Jazz for aficionados
Acman, Kamasi Washington is picking up where "Trane" left off; he's doing this in his mind and in my mind. He can do this, and still be quite individualistic. I see he has also scored for films. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IZt1bHF0GU This is a guy to be listened to; he is as adventuresome as Mingus was when I first heard him. |
Lets get into the jazz bass players; Ray Brown. Marcus Miller. Oscar Pettiford Victor Wooten Charlie Haden Wilbur Ware Paul Chambers Jaco Pastorius Oscar Pettiford is my favorite, and I might repeat myself. I would like for you to find your favorite and post it. whether or not it's one of the above matters not. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5EwGijmqKc |
How can any list of great jazz bassists not include Mingus? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7CoJEyiSfE |
Right off the bat let me say that I don’t dislike Kamasi Washington; I rather liked the clips that Acman3 posted. However, after having made a point over the last couple of days of listening to several of his clips on YouTube (including some live concert videos) in order to see what all the media hype is about I have to say that, imo, much of it is just that...hype. I think he is an interesting conceptualist who has created a high-energy sound that combines SOME elements of jazz with funk/soul/hip-hop grooves and then pours on lots of dressing with vocals, strings and visual elements. As a player he has absorbed the high energy post-Coltrane-infused funk-tenor language of players like Michael Brecker and Bob Berg pretty well; but, I’m sorry, an accomplished jazz tenor player he is not. Notice that his tunes are mostly very simple harmonically and when he improvises it is always over simple one or two chord vamps. With all due respect, the idea that he has picked up where Coltrane left off is, imo, beyond exaggeration; especially when we have (or had) players like Dave Liebman, Steve Grossman, Brecker and others who are far more accomplished modern tenor players and who clearly extended Coltrane’s harmonic vocabulary. I would bet the iPad that I am writing on that he couldn’t credibly navigate the changes to "Giant Steps", never mind a standard ballad, if his life depended on it. I couldn’t find a single jazz standard by him on all of YouTube and there’s probably a reason why. He does what he does and he does it well: high energy, impressively "large" arrangements best described as "soul-jazz"; and, he looks the part. He has created a rather unique sound, not so much as player, but with his concept as band leader/composer that is appealing and mostly accessible. FOR ME, it just isn’t on a comparable artistic level as some of the artists he is being compared to. |
I suspect there’ll be a price to pay for voicing that particular form of critique, Mr. F. ;-) though I find it way more palatable than some of the outrageous non-music-related social commentary I saw posted over the last couple of days! I tried Kamasi Washington’s "Epic" a while ago. It’s HUGE...17 tracks and less than 7 minutes shy of 3 hours long! I was attracted by the album art to begin with. I wanted to like him...looked to be someone with a fresh vision. Or maybe just a retro-vision I could relate to. I can’t begin a credible technical assessment of his music skills and can only say, he didn’t hold me. I soldiered on through probably the first 2 discs. Certainly didn’t make it all the way to the end. The virtue of self-editing came to mind and lack thereof in this instance. I wondered what the producer was thinking - but maybe the length is part of the marketing. I won’t presume to rip the guy but "Why" is something else that kept coming to mind as the track time mounted up. Never did go back to listen again. Maybe I should. The Pitchfork Review: something of a counter to Frogman’s comments (not that I’m taking sides...really not) providing a little bit different perspective http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/20557-the-epic/ Revisiting...I forgot about the Star Trek Singers. |
