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/UiCCG28N
THIS WEEK'S THEME: 2016 releases COMPILED BY: JTG
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.
1. Once the sax and bass comes in it kind of reminds me of Ornette Coleman. I like that it sounds very raw. I was hoping that it would get even more unhinged but this is still pretty good. 3.5 stars.
2. This is pretty nice. This reminds me a lot of that Avishai Cohen trio album from last year. I have no idea if he released anything this year or not. Pretty great bass solo and the drumming gets pretty crazy at the end too. Nice overall. 3.5 stars.
3. This has a very fusion sort of sound to it. Almost like Snarky Puppy. I like how free the sax solo is though. And then great drumming in the trumpet solo. I wasn’t expecting this one to get so free when it started and it ended up being really cool. 4 stars.
4. It took a while to get started and then it wasn’t really that interesting once it got into it. Once they both start playing in sync it’s kind of interesting I guess. 2.5 stars.
5. I like the middle eastern sound from that string instrument. It sounds like there are 2 trumpets? This one might have been kind of long but it was pretty good all the way through. 3.5 stars.
Landon Reyes
Evening, thread
1: It's been a while since I checked it out, but I'm pretty sure this is from that Renku Live in Greenwich Village album.
I like the drum sound - nice and spacious with a nice free jazz-y flavor. I remember jtg saying the Julie Kjaer 3 track I had on my euro 2016 -list reminded him of this. There is certainly a resemblance.
Michael Attias' sax playing here reminds me quite a bit of Tim Berne.
Pretty good track - I kind of wish it had a stronger theme, though.
I feel like giving ratings today, so this gets 3.8/5
2: Very Bill Evans-y intro for 2016.
When the rest of the trio comes in, the melody sounds very much like it could be a John Zorn composition, so I'll guess this is Flaga. I listened to the album once or twice, but can't say I remember this track, but the style matches.
If I'm correct this is Craig Taborn on piano. He's very versatile, I saw him play a solo set a few years ago that was great. This is not the kind of playing I would have associated with him without hearing the Flaga-album.
Another good track. Maybe a little bit more enjoyable than the previous one - 3.9/5
3: The sax solo and the knotty horn melody at the start remind me of Steve Coleman and things like that. At about 2 minutes, it feels like he's channeling a bit of Coltrane - there's almost a bit of a A Love Supreme vibe there. Ravi Coltrane and Kenny Garrett are other sax players that come to mind. Don't know of any albums they would play on this year that would fit this.
Trumpet player reminds me of Ambrose Akinmusire on his more intense moments.
This was a little bit intense to really appreciate on the first listen, so I'll put it at 3.4/5. This seems like a band that would be great to hear live.
Bentley Ortiz
6. I’m liking the drumming on this one. I’m hearing some good interplay from the piano too during this sax solo. Pretty nice piano solo. This one was good overall. 3.5 stars.
7. This one is coming off as kind of generic and pointless compared to some of the other ones from this week. I might like it better in the context of an album but it didn’t do much for me now. 2.5 stars.
8. It kind of sounds like there are two pianists. I like how the bass keeps up that same thing and then the piano joins in. I like how for a while it’s really together and composed and then it goes really free and sounds almost like Cecil Taylor. This might be my favorite of the week. 4 stars.
9. The intro was interesting but I’m not that into the piano solo. The sax solo is pretty crazy though. And the drums start playing more interesting too. Nice overall. 3.5 stars.
10. Interesting guitar tone. And the combination is interesting with the saxophone. It reminds me of something but I’m not sure what. I like how it’s pretty free but there are definitely different sections that have different sounds. 3.5 stars.
It seems like I gave a lot of 3.5 star ratings this week.
Dylan Roberts
4: Well this is certainly a very abstract track with all the piano string plucking going on. Feels like it might be starting half way through...
Well, it stayed very abstract until the end. This is tricky to rate with no context, but I'll just go ahead and give it a 2.7.
5: Is that an oud? You don't hear that much in jazz.
Two trumpets, I guess. I'm seeing Ibrahim Maalouf in a few weeks who could be involved in something like this, but I don't know of a recording like that. Trumpeter Avishai Cohen maybe - I think he's played some middle-eastern stuff - maybe not this strongly in this tradition, this is closer to the bassist Cohen's turf, but he has his own album out that is not like this.
Whoever it was, it was pretty good - I wish they had brought it to a bigger climax. 3.8
6: This is on the overly noodly-part of post-bop for me, at least for the first minute. I'm kind of already bored by this. It's a fine line.
Feeling of not really understanding where this people are headed intensifies during the piano solo.
Sax playing made me think of Miguel Zenon for some reason, although I usually find his music more engaging than I did this. I'mma give this 2.5
Nathan Russell
>1. it kind of reminds me of Ornette Coleman. I could see that
>I like that it sounds very raw I think that's partly because it's a live recording
>2. This reminds me a lot of that Avishai Cohen trio album from last year. There are definitely some similarities.
>3. Almost like Snarky Puppy. That's sort of an interesting comparison. I guess I hear that in the rock drumming of it.
>8. It kind of sounds like there are two pianists Just one.
>I like how for a while it’s really together and composed and then it goes really free and sounds almost like Cecil Taylor. That's what I like about it.
Aaron Gomez
7: Is this a live recording? Very spacious sound.
Very suspenseful, too. Eerie intervals galore.
All this ambivalence is making me think of Miles' second great quintet - even if this doesn't seem very directly influenced by it.
I will give this an ambivalent 3.0 - I think having the rest of the album for context would make this easier to grasp. The ending was wondeful, I think - suited the rest of the track.
8: There's been a fair bit of more or less dramatic piano playing this week. This really reminds me of something I've heard, but I don't think I've heard this.
I think the piano and bass play together well (even if the bass player is stuck in ostinato-mode for a long time).
Playful structure. Going almost Bach for a moment there even.
Unconventional in how it kind of stops and starts again, but I think they make it work.
I was really waiting how they would end this - I feel this track had great potential for a fantastic ending, didn't quite get there.
I'll give this a 3.85.
Ayden Young
9: This is the first track from Luis Perdomo's Spirits and Warriors - Mark Shim on sax, Sipiagin on trumpet here, Billy Hart on drums. Not long since I last listened to that album.
I said something about Shim sounding like he was kind of trying to play like Steve Lehman in his octet, but he's not all that different here. This sax solo is my favorite part of the track, it's such a earthy tone, it's like a baritone type sound on some of those low parts, but I think he just plays tenor. Sipiagin is not bad either.
This is... maybe a 3.6 - I certainly like it better than 3, but not as much as some other tracks.
10: Now this guitar tone and rockish drumming reminds me of a lot of music that's coming out of Norway these days on labels like Rune Grammofon and Hubro. When the sax comes in, this one has more of a jazz sensibility than those groups, though.
From the US, there was a young sax player called Ben Flocks who had an album called Battle Mountain a few years ago that had a few tracks that this reminds me very much of. Haven't heard of him since and don't recall who played guitar either.
I enjoy this type of music, although maybe I would have liked it better if it had just gone deeper into instrumental rock territory with more free jazz-y sax. I'll give this a 3.75. Not much variance in my ratings it seems.
Those oil-rich Norwegians apparently have very good funding for jazz and creative music programs with a lot of festivals and such, so in this part of the world you'll see a lot of cross-genre groups in jazz festivals coming from Norway. Here are some such groups from the last couple of years that this reminded me of:
>1 Renku Live in Greenwich Village album. Good catch
>2 so I'll guess this is Flaga another good guess
>If I'm correct this is Craig Taborn on piano. He's very versatile, I saw him play a solo set a few years ago that was great. This is not the kind of playing I would have associated with him without hearing the Flaga-album. I definitely think he's one of the more interesting pianists right now. His solo playing is interesting to me because sometimes I like it a lot, and sometimes I just don't find it all that interesting. A couple years ago a friend of mine showed me a video that I can't seem to find now, but I think it was an interview of all the players in Chris Potter's underground band about how each player practiced individually and they all had these very specific routines that they did. But then they got to Craig Taborn and he said something like "I sit down and play something I like, then I try to play the same thing... but smaller." and that was all he said. I wish I could find that video.
>3 the knotty horn melody at the start remind me of Steve Coleman and things like that. I can see that. There is definitely a fusion-y vibe to the melody.
>Trumpet player reminds me of Ambrose Akinmusire on his more intense moments. Not him but somebody who plays in the same circles as Akinmusire.
Carter Reed
when I saw Taborn solo he actually did a pretty extensive monologue and some Q&A about playing solo piano after the set that I remember thinking was really interesting - it was part of a piano jazz festival Iiro Rantala used to organize in Helsinki that had a very cool informal atmosphere with each solo piano guest doing a solo set and a piano duet with Rantala with some informal chats
Chase Reyes
>5: Is that an oud? You don't hear that much in jazz. It is an oud.
>this is closer to the bassist Cohen's turf The trumpet players on this aren't really who you'd expect, but interestingly it is someone who is normally known as a bass player on oud on this track.
>6 Sax playing made me think of Miguel Zenon for some reason I got Miguel Zenon vibes from this player on the whole record, but I agree that this player just doesn't quite have the character in his playing that Zenon does. Still I liked this track quite a bit.
>9: This is the first track from Luis Perdomo's Spirits and Warriors - Mark Shim on sax, Sipiagin on trumpet here, Billy Hart on drums. Not long since I last listened to that album. I wondered if you had heard this album. If not I was interested if you'd recognize Shim since we were just talking about him last week.
>Those oil-rich Norwegians apparently have very good funding for jazz and creative music programs with a lot of festivals and such, so in this part of the world you'll see a lot of cross-genre groups in jazz festivals coming from Norway. I've never really heard that before. I do get a bit jealous when I see where my favorite artists are playing and they're all playing at Scandanavian festivals.
Connor Gutierrez
He's definitely somebody I'd like to see live. I missed an opportunity a few years ago to see him with Potter because I had another gig. Hopefully I'll get a chance at some point though.
Leo Turner
>Scandinavia
European festival organizers/production companies certainly work together pretty closely to offer US jazz artists touring possibilities worth taking, so over here in the Nordics we definitely enjoy much better opportunities to see current top jazz artists live than you'd think from the size of the market
Liam Foster
oh, I also saw him with Holland's Prism in what I thought was a pretty disappointing gig - Kevin Eubanks' bluesy stylings on guitar were the most interesting part I remember from that set and that's a pretty low bar
Jacob Torres
quick bump with a world music -tinged version of Bowie's The Man Who Sold The World in honor of track 5 from a band I took an interest in at one point because it involved multiple people from a band that reminds me of track 10 (I'll bump with that later)
Yeah I was a bit disappointed with the Prism project. I listened to the first track from the Aziza record he just put out and I don't know if I'm going to really like that project either. I wish he'd just keep working with the quintet actually.
Austin Sanchez
How do you feel about Snarky Puppy? I don't know if they've really come up before on blindfold tests.
I'm curious about your opinion on Snarky Puppy too.
Elijah Martin
I think I wrote something about Snarky Puppy when I was participating during the summer's Pori Jazz festival when their set aligned with this thread pretty well
I think they are this days band that young music nerds like listening to - like Chick Corea's Elektric Band and Bela Fleck & the Flecktones have been in past times - nothing wrong with that, but I think they offer most to young musicians who are excited about the possibilities of instrument playing and self expression in general
I'll listen to their albums to see what's going on in that realm, but I have a hard time getting excited about them. I've seen them live once and the first time was one of the first times when I've left a popular act's set in the middle (although it was a relaxed festival setting, so no statement in walking somewhere else)
Certainly a pretty different vibe than I would associate with 3. I saw both Coleman with his Five Elements and Snarky Puppy at the same festival this year actually, I was surprised that there was an obvious SP following who knew all the songs dancing along while Coleman was certainly at best the realm of "knowingly nod your head a little" -crowd.
Nothing wrong with catering to an audience and I think Snarky Puppy is the band that does it best for a certain audience today that still appears to exist (and will probably never get off my lawn, so let them stay)..
although I think it still downplays the importance of existence and overall value of groups like this to creative young musicians interested in jazz, as I'm sure I did just now
Hudson Butler
Are you anons listening to albums or just random ass songs compiled into a list?
Jacob White
I feel like answering seriously today
weekly blindfold is a list of tracks, but how would you identify anything or be able to talk about styles or contexts without listening to albums normally?
I do quite often remark on tracks on how it's difficult to grasp what the point of an individual track is without the context of an album - track 4 this week being a good example.
Because of improvisation jazz is fundamentally a living genre - LP/CD length is about the same as live sets, so that works out alright. Studio recordings are shorter than live takes predominantly, but almost no jazz is made to be listened as just individual tracks, so consider this little game of ours an exception of how jazz is generally consumed.
Lucas Rodriguez
that said, I would not be opposed to having another weekly "listening club" -thread where we pick one new album and listen to it all the way through and comment - actually could be a pretty cool thing to get going
Thomas Wilson
Snarky Puppy is an interesting group and I'd say that overall I like their music and I'm fairly happy they're achieving some mainstream success. I have a number of friends who also like their music but don't consider it "jazz." I guess I don't really know or care that much if its jazz or not. I will say that I usually listen to their music in a different way than I usually listen to jazz I like.
I tend to think their compositions are pretty good but I don't really like the improvisation they do all that much. I tend to value interplay and spontaneity the most when it comes to jazz and they definitely downplay that aspect of the music. I've seen them live before and it's a pretty fun show overall but more of a party atmosphere than an atmosphere of "I'm here to listen to music." I will say that the worst part of the show by far was a very very long keytar solo by Cory Henry where the rest of the band seemed bored playing one groove with very little variation and his solo sounded like he was practicing sequencing various licks with no real flow to it.
As far as their popularity goes, I think its a good thing. I think their music is a bit more creative and interesting than certain other jazz musicians who have had a bit of mainstream popularity in the past year or so...
Gabriel Bennett
Well said. I personally enjoy them but I can easily understand why some people, especially the type that listen to a lot of other jazz, wouldn't enjoy them as much.
I'm going to see them live next year so I might report back at some point.
Ian Smith
I think anyone interested in self expression through playing instruments has to go through a period where bands like Snarky Puppy are really important for personal development
Nothing wrong with that
I saw Dweezil Zappa Plays Frank Zappa at the same festival - to me it felt in a way similar (I was a big teenage Zappa fan before discovering jazz), but the audience getting really into it was very different - predominantly older and generally less excited. It was cool and all that they did Holiday in Berlin, but if you're past 50 and that is the highlight of your jazz festival visit, let's face it - you've been ignoring music for 30 years.
Liam White
bump
Lincoln Lewis
Most of my friends who go to school doing music absolutely love them so I can see where you're coming from with the people interested in playing.
Its probably a good stepping stone into jazz and probably good for the genre overall as its giving it some attention to those, particularity younger people, who would normally dismiss the genre.
Also I'd be interested in if I could make the time it was on.
Connor Scott
This is a good point too. There's a lot of music I like that I've been able to recommend to people who like SP but don't know much else about jazz.
Camden Rodriguez
My go to recc for this is Herbie - Headhunters. I know the bassist takes a lot of inspiration from them and used to play in a cover band of them aswell.
James Davis
I really think Donald Byrd's Black Byrd is one of the best rec albums for uniting many different jazzy interests with a lot of directions you can go to depending on the response without feeling too bad. It's not as universally loved and respected, but I think it's more versatile and Headhunters is always just a step away.
Lots of directions to go and a very accessible album for listeners new to jazz.
You can go to Herbie (in some very different ways) for more funky groove, Miles, Hubbard's Red Clay, soul jazz, fusion - a lot of good directions to keep the listener interested and you can turn it into cool post-bop in a couple of steps in many ways.
Robert Collins
I feel like I should contribute to this thread but I'm shit at analysis of music. Might give it a go next time it rolls around.
I could see that working well. Might try it if I ever run into another person in that situation.
Benjamin Murphy
try your best - I would certainly value anyone's input who takes the time to listen through, even if they read the comments beforehand or didn't really listen to jazz
it's all cool - jazz is human
David Bell
>Track 1 So even without the opening solo I'd guess this was a drummer-led track. It reminds me a lot of Sonny Rollins and his trio, except whilst Sonny's drummers (especially Max Roach) used to play to the melody, this sounds more like the sax and bass are following the drums. I like how expressive the drummer is, mixing loud and quiet. All three of them are great in fact.
>Track 2 The solo piano intro didn't leave much of a lasting impression on me, and then once the whole band started I was thinking this was just sounding like any other modern piano trio track. Once the improvised section started it improved rapidly though. Again I think the drummer is the highlight, but the whole group here has great raport. Piano solo climaxes nicely, and then he comps the bass solo really subtly. Bass solo itself is rad. Then when they go back to the head the drummer lets rip. So the only criticism I have for this really is that the pianist should have let himself go more in the opening.
>Track 3 Feeling like a stuck record now, but this drummer is a beast too. I like how the pianist mimics a lot of the runs in the alto solo. Trumpet solo was sounding less interesting but then in his high squeals in the middle the rhythm section exploded behind him and that was cool. I like this piano solo too, seems more free than the rest of them were - reminds me a bit of some of Herbie's playing on freer tracks in the sixties.
Chase Taylor
Yeah. I don't really have the time for this one as have to leave pretty soon but next week I'll join. I probably listen to a fair bit more jazz than the average person but not much compared to the average listener of jazz.
Jack Parker
>Track 4 This sounds like one of those deconstructed standards or cover versions that you have to be musically trained to spot. I'm sure it's very clever but I'm not getting much out of it. I like it as it picks up around 3:30ish. I actually enjoyed the cymbals towards the end too - I think they were picking out a melody, either from earlier in the piece or from whatever it's a cover of?
>Track 5 Awesome, some sort of oud or other North African or Arabic instrument? There's an interesting and unique ensemble sound here - lots of mid-range brass (think there's a flugelhorn in there), and the tone on the guitar - I think it really suits whatever the unusual instrument is. My biggest beef with this is the short solos though, I don't think they should have crammed as many in. They maybe-oud had the best one, but it was cut short by the guitarist, and he got much longer. Although that did give a chance for the maybe-oudist to do some accompaniment which added another nice texture to the track.
>Track 6 Are you sure this is from 2016? Everything about this just screams throwback. All the soloing is good I guess but it's really distracting how accurately they've managed to pastiche that late-60's sound.
Daniel Myers
>Track 7 Can't get my head round the time signatures here. I like the piano - it's super minimalist and along with the sneaky bass and drums it gives the whole thing a sort of mysterious ominous feel like exploring a haunted house. A lot of the pieces this week have been quite crowded with sound so it's really nice to have something this sparse. I like how the rhythm (bass & drums) is keeping a pretty steady thing going and the piano and trumpet take it in all different directions. This is one of my favourites this week. Bitching ending on the piano too.
>Track 8 Almost sounds like it could be from the same album as the last track, at least with the atmosphere. This pianist is more active though. I really liked his chord choices as he was coming in, and the way he threw them into the mix at max volume. When the sort of baroque melody starts in the piano it sounds so cheesy compared to the rest though, kind of ruins it for me. I get that there needs to be some more melodic contrast in this piece, I just didn't like that. I warmed to him more as his solo went on - it's quite cool how the melodic fragments emerge out of the chaotic bits. Perhaps I need to listen to this a bit more before I make a final judgement.
Angel Harris
>Track 9 I like the contrast in the opening between the quite forceful horn part and the pretty piano decorations. Might have been more opportunity to take advantage of that if someone other than the pianist had started off the solos. He's got a nice flowing style - again like Herbie - which I really enjoy. I preferred the other solos though as there was more opportunity for that contrast again in the interaction between pianist and soloist. The sax reminds me a bit of Wayne Shorter or Joe Henderson, so this is another track firmly rooted in the 60's, but it still feels fresher than track 6 did.
>Track 10 Before the distorted guitar even came in I was thinking the bass opening sounded like some sort of doom metal thing. There's a bit of a black metal aesthetic in this too what with the distant sounding drums. I wasn't sure I liked where it was going when the distortions cleared up and they started playing a melody together, but then it's really fucking cool when they team up to drag the sound down into the mud towards the end of the second minute. The rest of it is fantastic.
Grayson Wilson
let's hear it for the great ending on 7!
Jackson Wilson
>reminds me a lot of that Avishai Cohen trio album from last year Actually yeah during the composed bits that's exactly what I was thinking of, though the bass and drums sounded a bit rawer in the rest of it >Ibrahim Maalouf I've been listening a bit to Diasporas and Red & Black this week so this track did make me think of him, but there was no microtonal stuff in the horns so I ruled it out. >such a earthy tone, it's like a baritone type sound on some of those low parts I had to double-take at one point because I thought it might be a bari - glad you heard that too >Norway Would not be remotely surprised if this was Norwegian with that drum tone.
There's a lot of cross-genre stuff going on in the UK at the moment too from what I understand - I think partly in the wake of Acoustic Ladyland, but also it's tied to some of the more arty punk and hardcore in Northern cities.
Bentley Hill
I'm actually most excited to learn about what 10 was.
Certainly I think my Norwegian connection and Clueless' doom metal vibe are connected.
I'll take another chance to recommend Hedvig Mollestad's trio since I got stuck to listening to her music after the earlier post youtube.com/watch?v=wRrYxOEsTe0
She's just totally rocking out, playing this long form doom metal/early Black Sabbath/Led Zeppy blues rock with her trio at jazz festivals in a glimmery dress and high heels giving no fucks about appearances. Definitely one of the most confident performers who just won over the audience by doing their thing so convincingly that I saw all year.
Ayden Mitchell
>cross-genre in the UK
you're certainly not mistaken - I think there's a pretty big sympathy of souls between UK and the Nordics in modern cross-over jazz at the moment
Dave Stapleton's Edition Records as a UK label really feeds on it - contemporary UK scene as a whole is very close to the Nordics from all I know
Nordics also have a certain originally strongly ECM-based (I think) affinity to German contemporary scene, but a lot of similar ideas and connections keep coming up with the UK and I think that's the more organic connection
Oliver Jackson
>it is someone who is normally known as a bass player on oud I'm impressed, they sound pretty comfortable on the instrument - I was thinking it was some sort of collaboration with a bona fide oudsman. >to go through a period where bands like Snarky Puppy are really important for personal development I was gonna write something about how with jazz I haven't really had anything like that, but that'd be missing the point that when I was a teenager there were all sorts of gimmicky bands that get looked down on that I liked for similar sorts of reasons, so I can totally see where you're coming from.
Still, it always gets to me when people talk about "entry-level" music as if you have to wean yourself into every genre via its most accessible examples. When I was younger I can see that I went through a sort of journey like that, but surely there comes a point where your mind and ears are open to pretty much all sounds without needing to find a specific route into anything new?
Caleb Johnson
how closely do you follow the local scene in the UK, anyway?
as this track is a little too long for a blindfold anyway, have you heard about Shabaka & the Ancestors through any local channels?
I think their (or I guess it's sax player Shabaka Hutchins I know from Sons of Kemet originally with contemporary South African players, so not all that Britisn in the end...) new album is a very cool slice of modern spiritual jazz and I know some local jazz DJ types well connected to British equivalents, but just curious how well this music is generally known in UK jazz circles now
Jackson Wright
do you play any instrument?
I mostly think a period of technical geekery is connected to learning to play and wanting to become proficient in that and thinking technical playing ability is important - I think if you get to liking jazz in yout late teens or older with no interest in playing it, you will just skip it naturally
Nicholas Reed
That sounds exactly my sort of thing, I'll remember to check her out. Interesting you mention Edition - I'm not that well informed on modern labels but theirs is a name I recognise. Just had a look at their catalogue and I can see why - it's full of stuff you've recommended before, including Laura Jurd's new album which I've also been listening to a bit of this week.
On a similar topic, I just discovered a Scottish band today called Free Nelson Mandoomjazz. As the name demonstrates, they've got a sense of humour that sometimes crosses over into gimmicky but on the other hand, this Black Sabbath cover is the tits:
I've always been interested in the idea of doom jazz, but I've never heard it sound remotely doomy - just like boring midnight lounge material. These guys get both genres down fairly convincingly - not perfect but definitely closer to how this sort of thing -should- sound.
Brody Butler
I wouldn't say I follow it that closely, though I am interested. I live in a total backwater town, and even if it was feasible to go somewhere good I don't have anyone to go with, so I don't really have a chance to see anything live.
The one exception to this is the local jazz festival, which is actually really well run by volunteers, gets a lot of money from the city, and is geared towards younger and up-and-coming artists, so there's three days a year when I'm spoiled (Julie Kjaer was here last time, though as part of someone else's group - dunno if any other names would mean anything to you though). Still on balance not a great place for music though.
That said, Shabaka Hutchings has been pretty huge even in the mainstream press this year, and that album's had a lot of coverage. I haven't had chance to listen to it yet but I do like Melt Yourself Down (Sons of Kemet and The Comet Is Coming are both a bit too not-jazzy enough for my tastes though).
He wrote an interesting article a couple of weeks back about how the MOBO awards (the only major awards in the UK that even have a jazz category) weren't adventurous enough with their jazz picks, and at the end of it he name-dropped a handful of current bands I hadn't heard of, so that was a fun week of music discovery.
Angel Perez
I play guitar, and I did have a period when I was into stuff like Malmsteen and Vai and stuff like that (though Buckethead was my drug of choice) but even then I was never super into any of that. I was impressed by it but never particularly inspired by it. I guess that's probably part of the reason I never got that great at technical playing compared to other people I knew who played for as long as me.
Since I've got into jazz I've been really interested in learning jazz guitar, but I was out of practice anyway and trying to pick up that much new stuff when you've got a real life and a job and stuff is a lot of work and needs more discipline than I'm usually capable of.
Lincoln Stewart
you probably weathered that instinct out there :D
I was certainly a teenage guitarist working my way through some Malmsteen charts (although it was always the improvisation I liked)
I'm digging Free Nelson Mandoomjazz - I like young people doing weird shit.
Reminds me of my younger John Zorn-related weirdness loving days (I definitely got into jazz for the creative variety) and this track by the Japanese noise/weird duo Ruins that consists of them playing Sabbath riffs until the half-point and then playing the backwards for a "palindrome track" of sorts: youtube.com/watch?v=TweVgt9mVSg
I do also love all early Sabbath albums until the horrible Dio days - Ozzy 4 life
Benjamin Hill
Good choice, I have absolutely no interest in Sabbath post Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Not even Sabotage does it for me.
I did listen to a bit of Ruins back in the day, but I was way more into Koenjihyakkei.
Logan Taylor
I usually tend toward reccing more modern stuff. Chris Potter Underground or David Binney type stuff.
Red Clay is a good one though.
Henry Powell
>3 >reminds me a bit of some of Herbie's playing on freer tracks in the sixties. The liner notes of this album say the music is explicitly inspired by Miles' 60's quintet. It's not really obvious from the melody but I think you can definitely hear it in the solos and the drumming.
Jaxson Harris
>7 >A lot of the pieces this week have been quite crowded with sound so it's really nice to have something this sparse. That maybe gives you a clue about the record label?
Adam Gray
>9 >I preferred the other solos though as there was more opportunity for that contrast again in the interaction between pianist and soloist. Interesting as the pianist is the leader. I do like his comping though.
>The sax reminds me a bit of Wayne Shorter or Joe Henderson Definitely in the Henderson style. I really like his tone and the sort of different color it brings to everything he plays on.
Logan Richardson
>There's a bit of a black metal aesthetic in this too what with the distant sounding drums. I wasn't sure I liked where it was going when the distortions cleared up and they started playing a melody together, but then it's really fucking cool when they team up to drag the sound down into the mud towards the end of the second minute. The rest of this album doesn't necessarily have this vibe so this is one that makes a good one-off track for a blindfold test
Matthew Thompson
bump
Jeremiah Gomez
bump for seeing Lucia Cadotsch live next month singins this material
Certainly one of my most listened to 2016 releases - I can't even say when I've been excited to see a vocalist live, great album that really sticks with you
Hey guys, been awhile. Gonna try post tomorrow. Bumping in the meantime.
Samuel Brown
good to see you again, you rascal
James Lewis
Nice. Haven't seen you in a while. Just to FYI I'll probably post the reveal info pretty early tomorrow. It's my students' recital and I have to be there most of the morning and afternoon.
Ian Price
bump
Thomas Nguyen
bump
Kayden Flores
bump
Jaxon Wood
bump
Cooper Sanders
bump
John Moore
bump
Carson Thomas
Bump
Adrian Flores
pmuB
Lucas Evans
...
Jaxson Johnson
>Track one This is pretty bold, opening up with a drum solo. It’s not as if it’s unthinkable or unheard of that it’d be done well but it’s a tall ask. This guy is good enough to pull it off though. There’s really good use of tension and relief which ends up being a bit sparser through the rest of the piece. The main body of the piece is marked by a lot of tension and not very much release. They’re accenting all over the place very consciously and I’m not sure if it’s their synchronisation improved as they went on or if I just got used to the bizarre way they approached the rhythm but I thought they were doing much better towards the latter half. There was some pretty cool bits of interplay. Like, when the sax would play stuff with the same rhythmic patterns as the head, the other two were really quick to put in stops or finish off phrases. Made things feel a lot more sane when they were really responding to each other with purpose. Highlight of the piece was definitely the last minute or so. The sax player started breaking out cool extended techniques and the drummer started just slamming the snare like he wanted to put his stick through it with the bassist in the back desperately playing the main theme like he's the only thing keeping everything from going to pieces. Modern music is fun.
Andrew Hall
>Track two This is a very pretty opening, very impressionistic. There's lost of those modally minded melodies and chords with fourths and other extensions that don't tend to imply a strong sense of major or minor. It's quite dissonant at times too which also contributes to that sort of floaty feeling. The head ends up feeling very sudden following on from all that harmonic ambiguity. I wish I knew mode names. I feel like this would be so easy to identify. I'm in a bit of a rush so imma just summarize my feelings: >Three to Get Ready reimagined by the Bill Evans trio™ as a latin piece I mean all those words to be complementary, I really enjoyed this.
Cooper Price
Track Three V. acrobatic. I’m very impressed by how suddenly the band is able to cut out so the sax and trumpet can go on that winding melody. Sounds almost edited in at parts. I might not have said almost if it weren’t for things like how smoothly the drummer leads out of the last time they do it on the top. It’s hard to get that sort of fluidity out of anything but a good live performance by a tight band. Jesus though, these solos are exciting. The drums and piano are pushing those horn players really well and listening to where they’re going. Like, the trumpet solo really took off once the piano player started just repeating that one chord. It’s like he was giving permission for the trumpet to start getting more adventurous and the whole band fed off that energy. That closer to the solo was really cool too. You could feel a lot of development in getting to that last melodic idea and it was cool how simple it ended up being. The “fade out” was pretty cool though. I had a funny mental image of him just backing away from the microphone as he was doing those repeats. I liked the piano solo too. I kinda wish he'd had someone like himself accompanying him. The drummer was great throughout the track and really good at responding to where the solos were going but I think the sax and trumpet really benefited from having another melodic/harmonic voice egging them on. The bass player was a bit useless. Every time I tuned in to him, he was playing something that sounded unrelated to what was going on in the ensemble.
Ayden Campbell
>track four I went to see(and meet!) Charles Lloyd this week and there was a track they introduced with a sort of atonal soundscape that reminded me a little of this. This is a little more musical and comes across more as a serialist thing but there was some prepared piano Lloyd's pianist was doing that reminded me of this. I wonder how this guy is actually getting that sound though... I think he's either got one octave of the piano prepared or he might be plucking strings. The guy playing with Lloyd was doing this sort of "pizzicato piano" that sounded a little like this. I'd be interested to hear an album of this sort of music though. It's cool hearing jazz players doing free music in the same sort of style as someone like Schoenberg, especially with the jazzier drumming he's got backing him.
Kayden Martinez
>track five Some interesting textures going on here. I like how those trumpets sound together and there is some sort of trad African or middle eastern instrument in there that sounds pretty boss. This was a pretty long track as it was but I think they could have done with more time for the soloists to develop what they were doing. They were all pretty good but the guitarist had so much time to stretch out but the dual trumpet solo and the (unidentified string instrument) weren't given near enough time. His second solo reminded me a little of a sarod but they're usually a bit thinner sounding and this guy doesn't sound Indian. I really loved that drum solo too. Again, it was very short but it was a really good idea to have the horns chiming in. One thing I hate as a bass player is people laying out all the time during solos. Even some sparse accompaniment like that can make a massive difference to a rhythm solo. Pretty cool track overall though. Curious to see what that trad instrument is.
Kayden Cooper
>track six I've been pretty happy with the level of inventiveness on this playlist. I haven't listened to many albums from this year and it's nice to see counterexamples to the "jazz is stagnant" worldview. Not that there's anything wrong with more traditional groups like this. This is well played but it sounds like it could have come out in 1960. Sort of modal post bop that's still got a foot in hard bop. The pianist is my fave, he's a bit more adventurous harmonically and melodically. Adds a bit more flavour to the track. >track seven The production on this one is really interesting. Probably some ECM recording, I love that little bit of reverb they get in their recording studios. Makes things sound very sort of sparse which suits the minimalist playing from the piano and trumpet very well. I wish the piano and trumpet could have been a bit more together though. I noticed a few times that the piano was treading on the trumpet player's feet and awkwardly coming in on top of him. I get the feeling there's not much of a prewritten progression going on here either, which would be fine but when the piano player is both rhythmically and harmonically undercutting the solo, things start to sound a bit messy.
Lincoln Wilson
>track eight Unaccompanied free bass solos are normally a very bad idea but I enjoyed this. It was actually pretty exciting. I was so disappointed when he just settled into an ostinato after that ripping opening. Following on from that I wasn't amused by the pianists note clustery playing over it but he really won me over when he went into the ostinato with all those crazy high energy time changes. It was a nice change of pace and I could see the value in that sort of an intro in relation to it. >dat silence Ok so, this is actually really entertaining use of free improv and really well constructed as a composition. I definitely want an album of this, I had no sense of where it was gonna go next.
Ian Phillips
>I wish I knew mode names. I know mode names but I don't know if I could easily identify what's going on here... usually the go to is to just yell PHRYGIAN anytime there's anything remotely eastern sounding.
>The bass player was a bit useless Interesting that you'd say that, I wonder how you feel about Ron Carter's bass playing in the second Miles quintet? I'm pretty sure that's the aesthetic this bass player was going for here in trying to intentionally obscure the time and form of the thing.
>This is well played but it sounds like it could have come out in 1960 Everybody's said pretty much this same thing about this one. I like to include at least one or two that are pretty rooted in tradition because there's definitely still a large portion of jazz artists doing that sort of thing.
>track 7 >Probably some ECM recording It is
Aiden Thompson
Also I'm going to post the reveal info pretty soon.
Andrew Ortiz
pls guys I know I could have posted here
Brayden Richardson
>Track 1 Renku- Renku from Live in Greenwich Village (Cleanfeed, 2016)
Alto sax- Michael Attias Bass- John Hebert Drums- Satoshi Takeishi
I wanted to include at least one live recording and this was one of the more interesting that I’ve heard this year. Michael Attias has been making a bit of a name for himself lately with a string of interesting releases on the Cleanfeed label. Bassist John Hebert is also an interesting part of the group. He may not get a lot of publicity but he records on a ton of albums with people like Fred Hersch, Paul Bley, Dave Ballou, and Lee Konitz (and keeps popping up on blindfold playlists).
Jaxson Rogers
>Track 2 Craig Taborn / Christian McBride / Tyshawn Sorey- Peliel from Flaga: The Book of Angels Vol. 27 (Tzadik, 2016)
Piano- Craig Taborn Bass- Christian McBride Drums- Tyshawn Sorey
I’m pretty sure when I first heard about this release I had to raise my eyebrows at what seemed like a somewhat odd trio to interpret the compositions of John Zorn. Taborn and Sorey have worked together before in the realm of avant-garde, but Christian McBride has stuck mostly to pretty much straight-ahead jazz. Nevertheless, I ended up really liking this album and its probably one of my favorites from the Book of Angels series (of the ones that I’ve heard).
Andrew Taylor
>Track 3 Jim Snidero- MD66 from MD66 (Savant, 2016)
Trumpet- Alex Sipiagin Alto Sax- Jim Snidero Piano- Andy LaVerne Bass- Ugonna Okegwo Drums- Rudy Royston
As you might guess this release came to my attention because of Alex Sipiagin’s playing on it, but I’ve also been a fan of Snidero and LaVerne for a while as well. Snidero describes the concept of the group as trying to play modern music with the aesthetic of the second Miles Davis Quintet. I thought the title track achieved that goal the best with a head that definitely sounds very modern, but solos that are very open and free and each taking a different direction.
David Cooper
Zorn often uses scales used in Jewish traditional music in his compositions that are not any of the standard modes as they feature minor third intervals between adjacent notes - like C Db E F G Ab B for example is a scale that has that same sort of middle-eastern flavor as this melody
Dylan Thomas
>Track 4 Bobby Kapp and Matthew Shipp- Cactus from Cactus (Northern-Spy, 2016)
Piano- Matthew Shipp Drums- Bobby Kapp
To be honest I found this release kind of inconsistent with some tracks interesting and some that didn’t really seem to go anywhere. This was one that I found slightly more interesting, but it doesn’t seem to have been to popular here, out of the context of the album.
Jason Garcia
>Track 5 Tom Harrell- Delta of the Nile from Something Gold, Something Blue (HighNote, 2016)
Trumpet- Tom Harrell, Ambrose Akinmusire Oud- Omer Avital Guitar- Charles Altura Bass- Ugonna Okegwo Drums- Johnathan Blake
I thought it was pretty interesting that Tom Harrell and Ambrose Akinmusire recorded an album together, and this track definitely stood out thanks to guest star Omer Avital on oud. Several of the tunes on the album are very modal-based, but the oud gives this one a bit of extra eastern flavor. Listening to the album it was surprisingly difficult to tell the difference between Harrell and Akinmusire, something that I thought would be pretty easy.
I was playing around with that scale just the other day. It seems like if jazz guys talk about those scales that have more than one minor 3rd in them they just call them "gypsy scales," as in-
"Do you want me to play something on that chord at the end?" "Yeah just play some of those gypsy scales and fade out."
Caleb Long
>Track 6 Burak Bedikyan- Unfair Blues from Awakening (SteepleChase, 2016)
I don’t really know too much about Burak Bedikyan except that he’s Turkish and he somehow gets really great players to play on his records. Chris Potter played on his first release, and then Chris Cheek on his second one. As many of you commented on- there’s not too much innovative going on in this record, but I really enjoyed this track and a few of the others nonetheless.
Eli Russell
>Track 7 Ralph Alessi- Scratch from Quiver (ECM, 2016)
Trumpet- Ralph Alessi Piano- Gary Versace Bass- Drew Gress Drums- Nasheet Waits
I had to include at least one track from an ECM release and this was one that I really didn’t hear people talking about all that much. For me the highlight of this record was everything that Gary Versace played. He records mostly on organ, but he sounds great whenever he makes sideman appearances on this sort of sparse free jazz album. If you like his playing here you should really check out the three albums by trumpeter Dave Scott that he plays on.
Cameron Turner
>Track 8 Aruan Ortiz- Open & Close - The Sphinx from Hidden Voices (Intakt, 2016)
Piano- Aruan Ortiz Bass- Eric Revis Drums- Gerald Cleaver
I heard quite a few strong piano trio albums this year, but this was one of my favorites, especially considering that I’d never heard of Ortiz before this release. I’ve always enjoyed a good blending of composition and free improvisation which I think this track is a great example of.
Josiah Thompson
almost mentioned Omer Avital since trumpeter-Cohen's more Middle-Eastern stuff has been with him - should have just gone for it instead of trying to think of trumpet players
James Morgan
Get some Buddy Rich in your life. youtube.com/watch?v=I2qYyjtlPBg&ab_channel=JazzBreakTV lel, you don't figure this is Phrygian though? That melody sounds pretty firmly in one particular scale so I'd say it'd be easy enough to figure out what's going on with a bit of elbow grease. Or maybe it just seems that way compared to the intro. >Ron Carter's bass playing in the second Miles quintet I like Ron Carter as a bass player but he's also my least favourite member in the quintet. That is far more to do with the fact that he's among giants than because I actively dislike his playing though. I tend to be paying more attention to Miles, Tony, Herbie and Wayne (in that order). Maybe I wouldn't like Ron's playing if I focused on it more but I think I didn't like this bass player because of the interplay vacuum that arose without the pianist in the accompaniment. >there's definitely still a large portion of jazz artists doing that sort of thing. Yeah, besides the fact that it's good music, it's nice to include it for representation's sake. Yeah, I suppose it's a bit presumptuous of me to assume it'll be some western scale. That's a pretty funky sounding scale though. I'll have to try messing around with it when I have a chance later.
Levi Cooper
>Track 9 Luis Perdomo- Face Up from Spirits and Warriors (Criss Cross, 2016)
Trumpet- Alex Sipiagin Tenor Sax- Mark Shim Piano- Luis Perdomo Bass- Ugonna Okegwo Drums- Billy Hart
If I had to include an ECM release then I had to include at least one from Criss Cross as well right? This ended up being probably my favorite of their releases from the year and I thought the combination of Sipiagin and Shim worked really well, and Billy Hart’s drumming adds a lot to quintet as well.
As a side note- I didn’t realize until now that Ugonna Okegwo plays on four of the tracks from this week’s playlist. He must be really busy because I keep seeing his name pop up on more and more releases every year.
Charles Moore
>Track 10 Peter Brendler- Lucky in Astoria from Message in Motion (Posi-Tone, 2016)
Tenor Sax- Rich Perry Guitar- Ben Monder Bass- Peter Brendler Drums- Vinnie Sperrazza
I actually haven’t gotten around to listening to this whole album yet, but this track stuck out to me as pretty interesting. From the other tracks I’ve sampled, some parts of the album seem to be pretty far removed from this sound and most include Peter Evans on trumpet, though he sits this one out.
Oliver Cook
>track nine I'd definitely like to give something like this more time than I have right now. There's a lot going on and the players here are pretty technical. I like a lot of things about it though, there's plenty of interaction between the ensemble, the head is catchy and the pyrotechnics are hot. That trumpet player is pretty insane. >track ten I was wondering if there'd be something a bit more fusiony on here. This sort of thing is what ends up being a bit more mainstream in jazz these days but this is a bit too post-rockish to be the next BBNG or something. It's a little bit like some stuff I've heard from Fire! thoug. They get a kind of mixed reception on Sup Forums and I can understand the criticisms people tend to have of this sort of music but I find this sort of primal rock guitar sound pretty compelling in a jazz context. Distorted guitar is a very easy way to get this sort ferocity out of a track and it works well here. Plenty defiant and the sax/drums get a lot out of the energy this guitarist supplies.
Lincoln Foster
bump
Eli Gutierrez
thanks for buddy rich
Charles Lopez
Bump
Thomas Anderson
>Ugonna Okegwo I've never heard of him before but I liked some of the tracks he was on so I'll look out for his name.
Gavin Moore
Hey so do you just have like a few playlists on standby or do we still need one for this week?
Wyatt Collins
We still need one. I think JTG said he has some more ready but I'd rather have someone else make do one for next week if possible.
Mason Bell
I wouldn't have anything done tonight. Might start working on one though.
