Don't know too much about this guy, but I found him after realizing this morning that the Fender Rhodes sound is one of the loveliest sounds ever concocted and subsequently downloading everything Rhodes in sight. Here's a nice list if you're jonesin' like me. "Soft Hands Had the Rain" is hitting the spot today.
Oh, and if you like this stuff, go over to OPIUM HUM and get all the choice Lonnie Liston Smith albums he's been posting over there, and check out this list too.
Saw these guys over at UCLA tonight. The kind of captivating performance you'd expect from three of the best at what they do - the first two songs were subdued, then Keith started in with one of those funky stride melodies, a little Afro-Cuban rhythm... some magical playing, and plenty of wry, I'm-not-really-trying-to-entertain-you-with-my banter from the man at the keys. When someone's crickets ringtone went off during a ballad, I thought he was going to give us a good tongue-lashing...
Here's the album that started off the Standards group 30 years ago. Seems appropriate... enjoy it, weird Keith whines and all! Yeah, there was a lot of that tonight, and a lot of butt wigglin'...
(They played this tonight for one of the encores, it made the lady in front of me really happy...)
Damn, did I see some good jazz tonight... Players working with one another, listening, a mix of individuals styles always contributing to the sound of the whole, rhythm... if you get a chance, see this group when they come to your town.
Jazz is ______:
- Touch, the patience/audacity to work against the beat of the rhythm section, until you burst into sync with arpeggio runs on that sweet sounding hollowbody
- Big ringing McCoy Tyner chords filling it out on baby grand
- The delicacy and deliberation (and wrist control!) on the kit
- Walking bass
- Those BIG open notes jutting out of the trumpet pointed triumphantly at the ceiling/sky
- Green leather boots, polka-dot pocket squares, and a nearly brimless hat
Going off this rush, I share with you one of my favorite all-around jazz records, one I started thinking of during the evening (probably because of the hand drums on "Garvey's Ghost," a tune that always blows me away thanks to the late, inimitable Ms. Abbey Lincoln). Chances are you know it already, but if not, give it a spin, it'll have you from the start.This is a powerful stuff, with taste at every turn, and the flooring runs of Eric Dolphy on whatever he chooses to blow into at the time.
A band briefly together in the late 60's, I know they made this recording and the beautiful Forest Flower but not sure what else. Not sure where it was recorded. Like Jarrett's best solo work of the 70's, a solid, funky foundation that goes pretty far out, but nothing you could call "free" or "out-", not to my ears. Gorgeous jazz for late nights or sunny days.
So, the hotel room I'm in has a wifi connection so slow it's making me dream of screeching dial-up noises and the family PC... but I'm not going to let this sudden wind of blogging inspiration go unheeded. I've been away for a bit, wondering about the point of doing this, feeling like there's very little "community building" going on, just a lot of download-and-run (like I'm one to talk)... then one of my very favorite blogs, Invisible Arteries, got shut down...
All this to say, no big revelatory moment about why I'm suddenly anxious to post again. I think I'm still working towards that ideal of music sharing in an internet community, with no illusions (at least) that one day the daily effort that goes into blogging could disappear. Despite all this, I enjoy the search, finding something new to listen to, and someone with a fresh perspective on the music that strikes them.
***
Nana Vasconcelos is someone I've been listening to quite a bit over the past few months, from his work with Codona to his solo excursions... This session of duets with Antonello Salis, an Italian pianist (who says in the liner notes that his then-inspiration was Keith Jarrett... a man after my own heart), sounds like a perfect match to me. With Salis on piano and accordion and Vasconcelos on everything else under the sun, what we get is something improvised, yet more energized/dense that his Codona forays...
Here's the title track as a preview, an astonishingly beautiful number whose mood parallels a Chris Marker short that stands as the cutest internet cat video of all time:
And the cute cat for comparison (thanks as usual, Jason Urick)...
...because I've been gone, again, for quite a while. But I've got a backlog of vinyl to share. And guess who found a great record shop right around the corner from his house? ;) Thanks, Mono Records, for these two selections.
1.
Man, do I love this album. It's got just about everything, from laid-back, funky moments to full-out exploration on the part of our man Ron. With my main man Herbie on the keys, you can't go wrong. I really enjoy the numbers with Ron, Herbie, and Billy Cobham on the second half, breathtaking! Here's "Little Waltz" from a concert in the '80's, same personnel:
I've really been getting into ol' Mr. Jarrett lately. When I find a copy, I'll be sure to put up Treasure Island, that's the album for me right now. I love the straightforward, rootsy feeling of some of Keith's piano lines, like something Vince Guaraldi would play (See "De Drums" on side 2). Balance that with some very free interplay with some stalwarts from Ornette Coleman's camp (Dewey Redman and Charlie Haden) and the incomparable drumming of Paul Motian... Can I get some live jazz like this in LA, please?
(This video is a performance from the same period of the Jarrett band. Maybe some of the recordings are the same?)
So, I've been away again, and it's been a long week... the news roundup tells me we've got vigilante justice going on in LA, killings of a left-party leader in Tunisia... I feel a need with all this media saturation (and my own life) to take a little breather the best way I know, listening to both sides of an album, a different kind of, more extended experience of medium.
Oh, how I forgot about this one. "Smoke Signals", "Coltrane's View", I'm Gonna Leave You by Yourself", "Silver Cycles" itself... this is one hot slice that was just the right amount of bass and dialogue between horns, voice and drums to convince me (again) that music is our language (allow me to be vague and sweeping, like une vague). Throw some more delay on that delay, Eddie and co.!
For some reason I thought this was a Harold Land collab., guess I'm confusing it with this, not that that's a problem. To be honest, I don't know what album I've given you, because there are way more tracks here than on the original, and according to discogs, "Alone Together" is missing. But, you do get their rendition of "Moonlight in Vermont", one of the best for my money that I've heard so far. Dorothy always knows how to soothe my aching head with those fingers.
(BTW, this is not the cover I have, I just love the extra verbiage :) )
I don't know if I'd call this record "almost psychedelic", which is how my old pal Dr. Jazz at the Baltimore Soundgarden record store described it to me. But I'm sure glad he did, because that was a serious selling point for a heady youth like myself...
What I can say is that if you love Bill Evans' piano work, why wouldn't you want to hear him play three pianos simultaneously through the magic of overdubbing?!?!
Seriously, a beautiful record, in the moment I'm writing this, I'm listening to what's gotta be the highlight for me, the final track, "Sleepin' Bee". I'm not much for the cult of genius (except when I'm hyperbolizing, which is, like, ALL THE TIME), but...you know.
Because we're all in a festive mood right now, at the end of Election Day...
A beautiful album that just may get me started on a love for Latin jazz one of these days. Thank you for the recommendation back in the day, Dr. Jazz @ Sound Garden Baltimore! As I listen to the lyrics of "Everything is Everything" right after hearing Obama's victory speech, here's hoping for the next four years...
Here's a youtube preview of one of my favorite cuts from the album, "My Spiritual Indian":
