[Spyro]

A brand new release and a brand new tour to support the release started earlier this week.
 
This sounds "epic".
 
http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2014/02/04/e-pluribus-unum-pat-metheny-cd-reviewed/

 

[perhapss]

  A brand new release and a brand new tour to support the release started earlier this week.
 
This sounds "epic".
 
http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2014/02/04/e-pluribus-unum-pat-metheny-cd-reviewed/

Well now....
 
Coincidentally a friend of mine just yesterday asked me to go see an upcoming Metheny concert in Schenectady Ny.
 
Lots of opinions in the "jazz" world about him being jazz at all.
My feeling is he's an amazing MODERN jazz musician.
 
Just because he plays fusion (for lack of better word) people dismiss him.
Canadian folks tend to be a little more open-minded though in my experience 

 .
 
I last saw Metheny with his trio some years ago now...
 
Saw him first in the Early 80's with the band.

 

[WNBC]

^ Nice guys.  My parents would play his Pat Metheny's "Still Life Talking" growing up.  I just downloaded it.....blast from the past.

 

[perhapss]

  ^ Nice guys.  My parents would play his Pat Metheny's "Still Life Talking" growing up.  I just downloaded it.....blast from the past.

 
LOL, You're making me feel old I consider "First Circle" to be a late album by the Pat Metheny group.
 
PS: Obviously I AM old...

 

[WNBC]

The young are jealous of the old and the old are jealous of the young 

.  
 
 
Quote:

 
LOL, You're making me feel old I consider "First Circle" to be a late album by the Pat Metheny group.
 
PS: Obviously I AM old...

 

[perhapss]

 

 
Actually I'm jealous of the older(and dead) and "envious" of the young.

 

[perhapss]

   
Actually I'm jealous of the older(and dead) and "envious" of the young.

 
Despite the generally accepted synonymous use of "jealousy" with "envy",
an "old" (meaning older than me) linguist told me:
 
"Jealousy" is the fear of losing what you have and "envy" is the craving for what you want to have...

 

[Sarah]

There's been an absolute embarrassment of riches in terms of live jazz lately, for me anyway.... (I have to assume any jazz you can see live is "contemporary" by definition, right?)
 
Standouts include:
John Medeski on solo piano
The Bad Plus on NYE at the Village Vanguard
Marc Ribot Trio with special guest Cooper-Moore (I am still piecing my brain back together after having my mind blown at this show on Saturday)
Ches Smith Trio
Mostly Other People Do the Killing
Nate Wooley's Seven Storey Mountain
Six different improv sets with probably 40+ different musicians - standout improvisers included (in no particular order) John Zorn, Sylvie Courvoisier, Jason Moran, Frances-Marie Uitti, Ches Smith, Marc Ribot, Shanir Blumenkranz, Brian Marsella, Billy Martin
 
Honorable mentions... Mary Halvorson (in a couple of ensembles), Peter Brotzmann's band, Nels Cline's Eyebone...
 
That was all in the last 7 weeks. I've been busy

 

 

[perhapss]

  There's been an absolute embarrassment of riches in terms of live jazz lately, for me anyway.... (I have to assume any jazz you can see live is "contemporary" by definition, right?)
 
Standouts include:
John Medeski on solo piano
The Bad Plus on NYE at the Village Vanguard
Marc Ribot Trio with special guest Cooper-Moore (I am still piecing my brain back together after having my mind blown at this show on Saturday)
Ches Smith Trio
Mostly Other People Do the Killing
Nate Wooley's Seven Storey Mountain
Six different improv sets with probably 40+ different musicians - standout improvisers included (in no particular order) John Zorn, Sylvie Courvoisier, Jason Moran, Frances-Marie Uitti, Ches Smith, Marc Ribot, Shanir Blumenkranz, Brian Marsella, Billy Martin
 
Honorable mentions... Mary Halvorson (in a couple of ensembles), Peter Brotzmann's band, Nels Cline's Eyebone...
 
That was all in the last 7 weeks. I've been busy

 

 
Contemporary to me means "still alive"

 .
 
Lots of good stuff there.Living in Cambridge you have a lot of opportunities regarding live jazz.
I lived in Boston 1990-1995 and saw more jazz than possibly the 20 years after that.
 
I was an ambitious concert goer though.

 

[jaybird123]

Can't contribute much for lives or studio for that matter, as most of the jazz I have isn't from contemporary (still breathing) artists. I only went through the first few pages of this so I'm sorry if there are repeats. It's a lot of words for only a few suggestions...not so sorry about that. 
 
Bob Mintzer - Quality Time (2006), However IMO Bob Mintzer Big Band - The Incredible Journey, is much better, albeit not as recent, but recent enough at 1985. But very different, clearly one is a full pieced big band.
 
Kind of Brown by McBridge was already mentioned, but its worth mentioning again. As is the McBride big band - The Good Feeling,  which is fairly new.
 
Dave Holland Quartet has been mentioned, not sure if Extended Play: Live at Birdland was mentioned.  With chris potter tenor/alto/soprano, eubanks on trombone and Nelson on vibes. 
 
Donald Harrison - The Burners  New Orleans Saxophonist, a much smoother style compared to others i'm mentioning.
 
Gary Burton - Basically anything he's produced in the last 30 years, but his styles vary greatly. More recently, For Hamp, Red, Bags And Cal, is a fantastic tribute CDand he does them all justice, but putting a very Burton twist on all of the songs. I know it's from the 60s...but his earlier CD New Vibe Man in Town is a classic. 
 
Burton, Corea, Metheny, Haynes, Holland - Like Minds, is a pretty cool collaboration, but it may not be for everyone.
 
Gordan Goodwin's Big Phat Band - XXL, Phat Pack and Act Your Age. I don't discriminate and love big bands as much as anything else, though many don't. These are mostly released in the 2000's
 
Ira Sullivan & Chicago Jazz Quintet - Bird Lives! (2007) As you could imagine this is a Bird tribute, but it is done by a talented bunch and is a live performance.
 
Next one is a bit of a stretch, as it is Jazz Fusion, AND without a living Jaco, but The Jaco Pastorius Big Band is ridiculous and both Word of Mouth Revisited and The Word is Out warrant a listen if you're interested in great bass playing (Lots of Victor Wooten), some fusion and original jaco compositions. Of course Original Jaco Pastorius is better, but this is more recent from the 2000s. 
 
Joshua Redman - Live at the Village Vanguard, specifically his Randition of St. Thomas on it is very good. 
 
Miami Saxophone Quartet - Fortified, Name of the group is fairly self explanatory. Ed Calle at his best. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBrPkPJB3hg
 
Theres more, if it wasn't obvious I was going mostly alphabetical order down my itunes, and Im skipping a bit here but most of the stuff after this is Milt Jackson and then lots of dead musicians. 
 
Speaking of the vibraphone, there is a young (young for jazz) vibraphonist right now that is very talented. Warren Wolf - His first self titled album (Warren Wolf) and more recent Wolfgang. I can understand how this wouldn't be for everyone, as he is very abrasive as a player sometimes, like a more aggressive Jackson, but has several slower tempo songs, ballads, etc, many written by him. Sorry if someone else mentioned him and I'm just repeating. Didn't want to search the thread. He is also the vibraphonist on several of McBrides newer pieces.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkYFPd5OG38
 
 
As to the discussion up top, I do envy the older, as I never got to see virtually all of my favorite musicians play. I did get to see rollins play, although he is still alive and playing, he is due any day now. 

 

[Sarah]

Originally Posted by perhapss /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Lots of good stuff there.Living in Cambridge you have a lot of opportunities regarding live jazz.
I lived in Boston 1990-1995 and saw more jazz than possibly the 20 years after that.

 
Honestly, I'm not that excited about the local jazz scene... we get some good musicians/bands but a lot of the local jazz clubs are awful. I go to NYC when I can piece together enough shows to make paying for a hotel room worthwhile. I spent 13 nights there since Christmas and saw a total of 30 different sets. 14 avant-, chamber-, or plain-ol' jazz, plus 11 fully improvised jazz, 3 vaguely in the rock or singer/songwriter genre, and 2 "other." (E.g., Marc Ribot's contemporary solo electric guitar arrangement/reinterpretation of John Cage's 1978 ''pipe organ with six assistants" arrangement/reinterpretation of Supply Belcher's 1794 songbook "The Harmony of Maine," which was written for vocalists and meant to be sung in church. What genre is that!? And how do you fit six assistants around a pipe organ console? Inquiring minds...)

 

[perhapss]

   
Honestly, I'm not that excited about the local jazz scene... we get some good musicians/bands but a lot of the local jazz clubs are awful. I go to NYC when I can piece together enough shows to make paying for a hotel room worthwhile. I spent 13 nights there since Christmas and saw a total of 30 different sets. 14 avant-, chamber-, or plain-ol' jazz, plus 11 fully improvised jazz, 3 vaguely in the rock or singer/songwriter genre, and 2 "other." (E.g., Marc Ribot's contemporary solo electric guitar arrangement/reinterpretation of John Cage's 1978 ''pipe organ with six assistants" arrangement/reinterpretation of Supply Belcher's 1794 songbook "The Harmony of Maine," which was written for vocalists and meant to be sung in church. What genre is that!? And how do you fit six assistants around a pipe organ console? Inquiring minds...)

 
Well the Boston area USED to have a good bit of a jazz scene.
NYC is still incomparable.
Unfortunately, many cities don't have any real "scene" at all.

 

[BobJS]

subbed.  Will take me a while to Spotify my way through this thread.

 

[perhapss]

I'd greatly appreciate hearing from anyone with experience/knowledge on the European jazz/improv scene.
Especially not so well-known names.

 

[Sarah]

  Well the Boston area USED to have a good bit of a jazz scene.
NYC is still incomparable.
Unfortunately, many cities don't have any real "scene" at all.

 
I guess I shouldn't really complain about Boston - like you say, it's got a better scene than most places. It's just that the jazz we have here isn't so much to my taste and the clubs aren't either. The bigger jazz venues here are catering towards baby boomers (and older folks) who want a nice date night with their spouse with fairly safe music - which means it costs a lot, people are not friendly, the crowd is older, and the music often bores me. It's like a very slightly hipper version of going to the symphony. (I have nothing against classical music but the BSO is insufferable...) The smaller venues are often run by people who don't really care about making money (independently wealthy or whatever) who run their venues like a club for them and their friends, and the owners' band and their friends' bands get regular weekly slots... and they don't bother to promote the occasional really good out of town band coming through.
 
I will say the Boston ICA has some good stuff and they've got a really nice venue for live music, but they only have jazz concerts a few times a year, and a handful of contemporary classical shows.
 
Whereas in New York I meet lots of people of all ages who are really excited about the music and excited to talk to other music fans, you can find lots of great shows for under $20 (Colin Stetson is playing tomorrow for $10 in Brooklyn, for heaven's sake! And with an opener I really like, no less...), and of course the variety, quality and quantity of music is head and shoulders above what we've got here... and it's like pulling teeth to get even musicians who live in NYC to come play up in Boston. A friend of mine keeps trying to get me to take up the mantle of booker/promoter here in Cambridge because he has such a hard time getting gigs up here for the musicians he reps in NYC...