Jazz for aficionados

Excellent clips, acman3. Sonny Rollins “A Night At The Vanguard” is a classic. Amazing player with one of the most powerful sense of rhythm of any jazz player. I am always amazed at the way that he becomes the rhythmic focal point. Instead of the usual sense that the horn player is playing over the pulse of the rhythm section there is the sense that it’s the other way around; the rhythm section plays to his pulse. Few players convey that feeling. And very nice seque to that great Ornette clip. Your comment about it being a natural extension of bebop is spot on. A very influential record that would lay the groundwork for what is generally referred to as “post-bop”. Fantastic solo by Ornette.

Great clips appropriately followed by pryso’s Jaco clip. As you point out, pryso, a very influential bass player. Actually a bit of an understatement I would say. Jaco turned the electric bass world on its head doing things on the instrument that players hadn’t even considered. Unique tone in part due to his choice of the fretless bass. Amazing technique and rhythmic concept that would be one of the main ingredients of a whole new wave in jazz informed by not only the past, but the new sounds of fusion and world music. He was a pretty good drummer too, btw. One of my most memorable experiences while in school in South Florida was that Jaco would occasionally bring his big band charts to be read by the school big band and would sit in on drums. Very raw drummer, but great! Did anyone catch the fact that Othello Mollinaux (steel drums) quotes Coltrane’s classic solo on Giant Steps (@8:00)?

Nice to see some focus on the new(ish) in jazz.

O-10, loved the MJQ clip; thanks for that. Great and very charming composition played with their usual finesse and class. One of the things I find interesting about the clip, particularly in the context of our previous discussion about what is improvisation and what is not, is that there isn’t a single note on the clip that is improvised. It’s all “through-composed” and in keeping with a lot of what is generally considered “Third Stream”. Beautiful clip.

Something new from one of my favorite current pianists. Beautiful touch and introspection. One of this year’s Grammy nominations:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PL9tsD2Q6tx6vQg2uJ9N6P3gi0CxOoWefV&params=OAFIAVgB&v=UMw5z4...

Frogman, that's a very interesting photograph on the cover of Fred Hersch's album.

I liked his improvisation on "Whisper Not"; it did two things at once, it retained the original, but gave us his beautiful interpretation at the same time.

I'll have to search for more of Fred Hersch.

O-10, a couple of things that you may find interesting about the brilliant Fred Hersch.  First, there is not a single one of his ten plus records that is not worth hearing.  In 2008 he was in a pneumonia induced coma.  When he came out of the coma he wrote a performance piece about the dreams that he had while in his state of coma.  On this record, “Though The Forest” is completely improvised and “of the moment”.  Amazing musician!

frog, another interesting thing about Rollins' playing is to me it somehow sounds like there is more there, but not due to flurries of notes.  This is the best example I can think of, for me, it always seemed like it was more than just a trio -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5rCZcTfr2s

Classic record!   And I completely agree.  He was one of the first (possibly the first) to have the courage to play without a harmony instrument (piano, guitar).  He didn’t need it.  His command of harmony and creativity was so high that the listener “hears” the underlying harmonies of the tune as if there were a piano or guitar playing.  There is, as you say, the feeling that there is more there.  His solos were concise with very choice notes that clearly outlined the chord changes is an extremely logical way.  Take most jazz performances by other players, even many great ones, and somehow edit out the harmony instrument and the music is not nearly as effective.  He is also a master of note inflections and color; little note bends and subtle growls that add variety without relying on a lot of notes.  Great observation!