So put on your bell-bottoms, fluff up the afro, or for those of us who post-date the era, watch a lot of That 70s Show.
Happy new 365 daily desk calendars, everyone.
Playlist
- Jimmy Smith - Recession or Depression - ...In a Plain Brown Wrapper
- Joe Farrell - Hurricane Jane - Penny Arcade
- Freddie Hubbard - Destiny's Children - Keep Your Soul Together
- Jean-Luc Ponty - Cantaloupe Island - the Experience
- Gerald Wilson Orchestra - Light My Fire - California Soul
- Cannonball Adderley - Tensity - Tensity
- Elvin Jones - Three Card Molly - Genesis
::WSRP:: That excuse won't work; We cookie-track how much time you spend on the internet.
Posts
4 comments:
Dear WSRP,
Long-time listener, several-time commenter here. Love the show. Hypothetically, if you were to put together a jazz quintet in 2009, whom would you choose? And what style of jazz would be the dominant sound of said quintet?
Best,
Your Audience of One?
wow, dream question. To be honest, I'm not qualified to answer it realistically; I've simply no expertise.
But, as this is hypothetical, I'll note some things.
1) Dave Holland small groups I find amazing, mostly because of the dynamic he creates in his sidemen.
2) both Jason Moran and Brad Mehldau are phenoms in their technical skills and vision. Moran is yet to have a CD which, to my mind, fully demonstrates his strengths, while Mehldau has recently churned out a plethora.
3) Vijay Iyer and Rudresh Mahantappa are embroiled in an exploratory process which is fruitful now, and will become tremendously more important in a few years.
4) I like Ben Allison, and I like where he's going, but I have no sense of how or why he's doing so.
5) Eric Alexander and Chris Potter both have beautiful tones, but again I haven't seen much from their leader projects that fully astounds.
6) Legends like Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Pat Metheny, Wayner Shorter, Keith Jarrett and others are still active. They remain the ones to watch, but are far beyond my ability to out-guess.
So, ideal quintet(s) for 2009?
Interesting "Veterans":
Billy Bang - violin
Bobby Hutcherson - vibes
Charles Tolliver - trumpet
Dave Holland - bass
Jack DeJohnette - drums
Explosive "youth":
Eric Harland - drums
Jason Moran - piano
Chris Potter - tenor
Stefon Harris - vibes
John Scofield - guitar
Other recent combinations to watch include Metheny/Mehldau and the new Charles Lloyd group w/ Moran & Harland.
what's your dream team?
Given the extreme possibilies present with this hypothetical musing, I think it would be a fun challenge to genre-mix various musical talents to produce a desired 'sound'. Such albums that attempt this come to mind: Rabih Abou-Khalil's BLUE CAMEL w/ Charlie Mariano, Steve Swallow, and Kenny Wheeler; Ahmed Abdul-Malik's JAZZ SAHARA w/ Johnny Griffin; Ben Allison's PEACE PIPE w/ Mamadou Diabate. However, musicians who label themselves as 'jazz' musicians is already a large pool talent enough, I imagine no answer would ever be a definitive one regarding personnel or sound.
But, here goes:
Brian Blade - drums
Herbie Hancock - fender rhodes
Chris Wood - bass
Michael Blake - tenor
Pamelia Kurstin - Moog Theramin
Hip?
blade, hancock, blake are all obviously hip. I must admit humbly admit that my awareness of Charlie Wood is rather small.
but ultra-kudos on Pamelia Kurstin.
I'm having trouble assembling in my mind what such a group would sound like, especially given Hancock's ability to break expectations, but certainly a show I'd go check out.
Post a Comment