/blindfold/

>Track 1
Autumn Leaves. Pretty boring way of playing the head. Jam session style. Also the bass/drum backing is really boring. Sounds like an Aebersold playalong. I think I’m about as good as this piano player so this really doesn’t interest me too much. At least there was a little creativity put into the ending. Overall this mostly sounded like a student group.

>Track 2
This is pretty nice. I like what the sax is doing. I’d maybe like to hear the piano player be more assertive in his comping but it gets better further in. Same with the bass and drums. I’d like to hear them do a little bit more outside the swing feel, but they got better towards the end of the sax solo too. I liked the sax player a lot, very clear ideas and very engaging playing. Some of the stuff he did reminded me a lot of David Binney. I mostly like the piano solo, and I like what the bass/drums are doing behind his solo a lot. YEAHHH there’s a spot in there where the piano starts doing that dotted quarter cross rhythm and then he does it again and the bass goes with him. That’s the shit I like. I think the piano solo could have had more change in dynamics though- it needed a definitive high point. I kind of like the idea to drop out for an unaccompanied, out of time bass solo. I like the tritone theme he’s doing too- sounds like he’s picking up ideas from what the alto player was doing. Ooh I liked that ending too. This is some good post-bop. I don’t know much about Japanese jazz but I’d gladly listen to more of these players.

>>70780992
>Track 3
This groove just doesn’t sound very good. It’s messy as hell. The piano player has some good ideas but it’s all kind of ruined by the groove. Also the form is so simple and they’re all playing it so explicitly that it gets repetitive pretty fast. Pretty boring overall and too long. If you can’t nail the groove nothing else really matters.

>Track 4
First 30 seconds sounded like the Mulan soundtrack. Pretty heavy on the smooth sound from the sax player. And the synths. Very short sax solo- it sounded like he was sticking mostly to one pentatonic/blues scale. I only heard him move outside of that scale once I think which is a shame. The smooth sax sound and dated synths kind of turn me off of this one, then his solo was pretty basic too. Still, these guys can groove so I prefer this one to track 3.

>Track 5
I like the use of space and the light touch of the piano player. Kind of basic blues licks though, I’d like to hear him do something outside of that a little bit. This one was much too long considering how little it developed. I’m sure it’d be much more engaging to see live, but to listen to on it’s own it just doesn’t do much. The pianist has plenty of chops and good taste, he just needs more creativity.

>>70781015
>Track 6
Pretty sick groove. I would have liked to hear the guitarist do something more rhythmically interesting in his solo against that strong groove; it pretty much sounded like your basic hard rock solo. Still it worked for what it was. Reminds me a bit of David Axelrod type stuff.

>Track 7
Interesting. I like the preciseness of the head and then the craziness of the soloing. It’s kind of a lot going on though. With no bass and everybody playing so much at once it reminds me a lot of Cecil Taylor’s trio stuff. The drummer is pretty incredible but I think it would be better if he played less. Actually it would be better if everybody played less across the board. I like it but it’s very relentless and doesn’t really have much shape. You can hear that they’re listening to each other to some degree but it’s just too much to really process at once. This kind of thing can be really cool but it’s got to be done with taste. For example, what’s different about the piano solo except that the sax just isn’t playing? No contrast or nuance.

>Track 8
This is “I Remember You.” It sounds like it could be straight off of a 1958 Prestige album. If it’s from that time period then it sounds pretty average and could easily pass for being American jazz. Somewhat generic though.

Short comments since I'm on mobile and vacation.

>1
Autumn Leaves - I believe this is from memejazz classic Ryo Fukui's Scenery. Pleasant album, but ultimately not very interesting. Japanese often enjoy the zen quality of doing things by the book, this seems very much like that sort of thing.

This album is remarkably popular on the Internet, I guess the fairly straightforward playing with some pleasant standards is pretty approachable.

>2
Interesting post-bop sax meets bass and electric piano that appear to have heard Bitches Brew. Maybe a bit like a 70's Joe Henderson thing. One of my favorites this week.

>3
Weird repeating 4/4 almost Mission Impossible motif going on here. I guess the two bass players are the gimmick here - gets very repetitive. The piano players chord smashing is a bit awkward.

On a more positive note, there's some of that energy and drive here that's become almost a trademark of Japanese jazz these days.

>>70781497
>Track 9
Hmm.. who does this trumpet sound remind me of? Somebody very familiar that I can’t quite put my finger on. A little bit of Kenny Wheeler maybe? The song is “You Don’t Know What Love Is,” another tune that always makes me think of the Chet Baker version. This is pretty basic and traditional but well executed. Played with feeling. The trumpet player is able to do a lot with his tone which I like. I think Christian Scott might be who he reminds me of.

>Track 10
Kind of a cool composition but I think I’d like it better without the synths. It’s also maybe a little too tightly arranged. It reminds me of a piano player called Gonzalo Rubalcaba in that way where it’s very complex and technical but a little too tight for my tastes. It might be Hiromi? It’s got that sort of Chick Corea sound in the soloing that I associate with her. If it’s her I think I like it better than anything else I’ve heard her do. Whoever the piano player is- he/she has a lot of good ideas and more than enough chops, but I think they could be more effective just by leaving more space and paying more attention to phrasing. The lines just sort of go on and on with no break or anything. This rock style of drumming isn’t my favorite either. A double kick pedal for jazz always feels like cheating to me. I like when jazz drummers can play great stuff on a small kit. It made me laugh near the end when the piano player goes into that sort of bouncy 3/4 feeling for the melody. This was decent but it could have been made a lot better just by simplifying the arrangement.

>>70781536
>I believe this is from memejazz classic Ryo Fukui's Scenery.
huh, never actually listened to this and after hearing this track I'm not in any hurry to listen to it.

>4
Synth intro sounds like an early 80's Peter Gabriel track, but then we're off to smooth 80's fusion waters. Like a David Sanborn thing made after Marcus Miller popularized heavier bass sounds.

I'm sure you find many people in Japan with an unironic love for 80's fusion - too cheesy for me.

>5
I've heard of 12 bar blues, but 12 minute blues is ridiculous. *Ba dum TSH*

Not much to say about this.

>6
This is like some mid-70's CTI label jam - guitarist is very much a blues guitarist, obvious blues phrasing and such - like Carlos Santana or something like that. Better smooth fusiony thing than 4 for me.

>7
I know this one - the title track from pianist Yosuke Yamashita's Chiasma. First learned of it from a blindfold Mats Gustafsson did for Downbeat, actually.

The sax player is a little too intense with little dynamic variation for me - although I do like how he incorporates the head at parts, but Yamashita's Cecil Taylor style piano is very enjoyable for free playing like this and the piano solo is my favorite part of this.

>8
This is I Remember You that I recognize just because I heard some young guy sing it at a jam session Tuesday night.

Heavy bebop influence here, these cats sound like they could break into Donna Lee any second.

>9
Kind of a modern day Chet Baker feel. Very earnest and strong playing from the trumpeter. Could come off as too traditional, but I think there's enough character that it doesn't.

>10
From a Chick Corea style intro to a very Japanese style high-energy thing with some cheesy synth strings even.

I think I've heard this before - I was first thinking maybe it's Fox Capture Plan, but they go even deeper into high-energy driving rhythms, so I think this is Hitomi.

>>70781946
"By Hitomi I mean Hiromi' -bump

Bumping.
Sad I missed Herbieanon's cameo last week. That's probs never gonna happen again.
Cool seeing new people participating and making set lists!

>>70781946
Seems like our thoughts were similar on a lot of this week's tracks

>Track one
Ryo Fukui doing Autumn Leaves. In the same way that The Epic did, this album kind of caught non-jazz fans on /mu/’s imagination. I think it’s probs largely because Ryo is Japanese, relatively obscure figure and plays simply enough that people’s eyes don’t just glaze over when they hear him. Lotsa hipster cred.
Like The Epic, I don’t think this is an outright awful album but it’s way overrated. The playing is accessible and catchy but got pretty boring for me after repeated listens. This track is pretty archetypical for the rest of the album. One or two pretty interesting ideas but a lot of fluff that sounds like a less emotionally invested /proficient Erroll Garner.
>Track two
I like the bass’s accompanying on this. The band get a little lost and aimless at times (especially at the start), which is kinda understandable in something loose and modal like this but the bassist is pretty consistent about picking up on rhythmic ideas, following those ascending/descending runs the piano kept going into, following where solos were going (moving to the upper register with the piano, etc.).
By around halfway through the piano solo though, the drummer gets a lot more involved and the bass player continues his awesome job following the rest of the band.
I normally feel bad for bass players who get no accompanying ( or maybe just a drummer if they’re lucky) but this guy made use of the freedom a solo performance gives and the band dropped out subtly and gradually enough that it was only a little bit jarring as a pace change. It was an interesting solo by itself in any case, the bowed parts reminded me a little of Richard Davis’ solo on Hat and Beard and it was cool juxtaposing those bluesy flat fifth arpeggios with the very dissonant sounding chords he was then making with the diminished 5ths. Maybe could have done with some sparse accompanying, even just the piano interjecting with some errant free notes and chords.

>Track three
This is a little repetitive but the ensemble have plenty of energy. Especially that drummer, I feel like all those fills and accents he’s sticking in give the track a lot of momentum. The bass solo is pretty wild. His playing is so bluesy and percussive. It’s rare that we get two really good bass solos in one week... I like this new guy.
Jesus, dat bowed solo at the end. I was kind of getting pretty tired of the vamp around the time he came in but man, fair fucks to him, caught my attention again. I wonder is that overdubbed? It’s so much louder than the first solo and there’s a lot more reverb.

>Track four
Ugh, nah. Cheesy and smooth as fuck. The synth is 80s as fuck and the sax player is unadventurous to put it mildly.

>Track five
Pretty average 12 bar blues. There’s good variance in the dynamics in the piano solo but melodically, it’s fairly bog standard stuff.
That bit where is was doubling up the single note melody with both hands (one way up the top of his register and one in the middle) was great and there was some much more creative melodic ideas following that where he started going on faster/more complex runs with some more accompanying chords and participation from the bass. That led into the crescendo which was...a little anticlimactic. I think it could have been built up a little more thoughtfully by the piano anyway. There were some melodic ideas he was just throwing in there to fill space while it built and it kind of let the air out of it for me.
The conclusion was the highlight of the piece. I let out an audible “ooh” when that stray iio
chord came in around 11:10. Jazzy stuff rite der.
>Track six
This is slightly more acceptable smooth jazz, ala George Benson. Still pretty cheesy but short and sweet and the bluesy guitar solo was enjoyable.

Anybody have jazz recs for someone who mostly listens to metal? The typical free jazz recs don't do it for me. I usually like the aggressiveness but I get no sense of virtuosity or composition like with good metal.

>>70785678
>I get no sense of virtuosity or composition like with good metal.
Listen to Coltrane's Meditations. Even well into his freer stuff, he was pretty consistent about building and developing themes in a quasi classical sort of way. The first track on there is aggressive af but Coltrane has this one motif he spends most of his solo developing and evolving.

>>70785678
You might like David Binney. Some of his stuff seems pretty inspired by prog metal/math rock
https://youtube.com/watch?v=hiazN4m4CL0

There's some other stuff too that I can post when I get home

>Track Seven
This is maybe a little different from track six. The drummer is like a fucking hurricane. Father Son and Holy Ghost tier insanity. I’ve been listening to a lot of Cecil Taylor over the last month or so and I feel like this sort of violently percussive piano style is hitting my ears a little nicer than it may have otherwise. He hasn’t got that vague modern classical leaning that Taylor does which is a little disappointing but he’s working around with the theme from the head at times and noticeably developing ideas which is nice. I don’t think I’d be able to appreciate this sort of thing if it felt like he was just aimlessly smashing keys. There was a bit in his solo that almost sounded tonal. Blasphemy!
The sax player is a fucking lunatic. I’m surprised he’s able to calm down enough to go into the head so precisely.
This must have been insane to watch. The crowd certainly seemed enjoyed it a lot. I’m kinda disappoint that I’ve never been to a proper free gig like this. I’d say they’re a blast.

>track eight
This sounds familiar. Pretty sure it’s a standard but I can’t recall the name. Wouldn’t have guessed this was Japanese if I didn’t know the theme! There's a lot of obvious influence from the major bop luminaries on this. Which I like, there’s nothing Earth shattering about this but it swings hard, the Roach-esque drum accents are on point and the piano solo's got a wonderful nervous energy to it that I usually associate with guys like Bud. Dem knotty single note lines and staccato chords in the left hand make me happy.

Our tastes don't align at all, but just to bump and have some content...
dropped by the record store today, dropped a decent chunk of my paycheck, and picked up: Henry Kaiser's It's A Wonderful Life; Bill Frisell's Before We Were Born; Tim Berne's Fractured Fairy Tales; Bill Laswell's Baselines; Steve Lacy's Saxophone Special, Snake-out, Raps, and Sempre Amore; Carla Bley's Musique Mechanique; Anthony Braxton/Gino Robair Duets 1987; Anthony Davis' Lady of the Mirrors; Leroy Jenkins' Legend of Ai Glatson; Company 2, 4, and 5; and Evan Parker's Atlanta. Apparently they just bought a large improvisation-based collection and allowed me to skim through it before putting it on the floor. Was like a child in a candy store and honestly wanted to take home even more. I don't think I've ever seen a collection so aligned with my tastes, noticed it had a lot of Julius Hemphill (who I haven't heard yet), and have decided I need to check him out.

Otherwise, I saw Ken Vandermark and Nate Wooley together at the beginning of last month and was introduced to Nate Wooley's (for lack of a better word) 'zine, Sound American. All archives available online and have been reading through the various issues every now and then since then. Highly suggested reading for this crowd.

oops i don't think i'm supposed to know the track title? but foobar shows it in metadata, and also a album art
or is that intended, never done this before

>>70788497
Yeah this week's tracks still have metadata embedded but usually it's gone. I'm not familiar with any of these artists though so the metadata didn't ruin too much for me.

>>70787933
>Nate Wooley's (for lack of a better word) 'zine, Sound American.
Seems like kind of a glorified blog? Skimming through it some now and it feels a little bit self indulgent to me

>>70785678
you might like this too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmGmzncma_g

>>70785845
I've heard it before but I've never really noticed any developing themes.

>>70786142
This is pretty nice

>>70790841
This one is a little bit too smooth sounding or something

File: Ben Schachter-Entranement.jpg (52KB, 600x600px) Image search: [Google]

52KB, 600x600px

Not participating in this week /blindfold/ but this is the best release of the year so far imo and you should listen to it. really really good stuff man.

>>70793603
Got a link? It doesn't seem to be on slsk

>>70793839
not for free cause it came out like yesterday but its on the usual shit, spotify, google music, amazon, cd baby etc.

https://benschachter.hearnow.com/

>>70780773
>THIS WEEK'S THEME: Japanese Jazz
>COMPILED BY: buddyrichan
wew. it writes itself

>>70785678
Esbjörn Svensson trio's Leucocyte and some of their other albums have some metal/post-rock elements