Jazz Bastard Podcast

Join our intrepid but grumpy explorers Mike and Pat and they continue their journey through the New York Times Top Ten list of Best Jazz Albums from 2023.  The boys look at three more albums off the list and once again have questions about the selections.  Then they discuss an album from 2023 not on the list, and, naturally, emit rainbows.  We don't recommend you make a game of drinking whenever one of them calls "category error" unless you have a high tolerance for alcohol - and bastardy.  Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah - BARK OUT THUNDER;  Enji – ULAAN; Ambrose Akinmusire - OWL SONG; Myra Melford – HEAR THE LIGHT SINGING. 

Humans love making lists, and it's likely this activity will continue until the cockroaches take over.  (Cockroaches mostly love hiding under cabinets).  Some humans on the New York Times made a list of the top 10 jazz albums of 2023.  Pat and Mike take about three selections from that list and one other interesting release from that recently past year. Do they take issue with some of the NYT's choices?  They wouldn't be bastards if they didn't.  Jaimie Branch – FLY OR DIE FLY OR DIE FLY OR DIE (WORLD WAR); Kassa Overall – ANIMALS; Zoh Amba – THE FLOWER SCHOOL; Lafayette Gilchrist – UNDAUNTED.

This episode's title is a wee bit misleading.  The boys don't meet Mr. Mahavishnu (John McLaughlin, of course) but rather Matt Phillips, long-time listener to the podcast who just happened to write a very good book on the famous fusion guitarist called "John McLaughlin - From Miles and Mahavishnu to the 4th Dimension."  The book covers the whole of McLaughlin's recorded career - not just his best known years with the Mahavishnu Orchestra - and our conversation is also wide-ranging.  And, no, Mike hasn't turned into a robot. He just sounds like one because recording zoom is trickier than it seems.

Few players have made the splash in the archival jazz game as Zev Feldman, who has discovered many lost jazz gems (and a little Fool's Gold) and shown how these issues can be events when packaged properly with good artwork and notes.  This fortnight's show looks at two of his recent productions and two historical albums in the Latin Idiom.  Did the jazz detective uncover more classics, or did his deductions go awry?  Tune in to find out.  Cal Tjader – CATCH THE GROVE; Wes Montgomery – MAXIMUM SWING; Ramsey Lewis – GOING LATIN; Grant Green -THE LATIN BIT.

Sometimes Mike's dreams do come true.  Take this all-tuba led episode, for instance.  He's always loved the big horn in jazz groups, and here we delve into five albums spanning the decades led by tuba players.  (Oddly, though, five of the featured leaders were all born within a five year span).  Will the boys come up with deep insights?  Please listen to ascertain.  Howard Johnson – GRAVITY!; Jim Self & John Chiodini – TOUCH AND GO; Dave Bargeron & Michel Godard – TUBA TUBA; Ray Draper – THE RAY DRAPER QUINTET FEATURING JOHN COLTRANE; Bob Stewart – THEN & NOW.

One of the bastards loves holiday music (Mike loves to flex his knowledge-of-obscure-Xmas-tunes-muscles) and so the holiday episode has become an annual tradition.  Luckily, every year at least a few jazz musicians put out a holiday album (if under duress) and archival and historical finds are always there to enjoy as well.  Various Artists – A JAZZ CHRISTMAS; Shorty Rogers – THE SWINGIN’ NUTCRACKER; Louis Armstrong – WISHES YOU A COOL YULE; George Burton – the YULE LOG    Ken Serio – A JAZZY YULETIDE.

At Mike's suggestion, we devote an episode to the recently departed European avant-garde powerhouse Peter Brotzmann.  The sound quality is a bit off.  Pat says he forgot to press "record."  Listeners know he was probably just cowering behind the couch.  Mike  shows us the breadth of the fire-breather's career, touching on a mid-size ensemble session, an electric gig with rock elements, a more introspective duet, and Brotzmann's uncompromising debut.  Pat whimpers.  Peter Brotzmann:  FOR ADOLPHE SAX; GOING ALL FANCY; Last Exit - THE NOISE OF TROUBLE - LIVE IN TOKYO; Chicago Tentet - STONE/WATER.

Jazz - mysterious, challenging, expressive . . . funny?  Rarely, one might think, but some artists display a sense of humor, even if it's subtle.  In this episode, the boys listen to five albums with at least some humorous aspects.  Things rarely get "funny ha ha" but hey, this isn't a Zappa podcast, now is it?  Karen Mantler – BUSINESS IS BAD; George Benson – WHITE RABBIT; Mostly Other People Do the Killing – THIS IS OUR MOOSIC; Horace Silver – JAZZ HAS A SENSE OF HUMOR; Ray Anderson – BLUES BRED IN THE BONE.

It's been a crazy few weeks with an extra order of cray cray on the side coming up, so we're running our first "classic" episode, this one a throw-back to 2013!  Come for the insights you missed, stay to appreciate the slightly more sophisticated editing you've been enjoying the last few years.  Covers are the order of the day as the bastards look at three albums that hew closely to earlier inspirations, with a special focus on Coltrane. John Coltrane – INTERSTELLAR SPACE; Greg Bendian – INTERSTELLAR SPACE REVISITED; Don Cherry – COMPLETE COMMUNION; Tom Varner – SECOND COMMUNION; John Coltrane – A LOVE SUPREME; Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra – A LOVE SUPREME.

We all know "smooth jazz" is a forbidden genre among hard-core jazzbos, but sometimes you run across albums that have no interest in pandering to the listener, but also don't display any rough edges or dirty elbows.  Call it "polished," "refined," "plush," or "mellow" - but don't file it next to Kenny G - or Albert Ayler, for that matter.  Noah Haidu – STANDARDS; Javier Nero – KEMET, THE BLACK LAND; Brad Turner – THE MAGNIFICENT; Matt Ulery – MANNERIST.

Most jazz fans know Dizzy Gillespie's crucial role in the creation of bebop and every good collection should have at least a few tracks from his glory days of the forties.  The man wrote "Night in Tunisia" for heaven's sake!  But what happened later on, after his partner Bird was gone and the listening public had moved on from ooh-bop-sh-bam madness?  In this episode we look at five recordings from the following decade and ponder why a genius-level player like Dizzy struggled after the bebop revolution.  Dizzy Gillespie: SONNY SIDE UP;  HAVE TRUMPET WILL EXCITE; AFRO;  DIZZY GILLESPIE WITH STUFF SMITH;  A PORTRAIT OF DUKE ELLINGTON.

There are many storied jazz venues, but for a great recorded legacy, none quite matches the Village Vanguard.  So many epochal improvised moments put to tape!  So many clinking wine glasses captured for eternity!  Such a matchless, smoky atmosphere of creation in the heat of the moment!  (Insert record scratch here.)  The boys don't look at the best known monuments from the place, but rather start with a lesser known session from the end of the seventies and then examine three brand new "Live from the Vanguard" recordings and ask - is the magic still there?   Kris Davis – LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD; Mark Turner – LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD; Kurt Rosenwinkle – UNDER COVER, LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD; Woody Shaw – STEPPING STONES: LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD.

The boys love chasing after the esoteric, the brand new, the little known.  But sometime, we also like to talk about the, well, big label bangers.  That is, big labels in jazz terms, which really means small subsidiary branches of huge media conglomerates, but let's not get into that now.  Some famous names are back this episode and we talk about their latest releases - sometimes a great deal later than their date of death.  Artemis – IN REAL TIME; Brad Mehldau – YOUR MOTHER SHOULD KNOW;  Brandee Younger – BRAND NEW LIFE; John Coltrane / Eric Dolphy – EVENINGS AT THE VILLAGE GATE.

The theme this episode is  - got ya! - there isn't a theme.  What we do have are two mildly historical piano-led recordings by musicians who couldn't be more different if they tried, and two new releases by musicians also pulling in different directions.  Get a large group together and go for eclecticism?  Or just multi-track yourself and add a duet partner to the mix?  You, dear listeners, can pick the approach you like.  Chucho Valdez – LIVE AT VILLAGE VANGUARD; Misha Mengelberg – NO IDEA; Ben Wendel – ALL ONE;   Mehmet Ali Sanlikol - TURKISH HIPSTER .

A music with as complicated and rich a history as jazz is always going to be subject to rediscoveries and reappraisals and we wouldn't want it any other way.  This fortnight's episode focuses on a pioneering practitioner on that truly rare avis, the jazz harp.  Yes, we're diving into the early work of Dorothy Ashby in honor of a new box set celebrating her first six albums.   So throw aside those conceptions of cartoon animals going to heaven and bourgeoisie travelers grooving at the Holiday Inn and join us as we string along with Dorothy.  Dorothy Ashby:  WITH STRINGS ATTACHED (THE JAZZ HARPIST, HIP HARP W/ FRANK WESS, IN A MINOR GROOVE W/ FRANK WESS, SOFT WINDS: THE SWINGING HARP OF DOROTHY ASHBY, DOROTHY ASHBY, and THE FANTASTIC HARP OF DOROTHY ASHBY) .

Summertime, and the livin' is sweaty - at least for us in the Midwest right now.  Along with being the most perspiration-friendly season, Summer is also consecrated to travel, which can make it difficult to align two bastard's schedules.  Hence this solo podcast looking at jazz box sets.  Yes, the vinyl revival is all grown up enough to get its own self-indulgent shelf-benders and Pat is hear to talk about several of them.  Various Artists – THE BIRTH OF BEBOP; Bill Evans – TREASURES:  SOLO, TRIO, AND ORCHESTRA RECORDINGS FROM DENMARK; Eddie Lockjaw Davis – COOKIN’ WITH JAWS AND THE QUEEN; John Coltrane – ’58: THE PRESTIGE SESSIONS; Stan Getz – STAN GETZ (BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB).

We all know about fusion - the (sometime unholy) union of jazz and rock that tried to find a new audience for instrumentalists in the 1970s.  But there have always been, well, odder experiments with electricity in jazz, more like intrusions of the rock world than integrations, and we look at four rather varied examples in this here podcast.  Running the gamut from harmolodic blues-slinger to fusion axe-hero to . . . Herbie Mann? - these artists let the guitar off da hook and, possibly, into your hearts.  Herbie Mann - MEMPHIS UNDERGROUND ; James Blood Ulmer – BLACK ROCK;  Alan Holdsworth – NONE TOO SOON; Jay Hoggard - RIVERSIDE DANCE.

After an all-female vocalist episode, let's shift gears at look at some big band albums, shall we?   We look at a brand new release with material from the thirties, fresh from somebody's closet, a retro-style outfit having the most fun they can while the pandemic closes in, an Indiana ensemble celebrating an influential Indiana record label, and an arranger for hire let out in the green fields of inspiration.  Then in pop matters, quick detours to prison and cover bands.  Vince Mendoza – BLAUKLANG; Eyal Vilner – THE JAM!;  Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra  - THE GENNETT SUITE; Luis Russell – AT THE SWING CATS BALL.

Time for an all-singing, no-dancing, some joke-telling show featuring four female vocalists.  We've got three brand newish releases and one catalogue item which, given it debuted after we were out of college, is making us feel old.  Like everything else.   Tune in to find out which Grammy Winner (TM) we annoy.  Esperanza Spalding / Fred Hersch – LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD;  Holly Cole – BLAME IT ON MY YOUTH; Lizzie Thomas – DUO ENCOUNTERS; Nadia Washington – HOPE RESURGENCE.

After months of emails, technical difficulties and scheduling snafus the bastards are proud to present their interview with Swedish trombonist Karin Hammar.  You may not have heard of Karin, or caught her sister act the Sliding Hammars back in the day (when she duetted with a sister who also played trombone ) but if you like albums with strong thematic unity, a mellow vibe, and great engineering, we think you'll like "Opening."