Jazz that is currently happening

[Bastardous Bassist]

So, I was talking with some people, and there seems to be a bit of support on the subject of discussing jazz!  It's no secret that I like jazz.  The thing is, I discuss my love of jazz with people and one name always comes up: Miles Davis.  I have nothing against Miles.  The guy made some amazing music.  If you haven't listened to some of his work, do so now and prepare to be moved.  The thing is, I've always liked the stuff Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock (and the rest of his second quintet) did without him more.  I think the compositions are more interesting and more fun to play over (I'll be honest, I always approach the subject of jazz as a guy who plays it).

Now here comes my main point.  All of that stuff has been around for forty years.  It's awesome, but it's not exactly current, which makes it not exactly relevant to modern times.  All of the guys from that quintet (with the notable exception of Tony Williams) are still making music, too so it's not like we've only got hack musicians playing jazz these days.  So let's talk about what's happening today with jazz.  It's incredibly vibrant music and I think that it has more energy than pretty much any of the more popular genres of music these days.  So, without (further) ado, here are some of my favorite artists of modern-day jazz:

Chris Potter (my bass teacher in college actually used to play with this Columbia, SC native a lot)
Dave Holland (played with Miles and has a similarly great ability to spot fantastic younger musicians)
Brad Mehldau (Art of the Trio Vol. 3 is of my favorite albums ever made and one of my friends in college listened to his Live in Tokyo album every day)
The Bad Plus (seriously, listen to these guys.  If you listen to nobody else I've listed, find these guys)

I can put up some albums if somebody sends me easy instructions on how to do so (I hear mediaf!re is pretty cool, but I haven't really looked into what to do).  What do you guys and gals listen to?

[Melodic]

you, show me jazz

[Bastardous Bassist]

As a bit of awesomeness to give people a bit of a taste: here is Chris Potter's Underground ripping it up.  I have forgiven this group for not having a bassist, because Criag Taborn is a badass on the Fender Rhodes.

[KickThatBathProf]

Chris Potter
Dave Holland
Brad Mehldau
The Bad Plus

YES. Also,

Medeski, Martin, & Wood (kind of unfortunately associated with the jam band circuit, but still very good)
Benny Green (sort of a Neo-Hard Bop pianist)
Kevin Mahogany (FANTASTIC vocalist.  Coming to my school next moooooooooooooooooooonth)

As for the whole mediaf!re thing, it is very easy. You just turn the album into a .rar file (or something similar) and upload it to mediaf!re (that part is easy they tell you what to do pretty well on the site).

[Bastardous Bassist]

I've seen MMW three times now, and they're tons of fun.  As far as Benny Green and Kevin Mahogany, they're actually a bit too traditional for me.

[Damnable Fiend]

Does Wynton Marsalis count?

oh, and also, Bohren & Der Club of Gore is one of my favourite bands ever in any genre, and some of their stuff at any rate sounds like jazz to me.  Particularly the album Sunset Mission.

[Bastardous Bassist]

The only nice thing I can say about Wynton Marsalis is that he can play proficiently in two phenomenally difficult genres of performance.  His brother, on the other hand, is original and plays really interesting music.

Also, enjoy the fantastic sounds of Chris Potter, Craig Taborn, Adam Rogers and Nate Smith at the Village Vanguard:

Code:

http://www.mediaf!re.com/?ngkxtn5jktd

(apparently the exclamation mark important?)

[Damnable Fiend]

Will download, thanks.

I mentioned Wynton Marsalis because he's one of the only jazz musicians I've heard of in the news recently.  Other than Bohren..., Miles Davis, and John Coltrane (oh and I suppose Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald etc. from my mom's music collection), I've never really heard any jazz, actually.  Interested to learn though.

Would you happen to know any jazz artists that sound like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJg_BzMBp4A&feature=related) actually?

[a pack of wolves]

Since Bohren always remind me of the soundtrack to a really great sinister film that sadly doesn't exist and so do The Necks, they might appeal to you.

[KickThatBathProf]

(apparently the exclamation mark important?)

It means that people can't just Google search "[band name] mediaf!re" and find the forum

[David_Dovey]

Jazz that is currently happening, groovy and totally out-there, daddy-o

[KickThatBathProf]

Also, here is some jazz that is not jazz at all:

DJ Krush/Toshinori Kondo - Ki-Oku

Code:

http://www.mediaf!re.com/?inn0c4fcrbo

Toshinori Kondo is an avant-garde trumpeter.  DJ Krush is, well, a DJ.

[Bastardous Bassist]

So, guys.  I totally uploaded the wrong Live at the Village Vanguard album.  That one is good, but it's not nearly as good as his one with the people I cited (the Underground group).  I'll load up the right one tomorrow.

[Damnable Fiend]

Since Bohren always remind me of the soundtrack to a really great sinister film that sadly doesn't exist and so do The Necks, they might appeal to you.

thanks!  will check them out.  Any album in particular you'd recommend?

[godinpants]

I really like the Iiro Rantala New Trio, and Esbjorn Svensson Trio(though they can't exactly make music anymore)

[a pack of wolves]

thanks!  will check them out.  Any album in particular you'd recommend?

I like Hanging Gardens quite a lot.

[kraemandrummer]

Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble anyone? 
They're not jazz in the traditional sense, but christ are they cool to listen to.
They're a mix betweeen ambient, noise, and jazz, and you could probably throw other genres in as well
I posted their original album, self titled, in the mediaf!re a while a go

[Misereatur]

If you're into piano and free-ish sort of Jazz I'd recommend Matthew Shipp.

Of course Erik Truffaz if you guys like hip hop. And Tom Harrell is still making records, which is always good news.

[BlakeJustBlake]

you guys are completely forgetting about roy hargrove and rh factor, it's some of the best current work in jazz I've ever heard.

I go to unt which is like a jazz oasis, so all the kids here are real good and I've seen so many good combos just around town. As far as current big band music though, the school jazz bands for unt are some of the best around, The one o clock and the two o clock lab bands.

[pinkpiche]

HAVE SOME IBRAHIM ELECTRIC 

http://www.myspace.com/ibrahimelectric

[Damnable Fiend]

oh also the soundtrack for the movie Mirrormask was done by a jazz composer called Iain Ballamy.  it's pretty cool, and apparently already uploaded to the mediaf!re thread if you're interested.

[Scandanavian War Machine]

i've been listening to mouse on the keys pretty much nonstop lately.

that's about as jazzy as i get.

[Bastardous Bassist]

I really like the Iiro Rantala New Trio, and Esbjorn Svensson Trio(though they can't exactly make music anymore)

One of my friends tried to get me into the Esbjorn Svensson Trio, but it was just a little too slick and fusion-y for me.  It just seemed like he was playing notes (and way too many of them!) rather than melodies.  This is, of course, during his solos.  As for the first group, I looked some stuff up on youtube and it was just too disjointed for me at the beginning.  I'll compare it to a lot of prog rock out there in that it was always changing into something unrelated to what they had just played or no reason I could discern.  Then, when the solo started, the beatbox was just "playing" waaaay to heavy for me.

If you're into piano and free-ish sort of Jazz I'd recommend Matthew Shipp.

Of course Erik Truffaz if you guys like hip hop. And Tom Harrell is still making records, which is always good news.

Matthew Shipp just didn't seem, to me, to have the vibrancy of improvised music and as such I would rather just listen to somebody from the second Viennese school if I want to listen to atonal music.  The second track was just way too heavy on the drum machine for me to take.  The second Erik Truffaz tune was pretty cool, but I just couldn't get into the first one.  As for Tom Harrell, yes it's being recorded now, but it's the same thing that was being played over 50 years ago!  I'll just listen to Bird.

you guys are completely forgetting about roy hargrove and rh factor, it's some of the best current work in jazz I've ever heard.

I'm not so sure.  Roy Hargrove is pretty much the only reason to listen to that group.  The rest of the guys aren't that great.

As far as current big band music though, the school jazz bands for unt are some of the best around, The one o clock and the two o clock lab bands.

Dave Holland Big Band.  But the format of a big band tends to be an archaic one.  You just can't get a group that big to be as dynamic.  Though, yes UNT (providing we're talking about North Texas) is a great jazz program.

HAVE SOME IBRAHIM ELECTRIC 

http://www.myspace.com/ibrahimelectric

They just seem to be lacking any subtlety.  Aside from that, not bad.

So, I'm getting on that whole uploading albums tomorrow (hopefully).  You'll get two.  The correct Chris Potter and a surprise that I haven't mentioned (i just remembered about them when they came up on my playlist).

[BlakeJustBlake]

Dave Holland Big Band.  But the format of a big band tends to be an archaic one.  You just can't get a group that big to be as dynamic.  Though, yes UNT (providing we're talking about North Texas) is a great jazz program.

yes, north texas. I agree the big band is not my prefer method of being delivered jazz. I've seen a lot of amazing combos around here, but they're just made up of random students and no names that I could throw at you that you'd recognize.

[Bastardous Bassist]

Yeah.  I was trying to agree with you on that point.  Hell, even in my school there were some really good musicians (I was on the fringe of that group, so I got to play with pretty much all of them).

[JayJayD]

Some of my favourite contemporary Jazz(y) music that hasn't been mentioned yet includes:

• Joe Lovano - next to his own albums he plays with Paul Motian a lot, and on a recent Coltrane tribute album by pianist Steve Kuhn.
• Charles Lloyd - all of his ECM albums are highly recommended!
• Everybody should check out Masada, even if you otherwise don't like John Zorn.
• A lot of interesting stuff mixing Jazz with electronic/dance music comes from Norway: Nils Petter Molvaer, Eivind Aarset, Wibutee, Bugge Wesseltoft. In a similar direction goes the german Tied + Tickled Trio, a Notwist side project.

[BlakeJustBlake]

Yeah.  I was trying to agree with you on that point.  Hell, even in my school there were some really good musicians (I was on the fringe of that group, so I got to play with pretty much all of them).

That's pretty much how I am, on the fringe of the music majors so I get to do a lot of jamming when they need a sub-par bassist.

[Bastardous Bassist]

I actually played with a lot of them at gigs.  I've also got a piece of paper that says I know a few things about music.

• Everybody should check out Masada, even if you otherwise don't like John Zorn.

QFT.

[Bastardous Bassist]

Double post for awesome music!  The surprise is first and the other Chris Potter is uploading.  Here it is:

Code:

http://www.mediaf!re.com/download.php?mymemmgz3zc

Happy Apple's "Youth Oriented."  It features the drummer from The Bad Plus as well as an awesome saxophonist and an electric bassist that I don't mind in jazz (usually, I find electric bass to belong only in fusion, which I hate).

Chris Potter's "Follow the Red Line - Live at the Village Vanguard"
It's got his Underground group, which is a phenomenal quartet:

Code:

http://www.mediaf!re.com/download.php?jmatm0mgitg

[KharBevNor]

Has anyone got any free jazz that maybe sounds a little like a fire truck being raped by a combine harvester?

[Be My Head]

@ Khar

[pwhodges]

My first upload here, eighteen months ago, was this recording I made of a Free Improvisation gig in Oxford just over 20 years ago; 4 people have downloaded it...

Free Improvisation at the Jericho Tavern (14 Dec 1986)

Code:

http://www.mediaf!re.com/?b9xm3zd91vs

The performers are Matt Lewis, Greg Kingston, Tim Hill.  The end fades out because I ran out of tape.

[KharBevNor]

It's funny you should suggest AMM, given that I am a close blood relative of the late Cornelius Cardew.

So yeah I am conversant with the works of AMM. Something halfway between AMM and Peter Brötzmann would be awesome.

[All_¥our_Bass]

Anything with Allan Holdsworth.

[Misereatur]

• Everybody should check out Masada, even if you otherwise don't like John Zorn.

QFT.

Both Masada and Electric Masada are great live. Everybody here needs to try and catch one of their concerts sometime. Seriously.

Also, Tzadik released Stabat Akish this year. It's pretty good.

[MrBlu]

Medeski, Martin, & Wood

This is all.

[ViolentDove]

Both Masada and Electric Masada are great live. Everybody here needs to try and catch one of their concerts sometime. Seriously.

Also, Tzadik released Stabat Akish this year. It's pretty good.

Most everything on Tzadik is worth a look. I used to live with a guy who worked in the only store in Australia that had Tzadik on regular imports, so he'd come home with all kinds of shit. I think they were the first to sign Mono outside of Japan (?) for example, and signed Melt Banananana as well.

Jon Madof does some awesome guitar jazz/jewish stuff on the same label, while we're talking jazz.

One of my favourite new bands from the last few years would probably be counted as jazz, so check 'em out - Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. Awesome back-story to the band as well.

[rynne]

Everybody should check out Masada, even if you otherwise don't like John Zorn.

Man, who doesn't otherwise like John Zorn?

I kinda think of Naked City as a jazz album, albeit one where instead of riffing on standards they riff on grindcore and surf and spy-movie themes.

[Bastardous Bassist]

Which is exactly how standards became standards.  In fact, the only person I think can pull of standards any more is Brad Mehldau.  Pat Metheny sometimes does "All the Things You Are" and "Giant Steps" in an interesting manner, so I'll give those to him, but Brad Mehldau routinely does stuff that is awesome and modern over standards.

[JayJayD]

Man, who doesn't otherwise like John Zorn?

I don't know, some people are just funny like that! Agree that Naked City is a great Jazz album, one of my favorites of Zorn (other than Masada), next to The Big Gundown.

[aflowerchild]

If you want an amazing jazz trumpet I'd go with Chris Botti.
He had an awesome concert with several guests like Sting etc.. all on PBS!
I was really stoked so yeah look him up.

[Bastardous Bassist]

Doesn't he basically do elevator music?

[KickThatBathProf]

Yeah he is pretty awful.  I hold him only slightly higher than Kenny G on my Jazz Artist Spectrum.

[aflowerchild]

whoa.. bunch of snobs here.
It's good stuff.

[KickThatBathProf]

Hey at least I didn't say he was worse than Kenny G

[aflowerchild]

meh.

I will be ridiculed for this...
I do love me some Nora Jones
and check out Fourplay.

[KickThatBathProf]

You and Michael McDonald would be fast friends.

[Bastardous Bassist]

whoa.. bunch of snobs here.
It's good stuff.

I just want music to make me feel something, and his doesn't.  I remember one time I was riding in the car with my grandmother, and something that I really liked was on, and she said that she didn't like it because it wasn't "pretty."  At that point I realized that I don't give a shit about pretty.  Maybe his music is pretty?  There's nothing wrong with liking pretty things.

Also, I played with a great sax player several years ago who loved stuff like that.  He was a blues/funk player, by the way.

[pilsner]

Less for Bastardous Bassist, more for others who are into torch singers generally and modern ladies that evoke Ella, Billie and Nina in particular, I recommend Tierney Sutton and Madeleine Peyroux.  I think I mentioned both years ago, probably in another of Bassist's jazz threads, and they remain among my favorite female jazz vocalists past or present.  Sutton is cool, detached and deeply ironic, but her vocal skills are impressive.  Peyroux sounds freakishly like Billie Holiday and brings an extraordinary intimacy to her songs.  You will be pouring yourself a martini and reclining with the back of your hand on your forehead even if you're 16 and living in your mom's basement.

But neither of them are pushing forward the boundaries of modern jazz, you understand, they are just awesome to listen to if you are into that sort of thing.

Among instrumentalists, I happen to be a fan of the whole bunch of Marsalises, Ellis, Branford, Wynton, Delfeayo and Jason all included.  There are Marsalis family recordings with the 5 of them together that I strongly recommend.  Seeing the family play at Massey Hall remains one of my best jazz experiences to date.  Wynton is of course controversial not least because of his comments discounting a huge swathe of jazz history, but in person is electrifying in a way I haven't frequently experienced in a jazz concert.

Others of my favorites include Kevin Dean, the McGill music prof who made me love the Hammond organ as a jazz instrument, and Paul Motian, definitely the best jazz drummer I've ever heard play.  And yeah, Chris Potter is awesome -- I may be misremembering but I think I heard him once at the Vanguard and another time at the Jazz Standard.  For all the historical significance of the Vanguard, I miss the Standard most of all -- less train noise and better ribs.

Anyway, I will upload v0 mp3s of examples of the above over the next few days, although I can provide FLACs for most of them if anyone wants.  I'll edit this commend and post the Mediaf!re thread.

[KickThatBathProf]

The only Marsalis I can really respect is Branford.  My dislike of Ellis can be attributed to the fact that he is an enormous asshole and every time I hear him play I remember how utterly mean he was to me and my friends.  Wynton is Wynton and there really is nothing to say about him that hasn't been said.  Delfayeo is simply not quite as good as Branford, Ellis, or Wynton and gets kind of gimmicky at times.  Jason is a little boring, but he could change my mind over time I guess.

That said, I do enjoy the recording I do have of the Marsalis family (the one w/ Harry Connick Jr. on it).  I don't really know why exactly.