Nice recent All About Jazz interview with Philly-born alto saxman Jaleel Shaw

drsmooth wrote:Nice recent All About Jazz interview with Philly-born alto saxman Jaleel Shaw

I'm not as up on the newer generation guys in their 20's to mid'30's -- I don't this guys sound. But I noticed in the interview he credited a close friend of mine as a influence Robert Landham also from Philly and an alto player. Now based in D.C. with his wife singer Alison Crocket. Kurt Rosenwinkel is the cousin of another of my oldest friends back in Philly, who is a record producer, former front man for the seminal funk band "Gutbucket" from the 80's. He won a grammy for "Across 110th Street" with the Spanish Harlem Orchestra. Runs a studio on the main line called Range Records. Robert Landham's brother is Byron Landham the drummer, he was in grade school with my youngest sister.

I'm not dialed in to the scene like I was in the early 80's, nor even in the know like I was til about 12 years ago or so…

Other people I was friends with back in the day include the drummer Ralph Peterson and the trombonist Frank Lacy, and pianist Rob Bargad.

As I've mentioned previously, Anthony Braxton was one of my grad school thesis committee guys. He and I had a good vibe and had some great convos back in 87-90.

For those of you like TV and Smooth who are still avid fans of real Jazz -- I'd welcome a 10-15 favorite artists, CDs, tracks of the last 2-3 years for yuse? I use tune in radio a lot now and get WRTI and the one in Newark alongside some west coast - but if you have a good radio show or two send me the call letters and I'll look for it?!!

I'm less on top of younger gen but guys from Philly include;

Heath Brothers
Lee Morgan
McCoy Tyner
Richie Powell
Bud Powell (at least significant time there)
Coltrane (spend time in Phila)
Stanley Clark
Christian McBride
Byard Lancaster
Marlyn Crispell
Bernard Peiffer (emigrated from France)
Odean Pope
Johnny Coles
Bootsy Barnes
Catalyst
Gerald Veasley
Cornell Rochester
Joey Defrancesco
Clifford Brown
Philly Joe Jones
Reggie Workman
Jimmy Smith
Hank Mobley
Wilbur Ware
Hassan ibn Ali
Benny Golson
Jamaldeen Tacuma
Uri Caine

And many more I'm sure I'm forgetting...

great stuff Kid

I follow Shaw on teh Twitter - seems like a real human being - his music's real, that's for sure. I would not call him avant anything, but he plays with feeling.

I'd enjoy hearing more of what you remember of those influences of his you know, as well as the others.

I'll work up my current favorites list & post it here in a day or three

Oh, damn - my current favorites list:

- Pedrito Martinez Group, eponymous latest recording (mostly for the voice of maxi-zaftig wonder Ariacne Trujillo)
- Anything by Jaleel Shaw, who's on a Hank Mobley kick (a bit curious, since Shaw plays alto)
- Amir Elsaffar (trumpeter)
- Alto sax/leader Rudresh Mahanthappa (he's working on a Charlie Parker project that he'll perform at Newport this 60th anniversary year)
- David Binney (alto sax - anyone see a pattern developing)
- John Hollenbeck percussionist who grew up in my neck of the woods
- put on some jazz, I'll probably listen to it

this is kind of interesting news: Revelatory Archive of a Giant of Jazz

Max Roach archive to Lib of Congress

...when he died, he left 400 linear feet of his life and actions to be read: scores and lead sheets, photographs, contracts, itineraries, correspondence, reel tapes and cassettes and drafts of an unfinished autobiography, written with the help of Amiri Baraka. On Monday, the Library of Congress will announce that it has acquired the archive from Mr. Roach’s family and that it will be made available to researchers.

Some things are better in concept than execution

i'm on a mail list that sends me daily vidclips of jazz performances. this is one they recently circulated - but not recently executed; recorded sometime in 2010 I believe. Frank Vignola & Bucky Pizzarelli with a speed-of-light Limehouse Blues

Apparently Sony returned a bunch of unused photos of jazz musicians to photographer Al Avakian's daughter - here are some of them. Last one, of Miles Davis, is kind of unusual:

Keeping Jazz's Rhythm With A Shutter

Bucky Pizzarelli swinging I'll See You In My Dreams with Seattle(?)-based Pearl Django:



Pizzarelli's only 88 - my guess is if he keeps practicing, he'll get the hang of it

i've been really trying to build some sort of jazz knowledge ever since I started buying records. so far i can say i really dig miles davis, dorothy ashby and wes montgomery (Wee Hours of the Night is incredible), but I could really use some suggestions for artists to really dig my teeth into. the record store i go to frequently (Long in the Tooth) seems to always have a good rotation of jazz coming into the store so i see a lot of names. lay it on me, jazzheads

Frank Grimes wrote:i've been really trying to build some sort of jazz knowledge ever since I started buying records. so far i can say i really dig miles davis, dorothy ashby and wes montgomery (Wee Hours of the Night is incredible), but I could really use some suggestions for artists to really dig my teeth into. the record store i go to frequently (Long in the Tooth) seems to always have a good rotation of jazz coming into the store so i see a lot of names. lay it on me, jazzheads

Grimes, the musicians you've named signal you're a listener of eclectic taste . Also, looks like you favor sounds from the bop era and after.

So allow me to take the easy path and suggest you

1) Scan this thread for names/recordings/samples, check out things you like - there's a pretty broad spectrum of jazz fandom, even in our little tribe
2) Take a look at musicians who performed with those you've mentioned & branch out from there - davis's 'family tree' alone will take you to some extraordinary places
3) Above all try to get out to hear live jazz - being in/near NYC helps a lot there, but increasing numbers of festivals in all kinds of places helps. My feeling is we happen to be living in a remarkably fertile period for jazz.

Here's an example of ways I might expand on what you know you already like: take Davis recordings you like, scan the participating musicians, and find recordings that those he worked with have recorded with others. Pretty easy to do with the roster of champs he worked with.

Or if you lean toward trumpeters, check out other horn players. If you want to throw in a Philadelphia/regional flavor there, try some Clifford Brown and/or Lee Morgan. Among contemporary horn players, I currently find myself listening to Avishai Cohen quite a bit.

Guitar players? Grant Green, and for contemporary/Philadelphia players, Pat Martino. Martino records with fellow Philly product, distinctive organist Joey DeFrancesco; and on and on.

Me I'm a fan of alto players, like Jaleel Shaw (another Philly guy), Rudresh Mahanthappa, Yosvany Terry and David Binney; percussionists like Ari Hoenig, Dafnis Prieto, and Billy Hart; the kusit clarinet wondergal Anat Cohen; bass player Linda Oh; and, well, I'll probably listen to most anything for at least a few minutes.

If you like Miles, you'd probably like Freddie Hubbard. His album Red Clay is a good place to start. Yusef Lateef has some amazing stuff as Smooth can attest.

Most of my favorites are guitarists, and I'll echo smooth's suggestion on Pat Martino, who's probably my favorite, and Grant Green. Green is probably one of the more funkier jazz guitarists and pretty accessible for most people. Kenny Burrell is another one you'd probably like. Personally, I'm a pretty big fan of Larry Coryell, though he tends to be more in the fusion spectrum, so not sure if you're into that.

Slowhand wrote:If you like Miles, you'd probably like Freddie Hubbard. His album Red Clay is a good place to start. Yusef Lateef has some amazing stuff as Smooth can attest.

Most of my favorites are guitarists, and I'll echo smooth's suggestion on Pat Martino, who's probably my favorite, and Grant Green. Green is probably one of the more funkier jazz guitarists and pretty accessible for most people. Kenny Burrell is another one you'd probably like. Personally, I'm a pretty big fan of Larry Coryell, though he tends to be more in the fusion spectrum, so not sure if you're into that.

Nice call on Hubbard, SlowH, as well as Lateef, Burrell & Green - with Green, especially his Blue Note recordings. And if Grimes queues up Montgomery's Smokin at the Half Note, he'll be back to Davis's early 60's Kelly/Chambers/Cobb rhythm section

drsmooth wrote:Some things are better in concept than execution

bizarre

drsmooth wrote:Apparently Sony returned a bunch of unused photos of jazz musicians to photographer Al Avakian's daughter - here are some of them. Last one, of Miles Davis, is kind of unusual:

Keeping Jazz's Rhythm With A Shutter

Great photos, I think I've seen the first one of Duke before ...

Frank Grimes wrote:i've been really trying to build some sort of jazz knowledge ever since I started buying records. so far i can say i really dig miles davis, dorothy ashby and wes montgomery (Wee Hours of the Night is incredible), but I could really use some suggestions for artists to really dig my teeth into. the record store i go to frequently (Long in the Tooth) seems to always have a good rotation of jazz coming into the store so i see a lot of names. lay it on me, jazzheads

Good advice from Smooth -- here are a few seminal jazz records in case you want to just do some recon:

Keep in mind, that BeBop started in the early 40's leading to a whole shift in jazz in to the mid 50's then Miles, Coltrane and Ornette Coleman branched in 3 directions around '61 -- "hard bop" is what evolved for Miles mid-60's, etc...

Here are classic:

Miles Davis "Kind of Blue , "Friday and Saturday Night at the Blackhawk" "Miles Smiles" "Nefertitti"
Wayne Shorter "Ju Ju"
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers "Indestructible" "Album of the Year"
McCoy Tyner "The Real McCoy", "Super Trios" "The Greeting"
Joe Henderson "Inner Urge"
Freddie Hubbard "Free for All"
Andrew Hill "Point of Departure"
Coltrane "Blue Train", "Giant Steps" , "Impressions", "A Love Supreme"!!!!!!!
Larry Young "Unity"

Since you mentioned Wes Montgomery "Bags meets Wes" on Riverside I think.
If you like Jazz guitar - check out Jim Hall, Joe Pass -- Bill Evans and Jim Hall "Undercurrents"
Oliver Nelson "Blues and teh Abstract Truth"
Woody Shaw "Rosewood"
Art Ensemble of Chicago "Third Decade"
Dave Holland Quintet "Seeds of Time"
Chico Freeman "Destiny's Dance"
Oscar Peterson "The Trio"
Bill EVans "Alone", "Live at the Village Vanguard" "Montreaux III"
David Murray Octet "Ming"

There are some classics and some variety in here. I'm weaker on the albums of the last 15 years but this is a good start.

YouTube is your friend!

As a former pianist, I can list off 100 pianists to explore --

Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea duos are amazing.
Gonzalo Rubalcaba is fierce.
McCoy Tyner in his prime

Enjoy the journey!

Grimes, if you haven't already started finding/playing some of the Kid's suggestions, you were just putting us on - his ideas are a fantastic survey of music you should put in your ears, for the recordings' own sakes of course, and for gauging anyone & anything else you might tune in to.

He named one of my first jazz purchases, the Davis/Blackhawk set. My two scratchy castoffs are fondly remembered - and, lucky you, the music from that outing was re-issued in more pristine form fairly recently

Frank Grimes wrote:i've been really trying to build some sort of jazz knowledge ever since I started buying records. so far i can say i really dig miles davis, dorothy ashby and wes montgomery (Wee Hours of the Night is incredible), but I could really use some suggestions for artists to really dig my teeth into. the record store i go to frequently (Long in the Tooth) seems to always have a good rotation of jazz coming into the store so i see a lot of names. lay it on me, jazzheads

I hope you managed to catch Kermit Ruffins when he played in Philly, because he showed how you can play jazz and still have fun as long as you don't worry about purity. Lots of jazzheads are too serious for me and lose the sense of fun that should be part of the music. I think there should be a sense of play about things, even serious things. Go to New Orleans and see what's happening there outside of Preservation Hall.

I'll echo the idea of seeing as much live jazz as you can.

I can't give a big long list and I'm not at all up on recent releases but I think Terrence Blanchard's A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina) is achingly brilliant (so much for having fun). Keith Jarret's Koln Concert is old but outstanding. Another pianist I like Abdullah Ibrahim. William Parker's Cornmeal Dance blows me away. Check out the title track or Poem for June Jordan. Seriously. Right now. It's on Spotify. Then buy the goddamned album, because none of these guys are getting rich.

In a different vein is Benny Green.

TenuredVulture wrote:
In a different vein is Benny Green.

yep, and guitarist Russell Malone goes well with Benny Green.

And it's hard enough to wind up with ONE great name let alone 2, but Abdullah Ibrahim/Dollar Brand

drsmooth wrote:

TenuredVulture wrote:
In a different vein is Benny Green.

yep, and guitarist Russell Malone goes well with Benny Green.

And it's hard enough to wind up with ONE great name let alone 2, but Abdullah Ibrahim/Dollar Brand

Ahmad Jamal/Fritz Russell Jones isn't as good?