Jazz -- another music discussion

[CinnamonGirl]

Marty, we all know you like jazz because you have written about listening to it while out walking or lifting. I know there have to be others out there who like jazz too. I'm opening this discussion with an invitation to share what's in your collection.

My collection includes Diana Krall, Hubert Laws, Tim Weisberg, Dave Brubeck, Mark Almond, Branford Marsalis, John Klemmer, Deodato and Claude Bolling.

[paperboy]

Marty, we all know you like jazz because you have written about listening to it while out walking or lifting. I know there have to be others out there who like jazz too. I'm opening this discussion with an invitation to share what's in your collection.

My collection includes Diana Krall, Hubert Laws, Tim Weisberg, Dave Brubeck, Mark Almond, Branford Marsalis, John Klemmer, Deodato and Claude Bolling.

I played guitar and bass for my high school jazz band. I still hum the tunes we used to play. My collection includes Frank Gambale, Vince Guaraldi, and David Benoit. I also have Gary Hoey, who spans multiple genres including jazz.

[Marty]

The artist of the day: John McLaughlin - the greatest living guitar virtuoso -recommended

electric: inner mounting flame, the promise
acoustic: my goals beyond, Shakti

[Bobcat]

Just as Marty and JeffS jerked me out of my torpor about competing, so CinnamonGirl (on the opera thread) has awakened me from my dogmatic slumbers. So here goes--jazz and me. (You may decide you wish she had let sleeping dogmatists lie.)

I actually grew up hearing a lot of jazz, mostly big band, but other kinds, too. My dad was a drummer in the late 1930's--a little before my time--and I remember his drum set in our basement. The bass was "super-sized" and had a forest fire painted on it. We had lots of jazz 45's, and when my dad would drive me places, the car's a.m. radio was usually tuned to a station that played a fair amount of jazz.

A few years after I took up the trumpet, I joined a 23-piece band our high school had. Major and minor fractions of our group would play various places around town informally, and occasionally we even got paid! We liked to play Stan Kenton and Dave Brubeck, among other things.

Now let's go forward a few decades. Several years ago, Lexington's public radio station abandoned :evil: its predominantly jazz format for "adult contemporary." And so I am now, sadly, fairly out-of-touch with recent goings-on in this great part of the music world.

So, CinnamonGirl, Marty and Paperboy. Tell me and the lurkers why the artists y'all list are in your collections. What do you like about them?

[paperboy]

So, CinnamonGirl, Marty and Paperboy. Tell me and the lurkers why the artists y'all list are in your collections. What do you like about them?

For Guaraldi and Benoit, I can't really put my finger on it. I just like their styles, Benoit especially. I don't know if it's his phrasing or his improv style or what but he's awesome.

Gambale is a master speed-picker. I got the chance to see him play at a private event and had a nice conversation with him. Very nice guy, down to earth. I've never heard any other guitarist use the rake pick technique as well as he does.

Gary Hoey has a rock-style edge to everything he plays. I love his melodies, very talented songwriter. He fuses different genres and creates a unique sound.

[CinnamonGirl]

Bobcat,

I usually do not follow particular artists in the Jazz genre -- I usually purchase my selections because I heard something that I liked. So . . . Deodato is in my collection because I like his rendition of Thus Spake Zarathustra (spelling probably not right -- but you get the idea).

Claude Bolling - because I like jazzy piano and flute, Tim Weisberg and Hubert Laws, jazz flute. (I also have a compilation called Heavy Flute - a collection of 60's and 70's jazz flute).

John Klemmer and Branford Marsalis - sax (need I say more?)

Diana Krall -- smoky vocals.

To me, jazz is more about decompressing than getting energized. I'll have a second martini, please!

[Marty]

I picked up a Charlie Parker retrospective, the "Jazz Biography" series out of Holland - I got it at WallMart for $6.50 - it contains twenty of Parker's best - first rate stuff all the way through - he was probably the premier jazz instrumentalist of all time - though louis armstrong and art tatum could legitimately contest this...Parker's intro on the aptly named "Dexterity" is liquid art. He had speed and a unique chromatic facility that gave him a 12-note pallet to pick from when everyone else was stuck using 5-8 notes. He was fluid and facile, continually in an altered state, his phrasing filtered through a continual drug-induced haze and like Hendrix, this seemed to make his perspective unique; unlike anything before or since.

[CinnamonGirl]

I just find it ironic and very interesting that the opera thread was much more interesting to so many more people than this one about Jazz.

I know that sometime soon I'm going to get myself a copy of John McLaughlin's Inner Mounting Flame. After Marty recommended it, I went out to Amazon and read the reviews by critics and plain ol' folks and it sounds as if it will be a great addition.

[Bobcat]

Perhaps the explanation is that opera is about the last thing you'd expect to see discussed if you were making your first visit to this site. (Of course, if you followed it for a while, fewer things would surprise you. :wink: )

[CinnamonGirl]

Now that you put it that way, Bobcat, I suspect that you are right.

[Marty]

where you aware that Diana Krall married elvis costello recently --

[ms_irreverent]

Ya, my reaction was "what an odd couple." But ya just never know...

[CinnamonGirl]

I wasn't really THAT surprised, they have music in common.

I remember when that supermodel - Paulina Porzichova (I know I'm probably really mispelling names) married the lead for the Cars -- Rick Ocazek. Now I thought THAT was inexplicable.

[Lorrie]

Nah, Rick Ocasek is an alright guy. He lives in my area and I know a couple of people who've met them. Paulina Porizkova is just as pretty in real life and nice too.

[ms_irreverent]

They live up your way??? Amazing. That'd be the last place I'd expect to find them!

[Lorrie]

It is odd. I mean, we are here because my husband's job is here. I have no idea what their excuse is. Actually, I like Catonsville, I love Ellicott City, but Baltimore? It's got some good points...a few..

[Marty]

maybe they're celebrity imitators who had plastic surgery and are really an accountant and a school teacher

[guitarfreak]

My absolute favorite style of music is jazz. Huanted me since I first heard it. Especially post Parker. Parker expanded the palette of western music, adding higher extensions. I simply can not put into words what Bird's music has meant to me. Bird was a true genious I could go on and on and on about him.
My all time favorite musician in any genre is John Coltrane. I have a massive door that a good friend of mine painted Trane on. Trane on a door. If any of you have ever seen the mural on the side of Bangkok Blues in Falls Church that is my buddy's work as well. Although that is rather whimsical and the Trane on a door is just... deep. He also did the tables in that joint.
I could easily list a hundred jazz musicians or more in my collection.

[lizzard]

I just bought the new Rippingtons CD...this one is Latin themed. It's got a few of their traditional "smooth jazz" pieces, and the rest is salsa in Spanish. Interesting enough, Eric Marienthal plays the sax on this album.

Many moons ago I played a gig with Chuck Mangione. He's not the best horn player in the world, but he was one of the nicest artists that I ever worked with.

[bmorgan]

Marty,

Both John M. and John Scofield are awesome, but what about the great Pat Metheny?