, soul, & R&B' as well as acid-jazz in an all-purpose jazz thread feels deeply weird to me, especially since post-war black pop music increasingly diverged from jazz as bebop turned it into an art music.

Then again most of my jazz listening has been 'post-bop' jazz even though I'm aware that jazz and blues were in many ways indistinguishable in the 1920s and form of modern blues is deeply influenced by Swing. So maybe I'm not the best person to comment on this. Probably more so since my pre-50s pop music listening is fairly slender (at least compared to more knowledgeable folk I've had some acquaintance with) and is something I want to work on at some point.

Acid Jazz, in my experience, varies in it's connection to jazz since the style includes the very dance-floor/hip-hop Stereo MCs and the more obvious jazz funk of the James Taylor Quartet, (which has nothing to do with the 70s singer-songwriter),

[Adam C]

I with that bit of silliness out of the way: does anyone else think that Eddie Lang and Lonnie Johnson, the two great innovators of jazz (and blues) guitar, seem criminally underrated by guitar geeks despite their massive contributions to the development of the instrument as a solo voice? Even when Downbeat magazine did a profile on great jazz guitarists they seemed to get relatively little mention. And I think only Lang was mentioned.

[rick]

I'm pretty conventional with my Jazz.

Lots of Miles, especially his late 60's early 70's work.

Lot of Coltrane, Monk and Coleman.

And a bit of Dave Brubeck.

[jesse_custer]

Can't believe I forgot to mention Wes Montgomery, who was great both before and after he went pop.

[Spike-X]

Anyone looking for something more recent should check out Brad Mehldau.

CBR's own Punchy got me onto him recently. Great, great stuff.

[howyadoin]

Is this where we talk about the Police?

[The Black Guardian]

Of course all of the legends. Otherwise, pretty much only the locals:

Kermit Ruffins
Dirty Dozen Brass Band
Rebirth Brass Band
Irvin Mayfield
Terrence Blanchard
Tim Laughlin
Marsalis family
Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews
Jeremy Davenport

[jesse_custer]

Is this where we talk about the Police?

Haha, I guess we could.

[Slam_Bradley]

I'm a big jazz fan. I don't think I've made it any secret that I consider Miles Davis to be the most innovative musician of the 20th Century.

Huge fan of Joe Henderson as well. A constantly underrated saxophonist and band leader.

Most of my listening tends to be music that was produced between 1945 and about 1965. Bop, Cool, Modal and the first throws of Fusion.

I'm a huge blues fan as well, but think it deserves its own discussion.

That said, I haven't been listening to a lot of jazz lately as I've been listening to more blues, traditional country and Alt-Country.

[jesse_custer]

Come to think of it, I haven't been listening to much jazz lately, either. Mainly country and indie rock.

[KET]

Esperanza Spalding's latest release Chamber Music Society essentially adds new dimensions of sophistication and depth, and proves that her previous album breakthrough was no fluke. Spalding's vocal arrangements on this one are simply stunning, and the arrangement of the old standard Wild Is the Wind even seems fresh, for a change.

[Rob Allen]

Some of my favorites:

Charlie Parker
Count Basie
the Meters

and the singers!

Mel Torme
Chet Baker
Eddie Jefferson
King Pleasure
Lambert, Hendricks & Ross
Manhattan Transfer

If you don't have a good source of jazz whenever you want it, you could do worse than to stream www.kmhd.org.