Jazz. I love Jazz. I live Jazz. And I enjoy sharing jazz.
Writing these blogs is super fun and the discipline needed to produce one weekly has been beneficial to me already. Even when it seems like I got about 8 views on a particular week, it still has value to me. And I’m not stopping yet! This is no “goodbye cruel world” diary.
But it is the summer and I have had things to do this weekend. And I’m in the middle of teaching a six week intensive online course (Urban Anthropology) as well as gathering materials for a last minute class I’m going to be doing in the Fall semester (contemporary sociological theory…I am really considering dairying about the subject matter for dailykos as I go along). And…dammit…The Guardians of the Galaxy came out this weekend and I needed to go and see that! Starlord has come a long way since Claremont wrote him. But in 1977 and 1978, I thought he was even better than Wolverine! I thought the movie was thoroughly enjoyable! Though we didn't need a second KB reference.
So rather than use jazz and popular music to explore some socio-cultural issue and rather than go through the discography of some Jazz icon and rather than continue with my Miles Davis and Art Blakey narratives….I’m just going to share with you a….erm…few of my favorite things.
If you are discovering me for the first time today, I blog about Jazz every Sunday evening. I post around 10pm EST. If you’ve been following along, you might have picked up on the fact that I play the piano.
McCoy Tyner—My Favorite Things from 1972’s Echos of a Friend
As such, my favorite things include a lot of piano players. After I picked out the tunes for today (I don’t always do that first when writing these things), I realized I could have done a diary on piano trios. But then I would feel like I needed to do research and check out recordings by Dr Billy Taylor that I only half know. Perfectly valid and worthwhile to do...but I need an easier out this weekend. The following tunes are not ALL of my favorites. Which is cool because I can do this again in the future! But these are a few of my favorite things.
This next tune was a minor pop hit. It’s been my favorite song of 2014. Les McCann and Eddie Harris. Other folks have tried to cover this tune. I think nearly every other version of this song kinda sucks. People seem to think the lyrics are what make this song, but that’s ridiculous. It’s the groove that makes this song. And the organic nature of the players.
And while I’m at it…this is one of my favorite recordings of all time
Ella and Louis—Lets Call the Whole Thing Off
These next two are piano players I will eventually do full diaries on. First is Phineas Newborn Jr. doing Dahoud
And this is one the great great Bud Powell doing one of his compositions, Parisian Thoroughfare
Of course, I was born in 1967. I can sing you every song that Paul McCartney ever wrote. I clearly remember when London Calling came out. And The Wall. I went to many a Grateful Dead concert in the 80s and 90s. I was there at Wetlands and Nightingale’s when Blues Traveler and The Spin Doctors were becoming famous. (Though I was most often there to see The Authority…but they didn’t “make it”). One day I will tell the stories of my days in the East Village…not quite “wine, women and song”…more like “beer and jack daniels, women, and punk rock.” My point is that I do like Rock and Roll. I like guitars. And I like Jazz Fusion.
And I really like Pat Metheney. A diary for him is on my agenda. This is Yolanda You Learn
and the funk...lemme hear ya say "Bootsy" again
I put this next tune in the 2nd or 3rd jazz diary I did. I’ve listened to it nearly every day since.
Nina Simone—How It Feels to be Free
Next up….two of my favorite piano players of all time.
Thelonious Monk—Little Rootie Tootie
Wynton Kelly-On Green Dolphin Street. Dig the how the bass enters after the break at the end of the head. The swingingest 2 bars in the history of recorded music. Paul “mother f*cking” Chambers.
And here’s Bill Evans, I diaried about him a few months ago.
“But Evolution dude…..this is all old stuff really! Dontcha listen to new things?” Sometimes. There are only so many hours in the day. But my alarm clock plays WBGO, the big Jazz radio station in the NY/NJ area. Sometimes I lay in bed listening to what comes on the radio and in that process, I’ve checked out some new things. Here’s my favorite song from 2013.
Gregory Porter—Painted On Canvases
And I did say I like Fusion….
Weather report--Black Market
High on my agenda to do a diary for is Keith Jarett. In fact one option I gave myself for this week was to diary about Charles Lloyd and early Keith Jarett. I still may do that for next week. But Keith’s Trio with Jack DeJohnette and Gary Peacock is one of the greatest Jazz Trios ever. And probably one of the longest in existence. I copped this arrangement to do in my Senior Recital when I graduated from William Paterson College 24 years ago. Keith tends to play it in G, not Eb
God Bless the Child
Six of my most favorite things are named Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Jo Jones. And this is one of the first jazz tunes I ever learned…granted, when we was 16 we played the form wrong. AABA and not AABBA like it’s supposed to be done.
Milestones
And if I’m discussing my favorite things…..
Last fall, I participated on a panel at the American Anthropological Association’s meetings on performing music as part of anthropological field work. It was a surprisingly interesting panel with lots of good papers and I didn’t fall asleep once! One ethnomusicology grad student on the panel discussed the Jazz scene in Chile and the art of “The Hang”.
Musicians hang out together. They listen to music together. We’re doing it together right now, atemporally. When I was a young man, our “listening sessions” often ended with this next tune. This version. One starts to run out of places to go after you get this deep
John Coltrane Quartet with McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison. I Want to Talk About You, live in Stockholm 1963
Thanks for listening everyone and thanks for your support. Shorter diary this week than others, but I doubt anyone is going to complain. Please support your local jazz musicians and all local live music.
And what’s your favorite jazz recordings?
My Favorite Things, 1966 with Alice Coltrane and Pharaoh Sanders.
Pt 2