[Spyro]

Looking for more stuff like Brian Brade Fellowship band. Any ideas?

 

[musicmind]

Been enjoying this one of late, Chuck Wayne's String Fever, lovely tones and playing in the style of Johnny Smith and Jim Hall.

 

[Pangaea]

Not an overly complicated Jazz album, but lovely all the same.

 

[Spyro]

My favorite jazz release of 2009 is Christian McBride's "Kind of Brown".

Can't get enough of it!

 

[TwoFiveOne]

I rediscovered Georgie Fame this year and not only is this his very best recording, I consider it one of the best jazz vocals ever. Totally hip, sublime, sensational - my highest recommendation.

Jerome, I hope you're lurking 'cause you need to get this - payback for Big T...

-Jim aka 251

 

[tru blu]

Been playing this again recently, since I heard that the version of "On Green Dolphin Street" was nominated for a Grammy. What he does with "'Round Midnight", "Lover Man" and "Corcovado" is also pretty mind-blowing.

 

[musicmind]

Thanks for the recommendations guys.

Been enjoying this one quite a bit this week :

Some nice ballads and hard swinging tunes, beautifully played and recorded.

 

[catachresis]

Michael Wollny and those wild German soloists may finally push me over the edge into proper 20th-century classical music. That would be a feat.

ACT still produces about the freshest stuff I hear in contemporary jazz. Their fondness for pianists is a virtue in my books.

--And just to spread a little petulance around, I heard a Fresh Air interview with Nellie McKay, and she sounded like one of the most jaded, self-infatuated little pseudo-intellectuals I can recall. 'Far too world-weary with the whole wholesome American infatuation with the jazz chanteuse, she goes a thousand miles out of her way to remind middle-aged jazz mavens that she's more than just a 27-year-old blonde with a nice voice and Manhattan connections. She's something. . . . darker. Like Bjork on a worse-hair-day or Diana Krall renegotiating the prenup or Pirate Jenny, if Jenny lead the chorus on a Carnival Cruise Liner.

 

[tru blu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by musicmind /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks for the recommendations guys. Been enjoying this one quite a bit this week : Some nice ballads and hard swinging tunes, beautifully played and recorded.

Haven't heard this record, but here's my opportunity to plug Russell Malone…a guitarist who can be pretty inventive working within the traditional realm. I caught him with the singer Madeleine Peyroux in NYC a couple of weeks ago. He can do his own bluesy thing, but he's made a good bit of his living as an accompanist for superstar vocalists (Harry Connick, Diana Krall, etc.). Always found him to be a bright spot even when I wasn't crazy about his employers.

 

[TwoFiveOne]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tru blu /img/forum/go_quote.gif Always found him to be a bright spot even when I wasn't crazy about his employers.

Well said...

 

[tru blu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by catachresis /img/forum/go_quote.gif --And just to spread a little petulance around, I heard a Fresh Air interview with Nellie McKay, and she sounded like one of the most jaded, self-infatuated little pseudo-intellectuals I can recall. 'Far too world-weary with the whole wholesome American infatuation with the jazz chanteuse, she goes a thousand miles out of her way to remind middle-aged jazz mavens that she's more than just a 27-year-old blonde with a nice voice and Manhattan connections. She's something. . . . darker. Like Bjork on a worse-hair-day or Diana Krall renegotiating the prenup or Pirate Jenny, if Jenny lead the chorus on a Carnival Cruise Liner.

It's true that Nellie can rub folks the wrong way, but I dunno…as someone who's spoken with her on more than one occasion I'd never call her "pseudo"-anything. Far as I could tell, she usually means what she says.

 

[dongringo]

Thinking of supporting the Portland Jazz Festival this year in Feb. I think it's going to have to be Dave Holland Quintet this time. Can't afford to see more than one this year. Plus he got Eric Harland on drums so it's really a no brainer.

Also going to see Terry Bozzio/Alan Holdsworth/Tony Levin/Pat Mastoletto Jan. 4. This one's going to be a scorcher.

 

[tru blu]

Figured I'd post a great jazz Xmas CD:

Various artists – Jingle Bell Swing

 

[catachresis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tru blu /img/forum/go_quote.gif It's true that Nellie can rub folks the wrong way, but I dunno…as someone who's spoken with her on more than one occasion I'd never call her "pseudo"-anything. Far as I could tell, she usually means what she says.

I'm pleased to hear that somebody has spoken to her and found her to be authentic. But I'm still curious at your comment that she "can rub folks the wrong way." The episode of Fresh Air I heard her on may have been a bad moment for her; perhaps, she didn't feel helpful or sympathetic. Fresh Air, like any of NPR's fine products (I'm a fan), has its own little blush of smug pretension. Terry Gross seems to be a skillful interviewer, but part of her job apparently is to ask 'obvious' questions as invitations to surprising answers.

Talking about the song "Manhattan Avenue," which is a kind of valedictory to the hard-luckers and grifters of the area, Gross asked if McKay had known any of the junkies she mentions, and McKay replied that she did indeed, and Gross asked if she kept-up with any of the people in the neighborhood, and McKay replied with a kind of petulant literalness that they had been in contact with the primary junky, but he got convicted for a terrible crime (I *think* I recall), and McKay's band were broken down in the Midwest, so they couldn't do much about it. --And (the implication was) wasn't Gross trivializing the ugly realities of these people's lives by inquiring about them as though they were ordinary folks from the old neighborhood? Wouldn't that suggest that Gross was a clueless or at least tone-deaf banale bourgeoise of the elite liberal cultural establishment? And the thought that cruised through my mind was, well, is N. McKay doing something similar by weaving them into her lyrics like gritty little threads of authenticity, a la Tom Waits, I guess. And Tom Waits has been bad about this too, with the possible exception that you sense that he feels some kind of fondness and friendliness to loser and villain alike in his songs. And McKay just seemed pissed-off to have to talk about it to some interviewer who didn't have a clue about where she came from. But then, Gross *is* an interviewer, and McKay *is* ostensibly the artiste who has put all these awful little anecdotes out in the strands of her aesthetic product.

I dunno. It's one thing to retaliate against somebody who's attacking you, but my sense is that until you're a well established and old and curmudgeonly artist, you usually frame your replies to public inquiries as apologies for your worthiness of public attention and exhibitions of your natural modesty, which is what all great artists, who are merely the instruments of their art (they say), are supposed to be.

 

[tru blu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by catachresis /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm pleased to hear that somebody has spoken to her and found her to be authentic. But I'm still curious at your comment that she "can rub folks the wrong way."

I've just heard other folks bristle at her seeming self-righteousness. That kinda thing doesn't tend to bother me, though—except maybe when Bono does it.