Jazz Bastard Podcast

It's the shock of the new as the boys take on three 2022 releases that stretch our heads in various directions, including a solo guitar outing, a visit to a mythical cave, and a trumpet excursions that goes even stranger places.  After that, a chill-out album from Blue Note is a welcome change of pace if nothing else.  Pop matters delves into this year's edition of the Chicago Jazz Fest, so stay tuned.  And watch out for those falling trees.  Gordon Grdina – ODDLY ENOUGH THE MUSIC OF TIM BERNE; Tony Malaby – CAVE OF WINDS ; Natsuki Tamura – SUMMER TREE; Gerald Clayton – BELLS ON SAND.

Two fifty is as good an artificial milestone as any, so the boys decide it's time for a GOAT episode.  First they wrestle a top-twenty artist list into shape, arguing that there's so much consensus out there little work remains to be done and still taking an hour doing it.  Then it's on to the tricky bit - picking out 21 through 40.   Totems will get tumbled, weird choices will get made, and hearts will get broken.  Mostly Mike's.  No pop matters this time as two hours of rampant opinion slinging should be enough for any listener.  

It's an episode years in the making when Mike is finally able to track down guitarist, composer, and raconteur Duck Baker.   We discovered Duck through his solo recording of Herbie Nichols' tunes, but Mike finds out that Duck has collaborated with such luminaries as John Zorn, Roswell Rudd, and Eugene Chadbourne while keeping up a stream of solo and group releases and composing dozens of tunes.  Don't miss this discussion from one of the only finger-style guitarists as comfortable at playing folk tunes and jazz covers as he is traveling to outer space.  And be sure to visit www.duckbaker.com for more information on this artist.

Mike drags Pat out of his blanket fort for close encounters with a couple heavy hitters of the avant-garde, a Chicago legend who doesn't believe in intonation, and a tribute to that legend that gets celestial from time to time.   In pop matters Mikes talks about a little known jazz short film from the fifties and Pat gets totally tubular.  Cecil Taylor – COMPLETE LEGENDARY LIVE RETURN CONCERT; Albert Ayler – HOLY GHOST: RARE AND UNRELEASED RECORDINGS; Michael Allemana – VONOLOGY; Von Freeman – THE IMPROVISER.

Mike's busy in Europe so Pat goes solo with a look at controversial jazz label CTI.  A lynchpin of the early seventies, record buyers loved the artwork, high production values and impeccable musicianship, but hard-core jazzbos and critics were suspicious that owner Creed Taylor was putting too much sugar into the mixes, not to mention those sprinklings of Stravinsky!  Freddie Hubbard – FIRST LIGHT; George Benson – WHITE RABBIT: Paul Desmond – FROM THE HOT AFTERNOON; Milt Jackson – SUNFLOWER;  Grover Washington Jr. – A SECRET PLACE; Stanley Turrentine – SALT SONG.

The newest of the new.  That's what our podcast brings you, sometimes, anyway, and this episode features four bangers from brand-spankin' 2022.   Three of the four offer some "fusion" elements of one kind and another, and the other Mike keeps at arm's length because it edges him into the Jackie attack zone, and long-time listeners know that's not where he likes to be.  Also, the boys threaten to eat Pandas, so there's that.  Harish Raghaven – IN TENSE; Joy Lapps – GIRL IN THE YARD;  Brian Landrus – RED LIST; Billy Drummond – VALSE SINISTRE. 

Many moons ago on episode 95 we did an podcast devoted to Freddie Hubbard, so in honor of the new Complete at the Lighthouse release, we thought it was time to do one for Lee Morgan.  But not to discuss Live at the Lighthouse because that's the way we roll.  (Look me up on facebook if you have questions about that release).  We survey the trumpet master's brutally truncated career and ponder what might have been while enjoying one of Blue Note's all time all stars.  Lee Morgan:  THE COOKER, THE SIDEWINDER, THE PROCRASTINATOR, FINAL SESSION.

Ambition can be a great thing in jazz  - emphasis on the "can."  We look at a mixed bag of releases experimenting with third stream music, Bach, and other elements.  The results, like the music itself, are mixed.   Still, our guess is that you haven't heard about at least one of these artists yet, and maybe not all four.  Jacques Loussier – PLAY BACH AT THE THEATRE CHAMPS-ÉLYSÉES;  Sasha Berliner – ONYX;  Rolf & Joachim Kuhn – IMPRESSIONS OF NEW YORK; Mike Holober – DON’T LET GO.

Big bands tempt the ambitious jazzer with their expansive possibilities for arrangements, the variegated colors they offer, and their sheer power.  But, boy, those budgets!  These days you need a generous label or a grant or two to make things work.  We take a look at a very seventies example of the genre and then a brand new effort by a young woman barely old enough to drive.  A guitar trio and a guitar solo fill out the episode, and they couldn't be at further ends of the in to out spectrum.   In the end show, Mike fills us in on a couple major acts he caught recently in San Diego.  Grace Fox – ELEVEN O’SEVEN;  Oz Noy/Riverside Trio – RIVERSIDE; Samo Salamon – DOLPHYOLOGY; Oliver Nelson – SKULL SESSION.

We listen to three releases from 2022, two exploring some interesting corners of jazz repertoire and one bringing back a format that thrived in the '50s.  Then, just for kicks, we get a message back from the future of 1987.  Does label Cellar Music contractually oblige its artists to cover a certain Benny Golson tune?  Listen to experience our hard-hitting investigation.   In pop matters, Mike offers Adele a sandwich.   It's a gesture of love and support, people.  Mark Helias – THE CURRENT SET; Aaron Seeber – FIRST MOVE; Grant Stewart – THE LIGHTING OF THE LAMPS; Scott Burns – TENOR TIME.

It's time for a deep dive, listeners, and the subject this round is underappreciated West Coast keyboard wizard Hampton Hawes.  Hawes did most of his best known recordings for Contemporary Jazz, and we'll look at a couple of releases on that storied (but also underappreciated) label, as well as a collaboration with Charles Mingus and a sample of Hampton's seventies output, when the sideburns got longer and the keyboards got plugged in.  Hampton Hawes: BLUES FOR WALLS ; FOR REAL; FOUR! Charles Mingus:  MINGUS THREE.  Pat takes a ride with Casey Jones in pop matters.

Drummers are the under-sung heroes of the jazz world.  At their best, they lift up and enhance whatever the so-called front-liners are up to while being ready to step up and say their piece when called upon.  But every now and then things get a bit . . . sticky.  This episode explores four recordings where to varying degrees the drummer goes a little wild and oddity results.  Charlie Parker - BIRD & DIZ; Dexter Gordon – ONE FLIGHT UP; Mostly Other People Do the Killing – DISASTERS VOLUME 1; Slide Hampton – MELLOW DY.

"Going Pop" can mean many different things where jazz musicians are concerned, from adding electricity (dang it, Miles, why you do that?), to covering pop songs, to actually experimenting with writing pop songs (not too many take this path and few emerge unscathed).  And then there's rare jazzer combining jazz and pop songs, as you'll soon find out.   This time out we look at approaches all over the spectrum, ending with a vocal album Mike has already pegged as an album of the year contender.  Cecile McLoren – GHOST SONG; John Pizzarelli – DOUBLE EXPOSURE; Reuben Wilson – LOVE BUG; Bill O’Connell – A CHANGE IS GONNA COME.

A great big heapin' helping of a certain blind pianist's work provides the anchor for this time's outing, as we look at one disc from six of a new box set and then fan out to look at a little known second-hand disciple of the great man along with two other stylists further removed.  Pop matters further reveals Mike's ongoing obsession with all things Buckley.  Lennie Tristano  - PERSONAL RECORDINGS, Disc three; Billy Lester -  FROM SCRATCH ; Deanna Witkowski – FORCE OF NATURE; Roberto Occhipinti – THE NEXT STEP .

For all their excursions into the avant garde, fusion, post-bop, and other "edgy" forms of jazz, sometimes the boys just want to wallow right in the middle of the stream - the main part of it, you might say.  This fortnight's feast includes two instrumental and two vocal albums all centered in the tradition and happy to be there.  Mike is unmoved by the rising star this time, but who knows - her next outing may change his mind.  Samara Joy – SAMARA JOY; Maxine Sullivan – CLOSE AS PAGES IN A BOOK;  Asaf Yuria – EXORCISMS; Dave Young – MANTRA. 

Ornette Coleman and Blue Note - not exactly the chocolate and peanut butter of the jazz world, one might think, but for two productive years the avant garde avatar toiled in the vineyards of the hard bop powerhouse.  The label recently released "Round Trip" - a box set re-issuing the fruits of this odd collaboration - and the boys take a deep dive.  Except for the collaboration with Jackie McLean, because that gives Mike PTSD.  Ornette Coleman:  LIVE AT THE GOLDEN CIRCLE, VOLS 1 & 2; THE EMPTY FOXHOLE; NEW YORK IS NOW; LOVE CALL.  

After last episode's extravaganza we decided to keep our focus on larger ensembles for this outing.  It's a mix of historical issues (some better engineered than others) and two nearly brand new releases.  What do they have in common?  Ain't none of them trios.   Pop matters gets historical as we contemplate Pitchfork's deathless mediations on the "oldness" of Steely Dan.  Jazz Station Big Band – MOODS; Woody Herman – MOODY WOODY ; Dollar Brand – AFRICAN SPACE PROGRAM; Michael Leonhart – THE NORMYN SUITES. 

We start off season ten with neither a bang nor a whimper, but rather the sound of exotic auxiliary percussion and the screams of excitable brass.  It's a show devoted to "Latin" music in its many guises, both smooth and bumptious, with looks at a early innovator in the jazz field, a couple of main stream jazzers hoping to strike it rich with the bossa nova craze, and a towering figure in big band jazz who always approached "outside" influences in his own distinctive way.  Chico O’Farrill – COMPLETE NORMAN GRANTZ RECORDINGS; Oscar Peterson – SOUL ESPANOLA; Duke Ellington – LATIN AMERICAN SUITE; Quincy Jones – BIG BOSSA NOVA.

We've made it nine years - four years more than Ziggy Stardust promised us, thank you very much - and to celebrate we're once again discussing ensembles the numerical size of which matches our anniversary.   That means, my friends, nonets, and of course we'll start with the most famous jazz nonet of all, that one that birthed a hundred West-Coast groups.  Miles Davis – BIRTH OF THE COOL; Lee Konitz – NONET; Andrew Hill – PASSING SHIPS; Rabih Abou-Khalil – THE SULTAN’S PICNIC.

Time to look at some of the best and brightest from 2021 - and the recent past.  But, lo!  Is that a controversy brewing off in the distance?  Sounds like the bastards once again are skeptical of generally received wisdom, whether about funky puppies or critics' darlings.  Snarky Puppy – CULCHA VULCHA; Eric Revis - SLIPKNOTS THROUGH A LOOKING GLASS; Pharoah Sanders / Floating Points – PROMISES;  Henry Threadgill – POOF.