Mmm. Nice.
While I get on with deciding which of this week’s noms offer a sufficiently scientific and/or philosophical take on the subject of large-scale atmospheric circulation, here is a taste of the sort of things you should have been suggesting over on RR to have any chance of getting on the final list… Sorry, I have no idea why this didn’t appear at 9 o’clock this morning as it was supposed to.
Okay, I’m a realist. I’m well aware that the problem this week is likely to be finding any song that you can bear to keep, rather than, as with other people’s contributions to this series, trying to decide which of eleven equally marvellous tracks you could bear to lose. Thing is, if I put together a playlist covering the whole range of my musical interests, from Wagner to the new Susanna Hoffs album, the contemporary jazz tracks would get the boot without a moment’s thought, whereas if I put together a playlist that is nothing but contemporary jazz, you’re going to have to listen to some of it, however briefly…
Tomasz Stanko: Morning Heavy Song A nice quiet one to start things off from this great Polish trumpeter, with the subtle Kind of Blue interplay that characterises all his groups.
Matthew Shipp: Vamp to Vibe Avant-garde US pianist interested in interactions with electronica and hip hop; powerful support from William Parker, the leading avant-garde bass player.
Bojan Z: CD-ROM Fantastic pianist from what used to be Yugoslavia; this from an album he made with musicians from his homeland, making explicit the influences in his music.
Polar Bear: To Touch the Red Brick Experimental UK band led by drummer Seb Roachford and his amazing hair; nominated for the Mercury in 2005, for what that’s worth.
Gilad Atzmon & the Orient House Ensemble: Tuto Tango Ex-pat Israeli saxophonist and political activist; played live, this used to come with spoken-word sections denouncing Bush and Blair as war criminals – always a laugh in true blue Sherborne…
Food: Red Algae UK saxophonist Ian Ballamy and Norwegian drummer Thomas Stronen, and their electronic soundscapes.
Guy Barker: Ornette in New York A bit conventional relative to the rest of the list: UK trumpeter, normally associated with a more traditional approach, messes about with Ornette Coleman tunes. Orchestration by Colin Towns of Gillan and Doc Martin music fame…
Partisans: Prelude to a Kiss The John McLaughlin Quartet de nos jours: Julian Siegel on saxes, Phil Robson on guitar, with an Ellington cover.
Zentralquartett: Solar Plexus My favourite bunch of ex-DDR musical anarchists; described by the Penguin Jazz Guide as “a kind of bad-tempered post-bop”.
David S. Ware Quartet: Godspelized Arguably the main contemporary heir to John Coltrane’s extended improvisations. Supported by Shipp and Parker (see above), and amazing drummer Susie Ibarra.
E.S.T.: Elevation of Love The late lamented Esbjorn Svensson and his trio; not at their most subtle, but undeniable power for a jazz piano trio.
Ooh you smooth-talking salesman, you!
OK, I’m sold. I’ll listen in later when – and get this – when I’ve finished rewiring the office computer system around the new office furniture. Woo-hoo, get me!!!
Well, I rather liked everything here, without having any Damascene conversions. My problem is I find most jazz – even this contemporary stuff – kind of, well, nice. It’s great to have on in the background while working; this isn’t meant to be as damning-with-faint-praise as it sounds. I don’t really have the critical vocabulary or faculties to say much about it.
Ones that stood out from the crowd on a first listen: Gilad Atzmon (liked the Middle Eastern twinges and the quirkiness of this), Food (where jazz-meets-electronica is a good place), Zentralquartett (I was just going to say this sounds rather like bad tempered post-bop) and E.S.T., which had something euphoric about it.
Now, I would LOVE to hear some of Susannah Hoffs’ new work… Surprise surprise!
Tomasz Stanko: Lovely trumpet sound. When do I get to sing along? I think I’m too verbal. It’s all perfectly pleasant but nothing really hooks me in. I need to hear emotion coming through in a voice (even if I don’t understand the words). Is this going to be my feedback for every track, I wonder?
Matthew Shipp: Ooh, I forgot to keep paying attention and was surfing the web in another browser window. Like barbryn, my problem is it is all very pleasant to have on in the background, but I don’t connect very deeply with it – not instantly (enough) anyway. That said, this one’s got quite an exciting cinematic feel to it. The good thing about cinema, of course, is that there’s a moving picture to accompany it. My bad for lacking the imagination to provide my own, I imagine.
Bojan Z: Very nice link from previous track. Smooooth, even. Again, there’s nothing I can dislike in this, but… Much better when there is piano playing than when it just drops into percussion.
Polar Bear: Started off sounding pleasingly – excitingly – modern, but then lost it a bit for me. Ooh, now it’s picked up again. Yes, this is my favourite so far.
Gilad Atzmon: Now here I feel like I can hear some emotion. I wonder why that is. Maybe there’s just more room to breathe in this track. It feels contemplative, possibly sorrowful (or at least rueful). My new favourite. Ooh, it’s gone a bit Balkan (or something)! Yeah, this is lovely.
Food: Oh no, this is too avant-garde for me. Stop wibbling about and write a bloody tune!
Guy Barker: Ooh, sounds like Putting On The Ritz. A bit(z). Briefly anyway. Yeah, he’s a good player, in’ee? Um…
Partisans: I can’t tell you how happy I was to hear a voice! I really am a Philistine. Lost interest a bit after that.
Zentralquartett: Hm, I may be a fan of bad-tempered post-bop (or I may just be bad-tempered) – rather like this. Less fond now it’s gone weird at about the 2:08 mark.
David S Ware: Oh another one who, to these ears, needs to stop tuning up and start playing the tune. The first I’ve had to ‘skip’. Although that could be a cumulative thing. Sorry…
E.S.T.: Phew, that’s much less of a ‘racket’. Yeah, this is back to being pleasant. Second (or third) favourite. No, second, definitely second. This is good. Very good. Even if it doesn’t half go on…
Sorry – jazz really isn’t my thing. Perhaps I should have refrained from listening/commenting. At least until after you’ve submitted your A list to Adam anyway! If I were to jettison one, it would be the David S Ware. And if I were to keep one, it would definitely be Gilad.
I know what you and Barbryn mean about the ‘background music’ aspect and the lack of vocals, because that used to be precisely my attitude – and I still tend to react like that to a lot of classical music. As someone who works with words for a living, they’re incredibly important to me, to the point where at times in the past I’ve almost relegated music to an accompaniment to lyrics – which implies that music without words can only be at best a pleasant background rather than something that needs to be listened to. And now I hear as much emotion in instruments as in singing – more, sometimes – and I find it easier at times to have pop songs rather than jazz as background when I’m working, as I’m less likely to get distracted. Partly it’s a personal thing, partly it’s a matter of learned habits of listening.
Wouldn’t agree for a moment that you should have refrained from listening and commenting; I’m much more interested in what the non-jazzers will make of this lot than the reactions of those who are already more or less tuned in to instrumental music, erudite though those undoubtedly will be.
While I find instrumental music – whether jazz, classical, electronica – works very well as background music when, for example, I’m editing something, I certainly don’t mean to imply that I think that’s all it’s good for. I’m well aware that I’d get much more out of it if I sat down and properly listened (preferably with some chemical enhancement), but – at the moment, anyway – it’s not what I’d choose in my all-too-finite “proper listening” time.
There’s a new Suzanne Hoffs album? That’s my husband’s birthday present sorted out then.
1. I enjoyed the piano, the trumpet tells a story, feels as if I’m watching a film with rain in it.
2. Vamp to Vibe is a good name, the vibes remind me of Gong in their less silly moments and the repetitive piano is quite menacing, I like it.
3. Bojan Z is very cheery isn’t it? This makes me think I should be in a coffee shop, not grabbing me really.
4. I have heard Polar Bear before, I like the rhythms.
5. The strings are a nice change, funnily enough it sounds very American to me, but I don’t know why.
6. Food is interesting, I’m afraid I’d prefer it with a female vocalist instead of a saxophone. I may be reaching my limit for the instrument.
7. So, Guy Barker…this list has taught me that I really like vocals and without them, I want to wander off and clean some cobwebs or something, it gets a bit Stravinsky near the end for a moment, but I think I need a break. Will listen to more later.
I’ve only scanned through this list playing only a minute or so of each cut but I’ll come back and listen more intently later.
There’s a question that I find myself frequently asking when listening to much contemporary music and that is ‘Why’? and sometimes ‘How’.
With more traditional varieties I don’t find myself questioning it, it’s often self evident but some of the pieces on this list are painful and I wonder how and why some people choose to voluntarily listen. And then of course there’s the musicians, again ‘why’. This is not pleasant to listen to, nor is it background music, if you choose to listen I assume you listen intently, but what are you listening for? When I listen to jazz which I do frequently I’m very conscious of the soloists who I usually know by name and style and I often have other works by them; I can follow their progressions and appreciate their tone and technique and I usually know the melody. I don’t get those feeling listening to some of these pieces.
I suppose that I must admit to ‘To each his own’ but I do not understand it.
I will add this footnote though; immediately following WW2 Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie emerged on the jazz scene in New York with a new style, Bebop! I absolutely hated it, it was so different from the jazz that I loved that I couldn’t bear to listen to it. But time passed and I eventually found myself listening to it and to appreciating it, Charlie Parker became one of my music idols!
Just to prove that no one likes my music, rather than just people who prefer vocals and proper songs…
. I suppose it’s too late this time, GF, but would it help if I didn’t talk about this sort of music using the J-word, but simply referred to it as “contemporary instrumental music” or the like? I can’t help feeling that you come to this with a very clear idea of what Jazz is, and so your negative reaction to the music – which is fine, I’m not trying to impose my taste on anyone – is compounded by your feeling that this shouldn’t be called Jazz and shouldn’t dare to claim that name for itself. It’s a bit like the way that early Christians tended to hate heretics far more than pagans, because the former claimed to be Christians.
What am I listening for? It varies, of course. In this set of tunes, a mixture of musical skill and imagination, improvisation and interaction, composition, sound, emotion… With some of these musicians, I too am very conscious of the individual’s solo style (Stanko, Bojan Z, Atzmon, the members of the Zentralquartett); with others, it’s more about the overall sound of the ensemble (EST, Shipp). We do, as we’ve established previously, have different tastes in harmony (you call it noise, I call it dissonance) and in rhythm, and I suspect that I have more interest in improvisation using different sounds as well as different notes. The thing on which we can agree, I think, is that this isn’t background music…
It’s just music, isn’t it, Aba? Further definition introduces judgements that are unnecessary and distracting.
After a brief break I am ready for more!
8. I am actively enjoying the Partisans. Kind of proggy.
9. This one is trying my patience, I think it might be going to the jazz club in the sky.
10. Sorry I can’t think of anything nice to say about this.
11. it’s a bit long, but quite clever, flowing.
Overall Zentralquartett gets my thumbs down and Matthew Shipp’s song gets my favourite vote. Thanks for a list which was outside my comfort zone, but very interesting.
Sheffield, the Leadmill, had jazz every sunday lunch. People slowly drank a single guiness reading a paper which took up a whole table, with the supplements taking up a whole other table – no bleedin’ place to sit ever
there were always small children whizzing around on tricycles making carrying drinks a minefield .. kicking an infant over rather than risk spilling a drop was scowled at
the jazz was loud enough to prove i was awake enough to notice but not too much to set off the hangover
the very first track with all that trumpet was WAY too interesting
people would have had to put down their papers and listen
the second would have caused a tricycle pile up
all that piano on the third would be hangover hell
but thanks for the sounds while tonight’s cooking was underway .. i was grating cheese to the beat at one point .. perhaps too much cheese
You’re remark about jazz people taking up tables struck a chord. Me and my fella went to a jazz club once. It was empty when we got there, as it was free entry if you got in before 10:00. All the tables were reserved, so we had to plump for bar-stools at the back. The band came on and people started to drift in as they started their set. They noisily started making their orders of booze and food – as the band played on. Meanwhile, me & him were slowly getting more piss-ter and getting down into the groove, trying to block out the noise of the (ahem) jazz fans.
Now this band were rockin’. I mean the business. Jazz/blues/gospel/funk, the works. We couldn’t keep in our seats and were going wild at the back dancing and whooping and whistling before and after each tune. This was greeted by some odd looks from the seating area who were all busy chit-chatting and who seemed to thing we were freaks. I got the feeling we were too much of a distraction for them, stopping them from enjoying the background music as they dined.
We had a great chat with the band at the end of the set, as we all stood outside having a ciggie. Top fellas!
The great Charles Mingus, bass player and composer, was known for a somewhat volcanic temper, and this would include picking fights with members of the audience he felt were insufficiently attentive, more interested in chatting etc. I wouldn’t say that the people you encountered were jazz fans in a meaningful sense, but for some reason jazz gigs – like classical concerts – attract quite a lot of people who come for the occasion rather than the music, especially when (as in your case) it’s effectively being sold as a pleasant background to a drink or meal, rather than the concert being the centrepiece. One reason why it’s so funny to see a fairly confrontational artist like Gilad Atzmon take on the good burghers of Sherborne…
It’s not too bad if it’s just light piano music, even I don’t mind a bit of that when I’m eating out. But this band we’re too damn groovy not to want to move about.
Love Mingus. . .
Shit!! Kids!! Pick up from school . . ..
enjoyed it .. the Partisans EST & Gilad much so .. when dinner party guests were dithering i always thought slipping a Groundhogs CD on would make them consider that taxi .. Zentralquartett & mr Ware seem a good guaranteed heading for the hills at speed alternative
never got the lid down on the cheese toastie .. but at least it wasn’t burnt
1. This is the feeling I get when I wake up and know something has changed but I’m not sure how.
2. Would love to hear someone rap over this or take those beats and that piano and just flow with it. Phenomenal.
3. Ah this is fun. Sounds like they’re having a great time. Spins me round gets me bopping.
4. More kicking drums.
5. Tuto Tango. Turun Toverits are TuTo. Not the sort of ice-hockey team to tango.
6.Good job the beat kicked in, they were about to be dropped. Where’s the killer punch at the end.
7. NIce but I wanted more of Ritz and the sounds floating in the background
8. Another ace bopping, dancing tune. I went out with a modern dancer for a long while before I met Ms. Fuel. She would love this. The drums and the space to move in.
9. Raunchy, strutting and ridiculous before back to swaggering and getting hit in the solar plexus. Like it.
10. This is like The sax version of Sonic Youth taking it just a bit too far on NYCG&F. I know what they’re doing but I just don’t connect this time.
11. I like E.S.T. Elevation goes to my head. Lovely, soaring sounds. Like a cycle ride by a rural coastline on a warm day. Perfect end.
Must say: super changeovers and segues between the tracks.
Keep Matthew Shipp and but ditch David S. Ware, which is strange given the connection between the two.
It is really great to have something different ! ! ! But really . . .track 6 ( Food: Red Algae ) will have to go ! ! !
I think jazz in general is too challenging for me, I like the bunnies and marshmallows of J-Pop too much. But this is a really nice playlist and maybe a good beginners introduction to modern jazz.
Thanks for a great playlist ! ! !
Ganbatte Kudasai with the Guru duties ! ! ! !
You’re going to have to translate that… And, no, I don’t think for a moment that this is a good introduction to modern jazz.
Hi Aba ! ! !
Ganbatte Kudasai literally means “do your best” or “fight on” or “do not give up” but we also say it as like “Good Luck” .
I did enjoy the play list and thank you again for posting it ! ! !
Sorry Aba, I tried. But to be positive I am going to turn the thing on it’s head and vote for the one I would keep, which is the last track, EST.
Thank you for all your effort!
I think I ought to establish a DsD jazz rating system ahead of listening to these:
a Skipper will be something that can’t keep my fingers away from the ►│FF button for even one run-through; a Phew will be a piece I get through, but don’t ever need to hear again; a Hmmm will have intrigued me enough to listen again; a Hey! will be a “Blimey, I quite liked that.”; and a full-on hit will just have to be called a Nice
Tomasz Stanko – Oh, this is a lovely start. Does enough to overcome the irritation of how high in the mix the “how-clever-am-I?” drumstick-tapping is. HEY!
Matthew Shipp – Another HEY! Found myself nodding along at a very pleasing pace. I reckon that would make good cross-trainer accompaniment in the gym.
Bojan Z – SKIPPER. I lasted just over two minutes.
Polar Bear – Went from a likely Phew at the start to a Hey! in the middle and back to a Phew by the end. So I suppose that makes it a HMMM.
Gilad Atzmon & Orient House Ensemble – as an instrumental, the first half of this works just fine, and I was wondering how the mood could possible square with the ‘lyrics’ you alluded to. But then when it gets all hi-tension circus music, that concept makes more sense, but I like the piece less. HMMM.
Food – Nice idea, but the jittery drumming made it a PHEW for me by the end.
Guy Barker – lasted longer than Bojan Z, but was still likely to have been a skipper before the end if I had typed faster than I did. PHEW.
Partisans – I felt like I’d achieved something by sticking with this. Would have been a hmmm (liked the guitar sound mid-piece) but for the jittery-paced drumming again. PHEW.
Zentralquartett – Wow. What a sound! I think fat is the only suitable word I can think of for that horn opening. Can’t say for sure I liked it, but a definite HMMM. Sounds like Sooty has Sweep’s nuts in a vice at the two-&-a-half minute mark.
David S. Ware Quartet – Not looking good; it’s been going a minute and I’m still waiting for any semblance of a tune to emerge from the fog . . . nope, 1m30s before I declared this a SKIPPER.
E.S.T. – Ooh, are we saving the best ’til last? I do believe we are. Oh go on then: have a proper, black polo-neck & skinny-lapelled leather suit-jacket, nodding-dog imitating, almost rock-crescendo-ing N-I-C-E! from me.
Esbjorn Svensson gets a posthumous VC. David S. Ware gets wished a dose of VD.
Cheers, ‘Hach.
1. Tomasz Stanko: Morning Heavy Song is just about right. I like it a lot, the way it keeps swirling down. I might have preferred a little less cymbal work.
2. Matthew Shipp: a good groove but that piano riff is starting to get annoying. It’s not going anywhere, is it? A one-chord jam with not a lot of tonal variety. And a tacked-on end over the fade.
3. Bojan Z: Off to the circus! The clowns’ car racing round a jazz-standard-sounding tune. I like the sax breaking up; clowns tumbling? Juggling drums. Back to Nellie The Elephant. Ithankyew!
4. Polar Bear: More fun! Wacky Races!
5. Gilad Atzmon & the Orient House Ensemble: I love the dissolve from the initial formality. Beautiful songline in the soprano. Accordian! Even more accordian? Back to the circus? There’s a helluva lot going on in this: it’ll need another listen to discover whether I like that or not.
To be continued. Enjoying the ride so far.
5. Gilad Atzmon & the Orient House Ensemble (Take 2): The second half may make more sense with the spoken-word sections but, as it stands, it seems disconnected from Part 1 and, to that extent, detracts from it.
6. Food: Single note/chord/rhythm tracks can be literally monotonous and, although the noises liven it up in places, it bored me somewhat.
7. Guy Barker: I’m not sure the orchestration works (jazz strings remind me of the TOTP Orchestra, playing all the right notes but with none of the feeling) but there’s some great trumpet and sax soloing. A bit of a musical mish-mash. What happened at the end?
8. Partisans: ‘The John McLaughlin Quartet de nos jours’: not a phrase to beguile me. The opening didn’t make me feel more attracted to it either. One for people who know some jazz history, I suspect. Another repetitive jam, yet one with the occasional window of light. The slow guitar end is rather attractive.
9. Zentralquartett: A farting song! I like tunes that nearly fall apart. I bet this goes down well live but I doubt it bears a lot of repeated listening.
10. David S. Ware Quartet: getting lots of different noises from a sax doesn’t turn me on, no matter how technically impressive it may be. It sounds like the set-up intro for a hard-driving bop that got stretched into a thing in its own right. I agree about the drumming but the sax is rather, er, jazz-axe-wanky.
11. E.S.T.: they get more subtle than this nice little groove? Cool.
I have no problem with vocal-less music so found tunes and other stuff to keep my interest in nearly all of these tracks. There’s a danger of an excess of jamming (this from a Deadhead!) and several stuck around the same repeated riff/tune a bit too much for my liking, but only one crossed the line: Matthew Shipp. That one can floatt away to the edge of space.
Thanks, Aba.
OK Aba; I don’t think you’ll be particularly bothered by anything I have to say about your list but here goes. I was intrigued wondering what you’d choose and I must say it’s not as bad as i’d anticipated, I thought we’d get a whole load of that machine gun noise, and thank you for keeping them short. There were times when I was tempted to hit ‘next’ but I resisted.
This time through I listened fully to every cut on headphones and one redeeming feature was that it spared me from hearing the election results on the kitchen radio,
As I listened I made notes, I’ll just relate my notes.
Stanko: heavy song indeed but flat! nice piano break, not a pleasant trumpet, consider Louis or Miles for contrast.
Shipp: I love vibes but I’m not sure where this cut is going; there’s nothing there.
Bojan: I wrote OK next to this one, nice tenor, obligatory drumbreak.
Polar: the amazing hair did nothing for me, it sounds like a drummer who likes to hear himself on record, the tenor; to what end? what does ‘experimental’ mean?
Gilad: The only group here who I have in my collection, I like Gilad, but I’d have chosen a different cut. Re Charlie Parker, I thought Gilad was the reincarnation of Bird when first I heard him. The tango connection kicked in at about 3.10, nice.
Food: my only comment was ‘why’. What does ‘red algae’ mean?
Barker: the tnr, what was he thinking, not interesting.
Prelude; An insult to Duke, this guy has no idea what this piece of music is about, the ‘narration’ adds nothing, what happened to McLaughlin’s reputation? Consider this, the original.
Solar; Another ‘why’, awful tenor.
Godspell; Awful noise, not impressed by the drummer at all.
E S T: An almost pleasant release, nice delicate piano with a questionable mid section.
Aba: I’d like you to explain why you chose these cuts, what were you trying to achieve, Your initial comments indicated that you anticipated this sort of response so could you please explain why you chose them and indicate what it is that we/me are missing.
Will do, but some time later in the week. I should say that I don’t think you/you (pl) are necessarily ‘missing’ anything; it’s all a matter of personal taste, and I didn’t for a moment expect that everyone would like any, let alone all, of these. If I’d been trying to convert people, I’d have done it a lot more subtly, not least by choosing different tracks; this is much more a sort of ‘in at the deep end’ confrontation, to see which ones (if any) did connect with people who don’t normally listen to this sort of thing. So, I will in due course try to explain what I hear in them, rather than any attempt at arguing why I think you or anyone else should actually like them…
‘it’s not as bad as i’d anticipated’ Excellent bit of faint praise there, gf! Has the word-mincer stopped working?
Chris; Do you recall a piece that Aba posted here within the last year? It was by a German group led by Peter Brozman and was titled ‘Machine gun’, I believe it ran about 15 minutes and it was a continuous impression of that sound! It was absolutely awful! from Aba’s pre-post comments I feared the worst, I anticipated more of same. It’s not jazz, it’s not even music.
I will be back to these, thanks for posting them in a busy week ! Just listened to Tomasz Stanko first thing this morning, good start to the day, thoughtful. I’ll listen again to see if I can hear what FUEL heard !
Hi DaddyPig, what I really hear. I’m waking up in a strange bed. It’s narrow and the sheets are crumpled but very warm. I can hear the shower running and I remember what happened last night. I feel good, warm, but is this just another one night stand? Maybe she’ll come back to bed and we can do it all again, spend the day in and around her bed. Maybe I should join her in the shower.
Then I remember the awkward silences, those values that she espoused that I didn’t pay attention to cos her body was speaking a different language. And what about the other one I’ve been seeing on and off? Damn, I’m in a messy situation, again. Oh, the shower’s off. Smile and compliment. See what happens next…
You see! I knew I was just lacking in imagination… Brilliant.
Hello Fuel! Oh my! What’s that tent pole doing under the covers? Oh, I see. You want to make a little doctors surgery den with the bed-sheets do you? Don’t move, I’ll be back with my dress-up nursie outfit and stethoscope. Do you want me with or without the glasses?
@ wilemena That’s a little bit scary because the majority of that story is based on a fling I had with a nurse and… Er… Use your imagination.
(Blushes.)
@ bishbosh Thank you. I really like your writing, it’s always so clear and full of imagination. To be honest, I don’t understand anything unless I can put a narrative to it. This is useful for putting images to music (especially good for Sonic Youth’s Instrumental passages) and interpreting early Simple Minds and Bunnymen lyrics, but pretty useless when faced a Haynes manual for removing and replacing shock absorbers.
Truth is some music inspires me more than others and a lot of Abahachi’s selections work for me. I don’t give a toss about the playing, but the only the way it makes me feel or gets me thinking. Even the one I’d ditch (Ware) creates an image: the image being me walking across a dual carriageway crossroads when all the lights turn green.
Thanks Guel, now that’s what Jazz is about !
FUEL, I mean Fuel, sorry !
OOh baby, I know what you like !
I was intrigued to have a listen to your list and it did not disappoint. For me, and going against most folks so far, the one to get the boot is Bojan Z – too twiddly for my taste! Polar Bear I have already and Matthew Shipp and Food were ones that stood out, I think. I will try to give the list another listen, but I don’t think I’ll have anything more intelligent to add! Thank you for posting an interesting and stimulating list, and in your guru week too.
PS. Would love to get rid of this dusky pink icon (so not me!), but without having to sign up to wordpress or give another email – is there a way?
My understanding is that you can aquire an icon (avatar?) by signing up for one at gravatar.com, but since I did this via WordPress (and could also log in using Twitter for a different identity and picture), I don’t actually know whether you can do this just using an email address – but I would have thought so.
Thanks for that info – I was hoping to get away without having to sign up to anything else, but it seems gravatar might be useful for other sites too so I’ll take a look at it. Cheers!
The election behind me & fortified with garnacha this has made a nice afternoon’s listen There’s really only a couple would have driven me outside wishing I still smoked so I had something to do. Furthermore at least 3 immediately made me move to a better listening position while checking my glass was full. Elevation of Love was really enjoyable as was the Guy Barker. But the real keeper was Morning Heavy Song. A fine small harbor for thought. Played it 3 times now – it does hold you. Don’t speak German but if Godspelized somehow translates to “I’ll never want to feel that drunk again” I’d understand. Tossed.
Okay, in response to GF’s request: What Was I Thinking? I would stress again that this was put together as a relatively random sample of stuff that I like (not necessarily love) in the category of ‘contemporary instrumental music’; not an attempt at converting you all or offering a list of The Best Contemporary Instrumental Music, more a sort of Rorschach Blot test – I was genuinely interested to see what different people made of it all, and I’m struck by the wide range of reactions.
Tomasz Stanko: my favourite living trumpet player by a wide margin – I love both his sound (deeply emotional) and his choice of notes – who tends to play in small-group situations that are focused on intensive communication between all the players. This is delicate, beautiful and sad – I think Beth is right about both the filmic quality and the rain.
Matthew Shipp: this for me is about pushing rhythmic boundaries, taking beats from hip hop and mixing them with the very un-hop-hop vibes. No, it doesn’t really go anywhere – that’s rather the point, I suspect. Hadn’t thought about it before, but it could be *very* interesting to hear a decent rapper as part of the mix (or this could make a handy sample).
Bojan Z: another great favourite of mine – brilliant solo and in standard piano trio situations, but I’ve posted a fair number of tunes by him in the past and wanted to put in something different. In some ways quite conventional, I suppose – clear verse/chorus structure with repeated riff, harmonies have just a hint of the Balkan scales he likes. But clearly they’re all having fun.
Polar Bear: I find this most interesting for what’s going on in the background – the drums and bass rather than the saxophones, and the subtle electronic noises (which I guess is one way in which this counts as ‘experimental’ – in other respects it’s again on the conventional side, by my standards). Fun rather than overwhelmingly brilliant.
Gilad Atzmon: not his greatest track (but I’ve posted a load of those before), but as ever some interesting influences (tango rather than Middle Eastern), and he is a fantastic musician. And I do like a bit of accordian now and again (Stanko also released a fabulous record with a group that included a bandoneon player).
Food: this is about creating a soundscape rather than individual musical virtuosity. Will admit that I have to be in the mood for this sort of abstract, ambient stuff: often it just fades into the background, but on a certain sort of quiet evening it repays careful listening, almost as a kind of meditation – for me, it’s more about the drums and electronics than the saxophone, which is almost redundant in places.
Guy Barker: great trumpeter, though he does (as I said) often play in a way that wouldn’t have been out of place in the 1950s/60s; in fact, this medley tends to domesticate Ornette Coleman, normally associated with radical (tuneless, for people like GF) free jazz. Fun rather than inspirational as far as I’m concerned.
Partisans: I do now wonder why I chose this track rather than others which might have been more accessible – this is the group I thought might be of interest to the guitar types among you, since Phil Robson is pretty darn good in a whole range of idioms, and the John McLaughlin comparison – n.b. his early stuff, before Mahavishnu Orchestra – is intended to point up the rock influence here. It’s rather bitty, I guess – probably because they’re busy trying to do something different with a jazz standard. I do like the voice samples.
Zentralquartett: another of my favourites – Connie Bauer is a technically brilliant trombonist, but above all this is about the interaction between four kindred spirits with a shared love of musical anarchy and subversion. Like Chris, I rather like tunes that threaten to fall apart completely. I’d love to see this lot live.
David S.Ware: included partly because I felt I wasn’t including enough American stuff… Actually in a lot of ways this is almost as conventional as Guy Barker, simply a development of long-form improvisation in the manner of later John Coltrane with the group just there as backing, whereas many of the others on this list are much more developments of the group improvisation of Coleman or early 60s Miles, and/or the experimentation and genre mash-up of later Miles. This is the one I’d drop…
EST: pushing the boundaries of the piano trio – the driving beat, the use of repetition to build a mood, the experimentation with sounds (bowed bass, a few electronics). This gives me the euphoric feeling of the best rock or dance music – even more so live, when there’s the added uncertainty of where it’s going to go next or how long they’re going to sustain the adrenalin rush. Yes, they’ve also done some lovely delicate pieces, and the last stuff they were doing before Esbjorn’s death was heading off in the direction of more abstract electronic noises (great, but less accessible), but this sort of thing is probably what they’ll be remembered for.
Aba: Thank you for that extremely comprehensive response, far more than I anticipated. I shall now start over and listen again with your notes at hand.
Please don’t feel that you have to; I’m not trying to persuade you, and I can’t imagine that my comments would make any difference.
In other ‘news’, have comments gone weird-bonkers on the Mothership or is it just my machine? Me no likee.
Ah, I see it’s being discussed there. Good god, it’s horrible.
was looking forward to listening to this (thanks for DBing it, BTW) and after reading GF’s comments this morning, I knew I’d love this playlist, and I did!
1. Tomasz Stankon- Lovely opening – rich and deep. Deffo keep.
2. Matthew Shipp – Great riff. Keep
3. Bojan Z – Lively and a lot of fun. Keep.
4. Polar Bear – Like the pace and the electronics, the shrieking sax is nice too. Keep.
5. Gilad Atzmon – Nice change of direction, but a bit too easy listening for me. Maybe my least favourite.
6. Food – a great spooky start then almost went ambient Drum’n'Bass. Keeper.
7. Guy Barker – not bad, bit not amazing! Maybe lose.
8. Partisans – sounds like it could have been on “Kid A”. Like it.
9. Zentrallquartet – Great, love the free jazz squelches. Keep it.
10. David S. Ware – Hmmm…OK, but not setting my world on fire.
11. EST – this track really drew me in, really loved it. Of course keep.
So, definitely keep EST or Tomasz Stanko and lose Atzmon or David S. Ware or Guy Barker.
What I like about the playlist is that it is everything that a genre (whatever it may be) should be in 2012, taking inspiration from the past, but using the latest technology and innovations in thinking to push the music forward…..thanks Aba, great stuff and a few things for me to investigate further.
Just got round to listening. Waiting for the right mood really, which will probably make no sense to you, and I can’t be arsed explaining myself.
Thomasz Stanko – Just gorgeous meloncholy stuff, but with enough there to keep you lifted. Love the subtleness of the bass here. Just perfect
. . . which leads perfectly into Michael Shipp. Another goodie. Great rhythm from those piano bass clef notes works a treat with the glock (I think) and everyfink else. A hip-hoppers dream
Bojan Z – Lively lively lively me likey! Why have I never heard of any of these guys?!
Polar Bear – Lots of interesting stuff going on here. Again, lively as hell. Me on a manic day! Clever stuff. How I’d imagine Mingus/Dolphy partnership to sound today.
Ok, we come-down to earth with Gilad Atzmon. Very nice, but not grabbing me by me fur collar
Love Food. Again clever stuff.
Guy Barker. Thought this would be just my thing, cos of that plucky bass, but even tho the trumpet great, not my favourite here.
Partisans. That’s better! Nice trippy sound with a kickin beat.
Zentralquartett – Slow sexy bounce and then some very cheeky horns. Yep. I like it!
David S Ware – OMG!!! Love it!!!
EST – Bit of an anti-climax after last one, but I suppose you have to end it somehow. Ah well.
Thanks Abahachi. Really enjoyed that. I knew none of em either. One out. erm… Gilad Atzmon probably. Or EST. The rest I’ll keep thank you very much. Don’t mind if I do.
Wow, we are clearly on a similar wavelength; I’m delighted that you enjoyed them so much. I can add you to my list of people I’m corrupting, along with Japanther; do you know Peter Broetzmann’s Machine Gun, which – as you might have gathered from GoneForeign’s comments – is something of a touchstone for this corner of the community?
They are all pretty obscure; at a guess, EST came the nearest to any sort of mainstream success. Some, I must admit, I came to on the basis of 5-star ratings in the Penguin Guide to Jazz, which has a strong liking for free and avant-garde stuff (Stanko, Ware); some I encountered via reviews in places like the Grauniad or the (now possibly defunct) JazzZeitung, and felt from the description that it might be the sort of thing I’d like; some I just stumbled across, e.g. Bojan Z playing a solo set in support of Wayne Shorter about ten years ago, or Guy Barker at the Brecon Jazz Festival.
Oh yeah. And I’m very easily corruptabubble. That’s when I’m not the one doing the corrupt-sleng-ting
Had to listen to David S Hare again. I picture a filly gone wild, and someone trying desperately to fetter her and not having much success, as she whinnies and bucks and tries to break free. Finally, it is desperate measures time for her handler . . . and this beautiful strong creature finally succumbs as the Ketamine shot kicks in . . .
Hare? Thare? Every effin’ Ware? Sorry David S for getting your name wrong. Confusing you with the playwright with whom you share a similar sounding name. Do apologise.
I’ve never really got into any modern jazz stuff at all. I don’t know if that’s through laziness/prejudice – thinking that nothing can top the old Jazz cats/fear of the unknown/getting into other types of music whatever, I’m not sure. So this has been a really good kick up the old bum for me. Just great to know there’s still some good players out there, and of course that jazz is most definitely not just lying in a dusty old record box somewhere. Thanks a bunch! x
Tomasz Stanko: Morning Heavy Song This has a kind of late night, all the bars are closed and a few stragglers are drifting off along the rain-washed streets feel. Nicely atmospheric.
Matthew Shipp: Vamp to Vibe I like the driving piano here and the xylophone. I kept on wanting a bit more to happen though. It sounded to me like there was something missing.
Bojan Z: CD-ROM Not sure about this one, at first and then I realised why, it sounds all a bit too polite and lacking in risk-taking or innovation. A bit tame. It may go.
Polar Bear: To Touch the Red Brick I didn’t really see the point of this one. Didn’t like it. A definite contender to leave.
Gilad Atzmon & the Orient House Ensemble: Tuto Tango This one threw me halfway through when it went into the tango bit. Intriguing, I suppose. It had a few 20th century classical, Second Viennese school flourishes in places.
Food: Red Algae Ah, something with definite weirdness going on here. I like the electronica and there is more focus than is some of the other tracks. They clearly listen to a bit of Drum ‘n’ Bass.
Guy Barker: Ornette in New York I really liked this one, some Gershwin-influenced bits here and a few discordant, atonal undercurrents that edged towards the Second Viennese School again.
Partisans: Prelude to a Kiss A bit Mahavishnu Orchestra meets Weather Report, which I don’t see as a bad thing. It also reminded me of some of the electronic stuff Andt Sheppard was doing in the late 1980s. A touch of Allan Holdsworth in some of the guitar. Liked this a lot.
Zentralquartett: Solar Plexus This was OK, but it seemed to me that it was one idea that was stretched out too far. I really wanted it to let go and be more like Rip, Rig and Panic.
David S. Ware Quartet: Godspelized This was more of the kind of thing I expected to hear before I started listening to these 11 tracks. Properly out there stuff, reminded me of all sorts of things, it was messy, a bit out-of-control and genuinely interesting. It had what a fair few of the other tracks lacked, passion.
E.S.T.: Elevation of Love Loved this, brilliant. It is basically Mogwai being played by jazz musicians. Really intense and loads of drive and power.
So, what can I say? I am not a jazz expert by any means, but I do have some jazz in my collection, mainly stuff like Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Weather Report and a few Blue Note albums of late 50s and 1960s stuff, so I am not a jazz illiterate. Also, I like stuff like Soft Machine, so nothing here was a shock.
What did surprise me was that a lot of the music was rather restrained and polite, I wanted more fireworks, more atonal stuff and less discipline. The two candidates for expulsion are Bojan Z and Polar Bear, but it’s hard to make a call as to which one. However, Polar Bear was the one that I actively thought was pointless, so it is FIRED
Aba -
I’m late to this party, but i loved this list. I really ought to dond Carole’s list, i’m tossing Polar Bear too, and Bojan Z was the runner up for a toss.
Really loved the mellower ones, and the more experimental ones too. Standouts for me – Tomasz Stanko was lovely. Matthew Shipp was great. Gilad Atzmon started out lovely, but lost me a bit near the end. Loved Food,the Partisans, David S Ware Quartet, and the EST especially too.
You folks will make a jazz fan of me yet.
Thanks!
OK, in this period of elections and popular choices, I will concede, you win, but my closing statement is this.
There is a musical form that I dearly love, I’ve devoted almost my entire life to listening, to understanding and collecting it, it’s called jazz, pure and simple. It’s originally a black music derived from the blues and it has an extremely rich history, it emerged in New Orleans about the time of WW1 and has retained it’s basic form and structure until the present time. There is an enormously large and diverse cast of characters, musicians who are revered and honored for their contributions and a similarly huge archive of recorded jazz that goes back almost a hundred years. It is now embraced in it’s classic form throughout the world and it’s not something to be messed about with and distorted into unrecognizable forms that don’t deserve the title of ‘Jazz’.
It is because of all of this that I take issue with the suggestion that these pieces be described as ‘jazz’, they are not jazz and only cause casual listeners like Sakura to say ‘I think jazz in general is too challenging for me,’ . If she bases her opinions on jazz on what she’s heard here, then she’s been deceived, this absolutely is no basis on which to judge jazz.
End of rant.
As ever, we’ll have to agree to disagree on this. For you, some of the stuff I like and want to call jazz is a corruption and distortion of the true path; for me, you want to put jazz in a museum and preserve it in the form it took fifty years ago, whereas I’m happy to see it keep developing and changing into new forms. It’s only a name, after all.
No, I don’t want it in a museum, I want to be where it’s always been, out in the open for the enjoyment and enrichment of all. But I’ll agree to the ‘agree to disagree’ bit.
Finally listened through these with some Sunday ironing duties. I know some Gilad Atzmon and Guy Barker and have seen them live, both great. Two best surprises were Zentralquartett and EST. Food would probably be ejected if need be to land the hot air balloon safely, a bit ambient and noodly for me.
Good discussion on jazz and what it is and isn’t. I’d still rather listen to Ellington’s Prelude To A Kiss than Partisans, but it made me think that the build up to a real-life kiss, and the kiss itself, can be tense, enervating, messy, embarrassing, disastrous, as well as magical and romantic.
Was there a point in the 1940s – 50s when Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus and others, decided that jazz was going to be smart and intelligent as well as bluesy, beautiful, rhythmic ? For all that Louis Armstrong could match any classical trumpeter for technique and trounce them for invention, and Ellington could match Ravel for orchestration, there was this perception of ‘natural rhythm’ and all the rest of that racist view, that had to be blasted out of the water. For better or worse, jazz took on that extra dimension and broadened its boundaries.
More than any other music, it makes the most sense when you’re there with the live music, rather than the recording.
Thanks Aba. Back to the ironing now.
I’ll take this opportunity once again to recommend Scott DeVeaux’s brilliant book The Birth of Bebop, which traces all the different strands of development, the interaction of individual ambitions and talents with the socio-economic context, that led to the emergence of bebop as not only a distinctive musical form but also a new kind of performance, more or less by accident…
Thanks, and noted !
Aagh! It seems i’ve missed my chance to d/l EST. Any chance someone can re-Box or email me just that one, please?
I’ve sent you a copy by email.
Wow! I have just been able to sit and listen to music for the first time in months and this was excellent – danke, Herr Prof! (I hope wordpress is beaming you late comments, or this is all in vain). I really enjoyed this playlist – I was working on another tab, so I couldn’t follow titles – and the only track that I would’ve skipped was the one with the spoken intro.
Vielen herzlichen Dank!
Thanks for this, Debby, and good to hear from you – it has been a while.