I love keith jarrett so I am intrested in Mehldau the library has day is done, bright miss, don’t explain, house on hill, love sublime, metheny mehldau, and pilgrimage
They do not have the two metheny albums you mentioned. I have never even heard one of his albums but my jazz professor always praised him. What is classic in his discography?
@Brian
Hmm, if you like Jarrett, I don’t know if those are the best ones to choose (sorry!), although some of the titles are unfamilar to me. The ones you want is with his trio—Jorge Rossy and (the bassist’s name escapes me). I think Jeff Ballard may be on drums for some of them, too. Live at the Village Vanguard (especially #2 and #4) would be good.
Mehldau has a great left hand. What I love is when, during a solo, he’ll just take off and do these two-handed counter-point runs that have a classical feeling to them, but the music still swings. You know how jazz soloists are referred to as storytellers? Mehldau’s solos have an epic—long journey—quality to them. The guy has some serious chops (even if he’s not earth shatteringly innovative), and he’d definitely be a guy I’d want to hear live.
(I think some of the titles you mentioned are ones where he’s a sideman. He’s a pretty terrific accompanist, btw.)
Zorn is the one name I remember reading about. He has a Ornette Coleman influence right? I think I heard some of the Jazz metal stuff but really didn’t connect with it.
Well, Zorn did a cover of Ornette’s tunes, and I guess you could say he’s influenced by Ornette. (I’m not a big Ornette guy.)
Was it metal-jazz hybrid or metal-free jazz thing? Do you remember the albums/musicians?
I don’t know it was my friend Josh Dushane who played them. You may be following him on this site he used to be Col Dax and changed his name to something else.
@ Brian Courtney
If your looking for some phenomenal post 70’s Jazz. I recommend checking out Don Braden’s – ‘After Dark’.
The song “Creepin’” is a little too contemporary for my tastes. But the rest of the album is solid.
@ Jazzaloha
I have over Eight days of Jazz music on my computer. This could be the start of a beautiful friendship.
Double Post
@Brian
I know Dax, and I sort of know which groups he likes.
@Raw
Never heard the Braden album (Braden is an arranger and plays sax?). What’s the music like?
Who are some of your favorite musicians/albums?
“This could be the start of a beautiful friendship.”
Cool! just don’t call me, Louie. :)
@ Jazzaloha
Yes. Sometimes it’s Basie meets Lee Morgan meets Branford Marsalis. But occasionally its a little too Spyro Gyra meets the Rippingtons with Johnny Griffin on Tenor.
@ Brian Courtney
I also recommend Ran Blake’s – ‘The Short Life of Barbara Monk’
It’s good music, through and through.
OK, that (the Braden album), thanks.
What I’ve really been getting into lately is Alice Coltrane, Pharaoh Sanders and Sun Ra.
Zorn’s Spy vs. Spy is a take on Coleman.
I was really impressed with Book of Angels. The guy’s outpouring over the last three decades is truly amazing.
His range of influences is very broad, to say the least.
Hey Franz,
I’ve been meaning to check out Alice Coltrane, but haven’t gotten around to it.
@Dzimas
Yeah, Zorn definitely has a wide range of influences. Actually, a part of me thinks that could be a weakness—as in spreading yourself too thin. I like some of his Masada groups. What’s the instrumentation on Book of Angels?
Hey Franz,
I’ve been meaning to check out Alice Coltrane, but haven’t gotten around to it.
@Dzimas
Yeah, Zorn definitely has a wide range of influences. Actually, a part of me thinks that could be a weakness—as in spreading yourself too thin. I liked some of his Masada recordings.
String arrangements with African drums highlighting some of the group ensembles. I think there are now 14 CD’s in this series. I have listened to the first ten and liked the Bar Kokhba Sextet the best, but there is so much to draw from in this series. I think you sell Zorn way short, especially when you consider all the musicians who have worked with him over the years.
@Dzimas,
“I think you sell Zorn way short, especially when you consider all the musicians who have worked with him over the years.”
First, saying that he has weaknesses is not the same as dismissing his work. Second, are you implying that reputable musicians working with him prove that his music is good? I don’t agree with that. Good musicians can make bad music.
But I’m not really saying that Zorn’s music is bad. I do think that there are times when his music may suffer because he’s dealing with so many different influences. Think of a cook, who incorporates a lot of cooking styles and ingredients. That can be a good thing and a bad thing. The amount of influences can make it harder to find the right combinations; to distill the various techniques into something that blends together well.
I do think Zorn’s Masada works are among his more cohesive and organic pieces, though.
@Dzimas,
“I think you sell Zorn way short, especially when you consider all the musicians who have worked with him over the years.”
First, saying that he has weaknesses is not the same as dismissing his work. Second, are you implying that reputable musicians working with him prove that his music is good? I don’t agree with that. Good musicians can make bad music.
But I’m not really saying that Zorn’s music is bad. I do think that there are times when his music may suffer because he’s dealing with so many different influences. Think of a cook, who incorporates a lot of cooking styles and ingredients. That can be a good thing and a bad thing. The amount of influences can make it harder to find the right combinations; to distill the various techniques into something that blends together well.
I do think Zorn’s Masada works are among his more cohesive and organic pieces, though.
dp
Jazz musicians I like and love, mostly guitarists. Django Reinhardt, Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery, Lenny Breau, Pat Metheny, Bill Evans, Ted Greene, Charlie Parker, Charlie Christian, John Mclaughlin, Baden Powell.
I’ve heard of all those guys except for Ted Greene. What’s does he play and what’s his music like?
I just think you really haven’t made the effort to listen to him otherwise you wouldn’t dismiss him so casually as you have. Zorn is an excellent musician, an incredible composer, has a phenomenal range of influences, and a driving force second to none. I would hardly call those “weaknesses.”
Anyway, it seems the bias here is toward easy listening. To each his own.
^^Zorn is good, but he is kind of like the Quentin Tarantino of the ‘art music’ world. he just takes bits and pieces from everywhere and tries to do something creative with it. He is good, but he hasn’t really invented anything other than the jump-cut style which is pure novelty. that’s the reason he isn’t taken all that seriously outside of his little fan world.
He has made some good music though
one of the most interesting jazz albums i heard in the last few years was Steven Bernstein’s ‘Diaspora Suite’ released on Zorn’s Tzadik label. interesting fusion of jazz, world, rock, folk and the avantgarde. it’s melodic, but also dissonant with a touch of the surreal.
I’m also a fan of chamber jazz, which is not all that popular nowadays. Wayne Horvitz’s acclaimed ‘Far Out East’ is one of the better entries in that style i’ve heard in a while. not that i’m an expert on it.
Saw Sonny Rollins at a celebration of his 80th at Symphony Hall. Man, he can still put air in that horn So good he’s scary.
Still has those long beautiful melodic lines.
I like jazz, not a big fan of smooth jazz. I especially like Django Reinhardt, Martial Solal, Cab Calloway(I think he’s jazz). Anyon have any recommendations?
Jazz always springs to mind when I pick up a spoon. Other than that, I find it to be a dead genre.
Zorn is good, but he is kind of like the Quentin Tarantino of the ‘art music’ world.
Hard to figure out this comment, other than one of Zorn’s many interests being film noir. It is difficult to assess how much an innovator Zorn is anymore than it is any contemporary musician or composer, but I will say again that the width and breadth of his work is unrivaled in the present day, and this includes Tarantino ; )
I like the old standards as much as the next guy, especially as played by jazz giants like Sonny Rollins. But, I also like free jazz and composers who aren’t afraid to stretch the limits of this genre.
I had the chance to hear Charles Gayle in Vilnius a couple years back, and jazz simply doesn’t get any better than this. I also love David Ware and William Parker and much of the work I’ve heard come out of the Improvisers Collective in New York. Some of the free jazz goes too far in my opinion, like some of the odd combos Joe McPhee comes up. His pairing with Peter Brotzmann was simply too painful to listen to.
But, sadly free jazz is treated like a second cousin to jazz, either ignored outright or dismissed as discordant and hard to listen to. But, you know this is where John Coltrane and even Miles Davis took their music after listening to Ornette Coleman. And, Sun Ra took free jazz into the stratosphere. I know it is not everyone’s cup of tea, but don’t dismiss it simply because it doesn’t have a pleasant swing to it.
Jazzaloha
@Brian
I haven’t listened to all of those albums, so it’s hard to say. Of the ones I have some familarity with, I wouldn’t really recommend them for a first listen…but working with what you’ve got….you might want to try the trio with Carter and Motian (although I haven’t really heard much of that one). Unspeakable has some nice funky moments, and you’ll definitely got a sense of his voice on that. I guess I’d choose that or maybe Disfarmer which has the ethereal, medium-to-slow tempo vibe that Frisell really seems to like.
But again, a site like lala.com will let you listen to entire cuts (at least once), and I bet you could find more of his stuff.
Btw, what about John Zorn? Have you heard any of his stuff? He’s not entirely successful, imo, but he was doing some different things.
Are you interested in free jazz meets heavy metal sort of thing? I could recommend groups/musicians in that vein. (Actually, some of the music that combined these influences are some of the more interesting innovations during the 80s and 90s—although the resulting music probably would not be callled jazz.)