Welcome to the weekly Sup Forums jazz Blindfold Test thread. Every Friday and Saturday.
If you're new, the point of these threads is to have fun and encourage critical listening, discussion, and general enjoyment of jazz. All critical music listeners are welcome. The more participation we have, the more fun and successful these threads will be. In the interest of keeping the thread alive and bumped, any general jazz discussion is welcomed here as well.
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THIS WEEK'S THEME: Mystery Theme??? COMPILED BY: JTG
glad to see a thread up this week - I can do something next week
starting listening now...
Ryder Stewart
>1
Reminds me of Dizzy's Be-Bop. Pretty nimble piano playing - Bud Powell maybe? Has that kind of feel of going even too fast times that Art Tatum has sometimes, but I don't know if Tatum ever played in this kind of bebop-heavy quartet setting...
Very high octane playing. Charlie Parker maybe?
Pretty enjoyable bebop, strong on chops. Early 50's I'd reckon.
>2 Do I hear trombone and baritone? Is this some kind of Bob Brookmeyer/Gerry Mulligan thing? Did they ever play with a pianist, though?
The latin beat gives this a nice air of mystery. Cool.
Seems to end prematurely at 2:08 for me.
>3 A looser avant-garde leaning feel. Trumpeter certainly isn't afraid of going a little out there.
Reminds me of Don Cherry and Wadada Leo Smith, but sounds a little earlier than Smith's first recordings, but it's hard to tell with more avant stuff.
There appear to be two horns, though - trumpet and trombone? Two trumpets?
I can dig this. Pretty cool AACM style feel.
Owen Gomez
>4 Is the mystery theme something that links one track to the next in chronological order? We are certainly moving through time and there could be something that's in common with each track and the next.
The trumpet playing feels stylishly like an evolution from 3, but the piano is very modern post-bop style, feels even formulaic for me.
I was thinking that maybe this is Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet, but the rhythm section feels a bit too straight for that.
>5 The feel of progression to more modern styles with each track continues.
Here the rhythm section is more interesting than in 4.
When the trumpet solo comes in, you can hear that this trumpeter is no stranger to Miles Davis' 60's music. He sounds a lot like Miles.
This track was losing me, but the trumpet solo did catch my interest again.
I kind of wish the head and swinging part were more in 60's Miles' style as well, actually.
>6 This one has a bit of a identity problem. Can't decide whether it wants to be a post-Coltrane freak out or something a lot smoother.
The guitar solo is pretty cool. Something in the Derek Bailey - Mary Halvorson continuum.
The pretty wide shifts in mood seemed odd at first, but it worked out pretty well in the end, I think.
Aaron Young
>Is the mystery theme something that links one track to the next in chronological order? We are certainly moving through time and there could be something that's in common with each track and the next. They are in mostly chronological order except for one track which will be pretty obvious but that doesn't really have much to do with the theme.
Jacob Rivera
>7 Well, the composition is Wayne Shorter's Pinocchio. One suspects that this is a Criss Cross release, or SteepleChase - sounds like a pretty nice version though.
This is very nice contemporary bop-based playing IMHO. 60's post-bop compositions have really stood the test of time well - you can play them pretty much straight up and they still work today.
This is pretty much my favorite this week so far, low hanging fruit as it is.
Surely the theme is somehow connecting one track to the next with all the Miles influence in the previous one followed by this take on a track Miles made famous.
>8 Well this is an earful - hard to take it all in on one listen (or two as it turns out).
Could be interesting, need to listen to more of these people later.
I've always wondered what's the best way to approach stuff where you have multiple people soloing simultaneously - should you just be overwhelmed by all of it or listen to enough that you break it down and know what's going on in each part. Both strategies have some merit.
Matthew Walker
>I've always wondered what's the best way to approach stuff where you have multiple people soloing simultaneously - should you just be overwhelmed by all of it or listen to enough that you break it down and know what's going on in each part. Both strategies have some merit. I usually start out kind of taking it all in but usually one player will stick out to me to focus on.
Liam Carter
>9 The sax player is very nicely taking this from one mood to the next. Chris Potter maybe?
Good mix of more abstract playing and more familiar nods.
Good track, pretty great sax playing I think. Freedom of expression while maintaining good control over where the track is going.
>10 Whatever the theme is, Caravan here brings us back to track 1 moods.
Some pretty old school playing - goes pretty much stride piano for a while. Maybe this is Art Tatum? I think he's recorded Caravan. Sounds a little clumsier than Tatum, though.
John Perry
I fell in love with Bitches Brew originally because it was so overwhelming - figuring out later what's going on in each stereo channel felt like taking away some of that magic, but on some tracks I feel you do need to get that clarity of what's actually going on to really enjoy it.
