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Post by Kenny on Aug 2, 2006 11:01:05 GMT 10
James Muller - Kaboom
Dale Barlow - Live
Chris Tyle's Silver Leaf Jazz Band Of New Orleans
Allan Browne's Australian Jazz Band - Five Bells. This is brilliant!
Teddy Edwards - Smooth Sailing
William Parker Quartet - Sound Unity
George Lewis - jam Session Recordings
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skank
New Member
Posts: 6
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Post by skank on Aug 2, 2006 11:51:14 GMT 10
The Necks - Chemist. WOW!!!
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Post by ladylex on Aug 2, 2006 13:38:32 GMT 10
My understanding of a groove is a melodically recurring cellular musical idea - or a melodic riff. Currently Listening to death: Resurgence ;D Im in the process of writing a review on it. Its such a damn incredible album with THE most incredible musos on the planet. Seriously.  |
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Post by captain on Aug 2, 2006 15:01:40 GMT 10
Hey Kenny is that Muller's new one?
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Post by Kenny on Aug 3, 2006 13:53:51 GMT 10
Hey Kenny is that Muller's new one? Yep - sounds pretty fine, although prolly too much of a guitarhead thing for me to really swoon over. Bill Sterwart plays his ass off. Sounded great when I really kranked it up to window-rattling levels last night. |
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Post by Kenny on Aug 3, 2006 14:16:10 GMT 10
Dale Barlow - Live
Teddy Edwards - Smooth Sailing
Paper Hat - Nine Conversations
Luis Russell - The Luis Russell Story
Various artists - Valley Girl soundtrack
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Post by ladylex on Aug 4, 2006 10:49:45 GMT 10
That Dale Barlow one (if its the correct one I remember: I was totally trashed) is pretty awesome.
Mark Sholtez is back in there too. Goddam.. its an awesome album. Christian McBride is phenomonal. And the production is just beautiful.
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Post by Kenny on Aug 4, 2006 12:17:17 GMT 10
John Coltrane - The Prestige Recordings. Checkin' out 60 seconds per track at Amazon. Hmmmm. Concord is having a clearout of its jazz stuff, and this 16-disc box is going for a ridiculous $US70! Tempting, tempting ... I know it's bad for me. I know I don't need it. But - wahhhhh! - I want it.
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Post by ladylex on Aug 4, 2006 13:06:06 GMT 10
err.. omg.
Just curiously: is that at all avail on vinyl? or it is CD only?
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Post by Kenny on Aug 5, 2006 12:57:07 GMT 10
Allan Browne's AJB - Five Bells. Album of the year for me so far ... I've even posted a longish review at Jazz Corner.
Allan Browne's Australian jazz Band - Five Bells And Other Inspirations
(Jazz Inspired By The Poetry Of Kenneth Slessor)
(Newmarket Music)
1. William Street (Browne). 6.26
2. Five Bells (Grabwosky). 10.53
3. Yes Utterly (Ball). 8.20
4. Joe's Cakewalk (Browne). 5.18
5. Beach Burial (Scurry, arr Ball). 8.13
6. Little William Street (Browne). 3.25
7. Crow Country (Browne). 4.39
8. Polarities (Browne). 2.18
9. Last Trams (Scurry). 4.45
Allan Browne (drums)
Steven Grant (trumpet, trombone, piano)
Eugene Ball (trumpet)
Jo Stevenson (clarinet, bass saxophone)
Howard Cairns (bass)
John Scurry (guitar, banjo)
For more than 40 years, Allan Browne has been a mighty stalwart of the Melbourne and Australian jazz scenes.
For most of that time - say, oh, the past three decades or so - his art has meandered along in two parallell universes, one firmly with its roots in the distant past, the other with a much more modernist approach.
With Five Bells he delivers his best album, and instant Australian classic, one that goes along towards bringing his jazz worlds together.
Sure, at first blush the sound is unmistakably one that reflects Browne's deep, deep love for Jelly Roll Morton and all the other great masters of jazz's early days.
But in the diversity and sophistication of the tunes and their arrangements, there is more at work here - there are touches of Ellington's jungle music days, of third stream influences. The cereering uptmpo section of the beautiful title track sounds at least a little like something Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell might cook up.
Every now and then, Australian jazz types grapple with the gnarly topic of "Is there and Australian jazz sound?". And if so, "What is it?"
Usually the conclusions are unsatisfactorily vague, often having more to do with larrikin attitude than any actual stylistic definitions.
Alto saxophonist Bernie McGann is often cited as the personification of Australian jazz - fully in the tradition but all his own and, yes, somehow uniquely Australian.
In the same way, I would like to nominate Browne in general and Five Bells in particular as quintessentially Aussie.
Certainly I'm personally unaware of anyone, anywhere else, making music that sounds like this.
Perhaps thinking of Pierre Dorge's Ellingtonian excursions or Chris Tyle's Penguin-crowned album with his Silver Leaf Jazz Band suggests some idea of what Browne and his crew sound like, although I find Five Bells to be much more multi-faceted than Tyle and Co. Maybe a bit like some of the more New Orleans-inclined Mingus stuff, but without the gospel edge.
I've heard it said that American musos are sometimes burdened by the weight of jazz history and traditions, and maybe that's an argument for suspecting that non-Americans can pull off this sort of "back to the future" exercise with more panache and heart.
In that regard, I find Five Bells more "relaxed and comfortable" (as our Prime Minster John Howard might say in another context) - and a whole lot less wooden - than some American exercises along the same lines I have heard. (Insert you own suspects here ...)
The playing - and soloing - throughout is wonderful and I find the entire project a richly rewarding journey.
Anyone familiar with Australian poet Kenneth Slessor, who was active in the 1920s and '30s, may find the rewards even greater.
My own knowledge of him stretches no further than a quick browse through a tatty paperback in a secondhand bookshop and the between-song-rants by Browne at last year's Wangaratta Jazz Festival, at which this music was for me the towering highlight.
The album comes with a 45-minute DVD of clips and TV show stuff from Browne and the Red Onion Jazz Band from the '60s, interviews and music by the New Orleans Rascals (a close relative, personnel-wise, of the Australian Jazz Band).
Very warmly recommended to anyone with big ears, and open mind and a broad love of jazz.
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Post by Kenny on Aug 5, 2006 14:58:22 GMT 10
The Free Design - You Could Be Born Again
The Free Design - Stars/Time/Bubbles/Love
I only discovered this late '60s/early '70s pop group a few weeks back - how they got by me for so long is a mystery - but already they seem like old pals. These are their second and fifth albums - and I reckon I need at least a couple more.
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Post by isaacs on Aug 5, 2006 15:05:27 GMT 10
Well, it's more like what I'm about to listen too - but I'm drooling in anticipation and my ear's tongue can almost taste it. It's not often you go to a concert that features three large scale orchestral masterpieces of the 20th century Western canon (with two of them choral/orchestral). Think of me at 8pm tonight in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House about to hear this: www.sydneyphilharmonia.com.au/concerts/2006/SymphonicRites.html |
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Post by Kenny on Aug 5, 2006 15:15:11 GMT 10
Kenny thinks: "Poor bugger - he's missing the Wallabies playing the Springboks ...." |
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Post by isaacs on Aug 5, 2006 15:27:06 GMT 10
Kenny thinks: "Poor bugger - he's missing the Wallabies playing the Springboks ...." Oh shit. There'll be nobody there. Oh well. |
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Post by Kenny on Aug 5, 2006 15:43:20 GMT 10
Don't worry, mate, those orchestra folks will be happy to perform for an audience of one, I'm sure. ;D
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