All That Jazz ...

[Jayant_S]

Thanks for your generosity @coaltrain !
Brought back memories of college bootleg CDs with the home printed inserts

 

[himadri]

Discovered this gem on youtube from the Allan Holdsworth quartet. The band is swinging and the Coltrane influence is unmistakable.

 

[coaltrain]

View attachment 59742
Thanks for your generosity @coaltrain !
Brought back memories of college bootleg CDs with the home printed inserts

You‘re most welcome, Jayant.
It was bootleg cassettes when I was in college, so that should carbon date me pretty accurately

 

[Jayant_S]

carbon date

Let's not go there! I've made enough bootleg tapes in my college days too

 

[Fiftyfifty]

There's some good talent in Goa. But with the lockdown restrictions, hardly get to see anything live. Here's Sonia Shirsat, a wonderful Fado singer, doing Manha de Carnaval. She's truly world class:

 

[Sushant Sharma]

There's some good talent in Goa. But with the lockdown restrictions, hardly get to see anything live. Here's Sonia Shirsat, a wonderful Fado singer, doing Manha de Carnaval. She's truly world class:

Wow. Great big voice she has. So in tune with every note. Loved her singing. Watched a couple more and next trip to Goa will be to chase more Fado music and less kings beer.

 

[moktan]

 

[shyamv]

Check out this review by my favorite Youtuber Rick Beato of an live performance of 'Boogie Blues Etude' from 1974 by Oscar Peterson, NHOP and Barney Kessel. I don't know if this is the greatest solo of all time but Oscar Peterson is really killing it on the Piano.

Rick's enthusiasm is really infectious and his love for music is clearly evident. Do check out his other videos too if you haven't.

 

[Sushant Sharma]

Harold Land West Coast Blues. Wes Montgomery adds a nice bit of flavour. Must check out more of Joe Gordon. 

 

[himadri]

I have a thing for ballads .John Coltrane's Ballads is one of my favorites .
Nowadays this one is.

 

[coaltrain]

Rick's enthusiasm is really infectious and his love for music is clearly evident.

Totally agree. I really love his ‘what makes this song great’ series, too.

On the OP video, special mention to NHOP and BK for their amazing timing. The way they responded to OP, and rejoined him in a nanosecond, just blew me away.

btw, are others also getting a ‘this video is unavailable’ message?

 

[shyamv]

Totally agree. I really love his ‘what makes this song great’ series, too.

I love Beato's 'What makes this song great' series. The one from a few weeks back on Allan Holdsworth's 'City Nights' from Secrets album is so fun to watch.

On the OP video, special mention to NHOP and BK for their amazing timing. The way they responded to OP, and rejoined him in a nanosecond, just blew me away.

Yes, the look they exchanged was telepathic and they jump right in.

btw, are others also getting a ‘this video is unavailable’ message?

Yes, looks like all Youtube links are broken on this thread. I can access the video on YouTube directly though.

 

[shyamv]

No sympathy for you, Shyam, as we all know you’re sitting on a treasure trove of 3000+ CDs!
Just be glad I don’t have your address, else you’d be changing locks right now

All kidding aside, I do have the Alice Coltrane and Maisha albums as mp3s burned to disc. They appear as .cda files and play as regular CDs on any player. Naturally, audio quality is not as good as Red Book, but they’re 320 kbps files, so not too shabby. I purchase these mp3s from mp3million.com, and use these discs till I can get my hands on an original cd.

If you’re ok with these, do let me know and I can send across.

Most of my CDs are stored away in the loft. I haven't unpacked the boxes after my last move as I don't have proper storage yet. That's a project I haven't been able to get to yet. Happy to have you over once I settle down in a few months.

Thanks for your kind offer of the CDs. i was just kidding. Let me first get around to unpacking and listening to the ones I have

 

[coaltrain]

It’s a real shame that the pandemic has turned us all into hermits. There are quite a few B’lore boys on this thread, and we could easily have started a jazz listening group.
Perhaps, once we return to some semblance of normalcy, we can all catch up and explore each other’s favourite albums. Best way to enjoy some new sounds

 

[Jayant_S]

It’s a real shame that the pandemic has turned us all into hermits. There are quite a few B’lore boys on this thread, and we could easily have started a jazz listening group.
Perhaps, once we return to some semblance of normalcy, we can all catch up and explore each other’s favourite albums. Best way to enjoy some new sounds

I'm all for the Blr boys jazz sessions!

 

[Sushant Sharma]

Blue Mitchell..I need some melody from time to time and our man does it better. Compilation of a few of his albums this one and everybody was there.

 

[Nikhil]

Nice and easy listening after a long day ....

.

 

[himadri]

Hello again, enthusiasts. Looks like it’s been a quiet week in here. Same for me… I spent it mostly horizontal, reading the infamous Larkin. More on that later.

First, the recommendation. The track is called Diane, written for Art Pepper’s first wife and can be found on the album titled The Art Pepper Quartet (Tampa, 1956). Exquisitely recorded, it starts by planting soft kisses on one’s ears. Draw the curtains, switch off the lights, mute the phones. When Pepper enters, he is languorous and achingly sweet. It’s a 3-minute heart melt, so beautiful that even his second wife once referred to it as “the jewel that is this love song.” Stop reading and listen to it first. Go on, I’ll wait right here.

Done? Now let’s talk about Larkin for a moment. As you both pointed out, Coaltrain and Goget, the man holds some outrageous views. I’m going through the book with eyebrows so raised that only the price of petrol can top it. He basically rails against modernism in jazz (and incidentally, also in literature and the visual arts), drawing a line in the sand between the pre-Parker and post-Parker era. I don’t agree with him obviously but you know what, it’s not a big deal — the man is entitled to his opinions after all, and indeed that makes this book all the more interesting because agreeing on everything is just boring, isn’t it? And his craft is impeccable — the old git can write. But, and this is a huge but, this distaste for modernism isn’t his most egregious crime. Larkin, I’m discovering, is also frighteningly racist with some obnoxious class prejudices. I never knew! Is this the same person who wrote the incredible MCMXIV? How can a man capable of such empathy and luminous poetry also be so small-minded and unpleasant? The mind reels.

But should I really be surprised? Van Morrison, maker of some of my favourite music, has turned into a WhatsApp uncle making surprisingly stupid statements on lockdown restrictions. On his latest album, he’s joined by Clapton who himself has a history of making bigoted comments. Lead Belly was a violent man, Steinbeck was a sadist, Modigliani was a dissolute alcoholic. And that brings us right back to Art Pepper who in his autobiography wrote dispassionately of voyeurism, domestic abuse, even rape. Now go back and hear that recommendation again. Same guy.

Last month, Shelley from Amsterdam asked Nick Cave, “Should we separate the artist from the art?” He replied, “I don’t think we can separate the art from the artist, nor should we need to. I think we can look at a piece of art as the transformed or redeemed aspect of an artist, and marvel at the miraculous journey that the work of art has taken to arrive at the better part of the artist’s nature. Perhaps beauty can be measured by the distance it has travelled to come into being. That bad people make good art is a cause for hope. To be human is to transgress, of that we can be sure, yet we all have the opportunity for redemption, to rise above the more lamentable parts of our nature, to do good in spite of ourselves, to make beauty from the unbeautiful, and to have the courage to present our better selves to the world. The moon is high and yellow in the sky outside my window. It is a display of sublime beauty. It is also a cry for mercy — that this world is worth saving. Mostly, though, it is a defiant articulation of hope that, despite the state of the world, the moon continues to shine. Hope too resides in a gesture of kindness from one broken individual to another or, indeed, we can find it in a work of art that comes from the hand of a wrongdoer. These expressions of transcendence, of betterment, remind us that there is good in most things, rarely only evil. Once we awaken to this fact, we begin to see goodness everywhere, and this can go some way in setting right the current narrative that humans are sh!t and the world is f*cked.”

Amen.

—Orko, Deeply Flawed Human

PS: A few Sundays ago, I wrote about rearranging my listening room. Among all the imperfect things in the world, this room would rank right near the top. Some rooms need to be tamed; mine needs to be wrestled to the ground. It’s small, it’s square, it’s stubborn. But after moving things around and allowing time for the newness to settle, I’m pleased to report that (I’ll say this very quietly so as not to jinx it) everything’s cooking. Mr. D is singing “I Contain Multitudes” (the perfect song for this post, perhaps?) and the rasp, the heft, the breath, the depth, it’s all there and, dare I say it, better than before. Goodness abounds. Bye for now, got to get back to the music and meditate on the things that break us and make us.

PPS: Really liked Joe Farrell (why haven’t I heard him before?); and Arnett Cobb (couldn’t find that particular album but heard a couple others which were excellent); and I especially loved that McLaughlin video with the students (John-ji is a personal favourite). Keep them coming please.

Sorry , clicked the wrong reaction , actually liked the post.

 

[coaltrain]

Speaking of NHOP:

 

[himadri]

Based on you tuber Rick Beato's recommendation listened to this and I'm bowled over.

https://tidal.com/album/1967521