The Jazz Hole

Let's talk jazz.

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What do you like? Who do you listen to? Need recommendations? Can you dig it?

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i like this band, mostly for the arrangements. The solos are good too. But the overall groove is what I like. Starts at 11:50, but the hits at 14:50 really melt my cheese.

15 hours ago, Ken320 said:

i like this band, mostly for the arrangements. The solos are good too. But the overall groove is what I like. Starts at 11:50, but the hits at 14:50 really melt my cheese.

When you stack a band with heavy hitters and top-call LA studio guys, it's bound to be killer. 

The writing is great (very LA though!) - sits right in the "contemporary traditional" sound. Modern Big Band writing (as opposed to jazz orchestra) - Swings hard, always grooving. 

Thanks for sharing!

I listened to Ibrahim Maalouf's album Wind today! absolutely fantastic, uses contemporary classical piano licks. It's an tribute to Miles Davis, I would say to the Kind of Blue album. 

Lots of camel blue tone colours.(yes the cigarets pack)

This was my favourite one!

Well, there was a piece written not too long ago that featured a basically jazz oriented trio. The group is called Project Trio. The trio consists of flute, cello and bass. It is sort of a one movement concerto for the three members. The composer who wrote for them was Adam Schoenberg. It is knock your socks of cool. This is the new contemporary composer that I adore the most. It premiered with the IRIS orchestra in Tennessee under the direction of Michael Stern. Here is the piece:

Patrick Wilson wrote for TV in the70's so yeah he's L.A. but you would know better in the overall style. I pretty much dismissed big band and never cared for Maynard Ferguson. As a drummer I was into Tony Williams big time, before and after he got into fusion. I loved the whole Stanley Clark thing and Chick Corea too. Not so much Mahavishnu...

On 2/12/2017 at 5:33 PM, Casper Belier said:

I listened to Ibrahim Maalouf's album Wind today! absolutely fantastic, uses contemporary classical piano licks. It's an tribute to Miles Davis, I would say to the Kind of Blue album. 

Lots of camel blue tone colours.(yes the cigarets pack)

Dude - this guy is great!  The writing and playing is super-subtle and melodic / ECM without the reverb. There's some really beautiful music coming out of Europe - This Maalouf's sound reminds me of Kenny Wheeler, Paulo Fresu or Enrico Rava.

Going to check out more - he's all over Spotify. Thanks for sharing.

On 2/12/2017 at 8:43 PM, Ravels Radical Rivalry said:

Well, there was a piece written not too long ago that featured a basically jazz oriented trio. The group is called Project Trio. The trio consists of flute, cello and bass. It is sort of a one movement concerto for the three members. The composer who wrote for them was Adam Schoenberg. It is knock your socks of cool. This is the new contemporary composer that I adore the most. It premiered with the IRIS orchestra in Tennessee under the direction of Michael Stern.

It's a hard thing - to blend classical and jazz stylings. This is actually pretty successful. Most things end up being just jazz with strings.  Or, (much worse) classical music with a jazz soloist.  

This does a good job of blending the two, I think.  The classical writing is well done and the mixture of jazz elements isn't forced or an afterthought.  It's not my bag for sure, but there's a lot of stuff to like in there! 

10 hours ago, robinjessome said:

Dude - this guy is great!  The writing and playing is super-subtle and melodic / ECM without the reverb. There's some really beautiful music coming out of Europe - This Maalouf's sound reminds me of Kenny Wheeler, Paulo Fresu or Enrico Rava.

Going to check out more - he's all over Spotify. Thanks for sharing.

 

 

Maalouf is basicly an super rock star! he even made an rock album. But i still prefer his jazz albums.

As for jazz radio, i listen to the jazz bee on wbgo.net!

*edit .net instead of .com

Here's one of my main musical influences, Kenny Wheeler with the haunting intro to the Suite Time Suite, from his seminal album Music For Large and Small Ensembles.  I don't trust any composer of jazz-type music for large ensembles who isn't intimately familiar with this record. Easily in my top five records of all time.

The whole thing is here, and you'd do well to spend take 45 minutes, close your eyes and listen. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ19CZfLwm0

2 hours ago, robinjessome said:

Here's one of my main musical influences, Kenny Wheeler with the haunting intro to the Suite Time Suite, from his seminal album Music For Large and Small Ensembles.  I don't trust any composer of jazz-type music for large ensembles who isn't intimately familiar with this record. Easily in my top five records of all time.

Yes! heard this on radio wgbo it's like a really new way of playing the jazz, with much more hymn feeling than I have ever heard in the genre.

On 2/17/2017 at 5:59 PM, Casper Belier said:

Yes! heard this on radio wgbo it's like a really new way of playing the jazz, with much more hymn feeling than I have ever heard in the genre.

 

Kenny had a way of voicing chords that was all his own - and certainly had a very open vocal / choral / hymnal approach to harmony and voice leading. The use of voice as the top "voice" was another unique aspect of his large ensemble writing. 

I hope you've given the whole suite a listen; it's really quite a stunning piece of music, regardless of the genre.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ19CZfLwm0

I teach about Ah Um in my History of Jazz class!  Great pick!

2 hours ago, maestrowick said:

I teach about Ah Um in my History of Jazz class!  Great pick!

 

You'd better teach Ah Um in a History of Jazz class!!!! ;)

In my early teens it was one of the first albums I really got into; has such a vibrant energy and sense-of-humour while being deadly serious.... The idea that not everything needed to be "tight"; that it's ok to be loose and to trust the musicians to elevate a rough concept into something amazing and powerful and musicial.

CanI just say that when I got into jazz only a couple of weeks, i was listening to B.B. King and soul/ Blues music, just trying every music outlet to find new styles and ways of playing musicinto my head. Suddenly after 2 weeks of searching, I found my first jam! The man is Thierry Maillard. He is an French pianist/composeur, and I digged his style.

Right now this man is making orchestal music. but I still remember him for this kind of music. 

On 2/24/2017 at 1:49 PM, Casper Belier said:

CanI just say that when I got into jazz only a couple of weeks, i was listening to B.B. King and soul/ Blues music, just trying every music outlet to find new styles and ways of playing musicinto my head. Suddenly after 2 weeks of searching, I found my first jam! The man is Thierry Maillard. He is an French pianist/composeur, and I digged his style.

Sorry Casper - I can't seem to watch the video, maybe not available here in Canada. I did check out some of his other stuff - talented player for sure.  Some of his stuff leans into "easy listening" but I found others are a lot more interesting - very composed and tightly arranged:

Something about that reminds me of bassist / pianist Avishai Cohens stuff like this: 

One of my favourite jam session tunes that no one ever knows.....

JAMMERS - what tunes do you always want to call, but someone always doesn't know it?

Alright, not into standards .... that's cool.

How about some KENNY? 

PART II has some stunning early Azimith stuff with Norma Winstone and John Taylor: