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A Thread for New Jazz

kjb

Proof reading not always a strength
There's rightly a lot of love around here for classic 50s/60s Jazz, as celebrated in the Jazz on Vinyl series and various posts about Miles Davis and others. During 2015 I bought plenty of back catalogue - replacing the RVG CDs with the fabulous Blue Note 75 vinyl reissues, yet another version of KoB - in mono this time - and finally getting Ornette Coleman's "Beauty" CD box.

However, the jazz I play most is recently released so I thought it would be worth seeing if there's interest in a jazz thread for new records rather than the legacy reissues.

Here's a few to kick things off:

Maria Schneider - The Thompson Fields: a beautiful, complex and superbly recorded record of orchestral jazz, only available on CD via Artist Share. Schneider worked on the a track on Bowie's Blackstar and the saxophonist on the Bowie record is in her band. The music is closer to Gil Evans than Bowie but has some great improvisations on it.
http://www.mariaschneider.com

Charles Lloyd: Wild Man Dance - a live show from a few years ago released last year. In a tradition from both John and Alice Coltrane with a jazz quarter playing alongside two Greek instrumentalists - and sounds much better than that promises.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00TXW3OKO/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

Matana Roberts - COIN COIN Chapter Three: river run thee - on the verges of jazz and noise - this is a great series, the latest has sax and voice against electronic and found sounds. Compelling but not party music.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00QF91RKC/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

Mary Halvorson - Meltframe - picking up from ( and playing with) Marc Ribot - a solo jazz guitar record that blends jazz playing with distortion and electronic effects. This is a record of covers but nothing sounds familiar even with tunes I know well
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0133G18B2/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21



So what else have you got? For me, current jazz builds on the tradition - it's not museum music and, as I said above, the new stuff gets played even more than the archive. Labels like Pi and ACT have lots of good records but , other than this, it's not always easy to find anew stuff and I tend to catch up via end of year articles - hence the thread

Kevin
 
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I'm a fan of ECM's jazz releases, especially by artistes like Manu Katche, Keith Jarrett, Ketil Bjornstad, Tomaz Stanko, Enrico Rava, Charles Lloyd and Paul Motian.

Some are acquired tastes and take a bit of listening to get used to, but generally highly listenable stuff.
 
You can't beat ECM or the ACT Lable both produce some excellent releases, on ECM check out Colin Vallons album Le Vent, excellent moody jazz piano, also check out Nik Bartesch albums these are fantastic especially the live album. On ACT I like EST trio, Soriba Koyate and Arne Jansen. There's also an excellent French Lable called Lable bleu, check out Henri Texier material, fantastic stuff
 
I've subscribed to this thread, could be good!

I like V2.0 by GoGo Penguin and Fletcher Moss Park by Matthew Halsall.
 
Anyone got any views on Soweto Kinch? He was on Andrew Neil's Thus Week political program this week and seemed like a very decent bloke/sax player.

PS Big recommendation, again, for Kamasi Washington's more than somewhat epic The Epic.
 
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Pirouet is another label to watch:

http://www.pirouet.com/home/news.php

Their releases rarely disappoint but here are a few that stand out for me:

http://www.pirouet.com/home/album.php?release=PIT3053
http://www.pirouet.com/home/album.php?release=PIT3026
http://www.pirouet.com/home/album.php?release=PIT3071
http://www.pirouet.com/home/album.php?release=PIT3052

The Lang/Konitz collaboration is rather beautiful, although I suppose it might be too close to older jazz styles for this thread.

The pianist Michael Wollny is one of the greatest talents in European jazz at the moment. Try to catch his trio live if you can - awesome technique and an amazing musical imagination. Of his discography, I'd recommend anything with the [em] trio, especially:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0010SU4EI/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003TLRK6E/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

Here he is, solo, with an unusual selection of original material and the odd cover:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000MTEDV6/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

Finally, an unusual collaboration with a harpsichord/celeste player:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DRP1RWU/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

The "big-band" version included in the above edition is especially good.

Among recent ECM releases, I highly recommend Ralph Alessi's Baida:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00BY1F9SM/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

Oblique and musically fascinating while remaining relatively accessible.

There's loads more - whoever says jazz is dead just isn't paying attention.
 
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I've subscribed to this thread, could be good!

I like V2.0 by GoGo Penguin and Fletcher Moss Park by Matthew Halsall.

I'll check out the GoGo Penguin record.

I recently picked up the last two Matthew Halsall records, "When the World Was One" and "Into Forever" - quite different both pretty good - reminded me a bit of Cinematic Orchestra which is a good thing.

I've also got some records by Nat Birchall, who plays sax on some of the Halsall records. Live in Larisa - now sold out I think - was a great live record and Invocations from last year is ace - like the Charles Lloyd very influenced by A Love Supreme but filtered through Alice Coltrane as well. The vinyl pressing I picked up sounds fabulous.
 
Anyone got any views on Soweto Kinch? He was on Andrew Neil's Thus Week political program this week and seemed like a very decent bloke/sax player.

I saw him play tracks from his album The Legend of Mike Smith last year at Walthamstow Assembly Hall. I was a bit dubious at first about the tracks where he was rapping to a backing track on a laptop but he totally won me over - aside from anything else he's a consummate showman!

To my ear there was a touch of Ornette blues wailing in his playing which works very well. His trio also featured the excellent drummer Moses Boyd from Moses & Binker.
 
Gogo Penguin, Trichotomy and Phronesis are all worth a listen if you liked EST. I really like Nik Bartsch too
 
Anyone got any views on Soweto Kinch? He was on Andrew Neil's Thus Week political program this week and seemed like a very decent bloke/sax player.

PS Big recommendation, again, for Kamasi Washington's more than somewhat epic The Epic.

I bought A Life in the Day of B19: Tales of the Tower Block a few years back - a jazz -hip-hop hybrid pre Lamar/Washington.
 
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I'll check out the GoGo Penguin record.

I recently picked up the last two Matthew Halsall records, "When the World Was One" and "Into Forever" - quite different both pretty good - reminded me a bit of Cinematic Orchestra which is a good thing.

I've also got some records by Nat Birchall, who plays sax on some of the Halsall records. Live in Larisa - now sold out I think - was a great live record and Invocations from last year is ace - like the Charles Lloyd very influenced by A Love Supreme but filtered through Alice Coltrane as well. The vinyl pressing I picked up sounds fabulous.

Yep, all the stuff on Gondwana are excellent - the early Halsall recordings are truly amazing. http://www.gondwanarecords.com/ There is certainly an energetic buzz to UK jazz at the moment. I would also seek out Portico Quartet, now just 'Portico' with a change in musical direction.

Not quite new, but is you like the whole EST type of sound, then Bad Plus, who I think are superior need investigating.
 
You might want to check out Wally Shoup, Chris Corsano and Paul Flaherty.

'Bounced Check' is rather nice IMHO.

Good topic!
 
Yep, all the stuff on Gondwana are excellent - the early Halsall recordings are truly amazing. http://www.gondwanarecords.com/ There is certainly an energetic buzz to UK jazz at the moment. I would also seek out Portico Quartet, now just 'Portico' with a change in musical direction.

Not quite new, but is you like the whole EST type of sound, then Bad Plus, who I think are superior need investigating.

I like odd bits from The Bad Plus, EST, Sons of Kemet, Get The Blessing, Kairos 4tet ... these feature on my jazz playlist on Spotify but I never found albums I liked as a whole.
 
Oh, goody! Going to have to work my way through this thread, lots of new suggestions here.

Some I continue to enjoy:

Told Gustavsen - 6 albums on ECM. All gems, all in much the same mould.

Solveig Slettahjell and the Slow Motion Orchestra

Michael Borstlap - the North Sea Jazz compilation is great.

Keep em coming, chaps!
 
I like odd bits from The Bad Plus, EST, Sons of Kemet, Get The Blessing, Kairos 4tet ... these feature on my jazz playlist on Spotify but I've never found albums from these that I got all the way through.

Yes, I know what you mean - if being honest I often skip tracks, though BPs own compositions are sublime.

Folks, who like the Coltrane/Sanders approach may like to delve into the 'Spiritual Jazz World' group on FB. There is admittedly little new stuff, but I have discovered a whole new world of material with some long forgotten gems being posted - could be a wallet busting experience though!
 
I like odd bits from The Bad Plus, EST, Sons of Kemet, Get The Blessing, Kairos 4tet ... these feature on my jazz playlist on Spotify but I never found albums I liked as a whole.

I really like Sons of Kemet - both times I've seen them they've been fantastic and I'm looking forward to seeing them again later in the year. I'm not sure the LPs (on Naim!) really capture the energy of the band.
 
That's one of the good things about embracing current jazz - seeing people at the time they're making good new music rather than legends trading on past glories - although seeing Ornette in 2007 was one of the very best shows I've ever seen.

For Bad Plus fans, try Vijay Iyer -


He has a tune named after Detroit techno DJ Robert Hood -
 
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+1 for Hadouk Trio

I just got "In an Ambient Way" by Powerhouse, themes from IASW and other Miles re-done in an excellent, fairly faithful and straight-ahead way. "Ambient" I think refers to the binaural recording process which sounds superb. It's on the Chesky label.
 


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