What are you listening to?

[Liep]

Brutus - War

https://youtu.be/EBRYSlKDlws

[Syt]

Kamasi Washington - Heaven And Earth (2018)

You can't fault the man for lack of ambition - the first recording he ever released under this name was a 3+hour triple CD album modestly entitled "The Epic". This one contains a mere 2.5 hours of music, by a core nonet, supplemented by multiple lead vocalists, a full choir, a backing orchestra, and dozens of other "additional" musicians and vocalists.

Hard to categorize the results, but one thing Washington is doing is taking the lost decade of the 70s and putting back into the center of the jazz tradition. As in example, the first track is a cover of the theme song to the Bruce Lee movie "Fists of Fury", but layered on top of an early 70s funk beat, trading off blistering instrumental solos, soaring choir parts, and a badass Sam Jackson-style testifying voice over.  If it works for you, the rest of the album is worth a listen, if not skip it.

I'm not really sold on Washington as a saxophone player, but the album is a fun listen.

Not the biggest Jazz aficionado, but really loved the Fists of Fury track. Thanks!

[Savonarola]

On the subject of John Cage, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra is having two webcasts of concerts this weekend:  https://www.dso.org/

The Program for Friday 8 PM EST:

KRISTIN KUSTER  Dune Acres (world premiere)
CAGE  4'33"
BARBER  Violin Concerto
BERNSTEIN  Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs
BERNSTEIN  Symphonic Dances from West Side Story and additional selections

The Program for Sunday 3 PM EST:

STEVE REICH  Clapping Music
PHILIP GLASS  Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists & Orchestra
JOHN LUTHER ADAMS  Become Ocean

If I still lived in Detroit I might have gone to the Friday concert just to say I've seen 4'33" live.  Watching a performance over the interwebs feels like cheating.  The Sunday concert does look really good; I might try to catch that.

[garbon]

Westlife - Hello My Love

[The Brain]

Ghost - Rats

[The Minsky Moment]

The other day my son asked me who my favorite drummer was and without really thinking I just blurted out: Billy Higgins.

That's not to say I think Billy Higgins was a more eminent musician then say Elvin Jones or Tony Williams or Max Roach. But he can mentioned in company like that without embarrassment.  Higgins' highest virtue was his adaptability - he could and did play with virtually everyone from free jazz experimentalists like Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, and  Ornette Coleman to old-school 40s era blowers like Dexter Gordon and Red Rodney to modern era guys like Joshua Redman, and everyone and everything in between. For that reason he was always in demand and his discography as a sideman is enormous.

So with that in mind, I've been listening to lots of albums with Billy Higgins on them:

David Murray Big Band - Live at Sweet Basil v1&v2 (1984) - bositerous big band under Murray's name but conducted under the deliberately erratic hand of Butch Morris. Featuring a youngish  Steve Coleman just before his M-Base stage and trumpeter Olu Dara  - better known as the father of rapper Nas. Higgins is the glue that holds this together.

Ornette Coleman - Shape of Jazz to Come  (1959) - arguably the most influential jazz album in history other than maybe Kind of Blue (same year) or Coltrane's Love Supreme. Higgins' very active but light touch was a perfect fit for Coleman's concept.

Donald Byrd - Free Form  (1962) - hard bop stalwart Byrd's attempt to respond to the new sound by mixing his usual soul and blues tracks with some more adventurous material, with assistance from Higgins, Wayne Shorter and Byrd's former roomate Herbie Hancock.  Shorter and Hancock would join Miles Davis' quintet shortly afterwards.

Sonny Clark - Leapin' and Lopin' (1962) - snappy if conventional effort from pianist Clark, his last recorded album as a leader before death by heroin. Higgins shows his hard bop chops.

[Admiral Yi]

Your son??  I figured you were a brain floating in a tank somewhere. 

[Eddie Teach]

No mention of Gene Krupa?

[PDH]

Alan Myers gets my vote.

[The Minsky Moment]

No mention of Gene Krupa?

That's old old school.

[Eddie Teach]

Back when jazz had energy. 

[The Minsky Moment]

Sure, if banging on a tom is energy.     Jo Jones gave the Basie band plenty of energy but with a lighter touch. 

Krupa's example did influence Art Blakey, although more through the joint influence of Chick Webb on both of them.

I think Sing, Sing, Sing was a curse for Krupa. It created expectations of showmanship that probably didn't help his development musically. When the economics of the business turned against the big band format and towards small groups he wasn't well positioned.

[Tonitrus]

BBC - In Our Time podcasts (just about all of them)

[The Minsky Moment]

Hank Mobley - A Caddy for Daddy (1965)

In 1964 Blue Note records released a Lee Morgan album. That was no big deal - Morgan had made about a half-dozen albums for Blue Note before that.  But to everyone's surprise, the title track to the new album - a simple funk number called the "The Sidewinder" - became a huge hit and crashed the mainstream Billboard charts. The album became one of the best selling jazz albums ever and was by orders of magnitude the best seller Blue Note ever had, basically saving the struggling label and keeping it alive into the 70s.

After The Sidewinder, Blue Note had a house rule that every album had to start off with a crowd-pleading funk or soul tune, especially if Lee Morgan was playing on it, as he does on this one. Despite that artistic limitation and despite a very silly name, this is IMO one of Hank Mobley's best, with support from Morgan, McCoy Tyner on piano and of course Billy Higgins on drums, among others.  This is a great showcase for Higgins - Tyner comps with a strong rhythm on piano, freeing up Higgins to be more adventurous.

[The Minsky Moment]

Joshua Redman - Wish (1993) - Redman's second recording, made with his father's friends, including guitarist Pat Metheny, former Ornette Coleman bassist Charlie Haden, and Haden's fellow Ornette alum, Billy Higgins.

George Coleman - My Horns of Plenty (1991) - a personal favorite. It's safe to say this will never be mentioned in a debate about the "X" greatest jazz albums. It's a conventional, mostly straight ahead recording of standards like Lush Life and My Romance. But its made by 4 seasoned pros led by Coleman's beautiful and elegant tone on saxophone. A great effort from Higgins, who manages to fit seamlessly into this conventional format while still being recognizable as the guy who drummed on Shape of Jazz to Come.