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Original Message

Hey, everybody doesn't like something . . .

Posted by caspian@peak.org on July 11, 2012 at 16:10:42:
. . . and Sara Lee doesn't play music!

It's perfectly OK for personal tastes to differ, and no reason to bog down the board with mudslinging and personal insults. C'mon, folks, 'nuff already!

My jazz tastes these days definitely run to sweet, melodic, soulful "old school" stuff. Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Kenny Burrell, Grant Green, Jimmy Smith, Bill Evans, Horace Silver, Adderly Bros., Oscar Peterson, MJQ, and so on. And of course Mingus, Monk, Brubeck, and Roland Kirk, to cite four of the great jazz COMPOSERS. My two favorite Duke albums are "The Great Summit" with Louis Armstrong, and his collaboration with Coltrane. Vocal jazz doesn't get any nicer than Louis and Ella. There are enough "golden age" reissues from Blue Note, Impulse, Verve, Columbia, etc. out there to keep me happy forever.

I do find a lot of recent stuff either sterile and over-intellectualized, or conversely trite and commercial (the whole "smooth jazz" genre makes me gag), but there IS some really nice newer jazz the OP should try out:

Allen Toussaint's "Bright Mississippi" is a wonderful set of trad New Orleans music, with superb musicianship throughout.

John Zorn is one of the most prolific composer/arrangers working today. Some of his stuff is harsh, ugly, and violent, but some is just lovely, incorporating Latin and Klezmer flavors along with other influences. I particularly like some of his records featuring guitarist Marc Ribot. Current favorites include "O'o," "Alhambra Love Songs" (piano trio), "Circle Maker," "The Present," and the "Book of Angels" series.

Guitarist Bill Frisell, in my book, can do no wrong. I really like the way he incorporates folk Americana into a jazz context. "In a Blues Dream," "Good Dog, Happy Man," and his collaboration with Dave Holland and Elvin Jones are in frequent rotation. He contributes heavily to Ron Carter's "Orfeu," which is a really nice collection of Brazilian-influenced tunes.

I'll undoubtedly think of some more later, but my point is that there is some recent jazz that is warm, sincere and expressive. You just have to seek it out.