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A Thread for New Jazz

Great thread. Lots to work my way through. Of the albums mentioned upthread the Brad Mehldau Trio - Blues and Ballads is the stand out for me. Simply beautiful. Here are some recommendations from me in no particular order:

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Two different Avishai Cohens. The one below plays trumpet.

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I find a lot of the new jazz artists to be overhyped. Most of it is derivative and regurgitates what has come before while acting as if it is the latest 'new' thing. What I've heard so far of Robert Glasper, Kamasi Washington, Sons of Kemet or Yazz Ahmed does not exactly make me want to rush out and buy their albums. As far as I am concerned, the current jazz scene is not in a particularly interesting place at the moment. Sure, some of it may be great to be experienced live (as jazz music should be), but I don't feel the compulsion to own or listen to the albums. I don't hear anything especially original or innovative.

Having been an active listener for decades, I find that I am now buying fewer albums by new artists than ever. I am still interested in new music by old artists or those who have been active for more than 10 or 15 years. For instance, I really like Vijay Iyer, Dave Douglas, John Zorn, Brad Mehldau, Ahmad Jamal, Nik Bartsch, William Parker, etc but these musicians have been around for a long while. I am still listening and buying lots of music but just a lot of old stuff.

Or, perhaps I am just showing my age...
 
It's your age - I'm pretty certain of that because it's my problem too. I'm not sure there is anything new under the sun but there's still good stuff to seek out even if, like you, I tend to get frustrated with both i) "new stuff" that is really just reheated old stuff and ii) new stuff that isn't as good as the old stuff I could have been listening to.

The "new things" that I've enjoyed recently include the Jamie Branch CD -


and this from Irreversible Entanglements.


See what you think

Kevin
 
hockman said:
I find a lot of the new jazz artists to be overhyped. Most of it is derivative and regurgitates what has come before while acting as if it is the latest 'new' thing. What I've heard so far of Robert Glasper, Kamasi Washington, Sons of Kemet or Yazz Ahmed does not exactly make me want to rush out and buy their albums. As far as I am concerned, the current jazz scene is not in a particularly interesting place at the moment. Sure, some of it may be great to be experienced live (as jazz music should be), but I don't feel the compulsion to own or listen to the albums. I don't hear anything especially original or innovative.

Having been an active listener for decades, I find that I am now buying fewer albums by new artists than ever. I am still interested in new music by old artists or those who have been active for more than 10 or 15 years. For instance, I really like Vijay Iyer, Dave Douglas, John Zorn, Brad Mehldau, Ahmad Jamal, Nik Bartsch, William Parker, etc but these musicians have been around for a long while. I am still listening and buying lots of music but just a lot of old stuff.

Or, perhaps I am just showing my age...
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David Virelles is a relatively young pianist and has released a couple of really interesting albums on ECM. I'm not sure if they'll meet your stringent criteria for "newness" though.


 
Hudson by Dejohnette, Grenadier, Medeski & Scofield is being released on vinyl tomorrow.

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I have the above 'Hudson' as a CD since a while.
While it's kind of nice, in my view there's nothing exceptionally about it, nothing I would loose sleep about if I would not own it.
It's by no means bad...I'd buy this as CD but no way as a record.
I never have a feeling 'oh, I HAVE to hear this CD again' like I have with many other artists creations.
To me it's ok, but not hot or must-have...YMMV of course.. :)

To describe it, I feel it's not deep enough...by no means bad, but as if a little commercial rasp has been cutting some edges that make things the more interesting
to please people who are not Jazz guys originally..or to reach a wider public.
Not a really commercial output..but it has a little by-taste in that direction to me.
Positive: The old De Johnette is much leass eager to show off compared to former times and his skill to make great things with very little effort is a real pleasure to listen to...especially as a drummer.
 
Not even slightly new but I believe Dinosaur have a new album out this week:


It's an excellent album, strongly influenced by electric-era Miles Davis.

I've no idea why it's taken me so long to get round to hearing it as I've enjoyed Laura Jurd's previous work.
 
OK, I'm a Dinosaur convert, and rushed out to buy the new album yesterday:


Love the progtastic keyboards in the latter half of this tune.

The album is just 37 minutes long but a lot happens in that time. I'm still getting my ears round it.
 
Peter McDermott said:
Just read through the thread and added to a playlist as I've gone along. Dom't think I saw it mentioned so I'd suggest:

Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah The Centennial Trilogy available on Bandcamp

https://christianscott.bandcamp.com/album/the-centennial-trilogy

Beats meets jazz and more. I 've played it over and over.
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Just tried a couple of tracks of The Centennial Trilogy on Bandcamp. Sounds great, beautiful trumpet tone, definitely one to come back to when I have more time Thanks for the tip.
 
My absolute favourite and not mentioned on this thread is Esperanza Spalding. Check out her albums as they're all different. Matthew Stevens who plays guitar on her last two albums is also worthy listen.
 
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