What are you listening to? June 2019

[Zeeba Neighba]

Vashti Bunyan - Just Another Diamond Day (1970)

 

[axolotl]

65 pieces? Gotta check this out.

Yup, and they all fit on this itty-bitty CD.

The inside cover gives the story of Elizabeth Short, aka "Black Dahlia."

I'm sure you remember that like it was yesterday, Sam, but I'm a little too young.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Vashti Bunyan - Just Another Diamond Day (1970)

Looks like an indie cover from the 2000s.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Bill Callahan - Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest (2019)

@Ojai Sam

 

[JazzyRandy]

Choosey and Exile - Black Beans (2019)

 

[JazzyRandy]

Maktub - Khronos (2003)

 

[Ojai Sam]

Yup, and they all fit on this itty-bitty CD.

The inside cover gives the story of Elizabeth Short, aka "Black Dahlia."

I'm sure you remember that like it was yesterday, Sam, but I'm a little too young.

I like this one a lot. Thanks, Axo.

Film noir seems to be en vogue again right now, and this album fits right in. Think I'll spin it again this Saturday before Noir Alley.

http://noiralley.tcm.com/

 

[JazzyRandy]

I like this one a lot. Thanks, Axo.

Film noir seems to be en vogue again right now, and this album fits right in. Think I'll spin it again this Saturday before Noir Alley.

http://noiralley.tcm.com/

What say you????? What is Noir Alley and why have I never heard of it?

The DVR is now set to catch this fine series. Thanks!

 

[JazzyRandy]

Kenny Garrett - Happy People (2002)

I love the contrasting reviews for this album -- which, as most reviews do, say at least as much about the reviewers than the reviewed.

What kept Happy People from being a compromised effort was Garrett's always-impressive playing, but it was certainly a record that carefully touched a lot of bases.

Kenny Garrett has always tended towards art, but this album sees him swing (lurch? veer? - choose your own verb) towards entertainment. ...
Here, [Marcus Miller] has applied the treatment to Garrett and emasculated him in the process.
...
This is jazz for people who don't like jazz.

while not short on experimentation and post-bop edginess, leans heavily towards warm, soul-tinged fusion. It is not a smooth album as such but may find itself competing more in that market than in that of its rarefied and increasingly distant cousin.

Indeed, it strays far enough down the populist road to have made the "serious" critics' hit list. The taste-guardians have been busy and reviews have echoed to a dismissive mantra -- "Cloying", "Bland", "Commercial", etc. etc. . . . . This is jazz, do not believe some of what you may have read.

As for the music itself, let's just say that too much of what constitutes this mixed bag is simply unbecoming to an artist of Garrett's stature.

Garrett and his band were scheduled to begin recording the album in Los Angeles on Sept. 11, 2001. Naturally, all of the musicians were deeply affected by the day’s tragic events, but they opted to continue the session. Garrett subsequently dedicated Happy People to those who lost their lives that day.
... an intricate composition in which Asian melodies, harmonies and rhythms meet jazz improvisation ... a dramatic composition that finds Garrett pushing his saxophone to the limits of its upper-register range as his band escalates in intensity ... the saxophone sings and wails over a bluesy jam ...
...
Happy People is an eclectic, multilayered offering from Garrett.

 

[JazzyRandy]

Freddie Hubbard - Hub-Tones (1963)

 

[JazzyRandy]

Tom Scott & the LA Express - Tom Cat (1975)

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Frank Zappa - Apostrophe (') (1974)

 

[lpfreak1170]

Icicle Works - S/T (1984)

 

[axolotl]

Vijay Iyer & Craig Taborn ~ The Transitory Poems (2019)

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

David Bowie - Young Americans (1975)

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Titus Andronicus - The Monitor (2010)

 

[Nickyboy]

Titus Andronicus - The Monitor (2010)

I think their follow-up, The Merrimack, was more interesting.

 

[axolotl]

I think their follow-up, The Merrimack, was more interesting.

True, but it really sunk in the ratings, and ultimately turned out to be unworthy of the ironclad adulation and warship it initially received.

 

[JazzyRandy]

Liam Sillery - Outskirts (2009)

The overall sound is that of a light free jazz -- Sillery isn't in entirely full and random exploration here, nor should he be. The sounds are structured, though often structured to include some dissonance, to include some off-key squawks. Free jazz is always a little bit of a fence for listeners, dividing jazzheads into those who like listening to free jazz and those who only appreciate its right to exist but eschew listening to it. Sillery's album itself sits right on that fence

 

[axolotl]

Jacob Heringman ~ Jane Pickeringe's Lute Book (2002)