The second volume from Jazz Sabbath is considerably more ambitious musically than the first and, to my ears, considerably more campy. The first volume is tagged/categorized as, among other things, musical parody. But, aside from the “liner” notes, I honestly didn’t hear any parody. I heard a genuinely earnest and serious attempt to play Sabbath …
Tag: Post Bop
Jazz Sabbath (2020)
Once, many years ago, when I was describing Paranoid to a friend who was skeptical of Black Sabbath, I used the term “jazzy” (or, perhaps, “relatively jazzy”). He scoffed. (He was probably thinking of the title track and thought I was crazy). I was referring, specifically, to Butler and Ward, who I felt played their early metal …
Sounds Unheard (2022) by the Joe Policastro Trio
Rarities compilations can be a bit of a mixed bag more often than not. It’s the music the artist didn’t think was good enough to release in the moment, obviously. But sometimes, they’re great. And this is a pretty great one.
Nothing Belongs Here (2019) by the Joe Policastro Trio
This is the first JPTrio record with originals. And I think I just like it less than their earlier records. That’s far less of a comment on their originals than it is on how easy it is to like the earlier records, when their material is pretty well known.
Screen Sounds (2017) by The Joe Policastro Trio
The third album by the Joe Policastro trio focuses on movie and TV themes (with one exception) and is, in some ways, even more fun than their second record. Certainly, it’s even more diverse. This time the material is just as varied, if not even more so. I’m particularly delighted by the presence of the …
Pops! (2016) by the Joe Policastro Trio
So I saw these guys live before I ever listened to a record, and that has really predisposed me to like them. I had only heard one cover they did and was not prepared for how much fun they were live. I have no idea what I would have made of this record if I …
The Joe Policastro Trio Live at The Rex October 26, 2022
A few weeks ago, I was browsing Cover Me’s Best Cover Songs of September and I came across a fun jazz guitar cover of “Take on Me.” I liked it. Jenn liked it. So I followed the group on the socials and saw that they would be in Toronto in a few weeks.
Jazz Portraits: Mingus in Wonderland (1959)
I’m listening to this as part of a compilation which focuses primarily on Mingus’ earlier work in the mid 1950s and I have no idea why this particular live album was included, as it is from a while later both chronologically and artistically. (Licensing is always the answer to these kinds of questions.) At this …
Pithecanthropus Erectus (1956) by Charles Mingus
According to everything I’ve read, the is the first studio album where the Charles Mingus every knows and loves first emerged. He had been a leader on a number of releases prior to it but it’s this record, and particularly its title track, where his unique fusion of music from bop (and earlier) with musical …
Mingus at the Bohemia (1956)
I miswrote when I stated that The Charles Mingus Quintet & Max Roach was the first of the two parts of this concert released. It is sequenced first on the compilation I am listening to, but it was this record that was released first (years earlier) as far as I can tell. Perhaps that’s one …
The Clown (1957) by Charles Mingus
This record is, for some, probably the most controversial of Mingus’ prime, for its infamous title track, a piece which contains spoken narration by Jean Shepherd. And it’s the one piece I’m not entirely sure what to do with so I’ll try to leave it for last.
The Charles Mingus Quartet + Max Roach (1955, 1963)
Even though it was the dominant form of how we listened to music for decades, it’s interesting to think about how much LPs affected the way people enjoyed music. Limited to 44 ish minutes, artists had to either curate their recordings and performances, or released more than one LP, the latter of which was just …
Mingus Three aka Trio (1957) by Charles Mingus, Hampton Hawes, Danny Richmond
If you asked me to name my favourite jazz musician, the first person I would probably name, before equivocating, would be Charles Mingus. And yet I’ve heard so little of his discography, really, with my listening focused pretty much entirely on what people would call his prime. Until I listened to this record, I’m not …
Far From Over (2017) by ViJay Iyer Sextet
This is my second Vijay Iyer record, the other one I’ve heard was a trio record which was obviously not as full band as this one. That makes him one of the 21st century jazz artists I’m actually paying attention to, because my popular music podcast has me ignoring jazz basically altogether at the moment.
The Bad Plus Joshua Redman Live at the Wintergarden Theatre, Toronto, Occtober 15, 2015
The last time I saw the Bad Plus they blew me away. But with Joshua Redman they are significantly more jazzy, significantly closer to the mainstream, far more within the tradition than I was expecting. It’s not that their old music wasn’t within the tradition – jazz musicians have been covering non-jazz songs since jazz …
Swiss Movement (1969) by Les McCann, Eddie Harris
The myth-making goes to hilarious extremes in the liner notes – with the writer denying the band had ever played together before this date before then detailing how they played together before the date – but that’s something that’s quite common to jazz (and to music in general) and this band still sounds fantastic for …
Roy Hargrove Quintet with the Tenors of Our Time (1993)
This record should really be called the Roy Hargrove Quintet with the Tenors of Another Time or the Roy Hargrove Quintet with the Tenors of Our Parents’ Time. I didn’t know Wynton had discovered Hargrove; had I, I wouldn’t have borrowed six of his cds from the library. Oops.
Camouflage (2004) by Acoustic Ladyland
Coming at an artists backwards is always a big of an issue. Not only as it’s sort of unfair to the artist – we get our notions of what the artist sounds like when they are “mature” and try to apply that to their early work – but also as it’s unfair to the listener, …
RIP Dave Brubeck
I can’t pretend I know all that much about Dave Brubeck, the jazz pianist who just died. Like most jazz fans, I know Time Out well. And I only know the rest of his career from reading about him. I don’t think I have listened to a single other Brubeck album though I have heard the …
Women in Jazz (1998, Retro Music) by Various Artists
The cheapie box set is an interesting phenomenon: Gather some recordings from major artists where the copyright has lapsed (or never existed), Put the recordings in any arbitrary order you choose, Use more discs than are necessary to convince the buyer they are getting a great bargain, Give it a catchy title.