Hey boys. I'm making a few mixed CDs for V's cousin Tanya, who stayed with us recently. Hoping for input therein on the following theme - music that is jazz, classical, or in-between, fairly short in length (whether chamber, orchestral, big band, small group, whateva) that could loosely be defined as "mood music", ie, quieter, introspective, melancholic, more after-hours than midday... ETC!

Essential Manchester discs would have to include:


"The Stone Roses" - The Stone Roses
"Pills, Thrills, and Bellyaches" - Happy Mondays
"Between 10th and 11th" or "Some Friendly" - Charlatons UK
"Gold Mother" - James
"Life" - Inspiral Carpets

Essential tracks from that era:

"Step On" and "Kinky Afro" - Happy Mondays
"The Only One I Know" - Charlatons UK
"I Wanna Be Adored" and "Fool's Gold" - The Stone Roses
"Shall We Take a Trip?" - Northside
"Can You Dig It?" - The Mock Turtles
"Groovy Train" - The Farm
"Come Home" - James
"This is How it Feels" and "She Comes in the Fall" - Inspiral Carpets

Very sad about Tony Wilson, launcher of Joy Division and high priest of the Manchester scene. I was somewhat in denial of that musical movement when it was all the rage, so would appreciate from all and sundry (ie Kyle and Derek) a list of essential records from that period - I know a couple of 'em, but I'm sure there will be some revelations for me.

Good Fridays to all.

hadn't read about this until this morning, but the guardian has a great section on the life of anthony wilson, the man behind factory records and subject of the great recent film '24 hour party people'. heart attack, though he was dying of cancer. only 57. very sad that both he and mr. bradshaw passed away in the same week at relatively young ages.

at the risk of seeming trite, a fitting video, from a band toni wilson helped launch:

A couple of other fine looking jazz possibilities for NYC - Joe Lovano with a great quartet in a tribute to John Coltrane at Birdland from the Wednesday to the Saturday ($35 for Friday or Saturday tickets), and trumpeter Wallace Roney with a quintet at Smoke (upper west side - $28).

I've only begun to look at rock venues but like the look of Arlenes Grocery - a local (Tribeca) place that features multiple bands per night and only a small cover.

Hey Kyle, Hey Stu. Do you remember the halcyon days of the blog when Derek and Marc used to post up stuff? Yeah me neither.

So re jazz flats and sharps, I think there are two different things going on here. One is the aforementioned live session phenomenon (jazz records were almost always recorded over one night or possibly two in the good old days, and doesn't happen much anynmore). My favourite example of this is an excruciating first trumpet figure by Tommy Turrentine on the first track of Sonny Clark's Leapin' and Lopin', a truly ugly miss on a fine record. FYI, any record by Sonny Clark is pretty much top notch.

The other is, in my opinion (in the case of Miles Davis anyway) the attempt to create a mournful, plaintive, soulful sound using non-traditional notes, long slides into and out of key, and breathy unusual embouchures. Thinking of Sketches of Spain, as well as Ascenseur Pour L'echafaud. Not to say he didn't sometimes resonate on a note that he wasn't expecting, but I'm pretty sure he accepted that would be part of the sound he was shaping.

Interesting conversation.

stuart, it's because of the heroin. the 21st century jazz performer is mainly hepped up on starbucks, which can make on jittery but rarely leads to flatness or flatlining.

of course, that's a bad joke and i await a better post/explanation for this phenomenom.

interesting video clip....,.and that sounds like a good jazz suggestion Brian, will we need to get tickets before we leave to catch a show by someone that big??
Question to you jazz scholars.... On a number of my jazz records , it is quite common for the musician , (usually it is a trumpet player) , to miss notes , or be a bit flat, for example like Johnny Coles on that video clip around the 5:15 min mark for a few seconds...Miles davis does it quite a bit on sketches of spain, etc etc... is this for you guys , just the greatness of getting live passionate music taken off the floor warts and all ...I never hear critics discuss this...like it is taboo somehow to criticise these historical sessions....You dont seem to hear it on new modern recorded discs from the last decade, it only seems to happen on recordings from the 50s and 60s..

Speaking of the Vanguard, Kurt Rosenwinkel is playing there when we're in NYC (18th to 23rd). Pretty signficant player, not my favourite musician, but that's more of a stylistic complaint. He is certainly on the cutting edge of contemporary jazz. Nice looking quintet with Mark Turner on sax. Not to dwell on things, but Motian, Frisell, and Lovano play the two weekends previous. Ah well. Let's do a little more research and post it up.

Wow, didn't know you were so deep into BE. Excellent. Good choices on your part too. Re next ones, in order of loveliness, I would choose (1) Moonbeams; (2) Explorations; (3) the Solo Sessions; (4) How My Heart Sings.

And Waltz for Debby is fantastic but is the second half of the Live at the Village Vanguard recording, so more familiar. Ergo not on my list.

which of the Bill Evans offerings on emusic would you recommend, bri? i have the Tony Bennet collab and the Village Vanguard live, "Interplay", and "Portrait in Jazz". any others i should grab?

Hey cool clip of Mingus' sextet. The sound sucks on my PC but the visual is great. Research tells me that this sextet was a group of near titans - Jacki Byard on piano, Clifford Jordan on tenor, Mingus' long time drummer Dannie Richmond, and the revelatory Johnny Coles on trumpet (great solo he plays here). That Mingus sextet released two or three live disks around the same time ('64), so were obviously a pretty strong live band. Clearly I've got to spend more time on YouTube. I hadn't heard of the new disk - I'll have to track 'er down.

On a similar note, I saw from e-music that Bill Evans has "released" a number of new recordings, one of which is Live in Ottawa (1974), recorded outside at Camp Fortune, where I attended many live shows over the years as a teen. For those of you who are Bill Evans obsessed (OK, that's only me) the sound quality on this new one is great and the trio is in great form, from the 3 or 4 tracks I sampled. E-music has a pretty full collection of Evans' music, if you hadn't noticed that yet, and were looking for some monthly subscription filler.

i'll see if i can locate those two tracks...perhaps the albums that you've mentioned will give me a better representation of their sound. then again, it may just not be for me. or it could be a fiery furnaces situation, where i'm fairly positive, after first listen, that i'm never going to like the songs, then keep going back because i'm curious to see if i'll feel the same way after repeat listens, then i'll actually start wanting to hear the songs because i like them. or not.

Kyle it is a woefully inadequate selection....starting off by missing my two favorite tunes Tam Lin and Autopsy...I think they are better served by the individual albums I mentioned earlier, but I'm thinking we had probably best end this discourse on these bands as I am sure Derek and Marc are probably at the screaming point by now.... (it being futile for them to pull out their hair)...

stu, it's this one. can't say i'm loving it on first couple of listens but i'm coming in a little late in the game. perhaps not the best to experience it on laptop speakers while doing other work. more something to listen to while lounging in the sun, perhaps while carving something out of wood.

i am digging the radio paradise station that you recommended which is more suitable for work than kexp or kcrw and still plays an interesting mix of songs.

to you jazzophiles out there, has anyone picked up the mingus/dolphy cornell recordings disc? the track i heard on the all songs considered podcast is pretty great.

for those looking for a mingus/dolphy fix on a friday morning, here's a great performance, courtesy of youtube:

which compilation did you get, I dont see a "greatest hits" listed on allmusic...

thanks for the tip, stu. have added that link to the right. am also listening to fairport convention's greatest hits, which i downloaded last week. will share my thoughts after a few listens.

Kyle, i have also found a good itunes radio station, that works well in an office environment. It is called radio paradise ,(under eclectic), and it plays 70's fleetwood mac, wilco, postal service, dexis midnight runners , pretty much living up to its category eclectic...it is very refreshing to hear such a wide range on one station, in contrast to comercial radio where they play such a narrow range (ie Q107 only has 4 rolling stones songs in rotation, or cfny which cant play anything not out this year...

Thanks Brian , I will check that out, Rob M has also been bugging me that I dont have their other album "the hangmans beautiful daughter",(or something like that)....do you have that one as well??

Thanks Stu. I appear to have got a bunch of that wrong...wouldn't be the first time. I'll have to check out the Bert Jansch stuff, and Pentagle. Another band from that period that's worth checking out that I forgot to mention is the Incredible String Band; I have their record "the 5000 spirits of the layers of the onion" and it is a true sixties psych folk relic.