Jazz

The VMP Impulse Spiritual Jazz set arrived and it looks fantastic. Thick glossy gatefold jackets and flat (ish) records. I briefly put the Pharoah Sanders on to compare with the original I have and it blew me away, sounds really good. Gone have the days where VMP used to scan covers and print the ringwear (crazy that they OKed that)!

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First press of P&I, Vinyl looks great, have to wait a few weeks until I get home to listen to all, but should be good.Prices have certainly gone up a whole lot since my last time in 2019, but bargains can still be found, esp compared with home. Going to Osaka today for one last look, nearly spent all my record funds!!! Hopefully a couple more nice pickups to come😁
snowwhat said:
Whoa, Inspiration and Power! Nice. Glad to see that Bley/Peacock record too - great record no one talks about.
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Live from The Lodge at Boss Woods here in Denver guitarist Alex Heffron and his pickup band Connecting Flights. Alex is currently back from his regular gigs in New York City and we’re happy having him here for the holidays.
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Yeah, too much of the audience is gray haired Jazz veterans. Someone has to support these very talented young guys. Denver is chock full of great young players and we love hearing them. Wish they were better supported by their age peers.
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For those watching The Curse, it’s pretty wild to hear Alice Coltrane’s pieces from the Turiya Sings LP

One of the shows’s creators/Actors was in LA times talking about why he choose to use Alice’s works:

It was imperative to Safdie that “The Curse” use jazz legend Alice Coltrane’s hypnotic and soaring meditation music as an overlay to the making of Whitney and Asher’s fictional show and other images in the very real filming location of Española, N.M. Safdie says he even wrote a letter to Coltrane’s son, jazz saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, and the estate’s lawyer, telling them, “When her songs come in, in the show, it’s not judging what’s happening. But it almost exists like an emotional closed-captioning.”

“The music is there to not even clarify anything, but it’s putting you in a state of mind to maybe see a path,” Safdie says. “I think that’s what’s so important about her music, in particular, because it does feel like she had access to something that I’ll never have access to. And I’m in awe of that. She was able to not only verbalize it but make such beautiful music with the organ and the harp.”

Safdie, who says he almost became a physicist, compares Coltrane’s music to string theory, noting, “There’s all these vibrations that exist and then they form bigger things.”

www.latimes.com

With series like 'The Curse,' Benny Safdie documents his obsession with realism

It has been a breakout year for Benny Safdie, who rose through the indie film world with his brother, Josh. Now, he stars in 'The Curse,' the Showtime series he created with Nathan Fielder.
www.latimes.com www.latimes.com
 
Bit of interesting trivia. Im watched Its A Wonderful Life for the millionth time and paused it at the scene in Nick's (Martini's) bar. Amazon shows the cast list for each scene and it turns out that the boogie woogie pianist is none other than Meade Lux Lewis. He was a Blue Note artist and his track "Melancholy Blues" was their first release.

Pretty cool!

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Keith Jarrett trio, lots to choose from but Still Live is worth a listen, sounds great on vinyl as well.
McCoy Tyner -Trident(Ron Carter and Elvin Jones) and Supertrios. The Great Jazz Trio, (Hank Jones, Ron Carter and Tony Williams)

Angsty said:
I’m deep into a piano jazz trio phase right now. What is your favorite piano jazz trio album to recommend?

My only added request is no horns - I’m overloaded on brass and woodwinds right now.
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kafunis said:
Keith Jarrett trio, lots to choose from but Still Live is worth a listen, sounds great on vinyl as well.
McCoy Tyner -Trident(Ron Carter and Elvin Jones) and Supertrios. The Great Jazz Trio, (Hank Jones, Ron Carter and Tony Williams)
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Thanks. Also note that I’m open to recordings on other formats beyond vinyl, too.

My current favorite is not on vinyl: “Black Nile” by the Cyrus Chestnut Trio.
 
Angsty said:
I’m deep into a piano jazz trio phase right now. What is your favorite piano jazz trio album to recommend?

My only added request is no horns - I’m overloaded on brass and woodwinds right now.
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Options are endless, and I agree with everything above, but here are some that wouldn’t typically be on a list of best piano trios you might see but I think are excellent:
  • Stanley Cowell Trio — Illusion Sweet
  • Paul Bley - Footloose
  • Ahmad Jamal Trio — The Awakening (incredible) and/or At the Pershing (this may be on some lists, not as meaty as Awakening)
  • Steve Kuhn Trio w Steve Swallow and Pete LaRoca — Three Waves (this is highly regarded but still one of the most underrated records in my collection). The version of Carla Bley’s classic “Ida Lupino” is really nice. A short history of … “Ida Lupino” (Carla Bley, 1964) - JAZZIZ Magazine
  • Michel Sardaby — Gail and/or Night Cap and/or In New York (all 3 great and under appreciated, and I cheated a bit on In NY bc it’s a quartet w Ray Barretto playing congas, but it’s my fav of the 3 so included)
  • Mal Waldron — Black Glory (I also really like Waldron’s trio album You and the Night and the Music, but I’d put Black Glory above it)
  • Designers - Designers (2022 release from Finland)
  • E.S.T. (aka Esbjörn Svensson Trio) — almost anything will be good, and much of it is excellent
 
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Angsty said:
I’m deep into a piano jazz trio phase right now. What is your favorite piano jazz trio album to recommend?

My only added request is no horns - I’m overloaded on brass and woodwinds right now.
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Funnily enough I was listening to The Ronnell Bright Trio yesterday and it’s brilliant. Really energetic and makes me wonder why he didn’t record more than he did! Sam Records put out their self titled a while back and it’s great.
 
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