Today's tenor players

[king ubu]

Yes on Grimal, and Kullhammar, too!  

Not sure where Grimal is heading, never had a chance to catch her live, but on record it seems she's straying further and further from jazz. I love the double disc with Giovanni di Domenico on Ayler, I have no idea what to label that music, but I don't think I'd call it jazz.

And we discussed trumpet player Susana Santos Silva in another thread recently ... she's the guest on the most recent, fourth volume of the "Basement Session" series  (subtitled "The Bali Session" and indeed with gamelan's and some wonderfully mesmerizing grooves to go along) by the Aalberg/Kullhammar/Zetterberg trio.

[John Tapscott]

Another Canadian tenor player from the West Coast - Steve Kaldestad - very good indeed. 

[BillF]

15 minutes ago, John Tapscott said:

Another Canadian tenor player from the West Coast - Steve Kaldestad - very good indeed. 

Yes, indeed!

[Larry Kart]

Sam Taylor (not Sam the Man but a youngish NYC-based cat who has an album out on Cellar Live, "My Future Just Passed")

Adam Kolker

Stephan Riley

Walt Weiskopf (no kid now but a favorite of mine)

[Ted O'Reilly]

20 hours ago, sgcim said:

I'd heard that Phil Dwyer has become a lawyer, and retired from the music biz. Is he still playing?

No, he does both now.  Phil's a dynamite piano player, too.  (And a good cook!)  He never went to university, but was admitted into law school as a senior student and aced it. He's very much a "community" lawyer.

[sgcim]

53 minutes ago, Ted O'Reilly said:

No, he does both now.  Phil's a dynamite piano player, too.  (And a good cook!)  He never went to university, but was admitted into law school as a senior student and aced it. He's very much a "community" lawyer.

That's good to hear. He used to jam at a loft in NYC that a friend of mine owned, and he sounded great. It would be a shame for a player like that to stop playing.

 

[Peter Friedman]

The Canadians are everywhere - here is another one - Corey Weeds. He plays tenor, alto and has his own record label -Cellar Live.

[JSngry]

32 minutes ago, Peter Friedman said:

The Canadians are everywhere...

And now they're going to be hopped up on that weed! Run for your women, lock up your lives, the Canabians are coming!

[EKE BBB]

Not sure if he has already been mentioned -and definitely not among the young players-, but...

Bennie Wallace!!!

[JSngry]

We need this for tenor players!

 

[Kevin Bresnahan]

14 hours ago, EKE BBB said:

Not sure if he has already been mentioned -and definitely not among the young players-, but...

Bennie Wallace!!!

Is Bennie still touring? I was told recently that he was retiring from touring and sticking to teaching.

[relyles]

1 hour ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

Is Bennie still touring? I was told recently that he was retiring from touring and sticking to teaching.

I don't know if he is actually touring, but he played at the SideDoor Jazz Club in Old Lyme, CT earlier this year. I also heard him at a record store in CT two years ago.

[relyles]

A few others that I make an effort to follow that I do not think have been mentioned. A couple of these hold my attention as much, if not more for their overall musical vision and writing, as opposed to their actual tenor playing.

Geof Bradfield

Josephine Davies

Rich Halley

Jimmy Halperin

Fredrik Nordstrom

Jason Robinson

Troy Roberts

Salim Washington

[jlhoots]

Bradfield's CDs have been really good.

[Patrick]

So it reads to me as if Jim's main comment is that there has not been a great tenor (or sax more generally) innovator to emerge in recent decades. With that in mind, was the end of Ken Burns' Jazz opus inadequate--from a saxophone perspective--only in that it should have devoted more time to Rollins and perhaps some to AACM? [For those that didn't last that long, one contents guide describes episode 10 as covering 1961 to present and includes material on Coltrane, Miles' 60's quintet, and Mingus. Ornette covered fairly extensively in previous episode.] Or said differently, who qualifies as a tenor (or sax) innovator since then?Just curious, not looking to start a food fight. 

[Larry Kart]

On 10/22/2018 at 5:14 PM, sgcim said:

Out of the younger guys I've heard. Sam Dillon, has went through the insane discipline, sideman credit accumulation, and whatever else it takes, to earn the admiration of Ray Drummond, Joe Chambers, Jimmy Heath and a lot of other people of that caliber who he works with.

He just released his first album, , and from what I've heard of the previews, every note swings, the notes come popping out of his horn like Trane's did, and he wasn't afraid to include a jazz version of Hendrix's "Third Stone From the Sun" that doesn't pander to, uh, pander bears?

I've had the demoralizing experience of having to follow his soloing in a big band we played in, and the only excuse I can give is that I was working an exhausting day gig during that period, and on the one day I had off, I did earn a nod from him after my solo. I think he's in his late 20s, or early 30s.

From an e-mail I just sent to a friend after listening to "Out in the Open":

'More Trane-like of a certain period of Trane than we [i.e. my friend and I] usually care for in other players, but Dillon's particular timbral “cry” seems to be his own, as are the rhythmically interesting/interactive ripples (and the melodic roulades  within them) that he generates with seeming spontaniety or, if you prefer, a certain obsessiveness. He bears some relationship in the aforementioned traits to Walt Weiskopf, whom I have a considerable taste/weakness for, but Walt's intervallic preoccupations, which Dillon shares in part, and the rhythmic/melodic ripples those preoccupations generate, seem to be in good part the result of a fair amount of prior pondering/woodshedding on Walt's part, although Weiskopf does sound quite spontaneous to me in the course of a solo, while Dillon’s approach seems to me to be less heady, more from the gut.'

[sgcim]

6 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

From an e-mail I just sent to a friend after listening to "Out in the Open":

'More Trane-like of a certain period of Trane than we [i.e. my friend and I] usually care for in other players, but Dillon's particular timbral “cry” seems to be his own, as are the rhythmically interesting/interactive ripples (and the melodic roulades  within them) that he generates with seeming spontaniety or, if you prefer, a certain obsessiveness. He bears some relationship in the aforementioned traits to Walt Weiskopf, whom I have a considerable taste/weakness for, but Walt's intervallic preoccupations, which Dillon shares in part, and the rhythmic/melodic ripples those preoccupations generate, seem to be in good part the result of a fair amount of prior pondering/woodshedding on Walt's part, although Weiskopf does sound quite spontaneous to me in the course of a solo, while Dillon’s approach seems to me to be less heady, more from the gut.'

Yeah, he's Trane obsessed alright. You might be interested in his friend, an alto player named Andrew Gould. I played a show (Smoky Joe's Cafe) with him a number of years ago, and he's got that same do-or-die attitude. He recently released his first album, also.

http://www.andrewgouldmusic.com/audio.html

[OliverM]

On 23/10/2018 at 3:40 PM, king ubu said:

Not sure where Grimal is heading, never had a chance to catch her live, but on record it seems she's straying further and further from jazz. I love the double disc with Giovanni di Domenico on Ayler, I have no idea what to label that music, but I don't think I'd call it jazz.

I really appreciate that record too. From what I heard, Grimal has been giving lots of concerts, some of the music of Moondog and has at least two new records to come out this year or the next one. She is also part of the current ONJ lineup. One of the last time I caught her live was with trio Grimal/ Veras/ Dumoulin and really excellent.

Seeing Evan Parker tonight - not really new generation, but a great tenor player, at least since that 1995 Okkadisk release (Chicago solo).

Edited October 26, 2018 by OliverM

[JSngry]

14 hours ago, Patrick said:

So it reads to me as if Jim's main comment is that there has not been a great tenor (or sax more generally) innovator to emerge in recent decades. With that in mind, was the end of Ken Burns' Jazz opus inadequate--from a saxophone perspective--only in that it should have devoted more time to Rollins and perhaps some to AACM? [For those that didn't last that long, one contents guide describes episode 10 as covering 1961 to present and includes material on Coltrane, Miles' 60's quintet, and Mingus. Ornette covered fairly extensively in previous episode.] Or said differently, who qualifies as a tenor (or sax) innovator since then?Just curious, not looking to start a food fight. 

Burns really screwed the pooch in that regard, but no surprises there.

I'm waiting to see if Matana Roberts re-enters. Alto, but a very striking original concept of presentation.

And how could I have forgotten David Boykin & Ed Wilkerson? Massive memoryfails on my part.

 

[Larry Kart]

12 hours ago, sgcim said:

Yeah, he's Trane obsessed alright. You might be interested in his friend, an alto player named Andrew Gould. I played a show (Smoky Joe's Cafe) with him a number of years ago, and he's got that same do-or-die attitude. He recently released his first album, also.

http://www.andrewgouldmusic.com/audio.html

Gould reminds me some of an older alto player I really like, Buddy Rich vet and former New York Jet offensive lineman Andy Fusco.

[sgcim]

1 hour ago, Larry Kart said:

Gould reminds me some of an older alto player I really like, Buddy Rich vet and former New York Jet offensive lineman Andy Fusco.

Yeah, Fusco was great with Buddy. I didn't know he was a lineman; maybe the Giants could use him. At this point, they'd probably do better with an alto player in his 60s than what they have now.

I was thinking about your comparison of Dillon to WW. I'm sure they have a lot of contact in NY, so there's probably a lot of influence from his theoretical ideas and playing.

I enjoyed WW in his stint with Donald Fagen, so I checked out that larger ensemble record he made for Criss Cross, and found it turgid and lifeless, more 'brain' music than 'ear' music.

I'm sure he's done other stuff since then, hopefully more ear oriented, but I tend to not be interested in an artist after I've disliked a record they've made as a leader..

[Larry Kart]

Fusco went to Syracuse, then to the Jets but not for long. He tells a funny story in the liner notes to one of his Criss Cross albums about his time with Buddy. Andy as you might expect, is on the large size, and right after he joins the band he's seated behind Buddy and the band manager, to whom Buddy says, "What about this new guy? He's pretty big, do think I could  take him? I've got some Karate moves, I could give him one in the neck, one in the crotch..." At which point Andy gets up, walks past, and says 'Hi Buddy...' It was just Buddy doing shtick. 

What WW large  ensemble album was that? He's done several, some anything but lifeless. Try his quartet album "See the Pyramid."

[sgcim]

I think it was his first. I was looking forward to it, but was disappointed. By large ensemble, I just meant bigger than a quartet, and smaller than a big band. Criss Cross has some type of deal where you;ve gotta agree to buy a certain number of CDs, if you want to record for them. Peter bernstein got the in with them, because a photographer friend of mine was doing a shoot for the head of CC, and he needed a sideman guitarist who lived in Manhattan pronto for a leader's recording, and the photographer mentioned PB. i just heard the old Ralph Lalama CC record with PB, and PB seemed to be having some difficulty with the up tempo tunes.

Another Buddy Rich story I heard involved two members of a band I used to play with. They were in Buddy's band for a short time, and they got a notice that they had to talk to the band manager.  The first one went in, and the band manager said to him, "Buddy says you don't swing, you're fired. Here's your two week pay." The second guy went in, and the same thing happened, verbatim. A well oiled machine...

[David Ayers]

Well, not relevant to the search for youth and newvoices, but, Evan Parker is just on fire on tenor these days - check out Music For David Mossman on Intakt, as a recent example. 

[Scott Dolan]

24 minutes ago, David Ayers said:

Well, not relevant to the search for youth and newvoices, but, Evan Parker is just on fire on tenor these days - check out Music For David Mossman on Intakt, as a recent example. 

FANTASTIC date! Parker, Guy, and Lytton with another brilliant outing at The Vortex. 

Absolutely LOVE this one!