BFT 49 - Discussion

[Nate Dorward]

No, please go ahead!

My guess for one track of Bergin's SONG MOB is almost certainly wrong, incidentally. Corkestra's a better bet, surely.

[mikeweil]

Finally, my two cents. Sorry to be so late, but we were on vacation and I hardly have the time for concentrazed listening which all of these carefully assembled discs deserve. I didn't peak at any guesses or use search engines etc.

Track 1: A track full of surprises: Pianist starts out in a Monkish fashion, but then the drummer comes in and lends it a puckish pulsation; the cello takes it in yet another direction. Nice as an overture (which may have been the reason you selected it), but as a standalone track it would leave me dissatisfied.

Track 2: Uhmm .... I never was a fan of singing and picking by the fireplace. Its naivitée is not without charm, and it navigates the threshold to folky kitsch successfully. But the lack of ryhthmic synchronicity between all of them leans towards an amateurish approach still gets on my nerves. Someone with an American background probably can relate to that - I cannot.

Track 3: Is this supposed to be "Thelonious"? Usually I'm not a fan of Monk's rhythmic intricacies beeing tempered with, but this seems to work - but it's way too short and seems to serve as a transition, much like track 1.

Track 4: A nice ballad treatment - the name of the standard stays hidden in my unconscious - but a bit too laid back for my taste, I wish the tenor player would have been a bit more adventurous. But whoever this is knows what he wants to do. Judging from the sound it must be a rathe recent recording. But, as with all preceding tracks, I have no idea who this could be.

Track 5: This track's intensity curve goes straight up, down, and back up and down again. Not to my taste but fully realized, though I do not get its message.

Track 6: The vibes sound is almost early Milt Jackson. Rather authentic i.e. Brazilian sounding bossa nova treatment. Nice. Very nice. The counterpoint between vibes and the horns is unusual for that genre. Is that Jack Sheldon playing the trumpet solo? Could be a mixed band of West Coast and Brazilian musicians - guitarist sounds very much Brazilian. Is the whole album like this? If so .....

Track 7: Nice how they get themselves together after that scattered intro. Verrry nice mixture of circus band and jazz. Like it a lot. Trumpet player is very good! All are good.

Track 8: Nice but not deep enough for me, or simply beneath me. My fault.

Track. 9: Very forlorn sax sound. Like cautiously trying to find the notes - the whole music - again after being traumatized very badly. Would like to hear more of that band.

Track 10: Okay they're downright angry, not intimidated like the guys before. I like the former treatment much better. Not enough variety in this track.

Track 11: That's more to my taste. Nice how it turns to be "Purple Gazelle". On the whole I think the pianist takes to many liberties with the changes and the rhythmics. It's more challenging and difficult to stay closer and still do your thing. When they start the solos over the straight 4/4 swing groove it could be anything. More connection between theme and solo, please!

Track 12: Consequently realized, but I don't listen too much of that kind of thing anymore.

Track 13: I hate equally tempered tuning with strings - like sucking on a lemon. In fact the whole ensemble is out of tune. Awful! Less sentimentality and better intonation and it would sound a lot better. The idea itself is nice.

Track 14: Similar conception, but much better in tune, although this still sounds like most musicians are not aware of the intonation problems occurring with sich instrument combinations. Some lone Frisell type guitar - again a nice idea overall.

Track 15: That rhythm had me from the start! Nice how the pianist accompanies the bassist when he carries the theme. My favourite track so far. Who is this?

Track 16: Some serious calypso infected tune. Great clarinet - very Carribean and deepyl jazzy at the same time. But these are jazz players. Nice how they interlock. Another winner for me. Now this is a case where Carribean percussion would have spoiled it. They got the idea! Singer has a very nice warm timbre. Is this some Gunter Hampel unit with Jeanne Lee? Only the flutist is not to my liking, and the writing at the end sounds "German" to me.

Track 17: If he would do this with less hectic/percussive phrasing I could like it.

Track 18: There's a nice Monkish substream in this BT - Brilliant Corners, isn't it? Very unique way of treating this!!! Taking Monk back to some musique de salon and inserting those trills when nobody espects them anymore .... How's the remainder of the disc you got this from? Another favorite!

More to follow. Please don't take it personal when I dislike some - I enjoyed listening a lot, and two or three are serious candidates for the buying list. Thanks very much for the care with which you programmed the tracks - excellent job!

[Tom Storer]

OK, I still have four more tracks to comment, but the first 32 have been ready for a while, so I might as well put them up now and get around to the remainder when I can!

These are my frank impressions, written without researching or anything... I won't make too much of a fool of myself with wrong guesses since in most cases I can't even make a guess!

1. Can't think of the title. An Andrew-Hill-like rhythmic approach in the piano. Good bowing by the bass. I'd say a European group, no idea who.

2. The text has got to be by Edward Gorey, no? Enjoyable performance, although what's jazz about it is hard to guess. Off the top of my head I'd guess some connection with the Canterbury school of Anglo-jazz, or perhaps a Michael Mantler connection, but again I don't really have a clue.

3. A familiar tune, as usual I can't think of the title. Rather quickly dispatched with! More from Europe, I think.

4. Lovely. The sax and bass sound very familiar, but I suspect it's because they're cultivated young players who have learned their lessons well. I can't think of who exactly would fit the bill here.

5. For the first few seconds I thought of Cecil, but no. Then I wondered if it wasn't from Jarrett's latest solo onanism. Don't think so. Whoever it is is a fine pianist, but this kind of cold athleticism does absolutely nothing for me.

6. Ah, that's more like it! Love the sound of the vibes, and the horn solos are lots of fun.

7. A little too cute for me. The oompah-oompah rhythm gets old fast. More Europeans? I could see this coming out of Holland or Austria.

8. Good players, but it meanders a bit. I think it might appeal more in the context of the album it's set in.

9. Love the alto sax, who evokes Konitz at the beginning, and the interplay with the bass. They sound like they're really into it. The percussionist sometimes intrudes a bit too obviously with cymbal sounds. A shame this is so short--I'll be interested to learn who this is.

10. This sounds very dated to my ears. The bass walks and the drums play a swing-ish rhythm as fast as they are able while the tenor just blows and blows, but there's no actual tune or changes I can discern to give it shape, and the improvised content is kind of thin, IMHO. As I grow older I have less interest in this kind of thing.

11. Enjoyable--the most traditional tune yet. The trio works together very well. No clue who it could be.

12. I like this a lot better than number 10. Much the same scenario, but this time they're using their wits. It's not the same guys, is it?

13. Pleasant, although again the connection to "jazz" is somewhat tenuous. Sounds like a Dutch thing to me.

14. Same comments as above. Beautiful trumpet.

15. Fun, and performed with brio. Maybe I have Holland on the mind, but this also sounds Dutch to me.

16. Nice, but a little décousu as the French would say, in other words, too loose (Lautrec, har har). I recognize Jeanne Lee on vocals, always a pleasure, and a clue that the bass clarinet may be Gunter Hampel. Good players, and the Carribean thing is an easy way to have some fun, but it sounds perfunctory. And I could do without the flute(s).

17 & 18. I know, because you said so in the email giving the Rapidshare links, that these are by the same pianist. Quite a good pianist he is, too. Must be European--something about the rhythmic attitude, which is rather po-faced. (OK, unforgiveable stereotype, I know--but lots of European pianists play solo jazz as if they were giving a recital in a tuxedo.) No. 18 revealed itself to be a Monk tune in the final stretch--you know, one of those Monk tunes. Pick one. ;-)

19. Very, very nice. "What Is This Thing Called Love." No clue who it is, since every time I stick my head out of the trench there's another dozen brilliant young virtuoso saxophonists out there. I do guess that it's a player considerably younger than the era this Rollinsian performance harks back to, and that they're Americans. The tenor player is Lovano-like in his strong technique and his knowledge of the tradition (but it's not Lovano). Fantastic bassist, too--that pretty chord at the end of his solo (3:19)! The drummer is intriguing--he has a impressionistic thing that reminds me of European drummers, but an American style of interaction (don't ask me for specifics, I'm just talking off the top of my head).

20. God, what a bore! I shuffled in my seat, coughed and looked at my watch.

21 & 22. More Euro-piano. Admirably done, but see comments to 17 & 18.

23. Good, aggressive saxophonist. Not really my cup of tea, though--somewhere between no. 10 and no. 12. He's got a lot of facility and a nice sound, but his solo is little more than a workout to show off his chops. I would have preferred to have just heard the theme.

24. "What Is This Thing Called Love," played (with sphincter tightly clenched) at a knuckle-busting pace for no good reason that I can think of. This kind of thing makes me long to hear Red Garland.

25 & 26. Two tenor players. Interesting textures, I guess. This would probably be better listened to in the context of whatever album it's from.

27. I don't know if this is Andrew Hill, but if not the pianist seems to be emulating Hill's sound and phrasing. In general I like this sort of thing, but this particular piece seems to spend all its time preparing to go somewhere or do something--but in the end they remain where they started. A bit frustrating.

28. I realize, listening to this BFT, that I'm not a great fan of solo piano (well, OK, I already knew that). The whole point of this seems to be to display the pianist's facility and knowledge of both the classical and improvised domains. But so what?

29. This might have been fun to witness live, but it's kind of thin gruel, IMHO. They improvise a little and do some impolite thumping, apparently to disrupt the expectations of polite delivery that classical-sounding music brings with it, and I guess this is supposed to show that they're either fun-loving imps, creatively transgressive, or serious intellectuals. Or all three. Or something. I just find it pretty obvious.

30. Aaaaah. Nice to kick back and listen to some JAZZ for once!

31. Very pleasant. Sounds like a two-part classical etude played by jazz saxophonists.

32. Kind of grim for my tastes, but well-done.

[gnhrtg]

Nice to see a few more responses. I'll post the answers on Monday. Two more days to post final thoughts and guesses.

[mikeweil]

I'll try my best to comment on the second half until then!

[mikeweil]

More guesses, finally .....

Track 19: Nice sax trio - I like him the most, and I am sure I have heard him before, nice style, modern, but not too lost in navigating the changes, taking some interesting rhythmic turns. Like Getz², in a way. Drummer sounds like a crossing between Bill Stewart and Paul Motian, but I do not like the sound of his drums. Bassist is very good, but doesn't grab me as much as the saxist. What is this thing called jazz, this funny thing called jazz .....?

Track 20: Starts as stately as a John Lewis arrangement. The flutist uses a little too much vibrato for my taste and is a little stiff in his phrasing - a classical guy? The tune is very interesting, especially its rhythmic setting. Sounds like it is all written out. Would have been nicer if the flutist had taken turns with the muted trumpet in stating the theme. In the end, there are too many repeats, not enough development.

Track 21. I like my free style solo piano rather in ballad tempo, like Paul Bley in slow motion. Okay Sir, what do you wanna say?

Track 22: same as track 21, in spite of the Monkish chords. What's the use of hinting at Just You Just me at the end when there's practically no relation to it during the impro?

Track 23: Alto cat has a nice cutting tone, but wails a bit too much. Drummer's wailing, too. Nothing wrong about this, it's just that I've grown a little tired of this. Saxist has nice exuberant spirit in the theme statements.

Track 24: Again: What is this thing called jazz, this funny thing called jazz .....? Other than that, same as track 21.

Track 25 & 26: I tend to think these duets are for saxists only, or sax freaks, which I am not. I dunno, my fault, of course.

Track 27: The conversational aspect of this makes it quite interesting. One of those pianos is prepared some? On the whole, it sounds too random for me, rhythmically.

Track 28: Wild take on some Bach invention? He/she takes some chances with this. Yeah! Why not?

Track 29: Two cellos? Not my favourite stringer, but they got humor. Hah! Peter and the wolf .... Why do celist play in the upper register when they get intonation trouble up there? Get a violin! And I'll get so far as to like vibrato with strings .....

Track 30: Another saxist I seem to know but cannot pinpoint. Interesting tone.

Track 31: Warne Marsh and Gary Foster doing a Bach Invention? Jazz saxists will have to cover some ground before they can improvise counterpoint on that level!

Track 32: More cello - If he'd use gut strings and lower string tension, I could like it.

Track 33: Sounds like a jazz pianist's improvisory take on John Cage's Atlas Eclipticalis ..... is this one or two players. Hmmm .... would listen to more of these.

Track 34: Happy ramblin'. Same as track 21, again.

Track 35: I like this a little better. Do I hear a distant reference to a Monk tune?

Track 36: Seems I'm more in the mood for calmer music these days. Two pianists again.

Thanks again for the excellent programming, the thoughtful choices - a great compilation, it's only that I'm not in the mood for much of this. Not your fault! Very interesting ride, for sure! Now off to the others' guesses and the answers.