David Bowie has died.

[sidewinder]

Great pic - of Bowie, Ronson and the old British Rail breakfast.

[Rooster_Ties]

I would honestly take all of Bowie's post-"Tin Machine" output to that perverbial desert island, over everything pre-"Tin Machine".

Cat wrote some great tunes in the 70's and 80's, but he was better (all-around), and in his prime -- at least for me -- from about 1995-2004.

[Stefan Wood]

I'll have to relisten to the post Tin Machine stuff.  The albums from the 90s I found more searching for ideas than realizing a concept.  But then the 90s was a strange musical period.

[Rooster_Ties]

52 minutes ago, Stefan Wood said:

I'll have to relisten to the post Tin Machine stuff.  The albums from the 90s I found more searching for ideas than realizing a concept.  But then the 90s was a strange musical period.

Bear in mind, it may take a few spins for some of it to get into your bones.  I didn't fall in love with all of it instantly, but over time (a couple years for each album), more and more has wormed its way into my brain.  I'd stay away from Hours (which I find kind of tame, and a bit too 'pretty', and some of it pretty boring, to be frank) but otherwise all of his other ISO Records releases between '95-'04 are top drawer (I've grown to love ~80% of the tracks of each).

By comparison, I'm only sort of 'half-in-love' (at best) with the earlier (pre-"Tin Machine") albums (including even his very most popular 'classic' 70's albums).  And anything before Station To Station (which I do like, especially the tune "Stay") -- but anything before Station To Station just sounds horribly dated to me.  (I've never been able to get into all the Ziggy stuff much at all, for instance.)  Station To Station, Low, Lodger, Scary Monsters - those all work for me somewhat better -- but I'd still take almost anything from the 90's/00's over them too.

As far as Tin Machine goes, I'm of two minds.  When I'm in the right mood, it's really great stuff -- but I'm not always in that mood (and when I'm not, it doesn't do nearly as much for me).  I seem to remember liking the first Tin Machine album better than the second.  I only spin them once or twice every couple years, at most - but should dig them back out again soon.

Edited January 13, 2016 by Rooster_Ties

[Scott Dolan]

David Bowie has always been a curiosity to me. While I love tunes like Space Oddity, I'm Afraid Of Americans, and the astonishing Golden Years, I am still unable to really get into his music as a whole. What I've heard of the new one sounds interesting, but I still don't know that I'll ever own it. 

Either way, I do have a great deal of respect for him as an artist, and recognize everything he did for entertainment in general. 

[Soulstation1]

I liked all the pop hits off of Lets Dance

RIP DB

 

Edited January 14, 2016 by Soulstation1

[Hot Ptah]

On Tuesday, January 12, 2016 at 6:19 PM, Chuck Nessa said:

I always found it interesting he hired his "cousin" Lester for the Black Tie White Noise project.

 

I have always wondered, did Lester get a big payday for that album, or was he paid a session musician's scale? Do you know, Chuck?

 

Unfortunately that has to be one of Bowie's least memorable albums overall, not because of Lester Bowie's contributions.

[Chuck Nessa]

1 hour ago, Hot Ptah said:

 

I have always wondered, did Lester get a big payday for that album, or was he paid a session musician's scale? Do you know, Chuck?

 

Unfortunately that has to be one of Bowie's least memorable albums overall, not because of Lester Bowie's contributions.

Lester would not have done it for scale. As I understand it, D Bowie was friends with Joe Bowie and made arrangements through him.

[Hot Ptah]

1 hour ago, Chuck Nessa said:

Lester would not have done it for scale. As I understand it, D Bowie was friends with Joe Bowie and made arrangements through him.

Oh, that is interesting. It seems to be that Joseph Bowie was involved with some funk type bands in New York in the 1980s. I saw Joseph perform with Defunkt, and it was a combination of jazz and funk. It was quite good, and Joseph soloed well.

[Joe]

Nile Rodgers is the key linkage here.

 

[JSngry]

2 hours ago, Joe said:

Nile Rodgers is the key linkage here.

 

Yeah, people distraught over the whole Chic in RR HOF thing might be well advised to back off and reconsider the bigger picture and the longer game just a little bit.

[Joe]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Yeah, people distraught over the whole Chic in RR HOF thing might be well advised to back off and reconsider the bigger picture and the longer game just a little bit.

How many dudes have worked with both Joe Raposo and Madonna?

My wife just finished reading Nile's autobiography. She highly recommends it.

[Late]

On January 13, 2016 at 10:19 AM, Rooster_Ties said:

... anything before Station To Station just sounds horribly dated to me.  (I've never been able to get into all the Ziggy stuff much at all, for instance.) 

Have to at least post a contrasting opinion here. The new (as of September) Five Years box set is fairly amazing. The music doesn't sound dated to me at all. But this might simply boil down to an individual's entry point into the music.

Hunky Dory in particular, in this new 2015 remaster, sounds incredible.

[BFrank]

On 1/13/2016 at 10:36 AM, Scott Dolan said:

David Bowie has always been a curiosity to me. While I love tunes like Space Oddity, I'm Afraid Of Americans, and the astonishing Golden Years, I am still unable to really get into his music as a whole. What I've heard of the new one sounds interesting, but I still don't know that I'll ever own it. 

Either way, I do have a great deal of respect for him as an artist, and recognize everything he did for entertainment in general. 

I'm with you on this one, Dolan. Never one of my favorites, but I appreciated his constant search for something new.

BTW ... this coming week at the Vanguard should be very interesting.

Donny McCaslin Quartet New York Times Critics' Pick
Village Vanguard
Jan. 19-26 at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.

It wouldn’t quite be accurate to say that this pugnacious band, led by the tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin, has a big new album out this month. But it also wouldn’t be untrue. The album is the late David Bowie’s “Blackstar,” on which the quartet — with the keyboardist Jason Lindner, the electric bassist Tim Lefebvre and the drummer Mark Guiliana — hunkers down in deep-groove mode, providing something more essential and elusive than strict accompaniment. In his unassuming way, Mr. McCaslin takes a victory lap next week, bringing the band for the first time into the Village Vanguard, with one substitution: for every night but the last, Nate Wood will sub in on bass.

[Teasing the Korean]

Huge fan. His output from "Space Oddity" in 1969 to "Scary Monsters" in 1980 is absolutely breathtaking.  Brilliant lyrics, music, production, and presentation throughout.  Hard to find other examples of this level of consistency in almost any genre. 

[Rooster_Ties]

Jim (JSngry), any thoughts on Blackstar especially(!), or any of the other 90's/2000's Bowie titles you picked up recently?  Very curious to get your take.

[JSngry]

The last few weeks have been a little "unsettled", family things and such, but all is well now. I have listened to Reality and found it very much to my liking.

[JSngry]

Started on Blackstar this morning, going to spend at least the rest of the morning with it, perhaps the rest of the day. Definitely some deeply thoughtful and carefull crafted music, again, very much to my liking.

Especially appreciating how this is not a "jazz meets rock" record. It's jazz musicians making a pop record, which should not be a surprise to anybody given how for decades that was the norm rather than the exception.

But yeah, this is music. Not spectacle or product or identity/marketing code, music. Color me fan-ful!

[Rooster_Ties]

Jim, you should REALLY be aware of this earlier version of "Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime)" that Bowie did with the Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra about a year before Blackstar -- a tune that would later appear on Blackstar in a fairly radically different arrangement.  It's the first YouTube link below...

And its b-side (at the time, a year ago), was later revealed to be the demo-version of "Tis A Pity She Was A Whore" (also later found on Blackstar).

These are the only two "new" Bowie recordings released in the space between 2013's The Next Day and 2016's Blackstar - both recorded sometime in late 2014 I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaygoLgAe4Y << Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime) - with the Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03GN-duIY2A << Tis A Pity She Was A Whore - demo version, pre-dates Blackstar by about a year.

Edited February 11, 2016 by Rooster_Ties

[JSngry]

Yes, I am aware of those.

I do get a grin out of how McCaslin plays the same "thing" on a Bowie record that he does on a Monday Michiru record that he does on a Ryan Truesdell/Gil Evans record that he does on any of his own records. Some might call that simply "plugging in" to whatever gig is at hand a la any session player, but some others might say that the guy brings his own voice to any situation, and its a voice with enough empathy to work in a lot of different settings. Perhaps what it lacks in depth it compensates for in breadth.

[jazzbo]

5 hours ago, JSngry said:

Started on Blackstar this morning, going to spend at least the rest of the morning with it, perhaps the rest of the day. Definitely some deeply thoughtful and carefull crafted music, again, very much to my liking.

Especially appreciating how this is not a "jazz meets rock" record. It's jazz musicians making a pop record, which should not be a surprise to anybody given how for decades that was the norm rather than the exception.

But yeah, this is music. Not spectacle or product or identity/marketing code, music. Color me fan-ful!

I'm looking forward to Blackstar; I decided to go for the Blu-Spec CD2 version and that is on the way from Japan at the moment.

Also looking forward to another singer's album with jazz musicians--Ed Motta's new one, also on the way to me from Japan.

[Rooster_Ties]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Yes, I am aware of those.

I do get a grin out of how McCaslin plays the same "thing" on a Bowie record that he does on a Monday Michiru record that he does on a Ryan Truesdell/Gil Evans record that he does on any of his own records. Some might call that simply "plugging in" to whatever gig is at hand a la any session player, but some others might say that the guy brings his own voice to any situation, and its a voice with enough empathy to work in a lot of different settings. Perhaps what it lacks in depth it compensates for in breadth.

You know, the first couple times I heard Blackstar -- despite loving it overall -- I had some real hesitancy about McCaslin's playing specifically.  But by the fourth and fifth spins, my hesitancy started to fade, and by spins #9 and #10 -- I honestly love all of it.

Really weird, because if (when) I put my jazz ears on, I'm really NOT especially enamored with McCaslin here -- but my ears are usually 'on differently' listening to this, and it's more like: god damn, this all works so well, even the stuff I don't think I ought to like (but I do).  His playing on the Blackstar version of "Tis A Pity She Was A Whore" especially is just rife with major intonation issues (in his soloing) -- at least to my ears -- that normally really rub me the wrong way (big time).  He's like 20% sharper than Jackie McLean, for instance, in places (if I had to make a comparison).

But fuck it, I absolutely LOVE Blackstar, top to bottom - and (now) I hardly notice anything I previously didn't care for in McCaslin's playing (even if I can easily cite problems with it, when I want to).

Weird how that works, how context can really change how something hits you (or in this case, me).

Edited February 11, 2016 by Rooster_Ties

[JSngry]

It's not on youTube, but if you can spur up a listen to the original (not remix) of Monday Michiru's "The Right Time", there's a lengthy-ish McCaslin solo over this drum machine "ensemble" that is so freaky-fresh RIGHT that it'll drop your jaw...and it's pretty much the same "thing" he plays on the Bowie record, which, again, is pretty much the same thing that he plays on "jazz records".

Along those lines, my favorite Chris Potter (and that's a damn short list, btw), bar none, is also on a Monday Michiru record, a cut from Moods called "Cut To The Chase", an odd-metered(?) "fusion"-y thing with strings coming in, totally outside of what Potter is known for, but he plays his freakin' ass of, for real. It's not on YouTube either.

Anyway, jazz musicians making "modern sounding" pop records makes sense. I'd like more more of them to make "jazz records" that did the same.

What I'm not crazy about is the liners for Blackstar. Black-on-black to the extreme. Ok, I know it's a deathbed record or some such, but still...

Fine record anyway. Echoes of psychedelic Beatles, 70s Miles, later Marvin Gaye, all years Bowie, really as close to a bullshit-free record as could be made.