Jazz for aficionados

Beauty comes in different shapes and sizes. Next to Brecker, my favorite post-Coltrane tenor player: Dave Liebman.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BrIfp7F6wR8

Rok, the west coast jazz by Chico was flat, and I'm not an extreme audiophile. At the beginning, I stated there was a CD I wouldn't review, and it had some of the very best jazz in my collection, but the CD was lacking "nuance", that was essential to this music, plus the record is no longer available; consequently there was no point in even mentioning this music.

I won't buy any of the music you're ordering until I get your report.

Enjoy the music.

A few comments on some recent posts....Clarinet-Kenny Davern,fill in the blanks of superlatives because they all apply,plus a determination to excell beyond his usual musical orbit and create in each solo,not only a history of Jazz, but to convey it in the most personal way.
Frank Vignola...Fine player,but listen to Howard Alden.
Eric Alexander...behemoth player,like the "Thanksgiving" of all the living big toned Tenor Saxophonists,he always seems to fill you up and satisfy you musically and emotionally.His latest effort,among many,"Touching" on Highnote tends to magnify his "sound" over content and some of the tunes are of a more recent vintage that don't capture my interest.I have to give him props for trying to extend the circle of compositions for improvisations.I am anxious to hear him over the next few years.
Dave Liebman and the re-formed "Quest" (with Richie Beirach,Ron McLure and Billy Hart) are back at it on "circular" on Enja.This is a program of 60's compositions associated with Miles Davis.This is a delightful session of mature players,comfortable together and pushing forwards in a sideways move,nothing earthshaking,yet forging a collective quilt of music that draws you in.Billy Hart is a gifted drummer who can see beyond the music while creating the pulse of it.
David Liebman....prolific and sublime,as a listener he instills an air of confidence that he is giving his ultimate expression,this is a direct influence of John Coltrane who re-newed high standards in a post Charlie Parker Jazz world.
Some interesting younger players to watch Jonas Kullhammer and Jon Irabegon (sp on both? sorry)
The curse and gift of Jazz is that it can be the greatest thing and it can be the most mundane thing,both survive, and can only be limited by the intelligence of the listener.I have ALWAYS found that the best music has the least audience and musicians that "promote" themselves usually do so because they don't have the dedication to put it into their instrument.The least talented always have the most time to hype themselves.

"If they act too hip, you know they can't play shit" - Miles Davis

I'm not here to argue but I am adding commentary. A lot of these comparisons are ambiguous as most comparisons are prone to be. I have always believed it to be most constructive to talk about music in terms of things like harmony, counterpoint, arranging, composition, orchestration, tempo. I realize that this is too much to expect on a forum however these categorical labels are just trash pale terminologies. For example, I could listen to a Paul Bley record and explain in musical and aesthetic terms, his approach to composition and his effortless command over the piano but if I were to rely on terms like 'cutting edge' or 'retro' or whatever else, then that is where things begin to get murky. The only categorical term that I could come up with for honestly describing Paul Bley's music currently might be 'real time composition' but this wouldn't be true all of the time and it wouldn't help since most people lack knowledge about what 'real time composition' is. The point being that much of this forum looks like an insular argument because of its ambiguity.