Jazz for aficionados

Alex, fantastic post featuring the clarinet!  That Tatum/DeFranco record has been one of my desert island records for a long time.  Incredible level of artistry and style with a kind of musical innosence and elegance that was partly lost as jazz became more "serious" and "edgy".  Love that style of playing.  The Tony Scott/Bill Evans was new to me.  Very nice.  Very appropriate to bring up Barney Bigard; a good chronological place to start when looking at jazz clarinet.  Classic Barney Bigard:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FS92-mCewJ4

The great Jimmy Hamilton replaced Bigard in Duke's band with a more developed clarinet tone.  My favorite of the clarinet players from that era:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PL1gmh6xxFkfg63G__TZ8efK4CVpgeOc3r&v=_0OLAvrIOdI

https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PL1gmh6xxFkfg63G__TZ8efK4CVpgeOc3r&params=EAEYATgBSAFYJGILXzBPT...

If the clarinet is sadly not always considered the "hippest" instrument in jazz, how about clarinet with accordion 😊.  Love this record for its "fun" factor:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IEXqtpzQ9bk

My favorite current clarinetist playing in a more traditional style.  Fantastic clarinet player with a gorgeous clarinet tone:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Elafx3b6GK0

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rnf14fuZ9L0

Acman3, I just listened to your "Giant Steps In C" clip and I can't stop laughing.  Great way to start the day and one of the funniest things I've heard in a while; thanks for that.  

fourwnds, I agree with the comments that what matters is whether you like Spyrogyra or not. Personally, I would be even a bit more generous in my assessment of "Morning Dance". While I can’t claim to be up to date on Spyrogyra’s total or recent "oeuvre", I remember that record fondly from college days and I believe I still have it. I would put that record in the same general category of "smooth jazz", "fusion jazz", whatever, as some of the music of Chuck Mangione. The title that works best for me is simply "pop-jazz"; of the better kind. As with much of Chuck Mangione’s music it is tuneful with strong compositional and production values and very good instrumental playing with a "pop" music sensibility. Saxophonist Jay Beckenstein can really play and he plays with a very pretty tone not the cliched and obnoxious, fast vibrato-laden, Dave Sanborn-wannabe kind of tone heard in most saxophone based "smooth jazz". I wouldn’t focus too much on whether it is "real jazz" or not for validation, but rather on whether it is good music or not. Yeah, it’s probably "better" than some current jazz, but I could make a case for why it’s also better than some old (real?) jazz that can be found on record. It’s not the genre that determines whether it’s good or not. While some can make a case for why steak is necessarily "better" than hamburger, sometimes there’s nothing like a great burger and I have had some pretty bad steaks in my time.

What I would reconsider is the suggestion that this record is on a par with Steely Dan’s work (especially "Aja"). Clearly a personal call, but SD is, generally, on a considerably higher level of musical craft if not as immediately accessible and tuneful as Spyrogyra. Welcome to the thread!

Hey fourwinds - Glad you took my little rant as humor. Getting an original pressing of that Spyrogyra LP is a NICE present. I can see where you are coming from talking about Aja and Gaucho in the context. Add Royal Scam to the list (some tracks from it, anyway). I think I prefer the Steely Dan stuff because it seems a bit more complex - but that’s based on very limited familiarity with Spyrogyra and I might be selling them short. I don’t question their talent as musicians, more a case of questioning how they employ it. At the same time, these guys gotta pay the rent and buy groceries. Back in the day, seems like they found a commercially successful "formula". If it was so easy to do, lots more woulda done it. Might not be my preferred cuppa but I also think I can’t act all superior about their choices not having walked in their shoes.

As usual, thoughtful and insightful comments from Frogman. I agree with the parallel he draws between Spyro and Chuck Mangione. Pop Jazz is an apt sub-genre heading too.  Trying to think of some others that are in this category...maybe some of Tom Scott's L.A. Express work??

I’m not sure why some here have a problem with analytical discussion ("critiquing"! even) of the music. I like getting below the surface, past the "Like it" or "Don’t like it" initial reaction and on to what makes it tick. Why is composition or performance ABC "better" (or not) than XYZ?  Why are Flanagan and Evans "elegant" players while Monk, not so much. Does McCoy Tyner's intricacy qualify as elegant?  How about Keith Jarrett?? Such discussion doesn’t detract from the music at all but can add to the enjoyment.

FWIW - Elegant is more restricted in meaning than simply being of high quality or "good".  A definition of "elegance" (that which elegant embodies) from Merriam Webster on-line:

1a : refined grace or dignified propriety : urbanity
b : tasteful richness of design or ornamentation <the sumptuous elegance of the furnishings>
c : dignified gracefulness or restrained beauty of style : polish <the essay is marked by lucidity, wit, and elegance>
d : scientific precision, neatness, and simplicity <the elegance of a mathematical proof>

Restrained beauty of style strikes me as entirely applicable to what I've heard of Tommy Flanagan.

Hope you continue to participate in this thread. Hats off to Orpheus for starting it. Been a Jazz 101 course for me.

"Soul", what is it? Some of the most brilliant minds have tried to define it without success. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel spent his entire life writing about the philosophy of soul; The Phenomenology of Spirit was the name of his most famous book. When the uneducated refer to "soul", they are speaking of the same thing that Hegel spent his life studying, and writing about. I find that point of contrast quite fascinating.

"Ray Charles got soul"; nobody in his right mind will argue with that statement. "Ray Charles can play jazz". "Huh"! might be the response from many people. Those who are not "Jazz aficionados" might find the two words, soul and jazz to be incongruous; that's because they think of "soul music", which is light years away from jazz; but moving right along to "Brother Ray" and jazz, his jazz got plenty plenty soul.

The top example of this is "Blue Funk"; that's on a LP titled "Soul Brothers", featuring Brother Ray, and Milt Jackson plus all the other "Soul Brothers" that make this music; the word can not be overused when discussing this album.

"Blue Funk"

              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQnOY5LWrWI


Enjoy the music.