All that jazz

Diane Havens · Posted: Thu May 01, 2008, 14:12 (GMT) Post subject: All that jazz

I love rock 'n roll, new age, classical, ethnic, lots of stuff -- but through hanging out with jazz musicians over the years, I have a special place in my heart reserved for that original cool sound....
when hip was hep and back to hip, when it was more Maynard G. Krebbs than Justin Long.
(Though I was still a gleam in my parents' eyes at the time, of course.)

And the other great thing about going to hear live jazz is that sometimes I get to be the youngest person in the room!

While visiting a friend in NYC, I stopped in at Borders and bought this CD that I hadn't heard in a long time ... so, jazz fans, I'm kicking off this thread for us with Dave Frishberg -- just 'cause he's so much FUN to listen to. My two faves from this album.

Haneen Arafat · Posted: Thu May 01, 2008, 14:31 (GMT) Post subject:

Diane,

I'm a jazz person too, and while vocalese can drive some insane, if you know Frishberg, I'm sure you're also familiar with Eddie Jefferson. For anyone who isn't:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmK9GBojLEk&feature=related

Anthony Williams · Posted: Thu May 01, 2008, 18:05 (GMT) Post subject: Hi Diane,

Hi Diane,

I'm a professional musician myself and Jazz and Blues are my favorites. Those are two nice selections you have in this thread . I have many different types of vocalists and musicians from many eras that inspire me as well

Duke Ellington
Louis Armstrong
Earl Hines
Count Basie
Fats Waller
Sun Ra
Dizzy Gillespie
Thelonious Monk
Charlie Parker
Charlie Mingus
Oscar Peterson
Miles Davis
John Coltrane
Ornette Coleman
Red Nichols
Count Basie
Cab Calloway
Benny Carter
Toshiko Akiyoshi
Herbie Hancock
Billie Holiday
Ella Fitzgerald
Sarah Vaughan
Brandon Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis

John Bigl · Posted: Thu May 01, 2008, 18:29 (GMT) Post subject:

Diane and Haneen...
thanks for adding to to my jazz faves...
they'll both go perfectly w/ Mose

its hip, daddy-o

Diane Havens · Posted: Thu May 01, 2008, 18:31 (GMT) Post subject:

Haneen -- Yes, Fabulous -- so funny.

Anthony -- What a fine list -- and yes, Sun Ra!!! Man, my ex-husband was so into him, I've seen him live more times than I can count. We used to go to lots of jazz clubs in Chicago many long years ago. Saw lots of Ornette Coleman too. Such great music.

Post some of your music! I'd love to hear it.

Oh, cool, John -- I was waiting for you. Another great tune.

Lee Gordon · Posted: Thu May 01, 2008, 19:04 (GMT) Post subject:

Tony -- You must really like Count Basie. You have him listed twice.

From your impressive list, I have had the pleasure of seeing Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, and Toshiko Akiyoshi in live performances.

Among those not on your list, I have also gotten to see Buddy Rich, Stan Kenton, Maynard Fergusen, Ahmad Jamal, Les McCann, Herbie Mann, and Dave Brubeck, among others. And when I saw Basie at Carnegie Hall back in the 70s, the great Joe Williams was singing with the band.

A lot of people look down their noses at the current crop of smooth jazz artists but it's not all insipid stuff like Kenny-G recordings, especially when you get to see them live, when they tend to let loose a little more than they do on records.

Last week I saw an outstanding show put on by Jay Rowe, who is not necessarily one of the better known smooth jazz artists but it's an annual benefit concert he puts on to raise money for the music program in his old high school, and he always brings along several of his more famous friends. This year's show included sax players Kim Waters and Eric Marienthal and guitarists Chieli Minucci, Rohn Lawrence, Ken Navarro and Joyce Cooling.

Marienthal, especially, is one of my current favorite sax men. And you'd have to look long and hard to find a better sax player than another smooth jazz guy, Gerald Albright.

John -- 2 daumen hoch

That piece is a classic. Back when I was in college, there used to be a little club in Boston called the Jazz Workshop. It was a tiny place and one night we went there to see Mose. It was cabaret style seating and our table was about three rows back. However, sitting at the best table in the house, right next to Mose's piano, was a guy who had apprently gone well beyond the two-drink minimum. As the night grew longer, he kept getting louder and more obnoxious. At one point, Mose stopped in the middle of a song, shot a quick glance to the other guys in the band, didn't have to say a word, and they just launched into "Your Mind is on Vacation." The guy in the front row had no clue it was being performed "in his honor" but everyone else in the place understood and gave the band a standing ovation. It was so great, it almost made putting up with the loud guy worth it. Fortunately, he was encouraged to leave a couple of tunes later.

Anthony Williams · Posted: Thu May 01, 2008, 20:00 (GMT) Post subject: hahahah

You are right Lee!

I do like Count Basie a lot. I also like Gerald Albright as well and also lets not forget one of the best Smooth Jazz Guitarist in the 70's and 80's Grover Washington Jr.

Also looking thru the collection i have i should also mention

John Klemmer,
George Benson
David Sanborn
Bob James
Chuck Mangione
Herb Alpert
Spyro Gyra

and also Vocalist

Phylis Hyman

John Bigl · Posted: Thu May 01, 2008, 21:34 (GMT) Post subject:

Anthony..

you forgot Tony !!! Wink

btw, Anthony, been way too long since you've posted a new composition... love to hear more w/in my 'lifetime' .. Wink

Play Well

Diane Havens · Posted: Thu May 01, 2008, 23:18 (GMT) Post subject:

Wait, Anthony -- you're TONY?!! You are incredible, man. I can't believe I didn't know that was you -- you look too young!
Yeah -- we want MORE. Post!

Lee Gordon · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008, 00:42 (GMT) Post subject:

Grover Washington put on one of the best shows I ever saw! (And I'm sure you meant to say "sax player" not "guitarist"). From that list, I've also seen Bob James, David Sanborn a couple of times, and I've lost count how many times I've caught Spyro Gyra, but they've never disappointed. Nor have the Rippingtons or Acoustic Alchemy. One on your list that did disappoint was Chuck Mangione. He was good, but he must have recruited his band from the low-budget section of Sidemen123. Cool

John Bigl · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008, 01:52 (GMT) Post subject:

Diane... when i first saw a post by Anthony my jazz mind brought up Tony Williams, the best jazz drummer for close to 3 decades. he was 17 or 18 when he was playing w/ Miles! i hadn't listened to much of his work for quite sometime so, i dug up what few CD's i had, and got the rest my son had borrowed, so i could listen again... funny how things happen that way, eh? and our Anthony does compose some very nice music that he's shared w/ us here awhile back...

Lee ... boy oh boy, do i envy you the greats you've seen, and what a riot to see Mose play that tune 'for' that yahoo... sadly, theres no more Jazz Workshop in boston but, there is the Regattabar at The Charles in Cambridge.. next time you're up this way be sure and pop me a note, we'll catch some tunes... like this lovely lady i saw there a couple years ago...

one quick note .. i love YouTube, and since i don't have a ripper to convert my own collection to Mp3 and post here to save on bandwidth, i use it often to share w/ you folks my fave musicians...
saddly, i recently saw that every Chet Baker vid has been removed from YouTube after a complaint regards copyright violation... i enjoyed those videos, and i'm sure out of the millions of hits they got the vast majority had never heard of 'The Prince of Cool'.. not having Chet or many other jazz folks featured on places such as YouTube hurts jazz, imo... i hope Chet's tunes return soon...
afterall, its jazz, man. hundreds of fans can't be wrong Wink

Diane Havens · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008, 02:24 (GMT) Post subject:

John -- Well, I hope our Anthony does post some of his stuff for us soon. I can't believe that about Chet Baker. I wonder if other musicians will begin to go that route.

Diane Havens · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008, 13:38 (GMT) Post subject:

Lee -- You mentioned another of my favorites, Brubeck -- I've seen him several times. Especially enjoyed when I saw him with his two kids Chris and Dan. Jazz seems to have a proliferation of musical families.

Here's some Bossa Nova by this talented trio. Doncha feel like swayin'?

Roger Baker · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008, 14:57 (GMT) Post subject: Jazz

Hi all,
Since you guys are talking about jazz, a guy I work with has a couple of kids that have formed their own jazz band that play in various places here in my city. Their name is Jazz The Ripper. When you first read about them, you think of just another jazz band. But…. They are all between the ages of 13 and 16. When they play they totally blow the audience away. I think mostly because of their age and these days you wouldn’t think that kids would be interested at all in jazz, or at least not that much.

They recently won a contest to play at the Asheville Earth Day festival that was held at the Orange Peel, which is a small venue here that was recently voted one of the top 10 venues in the country by Rolling Stone. They played to a packed crowd last week and they were a huge success. They beat out some really heavy bands to play there and they have now had some serious exposure.

They are kind of a jazz/funk band so if you want to know more go here. They don’t have their “own” website yet but you can hear them here if you are interested:

http://www.sonicbids.com/epk/epk.aspx?epk_id=128168

They pre-released their CD in a 50 copy special edition limited run, and sold them all that night. The other bands sold zip. They were serialized and signed and that was pretty cool. I was able to get one. The CD comes out May 24 if any of you guys are interested.

Great thread.

Diane Havens · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008, 18:52 (GMT) Post subject:

That's so wonderful to hear, Roger. More kids ARE becoming interested in jazz. There's a local coffee shop nearby that features a couple of incredibly talented high school kids playing jazz guitar and bass every weekend. They are truly amazing.