| Author | Message | ||
     Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.151.125.173 |
...first he infects Mick Curtis with the glory of Jazz, now Young Master Curtis has infected ol'gcw with the bug. Currently digging.... A Love Supreme* John Coltrane Saxophone Colossus & Tenor Madness - Sonny Rollins. Blue Train - John Coltrane The Man With The Golden Arm - Elmer Bernstein *I shelled out & got the double pack remaster - sounds bloody gorgeous! gcw | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.167.56 |
GCW, I haven't heard the Bernstein, but the others you list are superb. My jazz taste is very narrow but includes some of the revolutionary talents of modern jazz: Parker, Coltrane, Monk, Davis, Rollins and Shepp. In solo or small-band mode only. The bleak stuff (Rollins perhaps being an exception). GCW, the first minute or so of 'Blue Train' is the purest expression of grief and loss I've ever heard in music. Nicholas Royle is a keen jazz enthusiast, and far more knowledgeable about it than I am. His novel SAXOPHONE DREAMS is a love letter to the spirit of modern jazz. For those not familiar with the distinction between traditional and modern jazz, it's a bit like the distinction between M.R. James and Dennis Etchison. The first is quality entertainment, beautifully crafted, knowing, very much 'does what it says on the tin'. The second is edgy, difficult, angry, oblique, rich in talent and skill but not interested in meeting conventional expectations. To call the first more 'subtle' than the second is missing the point entirely. They are using the same medium for quite different purposes. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.177.5.67 |
I've loved some types of jazz for many years, but remained ignorant of the landmark stuff, although I bought a copy of "Kind of Blue" some years back, and had some Wayne Shorter stuff, as well as lots of Weather Report, although they're quite different. A friend gave me a long list of jazz to try several years back but I only picked up a couple from that list. However, Joel's list (on the back of an envelope, which will be worth thousands one day!) really sorted me out with some excellent music, for which many thanks, Joel. I'll return the favour at this year's FCon with a selection of the best of Bonnie Langford. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.177.5.67 |
Anyone watch those programmes on BBC4 about jazz & 1959? Loads of interesting stuff about Davis and Coltrane amongst others. Oh, and I see that Ornette Coleman is MCing this year's Meltdown, although the lineup so far looks a little odd... | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.224.4 |
Weather Report are fabulous. I'm inordinately fond of I Sing the Body Electric (guess where they got the title). Coltrane's Blue Train is a must-have, arguably the best jazz saxophone album around. Modern jazz for me is Metheny, Scofield, Stern, Khan . . . I always go to the Blue Note Festival in Ghent every year, usually to see and hear a favourite player, but I always check out the lesser known artists as well, and they're always great in their own right. Last year it was my pleasure to discover the Stefano di Batista Quartet from Italy and the French Trio Grande, with British pianist Matthew Bourne. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.177.5.67 |
Hubert - I've been lucky enough to have seen Weather Report play on quite a few occasions; at least two of which Jaco Pastorius was playing. Plus, I managed to shake Joe Zawinul's hand once! As for the other names you mention, I only know Pat Metheny, initially through his playing on Steve Reich's "Electric Counterpoint" and then through one or two jazz CDs. Do you have a particular recommendation amongst his music? | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.224.4 |
Since I'm a Metheny fanatic that's a difficult one. There are different sides to his playing too - there's the Pat Metheny Group and then there are other projects, latterly and most notably the Trio with Antonio Sanchez and Chris McBride. Off the top of my head: "Still Life (talking)" "Secret Story" "Imaginary Day" "I Can See Your House from Here" (with John Scofield) "Travels" (live - the early PMG) "We Live Here" "The Road to You" (live - the later PMG) "The Way Up" AVOID "Zero Tolerance for Silence"! I have seen him perform on several occasions, last time was 2008 with the McBride/Sanchez tandem. He's probably my main guitaristic role model; for one thing he makes diligent use of the guitar synthesiser, plus he's an excellent teacher. Sometimes he will get technical in the middle of a concert - explaining this or that technique in answer to a question from the audience! | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.105.115 |
I'm a lightweight when it comes to jazz. Nina Simone, Dave Brubeck, Dr John. Stuff like that. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.170.38.237 |
Yeah, me too. Many would sneer, but I like Sinatra and even Stacey Kent. S'easy, innit? | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.177.5.67 |
Stu - I wouldn't really call Dr John (who's bloody excellent) jazz really, more sort of New Orleans blues. Simone, Brubeck and Sinatra are great too. Mind you, labelling types of anything causes too many problems, though - as Miles Davis supposedly put it - there are only two types of music; good and bad. Just come back from staying with GCW & his good lady - a great time was had and I got to drool over (but not borrow!) his super duper extended "A Love Supreme" which I've just ordered! | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.98.146 |
Mick, not all Dr John is jazz but you get stuff like Dr John Plays Mac Rebennack and Goin' Back to New Orleans which have a fair bit of jazz on them. Of course the best thing he ever did was the theme tune for Blossom ... Not listened to much Miles Davis. John Travis gave me a copy of On The Corner at last year's FantasyCon. Not the easiest listening in the world but not as bad as I thought it would be due to the funk element -- kind of like a more jazzy/experimental Sly Stone or Funkadelic. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.177.5.67 |
Fair enough, Stu - Dr John has been fairly prolific and the few albums of his I've heard have been on the bluesy side, but I can't claim to be an expert (obviously!) as I've not heard the lion's share of his stuff. | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 87.228.137.86 |
I think jazz must be like opera - it either speaks directly to your soul or it doesn't. And if you don't "get" it, you'll never be able to understand what others see in it. (Neither works for me, incidentally. Just in case the above sounded elitist!) | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.237.197 |
Many people like one or the other but nobody, absolutely nobody, likes both. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.177.5.67 |
You may well be right there, Joel - I like a few arias but, try as I might (and that includes several visits to see ENO in action) I can't really 'get' opera. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.109.17 |
Never listened to opera properly so I can't comment there but I think jazz can be a lot more accessible than people think. Yeah, if you come at it head-on it can be a bit difficult, particularly if the first thing you listen to is something like Thelonious Monk, but there are lots of more accessible entry points into the genre. In fact a lot of people enjoy jazz tracks without even realising they're listening to them. That track on the Muller Light ads? Nina Simone. The music on the advert for Gordon Ramsay's Cookalong? Benny Goodman. The theme to Get Carter? Roy Budd was a jazz musician. The music playing in the Charlie Brown cartoons? Award-winning jazz musician Vince Guaraldi. The Austin Powers theme? Quincy Jones mixing up jazz and bossa nova. Obviously not everyone is going to like every jazz track ever made but it's not just music for chin-stroking pseudo-intellectuals. (No offence to the jazz fans on the board.) | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.151.125.173 |
"Obviously not everyone is going to like every jazz track ever made but it's not just music for chin-stroking pseudo-intellectuals. (No offence to the jazz fans on the board.)" S'funny, but I don't think of Jazz in that way at all,I know there there are Jazz 'snobs' just as there are Folk ones too, but for me personally I just enjoy the thrill of finding exciting new music. (And no, Curtis couldn't borrow my 'A Love Supreme'! - it's still on permanent rotation!) gcw  | ||
| Chris_morris (Chris_morris) Username: Chris_morris Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 12.165.240.116 |
>> Many people like one or the other but nobody, absolutely nobody, likes both. Well, I like both. Although I love jazz -- it's easily my favorite type of music these days -- I have to say I only like opera. Either one can fit the bill if you're in the right mood. To be honest, the only music I truly dislike these days (or so it seems) is what's playing on the radio right now. Any radio. Any now. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.98.184 |
Even Jazz FM? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
Mmm...nice. | ||
| Chris_morris (Chris_morris) Username: Chris_morris Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 12.165.240.116 |
>> Even Jazz FM? Yep. At least the FM jazz station here where I live. Although I concede the possibility that one exists somewhere I might like. |