THE "BIG" JAZZ THREAD

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Stu_Strib

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I've been reading a lot of history of Jazz lately, and it is depressing how many of the greats are gone now. Which led me to think, who are the contemporary jazz legends in the making that still have that 50s (and earlier) bop/hard bop inluence? Not just drummers, but musicians in the vein of "band leader" of the old days.

I ask, because I really enjoy the high fidelity of modern recordings of jazz standards. Right now I am really into Wynton Marsallis, as his sound is modern, yet his music is true to the history of jazz.

Any other suggestions?

Stu
 
Re: "New" Legends of Jazz?

Hi Stu,

Our local college station plays all jazz. There seem to be quite a few groups still playing in the traditional jazz style but the names have gone right over my head. I will start paying more attention and posting them. As I said in another post (and I think someone got mad at me for saying it) jazz today is not what most of us think of as jazz. Groups today are either funk or easy listening. Sure, I like Pat Metheny and Spyra Gyra but they are nothing like Parker/Gillespie/Coltrane/Monk/etc. Besides, the drumming style is worlds apart.
 
Re: "New" Legends of Jazz?

Anything Chris Potter plays on. His new album Underground (I just saw the tour with Nate Smith on drums... SICK!!!) old albums, Lift (with Bill Stewart), Gratitude (Brian Blade)... Or the Dave Holland quintet albums he plays on like Extended Play live at Birdland (Billy Kilson)... I love Chris Potter.
Keith Jarrett's my all time favorite- anything by Keith Jarrett. My goal is to collect and listen to everything that he has ever put out... I have about 60 albums so far... 20 or so to go. I recommend any of the Trio albums to start. Standards vol 1 and 2 are great, Tokyo '96, Up For It, the Out Of Towners... great places to start... For his solo piano recordings, Koln Concert is great. He's also got a new one out that I'm going to pick up today that is quite good (I listened to it at my friend's house a couple weeks ago.) Everything Keith does is so fantasic and artistically pure, you can't help but love it. Plus, Jack DeJohnette sounds like an alien on those Trio recordings... Gary Peacock is a wonderful bassplayer as well. Check out his older American and European group recordings as well. Some of it (particularly the American stuff with Paul Motian and Charlie Haden) is a little out but very very enjoyable.
As for something a little more groove oriented, try Joshua Redman's newer stuff. Like Elastic or Momentum, his latest. Momentum's got Questlove, Brian Blade and Jeff Ballard (one of my new favorites) beating the skins. Also, Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers on bass for a few tunes... he sounds fantastic in this context. He's a better bass player than I gave him credit for.
I also love some of the new-ish Roy Haynes led albums. Love Letters is awesome- it has a complete all star band on it. He released one with John Pattituci and Danilo Perez which is one of my favorite trio albums. Birds of a Feather, his Charlie Parker tribute is very interesting... Kenny Garrett on alto, Roy Hargrove on trumpet, Dave Holland on bass... Dave Kikoski (?) on piano. Very very cool stuff.
Newish Wayne Shorter's good- his newest release "Breaking the Sound Barrier" and Alegria before that both have Brian Blade, John Pattituci and Danilo Perez. I saw the group live and they smoked!
For something new, check out Ari Hoenig's last two releases... they are very creative and have a new cool concept behind the drumming.
Hope that helps you out.
edit: oops Stu I just saw "Hard Bop influenced". Okay, so maybe check out the Jazz Messangers recordings from the early 80's with Wynton... Or the VSOP recordings with Wynton and Branford.. The Roy Haynes stuff definetly has a little bit of nostalgia to it. Particularly the Charlie Parker tribute. Pick that one up, you'll love it.
 
Re: "New" Legends of Jazz?

Stu,

I'm no jazz expert, but I can add a little advice:

Jazz is a really great music to check out on a local level in most major cities (I've never been to the UK, but I'm guessing some other members here could point you in the right direction.) A lot of those artists will have their own cds to sell too. On a local level, there are a lot of contemporary artists still playing hard-bop and doing a really great job of it in most cities. -though, I have no idea if you're in the middle of no-where, so this may be no help!

Also, I know you're looking for more traditional, but I think Duke pretty much covered that! As far as recorded stuff goes, There's a lot of great new jazz too that's not strictly bop, but it's not all elevator either. Check out MEdeski Martin and Wood -their first few cds sound more traditional, but I love their more recent stuff too. Also, have a listen to the Bad Plus, Charlie Hunter, and brad mehldau

Also, yeah, sadly a lot of the greats have passed. But a lot are still around. Horace Silver put out a great album in '99 called "jazz has a sense of humor" Sonny Rollins still tours, as does Brubeck, and Arthur Taylor put out a *great* live album as recently as the mid-ninties called something like: wailin' at the vanguard.

And, although this is traditional, it isn't bop ...but since it's Fat Tuesday, I had to mention the Preservation Hall jazz band. Saw one incarnation of them about two summers ago in Jersey and they were GREAT! Go here:
http://www.preservationhall.com/2.0/

I highly reccomend the disc 'shake that thing' (click on "the label" to have a look.)
 
Re: "New" Legends of Jazz?

http://www.birdlandjazz.com

Hey jazz lovers, here is a great place to read about who the jazz greats are and some of their gigs in N.Y. Also, many great jazz artists came from and are evoving out of Chicago, IL.
 
Re: "New" Legends of Jazz?

a great jazz band is the lionel lyles quintet out of maryland, they could be playing the newport jazz festival, up in RI, and they are reat to listen too, look them up on the internet, they have some great songs
 
Re: "New" Legends of Jazz?

As a bandleader and a great, great drummer, I really like Thelonius Monk Junior. His "Changing of the Guard" album kicks. The tribute album to his old man, "Monk on Monk" is a good one, too.

Auger mentioned Brad Mehldau - I think his trio is among the best around and I feel he's destined for historical significance as a pianist. All of the "Art of the Trio" series are excellent and there are many other albums (some "harder" than others).

And McCoy Tyner's Trio has released some killer stuff in the last few years (one of the older "legends" but his recent stuff is thouroughly of
the moment).

And don't forget The great sax man, David Murray. Incredible body of work.
 
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Re: "New" Legends of Jazz?

Thanks guys for all the comments...some of them I already beat you to it; Mehldau, Charlie Hunter, Medeski Martin and Wood,

I'm definitely gonna check out Ari Hoenig, as his name comes up a lot in drumming circles.

Thanks, and keep the ideas coming in.
 
Re: "New" Legends of Jazz?

This may be slightly off topic but as Stu Strib mentioned Ari Hoenig it made me think.

I am a new drummer and I am working hard, with the help of my teacher, to develop the Moeller technique. I saw the video of Ari Hoenig and was surprised at how incredibly stiffly he holds his wrists and the sticks. It seems to be completely at odds with what I am being taught about movement of the wrist/hand like bouncing a ball. I am sure he's a great drummer but would love to know why he plays like he does
 
Re: "New" Legends of Jazz?

Good question. I haven't seen him, so I can't say. Maybe I'll go surf over to the drummerworld drummers section.


Ok, back. Hey Bernhard, you link to both videos on Ari Hoenig sites go to the same video so check the link!

Yeah, I see what you mean! He holds his sticks extremely weird. But hey, it sounded flawless, so there you go!
 
Re: "New" Legends of Jazz?

Jazz is wonderful.....

"new" jazz is in so much styles....its crazy....

a brilliant Jazz/Bebop band around nowadays are the fantastic "Seatbelts"(with Yoko Kanno)...located in Japan...they do teh whole soundtrack to a japanese animation called "Cowboy Bebop"...i hate all anime except this one...just because of its brilliant soundtrack!!

you shud check them out!
 
Re: "New" Legends of Jazz?

Yeah, try and play like Ari, but don't play like Ari....
Make sense?
Don't get me wrong, I think his drumming is awesome, he's a good writer too, but his technique is a little weird.
 
Re: "New" Legends of Jazz?

I am a huge fan of anything Jim Black plays on. He plays some great stuff with AlasNoAxis. Just listen with an open mind. Dave Douglas would be another guy to check out.
 
Re: "New" Legends of Jazz?

jamndrummer said:
http://www.birdlandjazz.com

Hey jazz lovers, here is a great place to read about who the jazz greats are and some of their gigs in N.Y. Also, many great jazz artists came from and are evoving out of Chicago, IL.

One of the baddest drummers on the planet today is based in Chicago- Hamid Drake. He's probably a little 'out' for many of you though. Ken Vandermark is a killer reed player and great bandleader from Chicago as well. Same with the 'out' though.

I'm not sure I understand, Stu, with the 50's-60's influence? Some of these posts seem confusing the way I'm interpreting it.
G
 
Re: "New" Legends of Jazz?

ya, i'm seeing a somewhat contradictory cross-over too.

it seems a lot of newer artists are doing 'retro' explorations of bop, but they also are doing a lot of reworking of soul and rock music [lots of people covering the music of santana, etc]. i guess they're doing a little of everything. then there's the smoothy stuff, but ehh...er...eeeeeeee... i'm not really into that.

javon jackson, joe lovano, don faddis, eric alexander, nicholas payton and certainly wynton are pumping out the hardbop, so that might be a starting point. also geri allen, kenny garrett and terrence blanchard. i don't really know of drummers per se that are focusing on the genre.
 
Re: "New" Legends of Jazz?

Stu_Strib said:
I've been reading a lot of history of Jazz lately, and it is depressing how many of the greats are gone now. Which led me to think, who are the contemporary jazz legends in the making that still have that 50s (and earlier) bop/hard bop inluence? Not just drummers, but musicians in the vein of "band leader" of the old days.

I ask, because I really enjoy the high fidelity of modern recordings of jazz standards. Right now I am really into Wynton Marsallis, as his sound is modern, yet his music is true to the history of jazz.

Any other suggestions?

Stu


YES monty alexander.... hes an awesome keys player, his trio..... they just....rock or JAZZ
 
Re: "New" Legends of Jazz?

smoggrocks said:
i don't really know of drummers per se that are focusing on the genre.

There are plenty of drummers today who've made entire careers on the hard bop genre, but of course, hard bop isn't modern.

What I meant by confusion is that how can people like Dave Douglas (of whom I'm a huge fan), Jim Black (ditto) and Chris Potter (who always plays better on other people's albums, IMO) be mentioned if we're talking about modern guys playing the standard repertoire, i.e. 'standards' or 'Hard Bop influenced.. DD ain't playing standards, that's for sure. Is that what you mean, Stu?
G
 
Re: "New" Legends of Jazz?

jazzgregg said:
Ken Vandermark is a killer reed player and great bandleader from Chicago as well.

Oh,yeah! Loved the stuff he did with his band "The Vandermark 5". Makes it to Atlanta every once and a while.
 
Re: "New" Legends of Jazz?

I would like to put in a good word for my father Tom Smith's own music. He has always been a tradition in transition jazz guy, but alot of his music with eastern european musicians has been kind of out there. His website is pretty great, with his bands backed by alot of amazing drummers that include Louie Bellson and my mentor Romanian drummer Vlad Popescu. The website is thsmith.com. I have learned alot listening to the live concerts audio section.

Alot of you guys mention Chris Potter. He is originally from the Carolinas where we are all from. In fact on my mom and dad's first date, dad took her to a gig he was playing with Potter when he was still only 15 years old. My parents say that Potter wiped everybody out back then too even at his age. Mom remembered that dad took out a white hankerchief and waved it at Potter as a sign of surrender when Potter went into about his tenth minute of Rhythm changes. Dad kind of took mom on that date to see if she could handle the musician's life. She did and they were an exclusive after that gig.
 
Re: "New" Legends of Jazz?

jazzgregg said:
One of the baddest drummers on the planet today is based in Chicago- Hamid Drake. He's probably a little 'out' for many of you though. Ken Vandermark is a killer reed player and great bandleader from Chicago as well. Same with the 'out' though.

I'm not sure I understand, Stu, with the 50's-60's influence? Some of these posts seem confusing the way I'm interpreting it.
G
Oh man, I just got a double album with hamid drake and fred anderson, it is my favorite album of the year thus far, it is killin!

Matt- Good to see you in here, I've seen you play on videos. You sound great man.
A bass player I play with played with Chris Potter when he was 14 in Red Rodney's band. He says he was smoking back then too.
 
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