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So, What Are You Listening To NOW?


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Disc 2.

Not at all connected to the Mosaic box, this is a compilation (done by Castle Communications) of various releases you used to find in the remainder bins, from Lionel Hampton's Who's Who In Jazz label, "Live At Midem" releases, "Live At Bubba's" releases, and the like.  Won't make anyone's Best Of list, but very pleasant background listening with a few surprises.

This disc contains:

1. Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Moanin'.  Bubba's Restaurant, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, 10/11/80.
2. Dave Brubeck - Lover Man.  Riviera Concert, Cannes, France, 1/28/83.
3. Gerry Mulligan - Walking Shoes.  Lionel Hampton session, 10/25/77.
4. Johnny Griffin - Hush-A-Bye.  No location listed, 5//88.
5. Wynton Marsalis (really Blakey's band, same date as track 1) - One By One.  Bubba's Restaurant, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, 10/11/80.
6. Stan Getz - Billie's Bounce.  Riviera Concert, Cannes, France, 1/23/80.
7. Groove Holmes - Groove's Groove.  No location listed, 2/28/91.
8. Michal Urbaniak - Softly As The Morning Sunrise.  Village Vanguard, 1993.
9. Dizzy Gillespie - Slew Foot.  "Recording date unknown" (I think this was originally on the Perception label).
10. Ahmad Jamal - It's The Good Life.  Live at Midem, 3/20/80.
11. Wynton Marsalis (again, same date as track 1) - Jodi.  Bubba's Restaurant, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, 11/11/81.
 

 

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10 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

John Zorn – Mary Halvorson Quartet – Paimon (Book Of Angels Volume 32)

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John Zorn Featuring Marc Ribot – The Book Of Heads

I saw this quartet live with this program. I thought the tunes were cute but formulaic and I am really not a fan of Halvorson's playing. She has her tricks (a trick?) that is exciting the first time you hear it, but gets tiresome when repeated many many times. I thought Okazaki was more interestigng a guitarist. 

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7 minutes ago, Д.Д. said:

I saw this quartet live with this program. I thought the tunes were cute but formulaic and I am really not a fan of Halvorson's playing. She has her tricks (a trick?) that is exciting the first time you hear it, but gets tiresome when repeated many many times. I thought Okazaki was more interestigng a guitarist. 

I wasn't that impressed by the record. There were two tracks where there was a good meeting of minds "Rachmiah" and "Ruhiel" but otherwise just Halvorson noodling at speed, I thought.

I like Halvorson when I like her, and I think she is good with brass orchestration (of which there is none here). But there's a lot of Halvorson that I think is boring and uninventive. I am pleased that she is a part of the current jazz scene, and she is always worth paying attention to, but for me her playing is an either/or thing on a project-by-project basis. This was one I didn't much enjoy.

Overall, I am not that impressed with the second Masada book/ Book of Angels stuff. I just think that the underlying compositions are much weaker to start with than the original Masada material. They feel tossed off and unconsidered. I love the idea of so many varied styles being applied to a set pool of compositions, but the pool needs to be tighter to start with, I think. I'd have preferred it if it was the same tunes that the original Masada group and Bar Kochba records had used.

The Kang was more interesting, at least in parts. It seized on the bit of Zorn's more recent (Circle Maker onwards) writing for small group strings that I like the least, which is the (to my ears) Cairene monophonic string arrangements that he often resorts to. But Kang uses Moog orchestra synths and brass and woodwind orchestrations to make it into a retro-futurist thing that I found interesting, at least on a few tracks. Worth checking out, if you haven't previously. I'm not otherwise a fan of Kang at all.

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5 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

I'm not otherwise a fan of Kang.

Yeah, me neither. I have a bunch of his CDs, don't think I liked any of them that much. 

10 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

Paul Shapiro – Midnight Minyan

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I have this one by Shapiro, "It's in the Twilight":

It's quite good with some excellent Peter Apfelbaum solos. 

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John Zorn – Elegy

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I liked this one as a kid but hadn't listened to it for around 20 years. Listening now it just seems pointless and arid.

3 minutes ago, Д.Д. said:

I have this one by Shapiro, "It's in the Twilight":

It's quite good with some excellent Peter Apfelbaum solos. 

I have this on my list. 

Midnight Minyan is a bit of a fail, I thought. It looked promising. In contrast to a lot of the Radical Jewish Culture stuff (Bernstein is the exception, and my favourite from the series), it is actual traditional tunes from Jewish liturgy. And there are some good musicians there, but I found it disappointing. The version of "Etz Chain He" is good and there is a tune dedicated to Lester Young that is at jazz level. But otherwise it is very straight and there is not really much in the way of actual quality moments. 

He's also on that Daniel Zamir / Satlah album that I posted above, which is quite interesting. Alto trio playing Jewish folk and older Israeli pop tunes, with a saxophone choir in conversation with it. The playing is a bit one dimensional but it is very exciting. A sort of Chassidic / Dabke hybrid. Again, it helps that the underlying tunes aren't mawkish 'explorations of heritage' but actually are the original classics from that heritage.

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