Jazz for aficionados

Great stuff!

****No brooding introspection here****

Funny, that's the very subject that has come up recently in conversation a few times with other music nuts.  Specifically, how Cannonball, ironically and arguably, was a bad fit for Miles' "KOB".  Cannonball is probably my favorite alto player in great part because of the "happy vibe" in his playing.  There's a wonderful bouncy almost jovial vibe to everything that he played and in the context of "KOB"'s brooding introspection it seems a little out of place.  IMO.

"Jug":. What a tenor sound; love it!  One of the interesting things I have noticed about his recordings is how he was almost always recorded with a pretty healthy amount of reverb on his sound.  Would be interesting to find out wether that was his choice or the producers'.  The pairing with Sonny Stitt is fabulous.  Stitt recorded on both alto and tenor; but I think that in his "heart of hearts" he was an alto player.  He plays on both instruments on that clip; first alto, followed by Jug on tenor, and then at 9:14 he plays again on tenor.  Notice how he stays mostly in the upper registers of the tenor and has a lightness to his tone compared to Jug's more robust tenor sound.  He plays the tenor like an alto player.  Not a criticism at all, just an observation.

Just this morning I heard this on WBGO and thought about the subject of "brooding introspection" and how, as much as like modern jazz, it is true that one element often missing in modern jazz and that we often hear in jazz from back in the day is that "happy vibe" that Cannonball had:

[URL]https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLIvacmZCzEbC0G73i08xDbwXycf-895uI&v=2eYEY1xm60M[/URL]

Today's Listen:

Mario Bauza and his Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra -- TANGA

This is so good it deserves two posts.  There is a post of them Live in Japan, they even had the Japanese moving!!  No small feat.  Irresistible rhythms??

No problem with drums here.

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t14FL8UwNkg[/url] 

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJaQ5d9hric[/url]

Cheers

Jimmie Lunceford:

Love that Big Band Music.   Ellington, Goodman, and Basie are all on my regular rotation.  

Back then you had to be able to play and also do song and dance routines.

When the music changed, all the 'antics' went away with the old stuff.  Just can't see Coltrane, Miles,  et al  participating in the singing and section choreography.  But they made great music and put on a great show.

Cheers

James Carter -- JC ON THE SET

I only two CDs by Carter.   This one and ''The Real Quiet Storm'.  This is his debut recording.  It does not seem as if he has lived up to the initial hype, but who does.  I enjoyed it.  Everything seems to sound good to me lately.

But,  this is a very good performance.  The group is comprised of younger / modern players.   Carter has been known to leave the  reservation and venture off into that Free stuff.  The notes list him as playing 'Saxes'.  Modern day Roland Kirk?  

When he hits those very low notes, he reminds me of the sounds put out by the spaceship in 'close encounters of a third kind'.  Those aliens could Jam!!

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6m0N9ZHwqU[/url]

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz8cWbFNHUw[/url]

Cheers

****It does not seem as if he has lived up to the initial hype****

That pretty much sums it up for me re Carter.  A VERY accomplished multireedist who, in spite of his forays "off the reservation" plays with a decidedly "retro" sensibility, especially on tenor.  A very exuberant player with tons of energy.  However, he is one of those players who's playing always makes me say "take it easy, take it easy", and leaves me feeling "so what?".  I respect his ability a great deal, but don't much care for the music.  But, that's just me.