/BLINDFOLD TEST/

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: Connecting Links
COMPILED BY: Jazzpossu

NEXT WEEK: Big Band
COMPILED BY: JTG

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.

www34.zippyshare.com/v/0m8Pu6NP/file.html


Posting with names or tripcodes is encouraged as it makes discussion much easier.

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=cC-JRJF8Soc
youtube.com/watch?v=uJ4ZV1MTOGU
open.spotify.com/track/0JMNhhFdixemUhlE2FXVxG
youtube.com/watch?v=StiTkoRKhvI
youtube.com/watch?v=O4YDatZ7AOQ
www57.zippyshare.com/v/W4buWFCM/file.html
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

Hello thread - just got back home from the pub ready to tell how your opinions on the playlist suck

I'll be here monitoring and bumping the thread for the next 4 or 5 hours tonight and back again tomorrow morning European time

bump with track featuring one musician from track 1

youtube.com/watch?v=cC-JRJF8Soc

bump. I'll be posting my thoughts later this week

bumping with something that has very little to do with any of the tracks this week

unless someone posts their thoughts soon everyone will get spooky skeletons in their dreams with this music playing

youtube.com/watch?v=uJ4ZV1MTOGU

there's an additional joke to be made about skeletons and organs, but I'll leave that for you to discover

>Track 1
Sounds like Glasper. Well not so much once the horns come in maybe. It sounds fairly modern. I don’t understand the mixing- why would you want your recording to sound like this? The drumming is irritating; it’s sloppy. I also don’t really care for the chord progression- something about it feels very unnatural. Towards the middle there’s some good stuff going on but still the drumming is getting in the way of things rather than adding positively. I think the guitarist has a better idea of how to really lead the group during a solo than the sax player. Piano solo was not very good and thankfully short. He was just doing a lot of short, choppy amelodic phrases. So overall there were a lot of things about this I didn’t really like- confusing mixing, unclear drumming, and disappointing piano solo. No guesses.

>Track 2
The drumming is much better here, and the mix is quite a bit better too. Although I’d say the drums are up too high in the mix this time. Is this an EWI I’m hearing? Or two? Or maybe it was just the combination of soprano and guitar? This must be the drummer’s date with the drums up this high in the mix. So I think it’s guitar with a heavy synth effect that I was thinking was EWI. Well this was an odd one. I think what I enjoyed most was the drumming but the drums were so up front in the mix that of course its what your attention will be drawn to. None of the solos really had much shape or drama to them.

>Track 3
Right off the bat I recognize the tone as Chris Potter. Sounds like a fairly early recording of him. Well I’m loving the drumming, but I don’t really like the piano comping. I think it might be Kevin Hays on piano. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to comp along with Chris Potter solos that don’t have any chordal accompaniment and it can be really hard. This might have been a better solo for the pianist to just lay out and let Chris go for it. David Kikoski does the best job comping behind Chris. Anyway I was thinking the drummer is probably either Billy Drummond or Billy Hart, but I had a sneaking suspicion that Billy Hart was the drummer on the last track so I think he might be the connecting link here (plus Jazzpossu said something about including Billy Hart on future /blindfold/ playlists). He, on the other hand, sounds great playing with Chris. I’ve been listening to Billy Hart a lot lately and I think he plays with the energy and force of Blakey but with the creativity and spontaneity of Tony Williams. The piano solo has some good moments in it but some sloppy moments too. Drum solo was ok. I could have done without it but it definitely sounds like Billy Hart. So- I like the tune, it’s funky and it has a memorable melody. Potter’s playing was fantastic and so was the drummer’s. Everything the pianist did just made me think about how Dave Kikoski could have done it better.

>Track 4
Well this sounds quite a bit like Billy Hart again so maybe I was wrong about him being on track 2. Or maybe not. Drummers are pretty hard for me to place. The tune took me a second to place but then that dissonant chord sparked my memory. It’s Eye of the Hurricane. I always think that chord sounds like Monk’s “Little Rootie Tootie chord” but it’s a little bit different.This stays pretty true to the original. Funny that I talked so much about Dave Kikoski on the last track because this pianist reminds me a little of him. Very clean playing and nice flow of ideas at high speeds. The saxophonist reminds me of JD Allen. Or maybe Mark Turner at times. I like that husky tone. I enjoyed this drum solo a little more than on the last track. Overall this was a pretty good track. The piano playing was the highlight. This sounds like it could be the last track on a Criss Cross record.

>Track 5
I like this tune a lot but I think it would sound much better on alto sax. It’s the kind of thing David Binney or Ruderesh does. I like the trading and the pianist is great. The sax player’s thing works well on this kind of style but the pianist is doing much more interesting things. He reminds me of John Escreet. The drumming is great all the way through this too. It was short and very sweet. I think this was the most consistent track so far this week. I don’t know who this could be but I like it a lot.

>Track 6
The sound of this reminds me a lot of Joe Henderson’s album “Multiple,” which, coincidentally, I included on my Connecting Links playlist a couple months ago. It’s the combination of the electric bass, rock drums, and rhodes. I don’t really care for the singing too much though. It’s not bad when the flute and vocals harmonize on the melody. This second groove that they go into is pretty nice. They’re doing a phrase of 14 beats which is kind of cool. I guess the soprano player might be the connecting link here? Luckily during the soprano solo the rhythm section did what I was hoping for which was to move a little more outside of their patterns they’d been keeping up. So this had some pretty good moments. I’m a sucker for that 70’s sound so really the only thing I didn’t like here was the singing.

>Track 7
The bassline sounds similar to the last track- maybe the bassist is the connecting link? A lot of the time this feels like a rock group “jamming.” It reminds me of Gateway but not as good as most of their stuff. Mostly the guitar player seems like he’s playing just to fill up space and what he’s doing feels very random. The bass player and drummer are sticking pretty closely to their preset groove. The guitar solo got better as it went on though and really the rhythm section does too, but the first few minutes were pretty dull. The bass solo had some decent moments and it does sound quite a bit like Dave Holland so maybe this is Gateway after all. If that’s the case then I bet it was Holland on the last track also on something from around ’72-’74. Or DeJohnette could have been the link to the last track.

1: I've seen your rating for this album, so you've heard it before. I don't know why, but this track as a whole has a lot of appeal to me - all the soloing analyzed individually is pretty lackluster, but that almost desperate overall feeling has made this a track I've personally listened to over and over.

2: yeah, it's synth guitar instead of EWI. With that info should be easy to guess who is responsible. Not the drummers date though.

3: indeed Potter and it is Hart on drums - gold star for remembering my earlier comments. I like the pianist much more on his other work - he is the kind of annoying paint-by-numbers post-bop slacker here for me.

>Track 8
So this is Freedom Jazz Dance but a pretty crazy version of it. I’m betting this is DeJohnette again and it sounds like Chick Corea on piano. Based on that I’d bet John McLaughlin on guitar. I don’t think I know this recording though. But I’d expect Holland to be playing with these guys too. I love this kind of playing though, this is great. Could be Joe Farrell on tenor, and this could be one of his records I guess.

Side note: The next day after I listened to this track I was looking through a 1970 Downbeat and came upon a 5 star review of Miroslav Vitous’ “Infinite Search,” which I’ve heard bits of before but never listened to in full. When I looked at the lineup and then saw that they did Freedom Jazz Dance I realized this must have been the album. Weird coincidence.

>Track 9
This is quite good too and similar in some ways to the last track. Anybody else getting Bill Bruford vibes from this drummer? I like that most everybody is leaving quite a bit of space and the music kind of develops naturally that way. I think around the middle of the track they loose some of their momentum for a little bit but then pretty soon they pick the energy level back up again. I’m guessing Herbie is the connecting link with the last track but I don’t know. I only had time to give this one a quick listen.

>Track 10
This isn’t really my thing. Soul-jazz blues with lots of playing to the crowd and not really much interaction or anything. I’m sure these are probably familiar players. The trumpet player has a Woody Shaw-esque tone.

4: you got the link and the tune - well done.

5: I'm personally very fond of this track and it's a relatively obscure one considering this week's list overall, so glad to see the positive reaciton.

6: there certainly are many crappy vocal parts on 70's albums, agreed on that being the worst part of this one - Henderson's Multiple is certainly close to this and soprano person is indeed the link.

7: you're certainly in the right ballpark

>1: I've seen your rating for this album, so you've heard it before
So something from this year or last probably?

8: well whadyaknow - indeed DeJohnette is the link to this one and good job otherwise as well

9: it could totally be Herbie, but he's not the link here

10 is meant to be a relatively easy starting point to back tracking the whole connecting links business that I think many people who know their jazz styles could guess even if they had never heard tracks 9 and 10 before...

yeah, it's a 2016 release - this track is probably the single track that I have listened to most of all this year for some reason - it has a really great dramatic arc for my taste

on meta theme commentary - my initial impulse with the "connecting links"-theme was to start from an early track and move forward in time (I was thinking of having Roy Haynes play drums on the first track from the 50's and last from the 2010's initially) , but since you did that I just opted to start with a recent release and work back to some stuff I've been listening to lately or otherwise would like to see the regular's comments on

I personally got into jazz initially through the early fusion stuff with BItches Brew as a particulat favorite album and that period hasn't really made an appearance on /blindfold/s so I thought I'd include some personal favorites in that style here.

8:also noting here that I find Freedom Jazz Dance to be a great composition that works surprisingly well in different contexts - the original Eddie Harris recording has the feel of a playful soul jazz tune, Miles' famous "Evolution of the Groove" version has the authentic feverish post-bop feel through-and-through and here it sounds just at home as a Bitches Brew -style fusion tune. More people should play it.

there's also a pretty cool Anthony Braxton recording of it (that does dissolve to weird noodling from non-Braxton people) that I had on a "same tune twice" -list for a while that I'd link here if it was on Youtube. Check it on Spotify: open.spotify.com/track/0JMNhhFdixemUhlE2FXVxG

i'm new to these threads. not an expert or anything but i downloaded the zip and here we go

thoughts and guesses from new people are really interesting compared to regulars like tg being pretty much expected to be familiar with or recognize half the tracks for any reasonable playlist

welcome aboard!

bump

thanks man

1: don't really like the way the guitar is worked in the mix here. drumming is obviously impressive. solos were kinda lackluster. i like what's going on in the last 30 seconds or so with that little piano motif. a little too smooth for my taste but w/e it's pretty good

2: yeah not a fan of that synth guitar sound at all. production's kind of muddy. cool it with the cymbals dude. this is just not that interesting

3: this is more like it. awesome solos, especially from drums. like, holy crap, i need to go practice my fucking rudiments. love the main theme, pretty catchy actually.

bumping with my local big band playing the music of a local fusion band that has absolutely nothing to do with jtg's list next week (but probably involves many musicians that will appear on mine down the line)

youtube.com/watch?v=StiTkoRKhvI

2: with how objectively terrible that synth guitar sound is, this guy should receive some sort of medal for getting as much mileage out of it as he has over the years - I personally think this track is a kind of a mind-over-matter moment where the track somehow works well enough that you actually stop hating the synth sound for a moment, but that might be just me.

4: loving the chemistry between the bandmates here. handling the high tempo really smoothly. really cool how those piano chords interject in like that. drum solo pretty good

5: piano's throwing down some really interesting chords here, i like it. enjoying how the sax/piano are trading off. this is pretty intense.

6: mmm ominous synth chords & wind chimes & bass and now FLUTE woooooah. this is really groovy and very different from anything else in this list so far. that wordless singing reminds me of something Milton Nascimento might do on some of his later records but i don't think that's really fitting the mood. and this bassline is just too funky. sounds like inspired by some 70s prog stuff.

yah, 6 is our transition track between two worlds

1. Sounds european, the melody and rhythms and so on sound like something out of scandinavia. It reminds me of Esbjörn Svensson Trio or the stuff afterwards by Dan Berglund and Magnus Öström. The guitar blends quite well with the saxophone, it sounds like just two horns at times. The drums refuse to settle into a groove, it works out well imo though. Guitarist is better solist than saxophone. It feels like it would work out better if the piano laid out during the guitar solo and the if the bass was louder overall. I quite like the piano solo, could have been longer.

2. What instrument is this? Violin and synth? Guitar with lots of effects? Later on it sounds a bit like a sax even, no idea. It sounds a bit folksy, maybe because of the violinlike sound but also something about the melody itself. Heavy drumming on this one. I feel like I'm to distracted by whatever instrument it is to say anything meaningful haha

3. More standard instruments. The tune definitely sounds modern. Nice interplay. Digging this piano solo and the drumming. The drum solo is actually really good I think. It has enough variety to keep it interesting even though it's long.

4. Isn't this tune from some 60's blue note album or something. Straight into the action piano solo which could have been longer. Then sax tries to take it down a few ntoches before building upp again. Sax solo is also short, does no one get a nice long solo here? Drum solo is alwo good. Overall, the track really should have been longer so they could have a bit more space tol solo.

5. The piano vamp thing feels goofy but in a nice way. Drummer sounds a bit like Eric Harland. I feel like I recognize this sax player alot but no idea who it is. Trading phrases instead of soloing is an interesting idea, I'm not quite sure if I feel like it really works out though. It works better when they just straight up play simultaneously without dividing it up so clearly into the "four for me, four for you" stuff. Best track so far.

6. This must be from the 70s. No one made music this cheesy afterwards. It's also got that kind of Bitches Brew vibe. Can't help but love this sort of stuff. All the different instruments, the vocals, the cheesiness, everything. Guitar is nice but sometimes is feels like he's trying to hard to consciously play "rock" instead of jazz. Sax is very Coltrane style and the others respond well to the energy, especially the drummer. Overall the track has a heavy Mahavishnu Orch vibe. I would have liked to hear more from the singer.

7. Guitar makes me think of Bill Frisell. It's got that kind of country and 60s pop music influence which I associate with him. Good track. You pretty much only hear the guitar but it's nice enough to work out and the track feels like it's made to just showcase it anyway.

8. This has even more Bitches Brew style than track 6. A little less vampy than Miles himself but similar style. They play well together but lack direction imo. That is sort of part of the style though, gotta get inte some groove and keep it going so it's hard to move anywhere. It gets going more when the guitar solo starts and the start playing more freely.

9. More fusion, lot of that this week. This one is more ominous.

10. Rock'n'roll style. There's something about the sax that makes it clear that he's really a jazz player and same for the trumpeter, maybe it's the notes they choose that aren't always that straightforward. Good times all around, makes you happy when you listen to it.

It's cool with some fusion here, it's usually more straight ahead stuff.

1: it's a thoroughly American effort, I believe, but it does appeal to me as a European and a fan of E.S.T, so there's that. I personally enjoy the blending of sax and guitar on both this and track 2.

2: The main players are several guitar tracks and a sax.

4: composition is originally from a 60's Blue Note album yes, this album plays homage but is more recent

5: said before, will say again - overall possible the most obscure of the bunch, but one I'm very fond of personally - this track fires successfully on all cylinders for me

7: bass intro made me think of the last track so that might be a link. most of the guitar solo was pretty boring and all over the place. this was a little tedious

8: love the keyboard sound here. craaaAAAAaaazy sax. awesome comping from the guitar, working off the soloist really well. enjoyed this.

9: niiice bass groove. what's that percussion instrument, woodblocks? phenomenal transition leading up to 2:00! another fantastic drum performance. keyboard is probably the link?

10: bluesy. rock'n'roll. i'm dancing. sax is really feeling it. nothing spectacular here but a fun listen

6:certainly from the 70's and an overwhelming Bitches Brew / early 70's Miles influence - unsurprisingly someone involved was playing with Miles as well

7: interesting observation - Bill Frisell was the one person who got me interested in contemporary jazz when I saw him live as a young jazz fan, but it's not him and this is a little earlier - great guess even though this was recorded before Bill's time, it's certainly a guitarist any Frisell fan should check out IMHO

8: yeah, sounds a lot like Bitches Brew for sure - the most interesting thing about this album is that it was recorded before Bitches Brew was released - a very cool document that shows that the same vibe was going on in a wider scale at the time

10: I'm a little disappointed that no one has intuitively guessed the link between this kind of soul jazz and early fusion yet - also I can't see how anyone could dislike this kind of a tasty jam!

Taking a wild guess on the last track: Is that Cannonballs quintet with Joe Zawinul on keys? They had these kind of tunes and Zawinul links it to fusion.

yeah, this is the kind of guess I've been waiting for everyone to take

So yeah, Joe Zawinul brought a lot to the emerging sound to Miles' Bitches Brew Band - he is certainly the most notable character who elevates Bitches Brew to be what In A Silent Way wasn't

and it's worth knowing that before the fusion explosion that he would influence quite a bit, Zawinul was a notable character as the keyboard player in Cannonball Adderley's swingin soul-jazz'y band as heard here on track 10.

He was already using electric keyboards with cannonball so in a sense he was getting warmed up to play fusion before a lot of other guys who just played piano, maybe that's why he was so good with Miles

one of my local scene's most popular jazz character's is actually very heavily influenced by Cannonball's 60's soul jazz stuff with Horace Silver being his other big influence - for any jazz musicians around, I recommend trying this style out, it has brought this guy certainly mainstream-like prominence here - book him in a small venue in Helsinki and he's guaranteed to to drive the crowd wild

Here's mr. Timo Lassy
youtube.com/watch?v=O4YDatZ7AOQ

You can be assured that at least one of my playlist will feature him, so make notes.

Miles had the name and the ear to bring forward thinking people together

Fusion came about because people like Joe Zawinul and John McLaughlin had the right ideas and they even might have met without Miles, but Miles was still a major prophet. If Miles approved it was canon.

yet again, cats like Zawinul, McLaughlin and Holland had the new music figured out - no need for Miles

1. This sounds pretty modern and hip hop influenced. I like the drumming and the sax playing but not really the piano player. Other than that I don’t have very much to say about this one. The beat is catchy but it’s not really too memorable in the end. 2.5 stars.
2. This was something pretty different. There’s some weird synths going on here and I like the drums again. I bet it’s the same drummer from the last track. Besides the unusual sound of the instruments and textures there’s really nothing that I find very interesting about this one either. 2 stars.
3. The main melody of this is nice. This sax player sounds pretty good and I like this drummer too. I like the start of the sax solo but it gets long-winded by the end. The piano solo was pretty good especially toward the end and I liked the way the drum solo built up. 3.5 stars.
4. My favorite so far. I like the clash of the chords and the dark sound of the saxophonist. The pianists solo was awesome with a lot of flowing lines and long phrases. Then the saxophonist takes it in a different direction with shorter phrases and focusing on his sound. 3.5 stars.
5. This one was very modern too and sounded really cool. It’s got some rock influences and I like the use of the soprano sax for this. It’s like an updated version of Coltrane’s style. I like how they can take things to the free end of the spectrum but then bring it back in too. I think it could be the pianist from the last track on this. This one was short but I think it could have been longer actually. I’m looking forward to know what this is. 4 stars.

6. Very 70’s fusion-y. With a little bit of a spiritual jazz vibe too due to the vocalist. I don’t usually think of spiritual jazz as being this funky though. Maybe you could call it spiritual funk. It sounds like a soprano sax here so maybe that’s the player in common from track 5. I liked this one 3.5 stars.
7. The drummer was the best part about this one. The bass player was ok too but I didn’t really like the guitarist. Could it be Pat Metheny? There was one thing that he played that made me think of Metheny. 2.5 stars.
8. Wow great, this made me think of the spiritual jazz week too. It also reminds me of Miles group from the 60’s but with electric instruments and more free jazz influence. The piano player was my favorite. Actually the whole band was pretty great. 4 stars.
9. This sounds like it’s from the 70’s too. I like this one too because it’s not as free as the last one but it sounds like they all have experience being able to play freely so they can add that influence into the music. 4 stars.
10. Very soulful and bluesy. I didn’t really like the sax player very much but I did love the trumpet player. The rhythm section sounded fine but they didn’t stand out. 2.5 stars.

Sorry I'm kind of busy today so I probably won't be posting too much until later tonight.

bump

>but since you did that I just opted to start with a recent release and work back to some stuff I've been listening to lately or otherwise would like to see the regular's comments on
Yeah I thought that's what you might be doing.

Damn. My first thought on this was Cannonball but it sounded like tenor sax to me.

bump

bump

bump

Makes sense that it's Chris Potter.

>The sound of this reminds me a lot of Joe Henderson’s album “Multiple
It does sound like that now that you mention it

>I personally got into jazz initially through the early fusion stuff with BItches Brew as a particulat favorite album and that period hasn't really made an appearance on /blindfold/s so I thought I'd include some personal favorites in that style here
Yes it was nice to get some of that style this week

>Milton Nascimento
Never listened to anything by him but I will have to check him out

>Esbjörn Svensson Trio
That thought crossed my mind for this track.

>tfw i wanted to do the next theme but you guys fucked off for like a week straight with 0 threads
nice

What? The thread happens once a week, every Friday and Saturday. What's your theme?

that's got to be the biggest piece of shit I've listened to in my fucking life.

First time here, not having a good time thus far.

>What's your theme?
foreign jazz

Well maybe we could do that one the week after next?

Sounds good to me. I'll review this weeks tracks in a bit

A big point of the thread is to critique the music so it's a good thing if you don't like all the tracks.

Cool. You change all the track names to Track 1, Track 2 etc. and email them to me at [email protected]. You can either email me the individual tracks or put them in a zip and upload it somewhere. It will be good to have someone new making a playlist.

bump

>Track 1
Sounds like a movie OST so far lol or some weird hiphop+jazz thing. Acid Jazz? Picks up later into the sax solo. Guitar solo was pretty amazing too. Obviously modern. 7/10 was pretty interesting

>Track 2
Pretty odd tune. Panned hard right so it's a bit jarring. Sounds like there's an oboe solo on here or maybe a soprano sax. Maybe ive heard Karl Jenkins too much. 6.5/10 pretty decent I'd listen again I guess.

>Track 3
Don't like this already. Feels pieced together. Sounds like he came in the studio with some changes, did one melody take and called it a day. 5/10 would not listen again

>Track 4
Kek at that Giant Steps quote. Maybe this tune actually is Giant Steps and I'm too stupid to tell. This was very enjoyable and well executed. 7.5/10 would listen again

>Track 5
Like this already. Nice quarts on the piano with a cool (oboe again?) melody. Soprano Sax and oboe sound so similar its honestly hard to tell them apart. Perhaps I think too classically. Really digging the fast crazy soloing, but still remaining in contact with the rest of the band though. Best so far
8/10 would def listen again.

>Track 6
Obviously fusion from the start. Really digging this flute with guitar sound. Not a fan of this bass break. Kinda disconnects the flow of the song. Seems like an excuse to introduce new material. "New material" is done good I guess though. The slow section with the bongos was better
7/10 would listen again I guess

>Track 7
Like this bass intro a lot. Sounds like something you'd jam with your buddies on a friday night. Really comfy and chill. Gonna agree with that BFT and say Metheny. 7.5/10 would listen again.

>Track 8
They're locked in whatever groove they have going on here. I can respect that but I'm not digging it. Too chaotic. 4/10 would not listen again

>Track 9
Started off kinda cliche then went into weird fusion territory. Not a fan of this one either. 5.5/10 would maybe listen again

Track 10 is a great bluesy tune. Out of characters though.

>Track 7
Yeah it sounded like Metheny but I didn't like the track very much

Wasn't my favourite either. Sounded comfy though

bump

last bump from me tonight. hopefully someone else can bump for a while

bump

Just got a couple more to listen to then I'll post my thoughts

I mean I don't like it either, but if it's the worst thing you've ever heard you must be new to not just the internet, but life itself famboli stromboli.

not Metheny on track 7, but close

>and listening suggestions
>its just suggestions on how to listen to music

trolled hard and put away wet, i'll never get straightforward jazz recs. :(

>Track 1
The chords make me think of some kind of modern-classical requiem type piece, but then either the phrases

are irregular lengths or the time signatures are odd - I can't work out which, but I think it's the latter.

I really like this sort of harmony, but I don't know how to put it into words. The pianist keeps throwing

spanners into the flow of the piece during the sax solo, but the sax is leaving plenty of space for that to

work. Then when he does it through the guitar, it's with a lot of sensitivity to what's going on. The

guitar solo was excellent - kept complete control of what he was doing most of the time whilst letting it

go just slightly just enough to make it exciting. 4 stars.

I don't stand a chance of identifying anyone in this, but it's very frosty and as such reminds me of

Odyssey by Terje Rypdal, or at least what I remember of it having only heard it once.

>Track 2
I can't even work out what instruments I'm hearing here. I think there's one guitar and one synth, but

there might be another synth in there too. Anyway the mix of instruments and the synth tone sounds a little

too close to cheesy prog for comfort, but the piece isn't so bad. I don't think there was enough room for

anyone to stretch out properly though, so I don't have much to say on that. 3 stars.

I'm guessing guitar or synth is the link to the previous track - don't think it's the sax.

>Track 3
This could maybe be the same sax player though? The recording sounds very Impulse!-y, so it could be McCoy Tyner? Though the more I hear of it the less sure I am about either of those things - Tyner is usually less stilted than this and the bass and drums sound a bit too modern to be classic Impulse!. Definitely could see a piece like this having been written/recorded within that scene though so I'm gonna go with my first instinct. I don't like the drum solo, but the rest of the piece is okay. The piano solo went on a bit long though, and whilst there were plenty of ideas I didn't really like the feel of it - seemed a bit motionless. 2 and a half stars.

>Track 4
This is from Maiden Voyage. I think it's Eye of the Hurricane. I don't know if it's just the recording but this one sounds pretty flat too - no fire in the playing. There were a few melodic touches in the sax solo I liked, but he and the piano were both pretty boring overall. And another pointless drum solo. I'm gonna go ahead and guess this is a drummer's album, because there was no other reason for that to have been there, and he's been pretty active in the rest of it. 2 stars.

>Track 5
Pretty sure I know this one. Hasn't it been on a blindfold test before? Maybe it's just that starting vamp on the piano because the rest isn't sounding familiar. This is a nice use of trading 4's, they're picking up each other's ideas really neatly. All the ideas here (in the accompaniment to the sax solo too) flow so smoothly from one to the next, but it's too spontaneous sounding as well. If I haven't heard the tune before I must know the pianist from a previous blindfold because that really rounded percussive tone on the keys sounds super familiar. 4 stars.

>Track 6
Immediately I think the drummer is the link here. This starts out with some awesome collective improvisation - it must be hard to keep up that groovy momentum whilst not getting on top of each other. When everything cuts out that's a great bassline. Actually this piece reminds me in a weird way of Fela Kuti - it's partly the tribal sounding rhythms in the percussion, partly the polyrhythms, and partly the tone of the electric instruments. Though I'm also getting Zappa vibes from it. I really like that about it, but also the organic way one solo goes into the next. This has to be a bunch of people who play together often, because it's bordering on ESP.

4 and a half stars.

>Track 7
Here's another intro vamp I recognise that seems to go into something else entirely. Oh, actually, is this from Gateway? I only heard that for the first time last week but I think it might be. In which case it's Dave Holland, John Abercrombie and Jack DeJohnette. Didn't really take the album in totally what with it being the first time I'd heard it but this track did stick with me. I'm only just getting round to listening to the big names from this era, so I haven't heard a lot of Dave Holland's work, but I sometimes feel like he lets technique and theory get in the way of a good tune, whereas on this album he rides the beat like a motherfucker. Jack DeJohnette is always super groovy so that helps, and I don't know much of John Abercrombie but he's the same here. Can't remember how much of the album is like this track but this one works so well because the three of them are so unified in purpose. 4 and a half stars.

>Track 8
I think this piece is a Wayne Shorter tune from one of the mid-60's Davis albums - possibly Miles Smiles. I'd be willing to bet this is Holland on bass again, from how intrusive he's being (another thing I sometimes have trouble with in his playing) as much as from the playing style. It's weird hearing a mid-60's Miles tune with this instrumentation because the synth and guitar is reminding me of Bitches Brew. In fact, this could be John McLaughlin on guitar? The heavy distortion and angular melodies feel like him anyway. Synth player could easily be someone from that album too...

Okay this sax has totally ruined this one for me, it's like the whole piece has fallen apart and they've lost the connection. That part where he played repeated arpeggios and the synth started to go nuts was really nice and after that things are stronger, but it's still a shame. Not enough to totally ruin it, but I can only give this 3 and a half stars.

Right, I looked it up and it's Freedom Jazz Dance, so I shouldn't have called it a Wayne Shorter piece but I was right otherwise...

>Track 9
This reminds me again of Miles, but not electric Miles. The solo and to some extent the synth are leaving loads of space here, like on some of his Ahmad Jamal influenced stuff. It works well with the texture-y drums (maybe Tony Williams?) and emphatic bass. I like the darker chord they introduce at about 4 minutes in. 4 stars.

>Track 10
Maybe this was fun if you were there, but this sounds pretty dead to me. Like they're just walking through a blues late in the set to make up for flagging energy levels. And the drums are driving straight down the middle with no regard for anyone. There was some nice playing from the trumpet, and the organist had a nice touch, but overall this isn't good. 2 stars.

Tracks 2 and 3 - same bassist?

nope

bump

In London on holidays atm so I haven't listened to all the tracks. Might not be able to participate much but I'll check back on the thread if I get an opportunity.
>track one
Interesting opening. I like how it builds up like a fugue with all the voices coming in gradually. I suppose that was what they were going for considering how classical-influenced the piano sounded. The first few bars the drummer came in on were shaky. To be fair though, he sounds like he’s improvising a fair amount of what he’s doing so I can forgive him for that. He’s basically running another voice rather than just comping.
The sax/guitar line is class. Normally outside of fusion music, this sort of thing doesn’t sit well with me but the echo suits the melody they’re playing. It kind of fills the gaps in between the notes and allows them to slip into each other.
The call and response thing around 1:20 is very interesting. The guitar is just barely hanging onto the heels of the sax and rising up to meet him while he’s still mid-note.
When the sax goes solo, he starts sounding almost eastern and he's using drones kind of like a bagpipe. Then he kind of changes style and goes more jazzy in response to those bluesy staccato chords in the piano. Solid interplay.
The guitar plays some awkward sounding phrases near the beginning of his solo and a few of those runs feel like scale work but once he got warmed up, I dug it.
There's a lot of rock influence in his playing but he fits pretty well in the ensemble. There’s a messy punkishness to the way some rock players play out. The bit just after 5:20 is a good example. He’s less precise in his articulation and there's a lot more grit.
It’s a shame the sax came in as soon as it did. Felt like he was interrupting the guitarist mid-phrase. The solo was definitely due to end but it could have been done a tad more cleanly.
Nice track overall. Good contributions from everyone on here.

>track two
Going into this track…I figure it’s either the sax or the guitar who’s stuck around. I wasn’t crazy about the synth sounds on this one and that kind of stood out to me and soured the track a bit.
>track three
I think that’s probably Chris Potter on sax, based on how damn technical it is, the complex melodic style and the timbre. There are times in his solo where what he’s playing is either going over my head or he’s just filling space while he comes up with more interesting stuff.
He’s got a great melodic sense and most of the time I think that does show. His sense of swing is impeccable and there are some really beautiful ideas in those note-dense phrases but I like when he slows down and articulates stuff more clearly. Like the motif he was developing around 1:40 was fucking sweet but the best thing about the phrase preceding that was the lead into the more melodic section.
This is the sort of thing I find I need to dedicate a lot of attention to in order to enjoy though. I listened to this drunk after coming in late from the pub a few nights ago and I just didn’t like it. I had a review written up where I said it was uninspired sounding but I missed a lot of details. Like the bit around 2 mins in where he’s got that phrasing pattern going and he’s ending each lick with a little three note cadence and at the end of the fourth of them, he lengthens the end to really punctuate and resolve the idea. It’s a wonderful little melodic composition but I’d completely missed it listening to this half-pissed at 1am.

>track four
I’m almost certain I’ve heard this tune before, but not this version. Can’t for the life of me remember the name or who it’s by though.
The piano solo was enjoyable. I like those stabbing staccato backing chords. Kinda Bud Powell-ish.
I also quite liked the drummer’s comping but I wasn’t really enamoured by his solo. It felt a bit too slow moving and while I liked how he was making his way around the kit loads, I think it messed a bit too much with the pacing of the piece.

>Track Five
I like this sax player. He’s got a pretty unusual playing style. I can’t really think of a good way of explaining it. I think part of it is the timbre he’s got but also the way he’s accenting notes. Sometimes notes kind of drop off at the ends a little earlier than I’d expect or subtly grow in volume in the middle of notes. It’s more noticeable when he’s playing the head but there were a few parts of the solos I was hearing that sort of effect too.
I liked what the piano and sax’s shared solo. The stuff they were playing didn’t really feel like “call and response” or that they were necessarily picking up on musical ideas the other was doing but I think it sounded cool for it. Like they were arguing rather than conversing. It suits the turbulence of the track.

>track six
Fusion with a piano player sounds a bit like Chick, a female vocalist, probably made in the 70s…could be something by Return to Forever? I’m not familiar with their discog so they could have gotten guitar and flute at some point for all I know.
I love the tone of the keys. It's pretty typical of 70s fusion and hearing that sort of thing always reminds me of classics like Bitches Brew.
I liked the singer. She meshes pretty well with the flute and has a good tone for this sort of loose fusion setting.

>track seven
Guitarist was a little hit and miss but I loved that bass solo. He doesn’t get too adventurous with rhythm or harmony but it’s got a lot of soul. I only wish he could have been a bit higher in the mix cause the phrasing was just lovely on it. I'll be interested to see who this is. It does sound vaguely familiar but for a bass player, I'm pretty bad at recognising them.

On an unrelated note, I got to take in a show at Ronnie Scotts two days ago. First time I've ever been to a "big name" jazz club and it was pretty awesome. They actually have like a black tarish stuff in the ceiling lights to ensure maximum dim-lighting.
Saw Jason Marsalis (one of Wynton's bros) and it was very enjoyable. I was half expecting him to go out there and give a lecture on the importance of dixieland but he was actually reasonably modern sounding. As much as one can expect one of the Marsalis clan to be.

Bump

>As much as one can expect one of the Marsalis clan to be.
Have you heard much of Branford's stuff? He can be pretty hip at times. I always wanted to go to Ronnie Scott's but never even been to the UK. That's where Miles discovered Dave Holland.

>This is the sort of thing I find I need to dedicate a lot of attention to in order to enjoy though.
That's the thing I like about Potter's playing. You can listen closely to one of his solos five times but then still hear new details in it the next time you listen. Also seeing him live is a different experience too. With the visual aspect you can really see the communication going on between him and the other players. But I think he's a melodic genius with the way he develops his ideas. Seamus Blake is a pretty close second though.

Branford is great. Even Wyntons own music often isn't as conservative as his statements. At least his 80's stuff is pretty hip stuff but I haven't heard his later music so maybe it's different.

Yeah some of Wynton's stuff from the 80's is pretty hip. I haven't actually listened to a lot of his stuff post-2000 either.

1. I liked the intro, and the horn sounds fine. I don't get these drums though. The guitar is good too, plays in a rock way that also feels modern. I enjoy the guitar and the sax playing together. This was diverse, I feel should I give it some more listens.
2. Not sure what's playing in here, synths? At times it feels like a guitar too. It doesn't sound too bad though. Other than that, not much stood out to me but maybe it's because I was mostly focused on whatever instrument that is.
3. The sax player is pretty good, nice soloing. The drums were good too, but I did not like their solo as much, it felt too long. They all play well together anyway.
4. The opening makes me think of some 60's bop album or something. The rest of the record doesn't sound that much like it but it's still fine. Though the drum solo fell out of place for and I did not enjoy it.
5. This is very good, I love the intensity the pianist and drummer both have. The sax as well, his tone fits the style of this pretty well. Definitely want to listen to more of this.

6. Like 70s fusion with a bunch of extra things added to it, like vocals or a flute. But I don't like the vocals on this. And also some fusion stuff that's not unique to this record, like the electric guitar on this. I don't think I've heard the sax and the flute at once so it might be the same player. I don't know that many flute players though. Not ones that would do this kind of music at least.
7. I've heard this one before. It's from the album Gateway with Holland, Abercrombie and DeJohnette. I remember checking this out some time after loving conference of the birds, but this was rather different from it. I can't get into Abercrombie's playing as much as into the other two, probably because it still has somewhat of a fusion sound, so I prefer the bass driven sections. And the percussion is pretty nice. Guitar on track six didn't sound too much like Abercrombie here but who knows. Could also be Holland or DeJohnette when they were doing fusion. Not much of a guess though.
8. More jazz fusion, but this is more loose and free. It's some of the stuff I liked about Bitches Brew and in some ways I feel like this is similar. Again, Holland and DeJohnette played on it so I could see them playing in here.
9. This is a bit chaotic as well. Keyboards like these I don't usually enjoy but I really dig the style of this, so I'm liking them a lot. This is very nice as well.
10. Mildly fun I guess. Don't love this style but the horns had some good moments. The drums felt a little stale.

bump

Scotts is pretty spectacular. Expensive but I'd really reccomend it. I'd only previpusly heard Black Codes. I'm actually probably more familiar with their philosophy than their actual playing. It's a shame cause I really enjoyed BC and Jason's quartet was pretty fire. I'll probs give Branford and the rest a look. The anouncer actually used the word "dynasty" so there must be plenty of other talent there.
It really does make a difference when you can see the players. I don't get the chance to see many live groups but it's so much easier to pick up on intetplay when you can see players looking at each other in real time.

Starting reveals in an hour or two - still some time to participate

Branfords album Braggtown is a favorite of mine, check it out. I also really like Wyntons Standard Time vol 1 and his live album from like the same year. His band on those records really loved to mess around with rhythm and meter, it's pretty hip stuff.

Chris is really a fantastic player. Listening to him is like listening art music. It's so consuming. I find complex music very emotionally affecting and when I gave the track my full attention I was so absorbed in it but it's exhausting trying to follow along with music like this for extended periods. It's gotten easier as I've gotten more experienced as a listener and a player but it's still a big conscious effort for me. These threads have helped a lot too. They've kind of forced me to listen to be more attentive and develop the skill of critical listening but I still look at stuff like the late Beethoven quartets as these insurmoumtable mountains you could explore for a lifetime and never really hear completely.
>lel captcha was "select the mountains"

Will do. Tbf to Jason he has good taste. He did a cover of Armstrong's Monday Date from the Hot Fives and Sevens and he was talking loads about the sort of reverence they have down there in New Orleans for Louis but also how overplayed his more popular work is. He did a Monk tune at some point and did quite a few tunes I'd be comfortable calling post-bop. I think there's just a bit of disdain for free and fusion music but otherwise they're pretty comfortable with playing loose rhytm and taking liberty with harmony.o

bump
I have been listening to this record which was mentioned in the spiritual jazz blindfold thread and it's pretty swell.
How about you?

>Track 1
I'm liking the drumming on this track. Not sure I could call any of the players though. I don't really know of any modern soprano players that would play in this style... The guitarist sounds somewhat familiar with that slight distortion, but I still can't place them. The chord progression on this one is actually sort of boring me, and the way the piano is produced makes this feel shapeless on the dynamic front. Although it's gotten a bit quieter towards the end, I wish they would've brought more of that in throughout. 2.5 stars
>Track 2
The melody here sounds like something I've heard... Maybe that "O Lord" part from the Psalm part of A Love Supreme? I don't think the drummer or the piano player is the same. I'm gonna guess it's the bass that's the link because the soprano seems to have a pretty different style here in terms of runs than the one on the last track. That was sort of a strange track. Felt very short. 2 stars
>Track 3
I'm gonna guess the drummer is the link here. Piano is much more active and so is the bass. The sax is playing a lot more straight forward, although there is a pretty clear Coltrane influence on the saxes from this track and track 2 as well. The difficulty here is that I could still believe the soprano player from track 2 is just playing tenor with a different style. I'm gonna stick with the drummer though. This track has a lot more forward momentum than the last one. Now I'm getting a tad worried on my pick because this drummer has a pretty unique tuning set up here and is pretty snare focused where the last one wasn't so much. The piano's interaction with the melody is very tasteful, I quite like it. 3 stars

Still listening.

Here's the link for next week.

www57.zippyshare.com/v/W4buWFCM/file.html

Big band theme

starting reveals as soon as Bebob is done...

>Track 4
My bet was originally on the tenor but now I'm not so sure about the tone. This player uses the mid range a bit more. Given the drummer's lack of cymbal usage on the solo I don't think it's him. I'll go with the piano player on this one. 3 stars
>Track 5
Ok, the drummer definitely isn't the same. And I highly doubt this soprano player is the same guy as that tenor player. I'll go with bass here. This is a very rock-esque track, especially with the way the drummer and the piano player are grooving. This actually reminded me a lot of King Crimson. 3 stars
>Track 6
I guess the soprano player is the link? I listened to more than half of the track while not really having any idea. This is an interesting track. It feels sort of directionless at times but other times I feel like it's gonna slip into an On the Corner type jam. Reminds me a bit of Funkadelic at the ending section. 3.5 stars

>Track 7
I'll say the guitar is the link. This is like some really good 60s rock. If you added a vocalist I would believe this was, and probably ask why the hell I'd never heard of this band. The rhythmic interaction in this is really great, and having the upright bass in a context like this really makes the track as whole tonally unique. 4 stars
>Track 8
Freedom Jazz Dance is the tune. Having the bass double the melody is a nice touch. I'd guess based on tone that the bass is the link. Sometimes the guitar is a little overpowering in this bass solo. I don't have a problem with starting with a bass solo, but in my opinion bass solos sound better when less instruments are playing with them. In fact I love it when a band leaves the bass completely alone, and at most I'd want light drums and some very mild comping. Otherwise it becomes difficult to focus on the bass solo. It certainly is interesting how different this track and the last one are given the connecting link. This is definitely produced a lot like a rock track, with the panning guitar and all. The sax solo is the best so far, and I like the keys comping a lot better than when the guitar comes in. Not as good as the Miles version, but it's able to separate itself pretty well. 3.5 stars