Welcome to the weekly /mu/ jazz Blindfold Test thread. Every

hourly bump

Reveals start in maybe 4 hours, so there's still time to participate

Shame nobody else is participating this week... I found most of these tracks to be pretty good. Better than I expected anyway.

I wonder if having a shorter list would get more people to participate - now it takes a good chunk of time to listen and write comments

I wish there was some way of doing this with streaming services somehow so it would be easier to just start listening

I'll still give it another hour since I have other shit to do, so still time to participate if someone sees this now!

This is a bit off topic, but does anyone here have that chart image that's floating around that breaks down a few contemporary jazz labels (maybe it was labels putting stuff out after 2000 or so?) and their essential releases?

I guess I'll start reveals in just a moment - still in process of writing that stuff, so it'll take a while

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>>71092387

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>>71092646

>>71092646
>>71092671

thanks man, this isn't the exact one I was looking for because I feel like the other had like 5-10 labels listed with just a couple releases from each, but this looks really cool and will be a good place to start digging!

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Track 1:
Marius Neset & Trondheim Jazz Orchestra - Golden Xplosion
from Lion (ACT 2014)
Winner of Spellemannprisen 2015 (Norway)

Marius Neset - tenor saxophone
Hanna Paulsberg - tenor saxophone
Peter Fuglsang - alto saxophone
Eirik Hegdal - baritone saxophone
Eivind Lonning, Erik Eilertsen - trumpets
Erik Johannesen - trombone
Daniel Herskedal - tuba
Espen Berg - piano

The Norwegian Grammy-equivalent is called the Spellemannprisen, awarded by the music industry since 1972 with a jazz award given since 1973. Recent winners have been a mix of more internationally known musicians and more obscure ones with small indie labels also represented.

Marius Neset won the award in 2015 for his first album for the ACT label Lion consisting of his own larger ensemble arrangements of tunes originally recorded with smaller ensembles. This particular tune Golden Xplosion is something that he typically uses as the starting point for a solo sax segment.

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Track 2:
Joe Lovano - Ko Ko
from Bird Songs (Blue Note, 2011)
Winner of Jazz Journalist Associations Jazz Award for recording of the year in 2011

Joe Lovano - saxophone
Francisco Mela - drums
Otis Brown III - drums

Tributes of homages to big names of jazz tend to win more than their fair share of awards these days, so I included multiple examples this, such as Joe Lovano's album of exploration into the music of Charlie Parker. It's certainly full of surprising departures such as this two drummer+Lovano take on Ko Ko. I was curious whether anyone connects this to the Parker composition, I certainly wouldn't have had I not known.

The Jazz Journalists Association gives out a bunch of awards each year that I think are pretty poorly publicized for being a journalist driven award. There are awards for many different instruments, best recording and historical recording, best record label, best arranger and even a lifetime jazz award every year. Winners tend to be on the conservative side with the likes of Wayne Shorter and Sonny Rollins getting the nod for recent albums, but at least there are many categories.

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Track 3:
Oddjob - Folk #2
from Folk (Caprice 2015)
Winner of Grammis Best Jazz Album Award 2016 (Sweden)

Per "Ruskträsk" Johansson - alto saxophone
Goran Kajfes - trumpet
Daniel Karlsson - piano
Peter Forss - bass
Janne Robertson - drums

Swedish Grammy-equivalent Grammis has been dominated by jazz with contemporary electronic elements - bassist Dan Berglund's (of Esbjörn Svensson Trio fame) Tonbruket has won the award three times in this decade.

In this light the 2016 winning album Oddjob's Folk is interesting as it's a departure away from that kind of sound for the band that used to have a little bit of a nu jazz style to their older music. Each track builds on a vintage field recording of folk music or hog/goat/cattle calls (like here on #2) and the bands playing is closer to jazz tradition than on other albums. Folk music influences are not uncommon in Nordic jazz, but this felt to me like a fresh way of approaching it.

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Track 4:
Adam Pieronczyk Quintet - Wicker Basket
from Komeda - the Innocent Sorcerer (Jazzwekstatt 2010)
Winner of Fryderyk Award for best jazz album 2011

Adam Pierończyk - tenor saxophone
Gary Thomas - tenor saxophone
Nelson Veras - guitar
Anthony Cox - bass
Łukasz Żyta - drums

Another tribute album to a local legend - this is one of sax player Adam Pieronczyks arrangements of Krzysztof Komeda's music. This is a fairly obscure Komeda composition originally made as a soundtrack to an odd little animation reminding us that if you create creatures out of body parts you get from a wicker basket and try to get them to do your bidding, they'll eventually turn on you. The original Komeda recording only appears on some completionist friendly collections, but you can check out the 1967 animation on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTp5RxUi7nQ

The yearly Fryderyk awards (named after the original Polish form of Chopin's first name) are given according to an anonymous vote by the members of the local Phonographic Academy. Poland has a long tradition of quality jazz, but apart from the biggest names on international labels like ECM and ACT, Polish releases don't get talked about a lot internationally, so looking at the nominees is a good chance to check out some of the new Polish jazz.

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Track 5:
Andy Emler MegaOctet - Crouch, Touch, Engage
from Crouch, Touch, Engage (Naïve 2009)
Winner of Victoires du Jazz for jazz album of the year 2010 (France)

Andy Emler - piano
Laurent Dehors - tenor saxophone, bass clarinet
Phillippe Sellam - alto saxophone
Thomas De Pourquery - alto saxophone, soprano saxophone
Médéric Collignon - cornet, flugelhorn
Claude Tchamitchian - bass
François Verly - marimba, percussion
Eric Echampard - drums

Larger ensemble works also tend to do well at awards. Pianist Andy Emler's MegaOctet brings together his piano trio with a selection of some noteworthy names on horns for a pretty varied album with very different moods.

Victoires du jazz is an award ceremony just for jazz music, having split from the general award gala Victoires de la Musique in 2002. There's not that much international press or buzz around french contemporary jazz and almost all recent winning albums are French indie label releases, so checking out the list of recent winners will yield many new acquaintances.

>>71092975
The thought did cross my mind that this might be Lovano. He seems to win awards often and a lot of times my reaction to his playing seems to be "pretty good, but I can think of 5 or so saxophonists I'd rather hear doing the same thing."

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Track 6:
Iro Haarla Quintet - Doxa
from Vespers (ECM 2011)
Winner of Jazz-Emma 2012 (Finland)

Iro Haarla - piano
Trygve Seim - tenor saxophone
Mathias Eick - trumpet
Ulf Krokfors - bass
Jon Christensen - drums

As a little callback to last weeks female instrumentalists, I included some award winning ladies this week. Pianist/harpist/composer Iro Haarla is certainly the biggest name in female instrumentalists in Finland with a career going back to the 70's, although she has only started recording albums as a leader in this century.

The Jazz-Emma has been awarded since 1992. The nominees are not a terrible selection of some of the most notable releases of the year. Winning albums tend to be ones with some international acclaim, but occassionally more freewheeling local favorites have gotten the nod.

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Track 7:
Steve Lehman Octet - Chimera/Luchini
from Mise En Abîme (Pi Recordings 2014)
Winner of NPR Jazz Critics Poll 2014

Chris Dingman - vibraphone
Steve Lehman - alto saxophone
Mark Shim - tenor saxophone
Jonathan Finlayson - trumpet
Tim Albright - trombone
Jose Davila - tuba
Drew Gress - bass
Tyshawn Sorey - drums

Back to US awards - my favorite end-of-year jazz thing to check out for interesting albums is the NPR Jazz Critics Poll that comes out in late December. The top spots tend to be skewed towards American avant-garde, but top albums tend to always be interesting, so it's definitely something I recommend checking out for anyone looking for good new jazz.

In 2014 the top spot was claimed by Steve Lehman's octet and their album Mise En Abîme. Lehman uses a technique called spectralism that uses some microtonality to great effect to create soundscapes that don't feel dissonant, but still are clearly different from usual harmony. This track Chimera/Luchini is for the most part a showcase for this with Chris Dingman's vibraphone using a special tuning with F, A and C-shart tuned a quarter tone sharp creating a very cool atmosphere that brings gamelan-music to mind.

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Track 8:
Terri Lyne Carrington - Switch Blade
from Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue (GrooveJazz 2013)
Winner of Best Jazz Instrumental Album Grammy 2014

Tia Fuller - alto saxophone
Robin Eubanks - trombone
Antonio Hart - flute
Nir Felder - guitar
Gerald Clayton - piano
Christian McBride - bass
Terri Lyne Carrington - drums

Our second call back to last week's female instrumentalist theme - Terri Lyne Carrington was the first female musician to win the Grammy award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album in 2014 with this album paying tribute to Duke Ellington/Charles Mingus/Max Roach album Money Jungle.

Here on Switch Blade that Charles Mingus flavor comes through very strong with McBride correctly identified by jtg playing a very Mingus-like bass solo to start with and the horns coming in later in a fairly chaotic manner also recalling Mingus' music.

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Track 9:
Michael Wollny Trio - Un Grand Sommeil Noir
from Weltentraum (ACT 2014)
Winner of ECHO Jazz awards for best German ensemble, best German pianist and best German drummer (Germany)

Michael Wollny - piano
Tim Lefebvre - bass
Eric Schaefer - drums

In Germany the big industry awards are called ECHO. There are plenty of jazz awards to go around, there are separate awards for different instruments and small and large ensembles for both German and international musicians. There is no album of the year per se, but each award specifies an album, so best German ensemble award is basically the highest honor.

In the 2015 awards pianist Michael Wollny's album Weltentraum won not only that one, but also best German pianist and drummer awards. I have my doubts on how impartial the ECHO jazz awards are as ACT head honcho Siggi Loch is in the jury and ACT tends to win a lot and ECM is pretty much absent (although ECM does release very little German jazz for a German label), but it is what it is.

I think the coolest thing about this album is how varied the source material is. This particular track Un Grand Sommeil Noir sounds like a fairly modern minimalist thing, but it's actually originally an Edgar Varese composition from 1906 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWyTe78X9F4 .

In addition the list of composers includes another early 20th century composer Alban Berg, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, rock band the Flaming Lips, director David Lynch and pop star P!NK to name a few.

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Track 10:
Vijay Iyer Trio - The Star of a Story
from Accelerando (ACT 2012)
Winner of Jazz Album of the Year in Down Beat Critics Poll 2012

Vijay Iyer - piano
Stephan Crump - bass
Marcus Gilmore - drums

As far as awards go, Down Beat polls are maybe the most widely known long standing awards for jazz music - at least outside the Grammys. Vijay Iyer has recently emerged as a powerhouse poll-winner in this decade. In 2012 he won in an unprecedented five different categories - Jazz Artist of the Year, Jazz Album of the Year, Jazz Group of the Year, Pianist of the Year and Rising Star Composer, so I felt like I couldn't leave him out.

Since I opened this week with a track that has become a live set staple for Marius Neset, it felt right to also end it with one. I've seen Iyer's trio live three different times in the last couple of years. Each set was different, but in all of them Iyer worked in the trio's version of The Star of a Story, originally performed by R&B band Heatwave in the late 70's, into some prominent place, once as the set's opener, once as the peak moment of the first long arc in the middle of the set and once as the catharctic finale.

As jtg pointed out, there's not a lot of improvisation here, but Iyer is very good at building satisfying sets and long arcs consisting of several tunes and this one is one that he appears to be very fond of still using in live performances.

>>71094080
>>71094169
Yeah I suppose I probably should have recognized these two.

Just found poll winners three! Its awesome Thanks anons