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.
For more information about how the threads work and listening suggestions, please refer to the pastebin: pastebin.com/5cjEr3A6
THIS WEEK'S THEME: Spiritual Jazz COMPILED BY: Jazzpossu
NEXT WEEK: ??? COMPILED BY: ???
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.
It's not a pass/fail kind of test. It's just for fun to write down your thoughts about the music with no previous info about it and to see if you can guess who any of the players are.
Mason Lopez
In the /blindfold/ test everyone is a Winner!
Greetings from rainy Pori Jazz Festival - I won't be able to participate much, but I'll try to chime in when I can.
Matthew Moore
Who are you seeing today?
Nolan Rivera
so far mostly local Finnish groups today - Aki Rissanen Trio was excellent, Ricky-Tick Big Band & Julkinen Sana - a combination project of 3 rap MCs and a big band, psych/prog/electronic pop/free jazz/you-name-it influenced trio Tenors of Kalma, singer Nina Mya
Snarky Puppy is playing right now, then Finnish guitarist Teemu Viinikainen and his new trio, after that Gregory Porter and then there would still be Ms. Lauryn Hill, but I don't think I'll be staying for that
Christian Hill
oh and Matthew Halsall & the Gondwana Orchestra too that I really enjoyed
Gavin Lewis
1. This one reminds me a lot of Coltrane but I’m not sure if it is. The saxophonist sounds like he doesn’t have the same fire that Coltrane did. The pianist does sound like McCoy Tyner though. This sounds like it might be a blues form but with some of the chords altered or something. I liked this one though, I think the piano player was Tyner. 3.5 stars.
2. This one is also pretty cool and sounds like a more modern take on Coltrane’s style. It’s cool how they start with a melody but then both of the solos are really free. The piano solo was exciting and he reminded me of Cecil Taylor at some parts. The sax player also had an interesting tone that I liked. 3.5 stars.
3. I liked how this one started and then it only got better. Once again there is some strong Coltrane influence going on here and this pianist sounds a lot like Tyner. I’m guessing I’ll be saying that a lot this week. I like the way this keeps developing more and more as it goes on and getting grander in scale. The vocals add a nice effect and give it more of that grand scale. I have no idea who this is but I would listen to more of this. 4 stars.
Asher Flores
4. This sounds kind of similar to the previous one with the vocals happening behind everything but the melody sounds much more modern and post-boppish. The solos remind me of the first track from last week’s playlist where they were playing super fast over ESP. This one would have been more enjoyable without the bass solo, but I liked the rest of it. 3.5 stars.
5. So no sax on this one, just trumpet. I could definitely see Freddie Hubbard or Woody Shaw doing some stuff like this in the 70’s. This sounds like what I imagine Coltrane would have done if he had played trumpet instead of sax, so I guess it’s a good one for the spiritual jazz theme. I liked it but it got kind of long. 3 stars.
6. This one was cool. I like the unique sounding instruments and I’m getting more of an African vibe from this than I have from any of the others. I like the inclusion of percussion. The piano solo went on for too long though. I thought it was over and then it kept going but overall it’s a nice track. 3 stars.
7. My favorite so far. It’s definitely still Coltrane influenced but it also sounds more modern than anything I’ve ever heard Coltrane do. There is so much energy on the whole track but especially on the piano solo. Normally I’d probably say that the piano solo goes on too long but he never runs out of ideas and the rhythm section never lets up. 4.5 stars.
Elijah Baker
8. Even stronger Coltrane influences here. But then more with a Latin feel as the song goes on. The piano solo was pretty good but not great but then I liked the sax solo a lot. You can tell this sax player is really going for the Coltrane sound. It’s pretty good but not that original. I guess it’s cool to put a Latin twist on it. 3.5 stars.
9. This was good but pretty similar to track 7. The piano player is a lot different though. He doesn’t have the same energy but he probably has more traditional piano chops. I also liked the sax player better on track 7 so this one was good but comparing it to that track I don’t like it as much as I normally would probably 3.5 stars.
10. This one really sounds like Coltrane. Maybe this is actually him. Probably just somebody’s tribute. It reminds me of My Favorite Things and some of his later stuff blended together. Then they start singing John Coltrane so I’m thinking it’s definitely someone’s tribute. It’s pretty good. The vocals are kind of haunting and the playing is nice. Track 7 was my favorite but this one will stick with me. 4 stars.
