Welcome to the weekly Sup Forums jazz Blindfold Test thread. Every Friday and Saturday.
If you're new, the point of these threads is to have fun and encourage critical listening, discussion, and general enjoyment of jazz. All critical music listeners are welcome. The more participation we have, the more fun and successful these threads will be. In the interest of keeping the thread alive and bumped, any general jazz discussion is welcomed here as well.
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THIS WEEK'S THEME: Prestige Label COMPILED BY: Clueless
NEXT WEEK: Impulse! COMPILED BY: Jazzpossu
If you missed last week's thread, DON'T WORRY. It's not too late. Here are the links for the mystery tracklist. Download the tracks, record your thoughts/guesses/evaluations for each one, and then come back and post them in the thread. Remember, people will be posting guesses and thoughts in this thread so don't read the thread until you have listened to the music and collected your thoughts in order to avoid spoilers. Track info for this week's tracks will be posted on Saturday, so if you see the thread is close to dying before then, give it a bump.
Heading home right now. Posting thoughts in about an hour.
I have my take on Impulse! Label ready apart from the pitch shifting and anonymization, so you'll get that before the reveal.
Dominic Watson
>me everytime I hear a jazz
Blake Kelly
I'll be around on and off tonight and tomorrow, so I'll try and comment on people's thoughts. Hope everyone liked the tracks... >pitch shifting Are we supposed to do this?
Charles Clark
>Are we supposed to do this? It doesn't really matter so much anymore. I don't think anybody who participates would cheat. When the threads first started there was someone who would try to spoil the track info for everybody.
Landon Harris
1. This has has a very west coast cool sound to it. Like Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker type of stuff. But there’s not trumpet or bari sax so it kind of reminds me of Dave Brubeck. It’s a nice little piece and I liked the sax solo a lot. I think it’s probably Brubeck and Paul Desmond. I like it. 3 stars.
2. A big band. It’s pleasant to listen to but nothing really grabs me. I thought maybe the solos would be interesting but the sax solo was kind of boring too. This sounded like a pretty average big band song to me with lackluster solos so I’ll say 2 stars.
3. Vocal track. It sounds like a white guy singing blues. I guess I don’t really understand what he was going for here and to me it doesn’t really sound that great. I think I like scat solos better than whatever this is. 2.5 stars.
4. I could be wrong here but the muted trumpet makes me think of Miles Davis. This sounds like it’s from one of his quintet albums on prestige and it sounds pretty good. I like the piano player a lot, I think it was Red Garland who played on those albums. I was expecting Coltrane on the saxophone but this sounds more like alto to me. I didn’t know he played alto on any of these recordings. I liked this one, it sounds like what I think of for 50’s Prestige jazz. 4 stars.
5. This sounds like a pretty standard piano trio. Sometimes the way the piano player plays the chords makes me think of Bill Evans. I expected this to go on a little bit longer and I think they could have done more interesting stuff with it but then it ends so a little bit disappointing. 3 stars.
Jacob Phillips
6. I recognize this. I think it’s a standard but as usual I don’t know its name. With the gentleness of the sax and the guitar playing riffs in the background this definitely has a west coast feel to it too. I’m going to guess that it’s Stan Getz. I don’t know how to describe the way they do the melody but then it’s very cool when it goes into swing for the solos and the swing feels very nice. I liked how simple the sax solo was and then the guitar solo was a lot more technical. Good contrast. 3.5 stars.
7. This one is kind of weird because it has a Latin feel but also kind of swings in a way. The trumpet player reminds me of Woody Shaw with those really fast runs he’s doing. The vibes player is really good too. I know a few vibes players from putting together a vibes themed blindfold a while ago, this reminds me most of Milt Jackson. This was pretty cool. 4 stars.
8. It’s the Pink Panther. It’s nice to recognize a song and actually know the name of it. I might be wrong but to me it sounds pretty much just like the movie version but with organ instead of flute or whatever it is that does the lead in the soundtrack version. It’s fun anyway so 3.5 stars.
9. This is pretty crazy. I don’t know what this instrument is. It almost sounds like bagpipe or something. It’s got like an African tribal sound mixed with jazz that sounds kind of cool. Then it builds up to sound like just pure free jazz by the end. Nice one. 4 stars.
10. This one didn’t impress me too much. It sounded a lot like easy listening jazz. It all sounded pretty generic to me and I don’t have very much else to say about it. 2 stars.
Landon Morales
I started doing it since I listen to random mp3's with Windows Media Player and it kept recognizing tracks I put on my own lists when I was checking my work and it was very annoying, so I want to put in the effort to prevent people from randomly being spoiled with full track info
Matthew Perry
Alrighty. I don't know too much about Prestige outside of the soul jazz stuff and the obvious big name stuff, so I expect to suck this week, but I'm sure it will be educational.
Track 1: I was listening to some Stan Getz on the way home and the sax has a pretty similar sound to him. He has some alums on Prestige so I'll just guess it's him.
There's some clear hints of earlier bebop stylings, but also a clear feel of where jazz was going in the 50's I think, so a pretty neat track I think. Evolution in action.
Track 2: Prestige was founded in the late 40's, I think. This has to be a very early release based on the sound quality.
Kind of an average feel for that period - without any context this really doesn't grab me. I really wish the drums and bass would be more prominent - there's this feeling that this swung a lot harder when heard live than on this recording to me.
Track 3: I have no idea of Prestige connected vocalists. Kind of cool phrasing from the vocalist, but also a bit gimmicky.
I'm not a big fan of this kind of slow blues connected to these kinds of tricksy vocals - not sure what I'm supposed to be feeling listening to this.
This is OK, but maybe I'd rather listen to Ray Charles or someone like that instead.
Jacob Harris
Track 4: I guess this has to be Miles. I don't think this is from the Workin' - Cookin' - Steamin' - Relaxin' albums that I mainly think of when Miles and Prestige are mentioned, though.
It's a cool track. That first melody bit reminds me of some of the stuff on Birth of Cool. For my tastes Miles got a lot better in the 60's, but his 50's recordings do often stand out to me.
Track 5: Hmh. No specific thoughts on who this could be. I feel like the pianist is playing some familiar licks, but can't think of anything specific.
I like the trading 4's the pianist and drummer do. Keeps it creative and interesting to my ears.
Track 6: A very familiar tune, although I can't remember the name. Sax going deep into vibrato-full ballad territory here - pretty nice I think.
Coleman Hawkins maybe?
Nice late night kind of mood with the latin tinged theme and the smoother swing soloing. Some nice guitar playing - Kenny Burrell maybe, I think he recorded for Prestige?
This track gets the job done for me.
Jason Morris
>I was listening to some Stan Getz on the way home and the sax has a pretty similar sound to him. He has some alums on Prestige so I'll just guess it's him.
I was hearing alto sax on this one but you might be right.
Hudson Martin
>Track 6 >Coleman Hawkins maybe?
Oh I didn't think of that. I was thinking Stan Getz for this one.
Evan Davis
Track 7: Sounds like someone has heard bossa nova being all popular.
Is that a marimba?
Could this maybe be Clark Terry on trumpet or flugelhorn (and background singing)?
This feels like a bit of a novelty track, but it seems like everyone is having a good time, so what the hell. It's fun.
Track 8: Mancini's Pink Panther theme. Could this even be some original soundtrack recording.
Oh, there's Hammond so it's probably our obligatory soul jazz track of this Prestige week.
It's a cool composition, so why not. Not sure who of Prestige's numerous organists did larger ensemble albums, but I'm going to guess Jack McDuff who recorded approximately one million albums for Prestige in the early 60's as the most likely organist here.
I liked it - I'm not really too familiar with larger ensemble Hammond albums aside from Jimmy Smith's Verve stuff so I'll check this album out.
Joseph Stewart
Track 9: ok, African tribal drums right off the bat. Certainly not something that I associate with Prestige.
I'm quite interested in what this is.
What's that wind instrument even? It kind of sounds like one of those George Braith tracks where he plays two saxes simultaneously - Braith only recorded for Blue Note from notable labels, though, I'm pretty sure. Some funky resonance seems to be going on, whatever it is.
Makes me think of Roland Kirk who did record at least something for Prestige, but I think I know his discography well enough to let something like this slip through the cracks.
I'd guess this has to be some early 70's thing. Pretty interesting to me - certainly not something I expect from Prestige, but record labels tried to cater to all kinds of tastes after the mid 60's.
Cool pan-african/spiritual track. I enjoy music like this and will check this album out for sure.
Track 10: Another Hammond track as is proper for Prestige. Way into smooth jazz territory of the mid-70's here.
I guess Charles Earland was the main Hammond man for Prestige in the time that this track sounds like.
So was this week in chronological order? The last two tracks certainly make me think it might have been.
Not a huge fan of slow Hammond jams like this. The 70's weren't kind to Hammond jazz.
Kayden Ramirez
you're probably right on the alto call - wouldn't be surprised if it is Desmond based on the playing but I don't think Desmond or Brubeck were much affiliated with the Prestige label?
Grayson Diaz
Oh I actually wasn't thinking about the label on that. Then again I don't really have a good idea about who is and who isn't a prestige artist besides maybe Miles Davis.
Brandon Foster
maybe Lee Konitz? I don't know his music too well, but he appears to have a decent following on Sup Forums and I think he's made music that sounds like this.
Jeremiah Sullivan
>Track 1 Got to be Lee Konitz I think, sounds like probably a Tristano melody. It’s so distinctive. You can hear how it’s so closely related to bebop, but without the edge and more complex rhythm. Doesn’t sound like Tristano on piano though. I’m not sure who else it would be though, maybe Ronnie Ball, or there’s another guy that plays piano on some of Konitz’s records, I don’t know his name though. I’d assume that’s Billy Bauer on guitar. Everybody sounds good, I like the Tristano sound.
>Track 2 Sounds like a pretty early recording, I’m not sure who would’ve done something like this on Prestige. It’s a nice arrangement, reminds me a bit of the Basie style. The sax solos were a little bit disappointing, they didn’t really say much and they said it without a lot of feeling I think. Interesting track, I don’t know much about who would have recorded an early big band record for Prestige.
>Track 3 At first I didn’t think I was going to like this very much, it sounded like it was going to be a standard vocal blues, but I actually really like the way he incorporates lyrics into his “solo” and he actually ends up doing some cool stuff in his solo. I didn’t know anybody was doing this kind of vocalese back then. No clue who the singer is… Same with the piano player, it’s too hard to tell. I guess it’s necessary to have that piano solo in a track like this. I think it could have been a longer solo and he maybe could have gotten a little weirder with it. Overall, not a bad vocal track. I’m interested to see who this singer is.
Lucas Clark
>Track 4 The tune is I’ll Remember April, oh and this is Miles’ version from the record he did with Horace Silver. I like this arrangement a lot, especially that little intro that they do. I’ll betcha that was Horace Silver’s idea. Miles does some nice stuff in his solo, and I like hearing Horace Silver comp. Miles leaves enough space so that Silver can do some cool things behind him. Some nice brushwork from the drummer too.. Philly Joe maybe? I always like listening to Horace Silver solo too. His solos always have a nice mix of simple melodic ideas that get repeated, bebop type runs, and then occasionally he’ll pull out some licks that sound shockingly modern. 3:13 in this track is a good example of that. I wonder if Horace Silver listened to Tristano. Hmm, who’s playing alto on this? Without listening to it I’d guess probably Jackie McLean but this doesn’t really sound anything like him. Sounds a bit like Phil Woods actually. Maybe it is Jackie after all… Anyway this is a good arrangement and Horace Silver’s solo was the highlight for me.
>Track 5 That first note was an Ab. I’m writing this down because I want to check it later. This is sounding familiar to me. I’m not sure who the pianist is. Bobby Timmons is my best guess but maybe Elmo Hope? Anyway, not much about this really stood out to me. The solo piano intro was pretty nice but the rest was fairly forgettable I think.
Hudson Collins
>Track 6 Speak Low. Sounds like Stan Getz. I like this way of doing the tune, with that drum groove and the guitar adding an extra texture in there. It’s sounding less and less like Stan Getz though. I’m thinking this is probably either Ben Webster or Coleman Hawkins. He does some interesting things with phrasing and I like how he comes back to the melody for the bridge during his solo. Kenny Burrell probably on guitar? Could be Jimmy Raney. Cool version of the song. It’s fun to hear an older player do something like this (If I’m right about it being Webster or Hawkins). Not something I’d listen to a lot but I liked it.
>Track 7 Woah, who is this trumpet player. This is pretty cool, at first it’s sounding like kind of a generic bossa but the combination of trumpet and vibraphone makes it a little more interesting. Then the trumpet player is really fucking good. I think it was flugelhorn actually. Art Farmer maybe?? The vibes player is excellent too. Who even played vibes on Prestige records? This was surprisingly great for what sounded like it was going to be an uninspired bossa.
>Track 8 Ah, I’ve heard this one before. It’s Jack McDuff’s version of The Pink Panther theme. I wonder if he did the arrangement. The whole thing is a bit gimmicky but the the horn arrangement is actually pretty cool. But yeah, beyond that kind of a gimmicky idea. Not necessarily bad I guess.
Andrew Powell
>Track 9 I thought this was maybe Roland Kirk at first when the wind instrument came in but I’m really not sure what’s going on here. The piano player sounds quite a bit like Andrew Hill doesn’t he? I don’t think he ever recorded on Prestige though. I didn’t really know that any Prestige records got into this kind of thing. Maybe it’s Archie Shepp? I still don’t what that instrument was that was going on at the beginning though.
>Track 10 Well between the sax player’s tone and all the reverb they’ve got on his channel it definitely comes across as a pretty “smooth” sound. It’s not a bad little ballad though. This being Prestige, my first thoughts are Jack McDuff or Richard Holmes, although I know there were a few other organists who recorded a lot on Prestige. It sounds like a fairly late recording- 70’s maybe, or later?- No real clue about the saxophonist though. The organ solo was my favorite part, he added some nice drama in there.
Final note- NO COLTRANE??? wtf.
Jacob Perry
>>Track 6
oh yeah, Speak Low it is. No wonder it seemed really familiar but I couldn't place it as I've been listening to quite a bit of the Lucia Cadotsch version lately: youtube.com/watch?v=qQsN3d7wUpE
Benjamin Richardson
>Paul Desmond Not him but it is one of his influences. >Coltrane on alto? I'm not sure I've ever heard him on alto, though I know recordings exist. This isn't him, anyway... >this reminds me most of Milt Jackson It's not him, or a well-known name at all actually, but it's someone who is usually described as influenced by him >I might be wrong but to me it sounds pretty much just like the movie version To me the arrangement sounded different from the movie version, but it's a while since I've heard it and you both thought it was similar so maybe I'm remembering wrong >It almost sounds like bagpipe or something I actually thought it sounded like something middle-eastern, but it's not...
Aiden Walker
Pretty sure it's Konitz. Nobody else was doing crossrhythms like what happens in the head back then.
Grayson Gutierrez
>Evolution in action. Yeah one of the things I like about this track is how transitory it feels - like it comes from before people had a square idea on what was and wasn't bebop or modern jazz or whatever >obligatory soul jazz track but of course Without going into too much detail - you're infuriatingly bang on on the last five tracks.
Also yeah, the entire playlist is chronological - I was aiming for somewhat representative - at least as much as is possible for 20+ years in ten tracks...
Angel Torres
>Track 9 I also have no idea what that instrument is. I thought of a stritch which I think is what Jazzpossu is talking about with George Braith but there's definitely something poly-tonal going on with it. I think that's why we were both thinking of Roland Kirk.
Andrew Bailey
>Track 6 >Sounds like Stan Getz
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought this. It looks like you and Jazzpossu were both feeling Coleman Hawkins though.
Elijah Robinson
heh, that's cool to hear.
I am not at all surprised that my batting average for Prestige improves going from the 50's to the 60's and beyond.
Joshua Scott
>he actually ends up doing some cool stuff in his solo There's a reason it's so cool melodically. Really surprised no one has recognised this yet. >Hmm, who’s playing alto on this? It's no one at all well known, but at least no one's fallen into the trap this track sets - I'll explain that in the reveal... >I wonder if he did the arrangement The arrangements are what made this album great for me - fortunately there are two whole albums of McDuff with this arranger. >NO COLTRANE??? Yeah I know but there's been so much Trane in recent weeks I felt like a change. To me - at least after getting immersed in the label - Sonny Rollins is the highlight of Prestige anyway.
Jaxon Butler
I've been listening to the Lucia Cadotsch version recently too, which is probably one of the reasons track 6 stood out to me on the album it's from.
Brayden Wright
There's a lot of stritch on the album this is from...
Wyatt Parker
just emailed my take on Impulse! for next week
I've had a lot of obscure stuff on my lists before so this one will be relatively nice and easy for the most part for a change
I also have a Connecting Links one and my take on same tune-different artists ready to go.
Same tune-different artists is a hard one to make to not feel too repetitive - I'm thinking of having it be 1-5 and 6-10 be the same tracks for a little more variety
Adrian Martinez
>The arrangements are what made this album great for me - fortunately there are two whole albums of McDuff with this arranger. So he did do the arrangements... pretty impressive. The only other stuff I've heard like this really is some of Jimmy Smith's albums which I think Jazzpossu mentioned and I didn't think Smith wrote the arrangements for those.
Matthew Scott
so what's the proper meaning of the term "stritch" anyway?
I know some people use it to refer to the practice of playing two saxes simultaneously, but Internet sources imply that Roland Kirk originally used it to refer to the kind of straight alto in pic related in the singular.
Michael White
I think I've only ever heard it used referring to a straightened out alto.
David Cook
OK, managed to Google it - very cool, was not aware of this album at all. :D
Justin Carter
Sounds good. I think we'll do one of JTG's next week, then maybe something else, and then maybe your connecting links one.
Owen Lee
works for me
I'll send you the others I've picked at some point so you have some inventory to choose from going forward
Kevin Gonzalez
>To me - at least after getting immersed in the label - Sonny Rollins is the highlight of Prestige anyway. But he's not on this week either? Unless that's him on track 10...
Eli Perry
>Could this maybe be Clark Terry on trumpet or flugelhorn I was curious about this one and intrigued by your guess and after some research it is Clark Terry! I've always liked his playing but damn he's on fire on this solo.
Easton Wright
I've got little experience with prestige on top of being bad at this so don't expect too much.
1. Sounds like bebop, around the 50s or so maybe, as it's a bit different than earlier bebop stuff I've heard. The drums have a thin sound but other than that I've got no problem with this. The guitar about halfway through was pretty good, I dig this. 2. And this is even earlier I think. Didn't really like it, sounds like the backing section is pretty idle for the most part and overall makes this sound sloppy. Sound quality doesn't help. 3. Pretty nice blues, I like the pace and the distinctive things he does with his voice. Loses a bit when he stops singing as the band alone doesn't do as much for me but it's still good. Interested in knowing who the vocalist is. 4. Oh this could be Miles, it has his on records like workin' and cookin'. But it's not from either nor other prestig albums by him I've heard. Perhaps he's a sideman but he's very prominent on this. The rest of the band is pretty solid too but my main attraction is the trumpet whoever it is. 5. The piano introduction on this is pretty fresh. I could see this fitting in a Jaki Byard record (he's pretty diverse though) and I know he has some records with prestige but this is a pretty wild guess. The rest of the track is more standard than I expected after that intro, but still cool.
Gonna make dinner will get the rest done later or tomorrow thank you and god bless.
Ethan Miller
Glad you could join in this week. Jaki Byard seems like a good guess for track 5. It looks like he's recorded a fair amount on prestige.
Austin Powell
Nope - he didn't. He's doubled billed with the orchestra on this and another album, and as far as I'm aware it's the bandleader who did the arrangements Nah, other than track four I avoided most of the stuff the label's famous for (at least nowadays - back then I think some of the stuff I chose would have been their biggest sellers). I could have picked ten tracks from 1956-58 alone and had a pretty decent playlist, but I wanted more variety.
Isaac Jenkins
There's been a lot of good guesses for track five. Reminds me of pianists I need to check out more.
Christopher Collins
Although in retrospect I think I should've picked a different track from the album - this is far from the best
Leo Martinez
So in the interest of keeping discussion going (and the thread bumped), what have you guys been listening to and enjoying this week? Jazz or non-jazz?
I've been into McCoy Tyner lately and listening to this one a lot.
James Foster
apart from making some new /blindfold/ lists and looking for material for them, I've been mostly listening to some recent local releases
Here's one that indirectly ended up contributing to me having Clark Terry on my mind for track 7: youtube.com/watch?v=nUL8etTO4vg
Noah Robinson
Wait what about it made you think of Clark Terry?
David Powell
in relation to that EP Eskola said that Clark Terry was one of his major inspirations so I ended up listening to some Clark Terry albums this week, so a really indirect connection
Aiden Mitchell
Oh that makes sense. I guess I should probably listen to more of him.
Brody White
moar liek this
Christian Bailey
>jazz Miles Davis- ESP Trying to play Iris in a group I'm in. Every time I listen to the second quintet records I hear new stuff.
it's a collaboration between Finnish experimental electronic music pioneers and free jazz leaning musicians from 1973 facilitated by the Finnish National Broadcasting Company YLE
it used to be a tremendously obscure "one limited release ever" type album, but currently handily available on Spotify at least
Liam Ward
>non-jazz This Brazilian group called Quinteto Armorial. I'm not sure how to even describe their music... a mix of traditional Brazilian music and European Baroque music maybe
Camden Barnes
I've been listening to some second quintet Miles stuff as well lately, the more I learn of jazz the more that quintet feels like real next level jazz that just grows the more historical context you grasp - feels like every time I return to those albums they sound better and more important than before
Nefertiti in particular is an album that I find myself returning to more and more
Sebastian Davis
wow cool thanks!
Ryan Green
>non-jazz
outside of jazz, I've recently realized that I really enjoy listening to Randy Newman's Good Old Boys a lot, for what it's worth
Sebastian Bailey
This is pretty decent but I think you'd like it. Bley doesn't really do much in the way of synths but he uses some electric keyboards and does quite a bit with getting unusual sounds from piano strings. Plus NHOP.
Joshua Cooper
>the more that quintet feels like real next level jazz that just grows the more historical context you grasp - feels like every time I return to those albums they sound better and more important than before YES! I come back to them a few times every year and hear them in a new light. Those recordings are really the baseline that most of my favorite current jazz is built on.
I can't recommend this book enough. It's nice because it's organized by album and track analyzes the tunes on a pretty deep level. It's good to have around when you're listening to one of those albums and wonder what the hell is going on in that one track. Also he managed to get the studio masters from the sessions and a lot of Shorter's original lead sheets from the Library of Congress. It's very eye opening to see how what the band ended up recording differs from his sketches.
>1 Pretty unremarkable. It sounds like somebody trying to imitate Charlie Parker but without any real feeling behind what he’s playing. So not really very good.
>2 Also very boring. I really couldn’t think of anything interesting to say about this at all.
>3 This sounds really dated and I can’t imagine anybody today really enjoying this kind of music. But I think that mostly has to do with the singers voice. It just sounds very poppy to me.
>4 Sounds like your average run of the mill hard bop, but maybe a little softer because brushes instead of sticks in the drumming. It’s not bad to listen to but not something I feel like I need to hear more of.
>5 Basically the same comments as the previous track. Very average sounding, not something I need to hear more of.
>6 The guitar adds a little bit of flavor here but still pretty uninspired playing from the saxophone which is the main instrument. And so the rest of the band sounds pretty uninspired also.
>7 Generic latin jazz. I do like the marimba playing though because that sound always lends itself to more dissonance and angular melodic playing. Without the vibraphone this would have been pretty boring.
>8 It’s the pink panther theme song. Really this sounds like it could be used in the background music of the movie. Or in an elevator…
>9 Wow. 100% better than all the other tracks. I love hearing sounds in jazz that I can’t even identify. Whatever that is at the beginning is cool and then the song just morphs into a crazy madness from there. By far the best track this week, probably the best I’ve heard on one of these for a while.
>10 And this one might be the worst. I don’t know why you’d play something like this when you have the opportunity and ability to make music that sounds like the previous track.
Jayden Morris
Dolphy's Ghost with the weekly reality check
Jaxon Garcia
Never listened to a full album by him
Eli Morgan
yeah, it's odd. I'm not a big fan of his almost vaudevillian overly theatrical music style per se and I don't think I've ever made it through Sail Away that is generally considered his best album in one sitting, but for some reason I really like how the music and lyrics come together in Good Old Boys
Nathaniel Scott
I'm going to be busy for the next few hours. Hopefully somebody can bump the thread if it needs it.
Bentley Young
McCoy is really neat. That record is really good, and I also enjoy Asante which has a more afro sound. >what have you guys been listening to Digging into more Art Blakey & Messengers and also into big band from after the II Wolrd War, like Buddy Rich or Thad Jones. Cool! I am currently reading Mingus' autobiography but it doesn't really go in depth about the music as he's more focused on telling us about his sexual encounters. I guess I'll read that one when I finish Mingus'. I will try to bump this for a while but I'm euro so I can't keep it for the night here.
Jaxson Bailey
Holy fuck guys Money Jungle is amazing, thoughts on it? Mingus' bass playing is really odd but it works well in that sort of aggressive mix.
Asher Kelly
I personally couldn't get through Beneath the Underdog, desu
The best thing about that book for me was seeing how the first pages inspired the lyrics to Joni Mitchell's God Must Be a Boogie Man youtube.com/watch?v=CM52noIOQWM
Jason Martin
we had a track from that in the /blindfold/ last week - I think the overall reception of the album is quite mixed
I personally think Fleurette Africaine is an incredible track - love that fluttering bass - and the title track, Caravan and Switch Blade are great tracks
a lot of people think the chemistry between the three doesn't work too well, but I personally like the feel of tension that comes from three big egos playing together - there's something delicious in that feeling that one album is not big enough for all of them
Logan Hernandez
>I guess I'll read that one when I finish Mingus' It's not really a straight read kind of book, more of a reference book, but if you're looking for detailed writing about the music that book is one of the best.
Jackson White
Yeah, I like the piano trio because I am able to hear Mingus and Ellington more clearly, which doesn't happen often because they like to work in bigger ensembles. Although their styles are kinda different I also like the outcome. Yeah I am not particularly loving it, especially considering I was expecting more insights into his music. The intro was pretty good also, it offered a nice outline into his character. I've never listened to Joni Mitchell myself, closest thing is pic related. I recently discovered about her collaborations with Mingus so I was wondering whether to start with that album, but it's gotten mixed reviews so I will probably start with blue (was that its name?)
Ayden Gray
Yes, it's more or less what I had in mind, use it 'like liner notes' listen to the music and read and relisten, etc. I normally have more than one book started at once anyways. I'm probably gonna buy pic related which I found at my local library and dig into it too.
Lincoln Lewis
That's a good way of describing it actually- super detailed and researched liner notes.
Ayden Jenkins
Probably controversial opinion time: Blue is some of the most awful uninspired wishy-washy hippie shit you'll ever hear.
I've not heard anything else she did, but I really didn't like that album. I like sixties folk/folk-rock so it should be my thing, it just isn't.
Isaac Flores
The Mingus album is really a mixed bag, so not a great place to start from.
Blue, Court and Spark and The Hissing of Summer Lawns are some of the best singer-songwriter albums ever, so definitely worth checking out. Especially The Hissing of Summer Lawns is also musically quite varied and interesting from a purely musical standpoint.
After those albums from Hejira onwards, she made Jaco Pastorius the head of her band, but her songwriting isn't as consistent unfortunately. That said, Hejira is great, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter is too long, but has some good songs and Mingus is definitely worth checking out for any jazz fan at all curious about Mitchell - God Must Be a Boogie Man and The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines are the big stand out tracks - great band too: Jaco, Herbie, Shorter, Peter Erskine, Don Alias.
Beyond Mingus, the live album Shadows and Light recorded on the Mingus-tour also has a stacked line-up in the band for jazz fans: Pat Metheny on guitar, Lyle Mays on keyboards, Jaco on bass, Michael Brecker on sax and Don Alias on percussions and drums.
Night Ride Home and Turbulent Indigo are also worthwhile later albums IMHO - both feature Wayne Shorter on soprano sax on multiple tracks.
Dominic Powell
>It sounds like somebody trying to imitate Charlie Parker but without any real feeling behind what he’s playing. What about his playing makes you feel like there's no emotion behind it?
Jose Evans
them's fighting words!
Blue is only relatively underrated in Mitchell's discography with especially The Hissing of Summer Lawns being a much superior album, but it's still an enduring classic
Caleb Foster
YES I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE!
Adam Thomas
>I like sixties folk/folk-rock so it should be my thing I've tried a bit but never gotten into much of that, if you're speaking of stuff like Bob Dylan, his voice was a big turn off. Stuff like the marble index or Nick Drake I guess, but the 60's non jazz records that I really like aren't many. This is a good guide, thanks! I'll look into it.
Hudson Ross
I just realized I've never heard any of Joni Mitchell's albums in full but I know she's a favorite of a lot of jazz musicians.
I was always more of a Carol King fan.
Julian Brown
Bump.
Connor Harris
Try Bert Jansch (and also Pentangle). There's a jazzy side to his music that's much more pronounced than Nick Drake's, but he has the same comfy feel to his songs.
Jaxson Collins
Bump. I think Robert Glasper has done some songs for the soundtrack of this one. Wasn't too thrilled by his 2016 record though, I like his more traditional stuff like in my element Sounds very good, will also look into it, thanks!
Xavier Morgan
What struck me watching Miles Ahead was just how much original Davis material was used in the soundtrack.
I really enjoyed the movie. I can understand why it upset purists, and if the whole "completely made up heist movie storyline" thing is a big turn off for you then you probably wont like it much, but if you just roll with that part of it there's some cool stuff in it.
Alexander Ross
It's still not showing in my country, nor born to be blue, as far as I'm concerned. I really wanna watch them. In the meantime I am gonna watch this soon.
Isaac Cook
Last bump from me.
Parker Jackson
Yes, I think it's a perfect way to describe it; rather than a subtle mix of players complementing each other perfectly it feels like these three massive forces all trying to explode at once, it's very rhythmically tight but also propulsive.
Oliver Gray
Still need to see this. I used to play at jam sessions with Thunder Wallace who I guess plays Cannonball in the movie.
Adam Stewart
its really great that you guys do this :)
Justin Wright
Why not join in?
Aaron Roberts
bump
Jeremiah Morris
Please, what is some more like Sing me a song of Songmy
Josiah Evans
I have no idea sorry
Eli Parker
Yeah, I don't know of any other albums like that.. I mean what genre even is it? It's got some jazz elements but...
Joseph Ramirez
Meanwhile, bump with Horace Silver's Blindfold test from 1960. Too bad Leonard didn't play him any Tristano.
Dominic Jenkins
Damn. It's so good, friends ;__;
Carter Sullivan
so this blindfold test is like an actual thing?
Xavier Foster
Yes, it's a recurring segment in Downbeat magazine.
It says he did another one in 1957. Do you have that one by any chance?
Logan Gonzalez
Nope, 50's issues are pretty hard to find unfortunately.
