For Jazz fans...

[Vacant Horizon]

Did Towner recently put out a new album? Possibly a guitar/piano duo album? I heard a Towner track on the radio on the local Sunday morning jazz show, and it was really good.

 

 

what station were you listening to?

 

been listening to oregon the last few days and i gotta say that my favorite thing about them is towner. the rest sounds a bit cheezy and windham hill-ish. that soprano sax just screams kenny G to me

[Vacant Horizon]

what station were you listening to?

 

been listening to oregon the last few days and i gotta say that my favorite thing about them is towner. the rest sounds a bit cheezy and windham hill-ish. that soprano sax just screams kenny G to me

 

 

it's oboe maybe.

[WaronWar]

As a classical and jazz guitarist in training, I am very disappointed at myself for not having any Towner or Abercrombie.

 

I think I am going to get Towner's Solos/Trios album and the duet Louie mentioned.

[Vacant Horizon]

As a classical and jazz guitarist in training, I am very disappointed at myself for not having any Towner or Abercrombie.

 

I think I am going to get Towner's Solos/Trios album and the duet Louie mentioned.

 

 

where are you training? sounds awesome!

[aricandover]

As a classical and jazz guitarist in training, I am very disappointed at myself for not having any Towner or Abercrombie.

 

I think I am going to get Towner's Solos/Trios album and the duet Louie mentioned.

 

are you into Pat Martino?

[LouieB]

Now writing from home I checked my stacks and have not only Sargasso Sea, but also a disk called Five Years Later that the two of them play on (with a 99 cent sticker on it from some resale shop.) The other Towner I have is called Solstice and I remember liking that quite alot, with Eberhard Weber and Jan Garbarek. ECM had a whole Blue Note type thing going for awhile with different people leading sessions and the same folks playing support on the albums. I remember seeing Diary, but didn't buy it some time in the past.

 

Much of the Oregon crowd is on Paul Winter's Icarus, a super hippie dippie recording that I am not so sure has aged all that well and produced by George Martin. (The copy I have is pretty beat up as I recall...) I also recall liking stand up electric bassist Eberhard Weber's work on ECM, one album I have has Bill Frissell and Gary Burton backing him up.

 

I recall particularly liking Steve Kuhn's first three ECM releases, particularly the first called Trance with Steve Swallow and Jack DeJohnette as the rthym section.

 

Really there are an endless number of ECM recordings out there from the 70s and 80s and I am willing to bet widely available at your local used record shop.

 

LouieB

[Mr. Heartbreak]

I also recall liking stand up electric bassist Eberhard Weber's work on ECM, one album I have has Bill Frissell and Gary Burton backing him up.

I love what I've heard of Eberhard Weber's ECM work. I have Yellow Fields and Silent Feet, and they're both great.

[LouieB]

It's 11:15 on Saturday night and I am up alone in the basement reorganizing some LPs that were displaced when we had our livingroom painted and I was sorting through the albums I have yet to listen to and sure enough, as I am sorting out the jazz and I found Diary by Ralph Towner. I guess I got it somewhere along the way recently and lost it in the pile. It has a 49 cents tag on it. I guess it was a resale buy. I just put it on and it sounds pretty good. Well all right....

 

LouieB

[jff]

what station were you listening to?

 

I heard that on WRAS 88.5, the GSU station. They have a jazz show from 12-2 on Sundays. Actually, there's a jazz show right before that, too, but the earlier show focuses on white big bands.

 

WREK 91.1 has jazz every weekday morning, too. I can't remember the exact time slot. It tends to be more avant garde than the show on WRAS.

[jff]

it's oboe maybe.

 

I looked at my Oregon records last night. There's definitely soprano sax on there. Maybe oboe, too, but defintely soprano. I'm going to listen to this one tonight:

 

 

To my ears, soprano sax get's really shrill really fast. It ruins what would otherwise probably be some of my favorite albums ever...like Wayne Shorters "Super Nova" or some of those live Miles Davis albums.

 

I officially nominate it for consideration as the worst instrument ever.

[LouieB]

I looked at my Oregon records last night. There's definitely soprano sax on there. Maybe oboe, too, but defintely soprano. I'm going to listen to this one tonight:

 

 

To my ears, soprano sax get's really shrill really fast. It ruins what would otherwise probably be some of my favorite albums ever...like Wayne Shorters "Super Nova" or some of those live Miles Davis albums.

 

I officially nominate it for consideration as the worst instrument ever.

This is a weird album. I picked up a copy of it in the recent past. I don't know how well it works really.

 

Soprano is certainly a difficult instrument, but one highly favored by the avant gard. I suppose the most famous peice done on soprano is Coltrane's My Favorite Things, which is somewhat shrill and somewhat thrilling all at the same time.

 

The AACM folks like Roscoe Mitchell play(ed) something called a sopranino which is even smaller than a soprano sax and is even higher and shriller. This is kind of a cool sax chart.

 

 

LouieB

[jff]

This is a weird album. I picked up a copy of it in the recent past. I don't know how well it works really.

 

I suppose the most famous peice done on soprano is Coltrane's My Favorite Things

 

LouieB

That was the first Oregon record I ever heard, and also most likely the one I've heard the most. I think as a result I have a warped sense of what Oregon really sounds like.

 

That Coltrane album, among others (namely "Chim Chim Cheree"), is a good example of soprano sax played in a way that I enjoy.

 

Thanks for that sax chart. I think the biggest one I've ever seen anyone play is a baritone. I'd love to hear the two largest ones in concert. I've seen/heard a sopranino played live once or twice. Definitely super high-pitched, but somehow I found it more pleasing than soprano.

[Leo]

Steve Lacy was a great sopranoist. His solo work and duets with Waldron are remarkable. Worth checking out.

[Vacant Horizon]

I heard that on WRAS 88.5, the GSU station. They have a jazz show from 12-2 on Sundays. Actually, there's a jazz show right before that, too, but the earlier show focuses on white big bands.

 

WREK 91.1 has jazz every weekday morning, too. I can't remember the exact time slot. It tends to be more avant garde than the show on WRAS.

 

okay, i will check out 88.5. i have listened to 91.1 in the morning, but yes, it is a little too 'out there' when i'm trying to get kids ready for school

 

and i am with you on the soprano sax. on the miles stuff, it does get annoying and with oregon it gets cheezy real quick. i think it also brings down a bit of the bela fleck stuff too, if you're into that.

funny story, a good friend of ours is a trumpet player, joe grandson. he plays around atlanta all the time, twains on thursday nights i think. anyway, he is buddies with kenny g and is making an album with him. oh no!

 

so, do you ever hit any jazz shows in atlanta?

[jff]

so, do you ever hit any jazz shows in atlanta?

 

Not so much lately. Actually, I don't go to many shows anymore, regardless of genre. I spent the entire '90s going to see bands several nights a week. I used to see the Gold Sparkle Band all the time...probably saw them 100 times over three years. They were a local jazz group. They're still active, but they're based in New York now. It was amazing seeing them share bills with rock bands. There were some crazy and incredible bands in Atlanta in the '90s.

 

I used to see jazz groups at the Existentialist Church in Candler Park pretty regularly. I saw Sam Rivers Trio, ICP Orchestra, David Ware Quartet and others there.

 

I'm out of the loop nowadays. I don't know where the good jazz is anymore. It's seems like it's always changing and I can no longer keep up.

[jff]

Steve Lacy was a great sopranoist. His solo work and duets with Waldron are remarkable. Worth checking out.

 

Cool. Thanks for the recommendation. I think I've only heard Lacy on a Monk Big Band album. I'd probably be more into his duets than his solo stuff, but I'll look for both. I'll see if my library has any of his stuff in their collection.

[calvino]

Checking the The Jazz Loft this morning reminded me of ECM and Oregon discussion from this thread. The site has a sale going on for forty ECM Reissues.

 

http://www.jazzloft.com/c-24-touchstone.aspx

[Three dollars and 63 cents]

I love the Jazz Loft. I first discovered them via ebay, and now I try to order most of my jazz albums from them.

 

My favorite jazz releases of the year were Devin Hoff's Solo Bass, Mary Halvorson's Calling All Portraits, and the Scott Amendola Band's Live In New York (digital release only). I'm hoping to get Bill Frisell's History, Mystery for Christmas, and there are still a few other jazz releases I've picked up recently I need to listen to some more.

[Vacant Horizon]

I love the Jazz Loft. I first discovered them via ebay, and now I try to order most of my jazz albums from them.

 

My favorite jazz releases of the year were Devin Hoff's Solo Bass, Mary Halvorson's Calling All Portraits, and the Scott Amendola Band's Live In New York (digital release only). I'm hoping to get Bill Frisell's History, Mystery for Christmas, and there are still a few other jazz releases I've picked up recently I need to listen to some more.

 

 

where'd you get the live amendola band?

[Three dollars and 63 cents]

From the store on Scott's website. mp3s are $9.99 and flac is $12.99, I think. It's not their usual lineup--it's Scott, Nels, Jenny Scheinman, and Charlie Hunter. I was there that night and it was my first time seeing Nels play jazz. It's a night of music I'll probably never forget, and I'm glad to have a good quality recording of part of it. (I'd hoped the N.C. Singers sets would be recorded and sold, too, but they never surfaced).