All That Jazz ...

[coaltrain]

I have been watching NPR music's tiny desk concerts on YouTube for a while now. Was watching the Vijay Iyer trio and Rudresh Mahantappa perform when I chanced upon Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah. Absolutely spellbinding music this.

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing @Avinash Pai
I’ve only got one album with Scott, before he added letters to his name (see below). Not as adventurous as the set above, but if you like Cuban jazz, you’ll love it. Stefon Harris is also in fine fettle, on vibes.
Btw, could you please share the Vijay Iyer concert link, too? Would love to watch that, as well. Thanks!

 

[moktan]

Delicate , delightful , airy and addictive earworm. The Fruit of Errata Yumbo.

 

[Avinash Pai]

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing @Avinash Pai
I’ve only got one album with Scott, before he added letters to his name (see below). Not as adventurous as the set above, but if you like Cuban jazz, you’ll love it. Stefon Harris is also in fine fettle, on vibes.
Btw, could you please share the Vijay Iyer concert link, too? Would love to watch that, as well. Thanks!

View attachment 66414

Thanks. I love Cuban Jazz and have been a big fan of Buena Vista Social Club, Ibrahim Ferrer and so many more. Thanks for this recommendation. Here is the Vijay Iyer NPR concert I watched.

Also here is one of Rudresh Mahanthappa at NPR. You may like him too.

 

[coaltrain]

Thanks @Avinash Pai !
These tiny desk concerts are something else. IIRC, @Nikhil had started a thread devoted to them. Time to resurrect it, methinks.
And, yes, I’m a fan of RM too. The Bird Calls album below is a favourite. And the Iyer album has RM, Crump and a superb musician called Tyshawn Sorey on drums. Do check it out, if you haven’t already.

 

[Nikhil]

These tiny desk concerts are something else. IIRC, @Nikhil had started a thread devoted to them.

Here it is: https://www.hifivision.com/threads/npr-music-tiny-desk-concerts.71123/
Thanks for sharing those Tiny Desk videos @Avinash Pai



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[lowpoweraudio]

I don't listen much to internet radio much as I stream with TIDAL and Amazon Music.
But straight off here are a few ...

www.jazzradio.com

WBGO Newark

WHYR Jazz : DrJazz

Hope you like them!

Note: You can get a lot of stations via online search but many are Blues or Funk which is similar but not true jazz.

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You should try https://kmhd.org/ Small Station out of Portland, OR. USA.

 

[lowpoweraudio]

TIDAL: https://tidal.com/browse/album/68714033



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I was wondering when someone would lay out some MJQ.

 

[lowpoweraudio]

So I scanned all 93 pages and only caught one post on the Modern Jazz Quartet ( MJQ). Not sure why I don't here more about these guys in Jazz circles. I only have this one recording but I rather like it. MJQ is underrated I think.

Lowpower audio

 

[Sushant Sharma]

i couldn't find this on YouTube so attaching a screen shot from Spotify. Making music by Zakir Hussain. The movie based on a short story by Hanief Kurieshi, 'My son the fanatic'. The last shot where he sits on the staircase pouring himself a whiskey.

 

[Fiftyfifty]

So I scanned all 93 pages and only caught one post on the Modern Jazz Quartet ( MJQ). Not sure why I don't here more about these guys in Jazz circles. I only have this one recording but I rather like it. MJQ is underrated I think.

Lowpower audio
View attachment 66470


View attachment 66469

True, MJQ doesn't find mention. Nor do a whole bunch of jazz vocalists. I was thinking that vocal jazz and vocalese are out of favour in this thread:
Lambert, Hendricks and Ross; Manhattan Transfer; Kurt Elling, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Dee Dee Bridgewater to name a few.

 

[moktan]

I got on the Cole train (groan!) with Giant Steps, and his Atlantic albums are still my favourites - a good balance between the ‘sheets of sound’ of his Prestige period, and the fire-breathing pyrotechnics on the Impulse sessions.
Giant Steps, Coltrane’s Sound, Coltrane Plays The Blues and Ole Coltrane are the standouts for me.

These days I am inclined to believe that a standout Coltrane album for me is Both Directions At Once : The Lost Album.

 

[moktan]

a smoldering , slow buildup leads to a crescendo of beautiful atmospheric jazz .. my all time Hancock favorite.. the crosstalk between instruments lays out the tapestry of a beguiling sound —building up and releasing tension— resolving into an epic story that isn’t too difficult to visualize especially with the helpful suggestion from the liner notes which begin thus :
“ away beyond the mountains of Lune , in the heart of the Great Eastern Sea, lie the Empyrean Isles , four glittering jewels, beyond the dream of men. there is a perpetual haze around them , shimmering and distorting , and they seem to hover , ethereal , a little above the water , suggesting a world inaccessible except to a fancy. “

 

[coaltrain]

I was thinking that vocal jazz and vocalese are out of favour in this thread

That’s an interesting observation.
I have a reasonably decent jazz collection, yet only a handful of vocal jazz CDs; mostly Ella and Billie.
Not sure why but I’ve always preferred instrumental jazz. OTOH, the majority of my rock collection is vocals. Wonder if it’s the same for others.

 

[Sushant Sharma]

That’s an interesting observation.
I have a reasonably decent jazz collection, yet only a handful of vocal jazz CDs; mostly Ella and Billie.
Not sure why but I’ve always preferred instrumental jazz. OTOH, the majority of my rock collection is vocals. Wonder if it’s the same for others.

Very similar thing in my small collection too. Out of the handful vocal jazz i own, i seem to go back to Johnny Hartman now and then.

Lately I have not been playing too many piano trios aswell. Mostly listening to trumpet players in the phase i am in. My rock/pop listening use to be 99 percent vocal driven too.

 

[moktan]

I have some Kurt Elling …though for me , at least , with the exception of say Billie Holliday and Louis Armstrong vocal jazz soon tends to get tedious …could it be that once you have heard the words repetitively there isn’t much to listen to in vocal jazz …

 

[Nikhil]

I was thinking that vocal jazz and vocalese are out of favour in this thread

Gregory Porter has been a favorite ... streaming his new album right now.




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[himadri]

Take five on vocals.Al Jarreau.

 

[coaltrain]

could it be that once you have heard the words repetitively there isn’t much to listen to in vocal jazz …

You’re definitely on to something there, moktan.
Personally, I thrive on obscure lyrics: Dylan, Steely Dan, Tom Waits, Tull, RHCP, Cornershop, REM, Massive Attack, the list goes on…
When it comes to jazz vocals, there’s only so many torch songs I can take
Which is probably why I prefer the offbeat numbers like Black Coffee, Love For Sale and Strange Fruit.

 

[mbhangui]

I have been watching NPR music's tiny desk concerts on YouTube for a while now. Was watching the Vijay Iyer trio and Rudresh Mahantappa perform when I chanced upon Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah. Absolutely spellbinding music this.

This was so good. TFS

 

[Fiftyfifty]

Take five on vocals.Al Jarreau.

What a legend! We lost him in 2017.

And the magic voice of Bobby Mcferrin accompanied by Chick Corea on Spain.

The voice is, after all, the first instrument!