All that jazz - The Bear and Badger

davyK

WorKid wrote:

Everyone likes Take Five though, right?

The famous little riff yes - but the drum solo might put people off.

djchump

I prefer Unsquare Dance, even though its use in adverts is usually enough to make me hate a song I previously loved.

Moot_Geeza

davyK wrote:

I've tried to like jazz - gave it a good go twice, ten recommended albums from the internet or friends/family (both attempts were four or so years apart). I'd like to get it but I don't, so I've given up. The only thing I listen to with any sort of regularity is the self titled Jaco Pistorius album. Windows Media Player and Wikipedia list him as a jazz artist, but to my untrained ear it's funk. My posh uncle hosts a wine tasting evening once a month, and he's started twinning wine with jazz albums based on shared traits. I love the idea, but would prefer it to be whisky and country music.

If you tried A Kind of Blue and didn't like it then jazz isn't for you.

I can appreciate it to an extent, and recently enjoyed the track Kow posted in the pre-70s thread, but I don't love it. The main problem I have is that I always think I'll be in the mood to sit down and listen to certain things - at some point - but I never get there, so I've stopped trying to force it. Perhaps jazz will find me eventually, like green olives.

Tempy

davyK wrote:

Maybe there is new stuff out there I should try?

I know very little of Jazz, but I like these guys (why is it always a trio?)

They even have a song called "Wander and Colossus" on their last album, so clearly good folks.

Also this album came out last year and was a treat. Minimal Jazz maybe? It's a bit Steve Reich/Philip Glass-ish more than Jazz perhaps, but there are certainly hints of it in the instrumentation I think.

EvilRedEye

I bought a boxset of jazz CDs on Amazon a while ago then felt as if I'd facilitated some sort of Stewart Lee-esque 'get yer pallet o' books here!' scenario, debasing the entire concept of jazz in the process.

Kow

As Zappa said, jazz isn't dead, it just smells funny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUvH3xf0e-I

Kow

Argh, fuck sake. Stupid phone.

Kow

Somebody fix that.

Edit: never mind, it works.

n0face

Stopharage

My favourite piece of jazz of recent years

Prefer my jazz with a smattering of funk over smoke-filled basement jazz.

Great album - again on the funky side of jazz. Just realised this came out 21 years ago; Christ, I'm getting on.

Billy

Love Oscar Peterson, love a lot of jazz.

From Dizzy Gillespie to Django Rienhardt, Charlie Parker to Herbie Hancock.

My favourite is Chet Baker, I just absolutely love his stuff. There is so much behind his music, and he had a crazy life that is a great read http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chet_Baker

Stopharage

More modern jazz. Pretty much anything King Britt releases is worth a listen.

Electric Jazz. Hmmm, way better than it sounds.

davyK

EvilRedEye wrote:

I bought a boxset of jazz CDs on Amazon a while ago then felt as if I'd facilitated some sort of Stewart Lee-esque 'get yer pallet o' books here!' scenario, debasing the entire concept of jazz in the process.

There's nothing wrong with that approach - it allows you to sample loads of stuff facilitating your choice of someone you like to focus on. I have several generic boxsets and its a great way of finding new artists - they are usually really cheap too.

davyK

nu-jazz with video game reference. I bought this album at the turn of the century - the same week I got a Dreamcast and I have a strong association between DC games and this track.

djchump

davyK wrote:

EvilRedEye wrote:

I bought a boxset of jazz CDs on Amazon a while ago then felt as if I'd facilitated some sort of Stewart Lee-esque 'get yer pallet o' books here!' scenario, debasing the entire concept of jazz in the process.

There's nothing wrong with that approach - it allows you to sample loads of stuff facilitating your choice of someone you like to focus on. I have several generic boxsets and its a great way of finding new artists - they are usually really cheap too.

Aye, if I'm trying to dip my toes into a new genre that I know nothing about, I'll normally check out a few classic albums and get a couple of highly-rated compilations - that way you get to check out a lot of artists easily (and some of them only their classic tunes are worth bothering with and those'll be the ones on the compilations) and track down more from your favourites.

Stopharage

Really nice Gilles Peterson Blue Note retrospective up for the next month:-
Blue Note

Tempy

Stumbled on this whilst using Spotify Radio on Miles Davis. Already prefer it to the original.

Facewon

Portico quartet came up in the instramental thread and are fucking nice.

davyK

Night Train by Oscar Peterson. My CD player has developed an ice cap such is the cool laid back nature of this.

djchump

Moot_Geeza

Got myself a Fiio X5 second gen box of awesomeness as a replacement for my clunky 4GB Creative Zen from 2008. The new device plays audio in the special lossless format that I've heard people whisper about, so I've been re-ripping certain favourites for the past week. I also thought I'd give this jazz lark another go, so I asked for a couple of recommendations from a colleague. After what must be the equivalent of the Long Weight/Tartan Paint runaround for the Jazzmen (even I'm not foolish enough to buy the Kenny G album he sent me the link to, chiefly thanks to the dentist's chair memory), the top vinyl jazzmind in the building has presented me with Herbie Hancock's The New Standard and DELIGHTFULEE MORGAN, by Lee Morgan. I assume I'm not being trolled. Any good, in the opinion of the jazz badgers?

djchump

For Herbie I'd go Head Hunters, but most of his stuff is probably pretty solid (?) - I dunno, I'm no jazz buff, I tend to stick to compilations and Greatest Hits etc.

Lee Morgan I don't know much of beyond Sidewinder and Moanin', natch - his Art Blakey stuff would probably be my choice.

But this is just off the top of my head - I've never heard those albums as I've very rarely actually listened to full jazz albums, always come at it from Blue Break Beats (of which vol.4 is the classic) and those kinda compilations, or if I found artists I like on them I'd then go for that artist's "Best of" or "Greatest Hits". I'm probably missing out on all kinds of great tunes doing it that way though.

Maybe I should pay up for Spotify and start actually going through the source albums. :-)

WorKid

My friend has done a Jazz album, it's really good (imo obv). Anyone care to take a listen?

Lorenzo Mondinari - available on iTunes and Google Music (and maybe more I dunno)

http://lorenzomondinari.com

poprock

I’m not a big fan of what I would really call jazz, but the genre’s wider than just the capital-J ‘JAZZ’ stuff. I like swing, big band, and so on. I like a lot of singers who fall under the jazz section of the record shop, despite not sounding like ‘jazz’ to my ears.

I saw Camille O’Sullivan at the Edinburgh Fringe last month, doing the songs of Jacques Brel, and she was utterly mesmerising. Incredible stage presence and she managed to really embody the character of each song … acting as much as singing. Amazing woman.

Moot_Geeza

I gave Herbie a spin this morning. I don't quite understand how jazz has this dinner party association. If I give it my undivided attention I enjoy it, but if my mind wanders even slightly away from the centre of the jazzone it suddenly becomes nothing but noise. This doesn't happen with stuff that might go in the 'instrumental music' thread, like Mono or The Dirty Three, or even Classical music. I'm working on it; it feels like the lid has been loosened since last time I got stuck in.

Kow

Listen to Kind of Blue and think of the trumpets and saxes as voices singing. Listen to what they're saying.

Moot_Geeza

If they're not saying that their wife left them and ran over the dog whilst reversing her truck out the drive it might not be for me after all.

Kow

They might be saying just that.

Paul the sparky

First time in this thread, I watched the video Low posted on the other page and despite enjoying the music I was wishing ill on them for the faces they're pulling throughout, like they're giving birth to the music or something. Fuck off.

Then I read that the pianist is actually dead. Oops.

n0face's contributions were of an excellent standard though, trolling and timing was perfect. Might have to watch the Mighty Boosh again.

Moot_Geeza

Perspiry Camile earns a billion 'giving it some welly' points, and therefore I shall be buying an album shortly.

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