drsmooth wrote:Don Byron is nonpareil, but there are many younger players doing remarkable stuff. FTN's mentioned some upthread, as has the Kid. If I were making up a short list, I'd include Jason Moran, Vijay Iyer, and Ari Hoenig (here taking on Anthropology with Jean-Michel Pilc and Francois Mouton):



more accessible still, astonishing in their own way, are the Cohen siblings, Anat and Avishai. Anat Cohen is among the sexiest performers I've enjoyed live in any genre. Not shakira sexy, full-on woman-exuding-"woman-ness" sexy.

That had me hooked in the first 20 seconds! I knew it was going to be something special! Thank you Smooth - don't know any of these 3 guys and that is just an outstanding track. Swingin, elements of the past and all points along the way to the present, - a fresh view of a classic standard be-bop tune and not derivative of anyone else in a specific sense. Wonderful. I only wish there was actual live footage of that performance. Made my day.

Two for Two - Smooth! Again, thanks -- hadn't heard this woman before. She's got skillz, the track playing on her website is very different than this one - she seems to have a nice range of styles, genres ... she seems to have some gumption in her sound. I remember when Jane Ira Bloom hit the scene, and some other women reed players over the years that leave me thin sometimes with their sound...

Marilynn Crispell for example has "balls" on the piano ala Cecil Taylor. But that's harder to find with women on reeds or brass...

your girl Anat Cohen is playing with this singer at a CD release at "Smalls" Jazz club in NYC tomorrow night. (Sun Apr 24th)



She does some non-traditional jazz stuff and originals which were very tasty a nice rendition of Stormy Weather on YouTubes -- but this had live footage of her.

Kid, you're on fire here - good call on Crispell, and wish I were able to make the show at Smalls. Love the drummer in that clip. As good as Hargrove is, he probably doesn't get his critical due - not 'crazy' enough, maybe. Did you hear Aimee's take on Wanna Be Starting Something (from her website)? Music's good but the vidclip's a riot



Glad you liked Hoenig, and Cohen. If you get to hear her live, make a point of it. She's ... let's call it earthy; light sweet crude. She's 'aural sex', is the best way I can put it. La smoothe and I heard her live with Alden - who's wondrous too - practically sitting in their laps at a place in NYC called Bar Next Door, about 100 yards off Washington Square. Likewise, we stuck around for Hoenig/Pilc/Mouton's set during this year's Winter Jazzfest at Zinc Bar, around 1:30am the last night of the event. Was the highlight of our weekend.

that was pretty great.

TenuredVulture wrote:that was pretty great.

fun, my gf will dig it

I love this. A lot.

I've been listening to Irene Kral a ton lately. She died of breast cancer in 1978. I'd never have heard of her save for JazzWax's Marc Myers.

She's not Jazz's Great Lost Voice. She WAS a superb interpreter of contemporary song of her time. Voice control out the whoo-hoo; phrasing, control, timing, whatever you want to call it, she's way ahead of you on it.

Check her on Tim Hardin's Misty Roses - what she described at the time as 'an old Tim Hardin tune' (my emphasis), though he probably wrote it in '66 or so.

Even on more upbeat tunes like Oh You Crazy Moon, she has that mid-70s fatalism.

If you're drinking whiskey listening to her, put away the sharp objects.

I probably haven't converted anyone here to Rudresh Mahanthappa fans who weren't already, but here's a great long interview with him that may help my cause.

His remarks on page 9, about beginning his professional music career playing on cruise ships, is a hoot. Someone could write a great book on the intersection of jazz musicians and cruise ships; Mahanthappa's stint is part of a long, frequently dishonorable line

Flops, are you the Dolphy guy, or is it someone else? Anyway, thought this project looked interesting (you need to click the kickstarter link to view the ~5 min intro by the would-be author, which includes some of his very nice preliminary sketches):

Jazz Graphic Novel

if you have a fleeting notion you might like jazz, gain confirmation - either way - by grabbing a listen to pianist benny green and guitarist russell malone, alone (now mostly) or together (famously)

Jazz at the Bistro, a recording of one of their live performances in St Louis is a fine place to start, tho the duo seems to have bad luck with recording engineers

drsmooth wrote:if you have a fleeting notion you might like jazz, gain confirmation - either way - by grabbing a listen to pianist benny green and guitarist russell malone, alone (now mostly) or together (famously)

Jazz at the Bistro, a recording of one of their live performances in St Louis is a fine place to start, tho the duo seems to have bad luck with recording engineers

Never been a huge fan of either, but willing to check it out. Is there a link to an MP3, stream or YouTube?

I've never heard them as a duo. Green went to Berkeley high I think...

drsmooth wrote:if you have a fleeting notion you might like jazz, gain confirmation - either way - by grabbing a listen to pianist benny green and guitarist russell malone, alone (now mostly) or together (famously)

Jazz at the Bistro, a recording of one of their live performances in St Louis is a fine place to start, tho the duo seems to have bad luck with recording engineers

These Are Soulful Days is a nice one as well.

TenuredVulture wrote:

drsmooth wrote:if you have a fleeting notion you might like jazz, gain confirmation - either way - by grabbing a listen to pianist benny green and guitarist russell malone, alone (now mostly) or together (famously)

Jazz at the Bistro, a recording of one of their live performances in St Louis is a fine place to start, tho the duo seems to have bad luck with recording engineers

These Are Soulful Days is a nice one as well.

Kid, I like TV's suggestion better - here's Punjab from that album, Christian McBride joined Green & Malone. Nothing pathbreaking, but musical, remembering the purpose of the suggestion

this morning's bonus item - brief day-in-the-life interview with flutist Dave Valentin. Sounds like a guy you could enjoy a beer with.

I was thinking about the whole "pathbreaking" thing the other day. There are a ton of good players out there who aren't necessarily making huge strides, but they do play well. The greats of the past were major innovators. But in those days, there were also a ton of good players who might be considered "along for the ride".

I was listening to Stan Getz/Kenny Barron People Time yesterday that I think demonstrates this point. It's a good to great recording, great playing. How much does it matter that there's nothing innovative? I mean, if an artist is largely working within a tradition, but not doing much to expand the boundaries of that tradition, does it matter if the work largely works? One can, I suppose, be concerned that no one is out there really innovating. But first, I'm not sure that's true, and even if it is, why is it a problem?

TenuredVulture wrote:I was thinking about the whole "pathbreaking" thing the other day. There are a ton of good players out there who aren't necessarily making huge strides, but they do play well. The greats of the past were major innovators. But in those days, there were also a ton of good players who might be considered "along for the ride".

I was listening to Stan Getz/Kenny Barron People Time yesterday that I think demonstrates this point. It's a good to great recording, great playing. How much does it matter that there's nothing innovative? I mean, if an artist is largely working within a tradition, but not doing much to expand the boundaries of that tradition, does it matter if the work largely works? One can, I suppose, be concerned that no one is out there really innovating. But first, I'm not sure that's true, and even if it is, why is it a problem?

I'm no fan of Wynton Marsalis' tendencies toward encasing jazz in amber via his direction of JALC, and can only listen to so many consecutive discs of Hank Mobley's Blue Note output from the 50s-60s (30 or 40 unbroken hours' worth is my limit ), but at the same time I love listening to Evan Christopher and Dick Hyman - or Tom McDermott - channel the spirits of Sidney Bechet and James P Johnson, or Bill Charlap and the Washingtons Kenny and Peter, improvising well within 'conventional' bounds, but like nothing you can put your finger on.

But I won't turn down the opportunity to take in performances by Don Byron, Jason Moran, Josh Roseman or Nguyen Le. If they're not doing 'new', I'm not sure what it would be (I draw the line at the screechings of Mary Halvorsen - that ain't jazz, lady )

New for new's sake seems too often to lead to nuttin' but noodling (pun intended)

Nguyen Le and Rudresh Mahanthappa, 2011 NYC Winter Jazzfest - mostly an 'interview' with the 2 of them describing how they got together, and bits of their collaboration bookending it. Check the logo on Nguyen's cap - is that not the DBacks' rattler?



EDIT: had to add this clip of the 2 of them performing at the same event. Smoothette and I briefly shared a table with Le at the Bitter End sometime after their performance - place was packed, we were sitting enjoying the end of Mahanthappa's group's set, he and friends were looking to sit down. As the preceding vidclip suggests, he's a very approachable, personable guy, as is Mahanthappa.

TenuredVulture wrote:I was thinking about the whole "pathbreaking" thing the other day. There are a ton of good players out there who aren't necessarily making huge strides, but they do play well. The greats of the past were major innovators. But in those days, there were also a ton of good players who might be considered "along for the ride".

I was listening to Stan Getz/Kenny Barron People Time yesterday that I think demonstrates this point. It's a good to great recording, great playing. How much does it matter that there's nothing innovative? I mean, if an artist is largely working within a tradition, but not doing much to expand the boundaries of that tradition, does it matter if the work largely works? One can, I suppose, be concerned that no one is out there really innovating. But first, I'm not sure that's true, and even if it is, why is it a problem?

FWIW -- I studied with Kenny Barron Jr (native Philadelphian btw) back in the 80s. Great guy. Great pianist. He had two grand pianos in his office and we'd each sit at one. He was totally self-taught. And I used to see Stan Ketz at the Washington Square Bar and Grill here in my 'hood when I first moved here. I'm sure you know the Verve recording with Bill Evans and Stan Ketz ... and there are some cuts with young Chick Corea on keys with Stan.

As for "growing" I think Kenny Barron has grown a lot as a player in his career.

Next episode of Treme has cameos by Ron Carter and Donald "Ducky" Harrison. Ron Carter may be on more albums than any other musician in history.

Lady Smooth and I spent Sunday afternoon in Newport RI at its eponymous and mostly annual Jazz festival. It poured buckets all morning and thru the 1st & 2nd sets of the day (we got off to a bad start, missing John Hollenbeck). The downpour seemed to diminish Josh Redman's spirits more than those of the hardy early attendees. Fortunately the rain stopped almost exactly at the close of the 2nd acts.

Tops of the day for us went to trumpeter Avishai Cohen, who played most of a set with Drew Gress and workhorse drummer Eric Harland, who played with groups before and after (and probably Saturday too. We did not see him selling t-shirts). Cohen's trio was joined by Cohen's sister Anat, about whose charms I've raved here before. She did not disappoint today.

What a dame! Both she and her brother are brimful of technical mastery, and both put it to captivating use. But Anat is also an instinctive performer, an earthy, zaftig, sexy woman who happens to play the very devil out of a clarinet. She's playing with it, and with you, dear listener; that film of perspiration you become conscious of isn't from the humidity. She's raised your temperature, and not solely via your ears. (A comparison to Esperanza Spalding, who performed after, is meant to be instructive rather than mean; Spalding, undeniably a talented musician herself, and one who runs in fast musical company, is a pretty girl).

So, too bad there's no video to accompany this link to their full Newport set, recorded & made available by NPR, along with most if not all the sets of the festival (downloadable as well).

Prior to Spalding (and the Cohens, to be chronologically accurate), we heard some sounds coming from the tent under which the Brubeck brothers were dutifully toiling, and we concluded the afternoon with alto saxmen Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green. The sunny Mahanthappa is a somewhat odd pairing with the old-school-anxious Green, but there's plentiful musical intersection. They get points off in La Smooth's book for a tendency to let testosterone take over (her description) at times. A crisp rendition of Apex and Green's tender turn on his Little Girl I'll Miss You saved their bacon.

Mrs. Vulture and I really enjoyed at Terrence Blanchard at Birdland.