December 2008

  • The new face of Jazz

    By nerdyspice on 12/29/08 2:23pm
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    Have you experienced the wonder that is Esperanza Spalding? Have you seen the marvelous fret work? Have you heard the layered, sultry voice? For it is like the coming of a new dawn; a dayspring among stagnant music everywhere.

    It happens every so often, a person or group who can come along and redefine the way things are done, a person who transcends genres while at the same time reinventing them. Every so often, musical evolution leaps forward. Enter Esperanza Spalding, a young Portland, Oregon native who's personality is bubbly upbeat, and who's talent runs deeper than most of the more accomplished musicians. Just how talented? By the time she was 5 she taught herself the violin. When she was eight, she learned jazz guitar by merely listening to her mother's instructor, letting the knowledge enter her being. She plays oboe, she plays clarinet, but her true love, the instrument that truly resonated with her was the bass. She picked it up in high school and was lauded a virtuoso within months.

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  • Lucky's Lack of It

    By cobwebsandstrange on 12/27/08 5:31am
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    Transitional periods of jazz are hard to determine. One innovation is always tied to the next. It then becomes really difficult to understand the difference between a bop style solo in the context of a big band setting as opposed to that same solo in a trio or quartet.

    And that’s why the history of jazz is so fascinating. Well, that and the fact that most of the well known players had enormous personalities – Mingus for instance.

    But bop players all did time in some big band configurations. Usually, it’s found the Billy Eckstein, Count Basie or someone of that ilk in some way touches, inspires or herds a player into their full recognition of style and ability.

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  • Hot Sax on the Beats

    By cobwebsandstrange on 12/27/08 2:55am
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    The association between Misled Children and Clutchy Hopkins is convoluted – purposefully. No one can really even say who Clutchy actually is. Some speculate that it’s actually some conglomeration of the Beastie Boys masquerading beyond this mirage of constructed personalities. Maybe.

    But regardless of who Clutchy is, he’s been on a tear over the last year and change. He first released a single of remixes featuring the raps of MF Doom. The production was more than fitting, moving some to speculate that perhaps Clutchy was actually Doom and not the New York rap crew. It’s possible.

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  • R.i.P. Eartha Kitt

    By cobwebsandstrange on 12/25/08 1:53am
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    Probably best known for her sultry small screen version of Catwoman, Eartha Kitt, who was 81, has passed away – on Christmas no less.

    In addition to her acting acumen, Kitt spent the majority of her entertainment career as a noted singer. Kitt first rose to prominence as a cabaret style singer during the ‘50s. She scandalized listeners with her suggestive, alluring and all too unique style.

    Using her accumulated fame, Kitt frequently made her political beliefs well publicized. She was a vocal anti-war spokesperson during the ‘60s and made it a point to condemn apartheid in South Africa during the ‘80s.

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  • Goin' On: Nina Simone

    By cobwebsandstrange on 12/22/08 4:20am
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    No one should ever really need an excuse to talk about Nina Simone. But the first time I ever even heard the name was in Le Femme Nikita, a film Luc Besson wrote and directed.

    In the film, a young miscreant gets herself sent to jail for robbery, is summarily drugged and programmed to be a killer. She’s given the opportunity to choose a new name. Nikita decides to use the name of a singer she recalls her mother enjoying a great deal. That singer was Nina Simone.

    It’s odd to think that Simone had that large an impact as to be name checked in a ‘90s French film, but she did.

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  • Deaf, Dumb, Blind (Summun, Bukmun, Umyun)

    By cobwebsandstrange on 12/18/08 9:41pm
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    I figured as a companion piece to my original post about Pharaoh Sanders, I would write a little about one of my favorite recordings that he's done

    The title, which is in Arabic, Summun, Bukmun, Umyun translates to Deaf, Dumb, Blind. It comes from the Qur’an and is in a passage that talks about enlightening those that need to see the way. Obviously, the passage initially had the intention of gaining converts and perhaps that was Sander’s intention as well. However, the recording includes a few players not oft associated with the late ‘60s and early ‘70s shift in jazz to an Afro-centric, Islam influenced art. That, of course, doesn’t mean that the players don’t sound like fervid adherents to the sax mastery of the Pharaoh.

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  • The Pharaoh's First Stand

    By cobwebsandstrange on 12/18/08 7:22pm
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    The names that Pharaoh Sanders (aka Ferrell Sanders) has played with would likely astound anyone remotely interested in jazz. The stylistic impulses that he has followed have made him an important part of music history. Beginning his career at a time when not only musical changes were taking place, but social ones as well, Sanders embraced a sort of mystical humanism that imbued his playing with a range of colorful tonalities and immense feeling unable to be replicated by his peers.

    He’s lived in the South, the Bay area and for stints in New York as well. And it’s that last place that in 1964, John Coltrane happened to hear him perform. That appearance changed the trajectory of his career – and probably Coltrane’s as well.

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  • Freddie Hubbard: Health

    By cobwebsandstrange on 12/16/08 9:03pm
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    Easily one of my favorite fusion records of the ‘70s, In Concert displays Freddie Hubbard and Stanley Turrentine backed by Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Eric Gale and Jack DeJohnette. I can’t say that the two tunes, each takes up a side on the record, are drastically different or forward thinking in comparison to other such releases of the time. They’re just good. And sometimes competence goes a long way.

    The line-up alone was reason enough to pick it up, but the frequent listening is as a result of the ability of Hubbard and company to hold a groove down.

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  • The Guitar of Bola Sete

    By cobwebsandstrange on 12/13/08 1:55am
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    It seems that within the last five to ten years, fans of Brazilian music have become a sizable population in the states.

    Beginning with a flush of Os Mutantes re-issues, interest in that nations cultural heritage and musical output has ballooned. I bet even a couple of you reading this want to learn how to speak Portuguese.

    All of that aside, before any of these recent reissues, there was a guitarist who made an indelible mark on jazz in the US and abroad. Bola Sete isn’t a name as commonly known as Grant Green – but that’s alright, his style is much less tied to American music than Green’s.

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  • A New Robert Wyatt Collaboration

    By cobwebsandstrange on 12/10/08 11:08pm
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    Since the late ‘60s Robert Wyatt has played in countless groups and collaborated with a great many different musicians.

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  • Marco Benvento to release (another) new album.

    By cobwebsandstrange on 12/9/08 4:57am
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    Marco Benevento has released two discs (one being a double live album) of material in the last year and some change. He’s toured with at least two different groups and is now preparing to release another full length on the Royal Potato Family - his own label.

    This February 3rd will see the release of Me Not Me which counts eight covers and two Benevento originals amongst its track-listing. Before knowing this fact, I remarked to a label representative that I’d been listening to a lot of Keith Jarrett recently and the new Benevento disc would fit into that kick nicely. He said not to expect to hear the similarities. And that’s really surprising considering the melodic tendencies of Benevento and this predilection for large, ringing chords.



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  • 2008 Jazz Discs Through the Eyes of AMG

    By cobwebsandstrange on 12/8/08 2:10pm
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    The Allmusic Guide today posted its editors favorite jazz albums of the year. As per usual, there’s a great deal of variety encompassed in this list. There are some legends included as well as some newer folks.

    As a service to you kind readers, I’ve cut out some of their selections in order to focus on the most unique or interesting releases from this list. If you’d like to take a look at the entire list – do it here.

    Anthony Braxton - Beyond Quantum
    Braxton is one of the most difficult yet rewarding modern jazz players around.

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  • Toledo's Tatum

    By cobwebsandstrange on 12/7/08 12:39pm
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    There surely have to be other good things about Toledo in addition to cheap rent and the fact that Art Tatum was born there. The Toledo that Tatum knew most assuredly was drastically different than what one might find today, but it also shaped him.

    After working in the Mid-West, Tatum tried out both coasts, while continuing to amaze fans, concert goers and anyone that had ever touched a piano. The ‘20s and ‘30s was an odd time for piano music. There were still classical figures who maintained general popularity – as opposed to today seeing as most Americans(including myself) would be hard pressed to name too many composers.

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  • Flink Jazz

    By cobwebsandstrange on 12/7/08 12:13pm
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    In the vast musical lexicon of jazz pianists, one might note Scott Joplin, Herbie Hancock or Toledo’s Art Tatum, but will Mason Flink come to be included in that list?

    When one thinks of Texas, jazz music is not, most likely the first concept that comes to mind, but Flink is a National Merit Finalist and perhaps a future concert pianist. That wouldn’t be all that astounding except for one fact: Flink has eight fingers.

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