Jazz Note SDP

One thing you have to understand about jazz is that it is like fine wine.  It matters a lot what you are eating while you are drinking.  A great bottle of wine is only great in the right li...

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2015/09/words-are-not-nearly-enough.html

I have a vague memory of a reading (or hearing?) an interview with rock/blues guitarist Johnny Walker.  He was asked if he still practiced when he wasn’t performing.  He replied that he did...

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-shape-of-ornette-coleman.html

 I just downloaded this marvelous album.  Holy Cow!  What a great big band performance.  This is a smorgasbord of steamy jazz dishes.  Walk down the row and fill your plate.  I am reproduc...

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-gil-evans-project-projects-lines-of.html

Today I made up a quick playlist and enjoyed it on my way from Aberdeen South Dakota to Fargo North Dakota.  I am training for my 200 hour certification as a yoga instructor.  By chance, I li...

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-twisted-taste-for-avant-garde.html

One thing I can never get enough of is Kind of Blue.  For all sorts of reasons, it is generally acknowledged as one of the best albums every produced.  It is certainly the best selling jazz...

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2014/09/kind-of-blue-too.html

Frank Lowe didn’t like the studio system much and so didn’t leave behind the kind of legacy that he deserved.  He was an avant garde jazzman to his core but, as is often the case, there ...

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-low-down-on-frank-lowe.html

 Sometimes you just want to hit play and hear something that you were waiting for, something that joins to your heart like a key to a lock.  It isn’t easy to find that key, even when you hav...

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2014/07/andrew-hadro-makes-me-happy.html

 I got a fine CD last week from master drummer Jeff Cosgrove.  Jeff is a fearless explorer of those regions of avant garde hyperspace opened up by the elder captains.  I have previously revie...

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2014/05/alternating-current.html

I get the occasional cd in the mail for review.  This is a very good thing for me.  Otherwise I probably wouldn’t have heard bassist Michael Feinberg's Humblebrag Live at 800 East.  As i...

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2014/04/michael-feinbergs-humblebrag.html

February 25th marks fifty years since the recording of Eric Dolphy’s most famous recording, Out to Lunch.  Kevin Whitehead has a glowing and penetrating tribute to the document at eMusic....

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2014/02/out-to-launch-50-years-later.html

When I was a kid my parents bought a cabinet stereo: wood panel and big, copper arm over the record.  Neither of them used it much, if ever.  I got their money’s worth.  I listened to th...

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2014/02/lauren-kinhan-circle-in-square.html

I received a welcome email this week from Christoph Gallio.  Gallio is jazz saxophonist based in Switzerland.  He found my posts on Day & Taxi, his horn, bass, and percussion trio.  He is sen...

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2014/02/christoph-gallio.html

I have managed to obtain the entire collection of William Parker live recordings released under the title Wood Flute Songs.  There is so much beauty and heartwood in this collection that one...

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2014/01/don-pullen.html

One more jazz collector’s windfall fell my way last week.  William Parker has released a series of live recordings.  Parker is a bass player and maybe the best avant garde composer workin...

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2013/12/live-genius-from-william-parker.html

I play a lot of avant garde on my Live365 station.  I worry that I don’t play enough hard bop, which I love and want to encourage.  I find special satisfaction in coherent bop played by a...

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2013/12/dewey-redman.html

I have been neglecting both this blog and my Live365 station over the last couple of months.  Well, I’m back!  This holiday weekend I have been listening to tenor man Fred Anderson.  Anderso...

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2013/11/fred-anderson.html

Odean Pope?  Who the heck is this guy?  I had to Google ‘im to find out.  A Philadelphia founding father of jazz saxophone, composer, arranger and educator, Odean Pope. Ephemeral is no...

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2013/09/odean-pope.html

I go back from time to time to Andrew Hill.  His marvelous work for Blue Note ought to be part of any jazz collector's treasure chest.  Today I acquired Pax, a fine set with the following lin...

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2013/09/some-andrew-hill.html

I have deleted a lot of numbers with very low ratings.  I can see no sense in some of the deletions, but what other guide do I have?  I am adding some more music to challenge my listeners.�...

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2013/08/new-stuff-on-jazz-note.html

One of my favorite albums from my early days as a jazz fan was Undercurrent, a duet with Bill Evans on piano and Jim Hall on guitar.  Guitar/piano duos seem to be rare.  I have very few of them...

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2013/08/free-flying-by-fred-hersch-juian-lage.html

I have been covering the Newport Jazz Festival for WHUS FM for the last 5 years, and the 2013 festival is one of the best I've had the pleasure to attend. Musically, the festival covered a wide...

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2013/08/i-have-been-covering-newport-jazz.html

Appreciating brilliant avant garde jazz is a little like sudden enlightenment in the Zen tradition, or maybe being born again.  Before it happens to you, say those to whom it has happened, i...

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2013/08/brilliant-avant-garde-from-kaze.html

Somebody has finally figured out that you can market unmarketable jazz if only the price is right.  If we are talking about the Art Ensemble of Chicago, a very uncompromising avant garde institu...

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2013/08/free-jazz-4-free-almost.html

I am a big fan of jazz drummer Andrew Cyrille, bass player Reggie Workman, and horn master Oliver Lake, so I can’t help buying up the recordings of the Trio 3.  This week I got Open Ideas....

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2013/07/trio-3-is-killer-jazz.html

After years of mining the Penguin Guide to Jazz (may it be praised!), the lode is still not exhausted.  I chanced upon the entry for Albert Mangelsdorff just the day as I was trying to figure...

http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2013/07/mangelic.html