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What Are You Listening To Right Now?
May 8, 2015 at 1:35 PM Post #60,452 of 136,811
markm1 said:
  Any Pink Martini fans out there? My 76 year old mother has proposed a family concert at Wolf Trap in Virginia. I listened a bit on Spofify. Not really my cup of tea but I can see they are very talented. Has anyone seen them live by chance?
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I found their album 'Sympathique' going cheapish a few years ago and gave it a try, as I'd read a few recommendations.
 
I rather like it, and it is a well-recorded album too.
 
May 8, 2015 at 3:25 PM Post #60,455 of 136,811

 
May 8, 2015 at 11:29 PM Post #60,460 of 136,811
One of my favorite rock/metal  releases from 2014
 
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May 8, 2015 at 11:30 PM Post #60,461 of 136,811

 
May 9, 2015 at 12:21 AM Post #60,463 of 136,811
Made me tear up a little.
 

 
 

Kamasi Washington - The Epic
 
After all the ridiculous hype surrounding this release, I decided to give this 3-hour behemoth a spin. I do not wish to waste my own words on this album, so after a quick look on Rate Your Music, this review summed up my thoughts best (MarcelMusicJournal's review is also very on point) even if my views do not fully align with the author on every beat.
 
What I find striking about the reception of this album is how everyone mentions that this overlong piece of art should somehow singlehandedly prove that the genre jazz has not in fact died. What I find striking is how a second-rate, reheated, unfocused triple album, that quite shamelessly copies the tropes that the electric Miles Davis, or the middle and late Coltrane, and of course Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders on their best records popularized, invented and pushed forward, should be put on such an important pedestal. 

I find that this album does little more than pay homage to these greats, who did the same thing over forty years ago, but infinitely more focused, more relevant. But paying homage, and paying homage only, does not a great piece of art make. A lot more is needed for that, I think we all agree on that.

I think the reactions to this album show perfectly fine how dead jazz is at the moment. Mind you, I don't think this is a bad album per se, just a very mediocre one, run of the mill. An album which has existed for decades and decades, a multitudinous heap of albums, really. An album that has been rotting away with his other forgotten friends in dollar bins across the globe since forever. Jazz should have (and has) moved on so far from what it sounds like on this record, that the reception of this album lays bare exactly how dead jazz is as part of contemporary mainstream musical reception anno 2015.

The reaction to this album has been one akin to a man travelling through the desert, and finally finding some much-needed and hoped-for water. The traveller is in such dire straits that he fails to care about making qualitative distinctions about the water itself.
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The biggest thing I don't agree on is the notion that jazz is dead. But, if we assume for the sake of argument that jazz IS in fact dead, then I fully agree that this album is proof of that, and not in fact of the opposite like so many people have been claiming. As much as Mr. Washington may try to be the next Pharoah Sanders, he will never attain such level of status or relevance with efforts such as this one. For a debut album this is decent, but Mr. Washington has a lot to grow as a musician if he wishes to offer something that has something meaningful to say and shall stand the test of time.
 
May 9, 2015 at 6:40 AM Post #60,465 of 136,811
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