Jazz for aficionados

I have learned more about music since this thread has been up, than I have in the rest of my entire life.


First, there are an infinite number of factors that determine what music we like best. Whatever music we like best, is the best music. The "Aristocracy", as always, claims the music they like is best, and when you combine what is said by everybody about all genres of music, "Classical" is the best; can you guess why? Because the aristocracy says it's best, that's why.

On the real side, in regard to the music we are about, when we reach a serious consensus, that's when it's time to study all the details carefully; by that, I mean to search for albums created by the artists who created that one; without the star artist on that one.


        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DKeYXG5gwk


This is an interesting album, and this is the first time I heard it; but I selected it based on my new found theory; which I bet you guessed by now.

Ghosthouse, we will apply my theory to your searches; that's why I'm looking into this ECM thing, a lot of us collected those records; that's where all the unique records (another word for "strange") records in my collection came from. Man can not live by hard bop alone, he must have a few unique records to balance things out when he wants a change.

What do you guys think of that album I selected based on my new theory.  

Thanks for the Terje Rypdal/Per Ulv recommendation, Orpheus. I’ll have to check it out. Did not see a recent link to it. The title sounds familiar like I might have heard it at some point. I do have a couple of TR recordings..."Waves" in vinyl from the ECM label and a 1978 recording (also on ECM but a CD reissue) by the trio of Rypdal, Miroslav Vitous and Jack DeJohnette. Rypdal is not an artist I’ve spent a lot of time with so hard to think of musicians he has worked with that are favorites. On Waves I note the drummer is Jon Christiansen. Christiansen has a gentle touch. I admire his playing on Towner’s Solstice. If I have to generalize about my "groove" (my tastes are pretty eclectic) I do find myself often enjoying Scandinavian jazz...think early Jan Garbarek, or more recently Lars Danielsson, Magnus Ostrom and E.S.T. Sparse, moody, atmospheric. Your Terje Rypdal suggestion is apt.

About Corea’s Three Quartets. I think we are going to have to agree to disagree about it. For me to say "he misses" I’d have to have an idea what he was aiming at to begin with. What I first heard (when I finally did HEAR it...if you get my meaning) struck me as almost classical in structure but written for jazz. This was my impression before reading others’ notes on Corea’s goal for the compositions. I’m hearing complex compositions, virtuosic playing and music that bears repeated listening. I went on about it a good bit (probably ad nauseum) in an earlier post.

Without doubt, my ear and jazz sensibilities are not as highly developed as yours. The upside of which is I’m not burdened making the sort of comparison you make. I’m certainly not equipped to argue whether Three Quartets is a miss relative to any hard bop aspirations. It sounds solely like great music to me. I take "misses" to mean it "fails" for you on some level. Perhaps a valid verdict for you but kind of irrelevant for me. I think Three Quartets stands on its own and is excellent whatever influences are there. To be clear, my introductory comment was mainly an attempt to find a graceful segue given your preceding Blue Train comments. I wasn’t saying Brecker was channeling Coltrane all through it or that Coltrane was the inspiration for it. (I will, however, stand by what I said about the Coltrane-sounding figure in Quartet 1).

By the way, just tonight saw your Egberto Gismonti - Sol do Meio Dia link. Missed it when you first put it up. I enjoy EG’s music very much and have acquired on old vinyl all of his recordings I can find. Favorites are Magico and Folk Songs w/Haden and Garbarek.

Later. Ciao.

PS - O, I was typing at the same time as you. Just saw your link to Five Spot. Will check it out after Per Ulv!

"On the real side, in regard to the music we are about, when we reach a serious consensus, that's when it's time to study all the details carefully; by that, I mean to search for albums created by the artists who created that one; without the star artist on that one."

O - that's right on the money for me.  Towner's "Solstice" was THAT recording for me.  An EAR opener.  Had never heard anything like it before.  Found it by chance at the local public library.  Went on to explore other music by Towner but also pursued others on that album...Eberhard Weber and Jan Garabarek, mainly.  

It’s not the Music itself that is the best, it’s the end use to which it is put and the level of that end .
Bach said the purpose of music is to glorify God and wrote "To the Glory of God ". And he meant it . Much of Classical music is religious music and
most of the greatest composers made efforts toward that goal, the praise of God , a sung and played prayer.

I see Jazz as a conversation between peers to bring music at its best to the human level, a love thy neighbor as thy self exercise at it’s best , which is a noble effort in and of itself . And at the end of the day a tribute to God, as we humans can’t think of God all the time any more than a student can study all the time .

I see pop/rock as simple melodies for those who want to live life the easy way, melody without rhythm. I believe the cults that form around this band and that are a way to live your life without ever creating one for yourself.
Much like those who make a sports team the center of their existence , hard to call it a life in either case .

Folk music, real folk music , is special in that it is a living binder of community, a crucial element for all humans that is woefully absent in our time .
Also once you get past, say the beat in Celtic music for instance, there is a whole lot of music going on , much like "blue notes " in jazz with the music of centuries being improvised much like jazz is , still room on those old charts .No accident that some of the greatest modern composers , masters of composition like
Bartok, Janacek and Vaughn-Williams dove deep into this endless well .

Interesting comments, Schubert.  Well said.

Haha, O.  Hadn't listened to Waves in a good long while.  Track 1? Per Ulv