What are you listening to at the present? (genres helpful)

[Sano]

Lindsay Stirling - Crystallize (Dubstep)

[noiseredux]

What kind of jazz have you been buying? Sometimes I hear some newer stuff on the radio that is just fantastical.

mostly picking up old classics - Blue Note, Riverside, Prestige and the likes.

I do like plenty of newer things though. I just wrote a blurb about the Yesterdays Universe album from 2007 which I love. I don't really have much recent jazz in the physical realm though, I do certainly try to keep up on a lot of releases via Spotify etc.

I'm a filthy casual when it comes to the genre, so I'll have to do some internetsing to check out Yesterdays.

Mostly drawn to the lighter, more progressive stuff with either no vocals or less-intrusive female vocals.

well jeez, we should probably continue this discussion in the music thread but...

Yesterdays Universe used to be Yesterdays New Quintet. And there's like a dozen offshoot bands. All of the bands are vague as to who is even in the band. Many of the albums are completely just Madlib playing all instruments. Though around the time of the Universe bands (opposed to Quintet bands) other musicians started rotating in and out as YNQ/YU started doing some one-off gigs. I'm a huge huge nerd for all of Madlib's jazz projects and can guide you further. (Start with Sound Directions' album The Funky Side Of Life... OMG).

99% of the time, I hate vocals in my jazz. There's very few exceptions. There are exceptions. But for the most part, I just want to hear instruments.

As far as recent stuff I'd recommend, off the top of my head...

The Bad Plus - maybe start with These Are The Vistas or Prog. They made a great album w/ vocalist Wendy Lewis called For All I Care... one of those few exceptions.

Brad Mehldau has some excellent solo piano works. His solo take on Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" is mind-blowing.

Kerriam Riggins - Alone/Together is a really cool album. This drummer has worked with EVERYBODY. It's a long collection of short tracks... sort of like the way J. Dilla albums would be sequenced or something.

The Blue Series Continuum - Thirsty Ear Records has a great catalog. The Blue Series takes non-jazz musicians and has em work with a band (including the great Mathew Shipp on keys and Gilermo E. Brown on drums, so good). Pick any of these and you'll be happy. Personally I'm partial to Optometry w/ DJ Spooky and the volume with El-P.

I also like a lot of more far out stuff (The Heliocentrics come to mind), free jazz, etc. But this is a lot of the more immediately accessible stuff coming to mind. I could easily start throwing more at you as I brainstorm.

[Omerta]

Well Bradford, you just planned out my afternoon.

[noiseredux]

I'll await your thoughts.

[Omerta]

My wife's spidey senses alerted her to the fact that I wasn't doing anything productive and she put me to work instead.

I did manage to sample some of that Yesterdays Universe first though.

Here you go, noise...

Kind of a mixed bag for me. Definitely strayed off the beaten path of classic jazz. Not being a jazz connoisseur myself, I can only really compare it to other genres that I'm more familiar with, so bear with me.

The underlying sounds that were common through most of the tracks were very hip-hop and jazz which was very solid and works well together. Being a fan of the genre, the electronic vibe caught me by surprise and resonated very well with me for the most part. Some tended to be a bit more cluttered and chaotic. They're a little off-putting at first, but I'm sure they'll grow on you as you throw them into mixes and get used to it.

Overall... thumbs up.

[noiseredux]

Nice glad you gave it a spin bud.

I have been listening to this new Robert Glasper Trio record tonight and it is fantastic.

[noiseredux]

^this is the album I'm talking about. Been listening on repeat for 2 days. This is great stuff. Glasper has worked w/ dudes like Q-Tip and Kendrick Lamar (played on TPAB this year) and has released his trio work on Blue Note and also done more experimental records that have guests from many diff genres. This album is his Trio playing live at Capital Studios and stripping down his experimental tracks as well as doing covers of folks ranging from Radiohead, Bilal, John Legend, Musiq Soulchild, Jhane Aiko, and Kendrick Lamar but all done very straight ahead.

"The Worst":

[noiseredux]

I've been listening to this



Kamasi Washington - The Epic

The title is no joke. His debut album is 3CD's. But wait - don't go! It's really like he made 3 albums, as he's titled each disc Vol 1-3 and each has its own subtitle.

ANYWAY, you may know Washington as the sax player all over Kendrick Lamar's latest album.

I've only listened to the first disc thus far, but it's a scorcher. Takes classic soul jazz sounds, heavy influence of Coltrane, dabbles w/ choirs and orchestras without ever going overboard... basically feels like yes this set really is EPIC, but not a note is superfluous. As great as Washington's playing is, I'm actually more amazed by his arrangements. I mean, after the first hour I'm impressed with his restraint as well as his ambition. I'm looking forward to the next two volumes. Check this out this guys!

[noiseredux]

listened to disc 2 of The Epic, and it's probably reaching to be my fav jazz album of the year thus far. As stated, I generally hate vocals in jazz, but this track is amazing:

[noiseredux]

John Coltrane
My Favorite Things
1961, A simple and brilliant concept: take four songs that everyone in 1961 would know and use them to introduce your own sound. The familiarity of these tunes worked as a trojan horse, allowing Coltrane to open new doors and ears. And while it's his name and face on the cover of the records, his Quartet is hugely important here - perhaps especially so McCoy Tyner whose piano work here is equally mind-blowing as Coltrane's own alto and tenor sax playing. The title track and opener is beyond just required listening - it's perhaps the greatest argument for what makes jazz so incredible to begin with. Kicking off with the driving keys of Tyner and letting Trane launch right into soloing and then letting the two take that simple melody and do everything they could think of doing to it over the course of fourteen minutes is aural bliss. If I had to pick just one jazz track as an introduction for anybody into the genre, this is it. It will not only make you rethink jazz, but music itself. It's that forward thinking - that important. The band's take on "Summertime" is also a standout, and it barely resembles the song you think you know. It's a wild reinvention that goes on for nearly twelve minutes. When it hits a point of slow simmer allowing the rhythm section to just barely play loud enough to keep it going a tension builds and then... release with Tyner and Coltrane coming back into the fold. "Everytime We Say Goodbye" and "But Not For Me" are great as well, but serve almost as more of a comedown to the two longer tracks. This is an album that I urge everybody to hear. Everybody. [Subsequent reissues, such as the Rhino edition from 1998 that I haave feature the single versions of "My Favorite Things," which were of course two shorter edits. Neither is necessary listening compared to the original, but their inclusion is interesting for archival purposes.]