Do you have any recordings to share? That would be neat to hear a fellow Elektron bro’s jazz sessions.
I think I was embarrassingly obsessed with the rippingtons when I was a little kid… listinging to them now they are pretty dang cheesy. I suppose my options of records just down to what my parents happened to have.
I really dig a lot of the japanese jazz fusion stuff.
I love jazz. Some stuff that is on heavy rotation in the background these days.
Also, not all jazz, but lots of jazz tunes in here and perhaps my favorite mixtape of all time. It really expanded my mind when I first heard it. The Archie Whitewater tune (4:04) alone is worth the listen, and that Electric Prunes song (21:02) is proof that there is such a thing as cool religious music (outside of reggae and spiritual jazz). I might go to church on Sundays if there were breakbeats.
Amen. Gospel is another genre that’s insane. I have such a funky recording of some church choir during a ceremony, and I wish our churches were like that honestly it would be a better excuse to attend. Man, I really abused those 70’s Japanese playlists during the early COVID lockdowns, those were a really great discovery! If you have the opportunity to do so, I recommend digging into each individual artist’s discographies I used to use those artists a lot for sampling there is so much flavorful stuff in there. Japanese jazz is it’s own different style jazz, and I feel like the 70s Japanese jazz was way tighter/ cleaner than the rest of the world’s jazz that was being produced. The US jazz scene was much “looser” and not in a bad way it just felt that that was the way the arrangements sounded to my ears (just different play styles, probably).
One of my fave religious tracks. Alice Coltrane intended it only for her own religious community, but after her passing, this and other recordings were released for the rest of the world to enjoy
I’m totally with you. I’ve been going down the rabbit hole on Japanese jazz for a bit now.
I’m lucky enough to have a fantastic Japanese jazz cellar called Sometime in my area that has been around since the 1970s. I got to meet Isao Suzuki here back in 2013. He’s credited as being the first Japanese jazz bass player and did a lot of stuff on the excellent Three Blind Mice label. It was my birthday and he gave me a signed CD. Amazing guy that, at least at the time, was playing a lot with young jazz musicians here to spread his knowledge. They did a big spread on him a few years later in Wax Poetics and he was a keynote speaker at Red Bull Academy when they did it in Tokyo. So many killer Japanese jazz musicians. Jazz is still going strong here.
Some of my pics of Isao Suzuki from the second time I saw him. These are from 2013, so I must have seen him earlier than that for the first time. It’s all a blur.
Japanese music, regardless of the style is so neat I really admire the care and effort the artists from that region put into their recordings.
Cool story man he sounds like a genuine, nice person, and that sounds like a fun way to spend a bday. Also, great to hear that the jazz scene is still vibrant in your part of town. Might have to make a visit there sometime that looks like a wonderful place to have a few cocktails and enjoy the vibes.
We used to have a place called JAX in Glendale, CA that my buddy and I used to go to when we were teens. They would usually have a 3-piece band in a dim-lit speakeasy style setup and we’d go have a half rack of awesome ribs, and for desert, since we were broker than each other, we used to fake that it was our bday because they would give us a gigantic 12" tall slice of cake for free.
What are the record prices like for older Japanese jazz albums in your area? I’ve read before that the record printing process was different in Japan, and that the manufacturers used to pour more wax into each record, which is why they’re more sought out/more expensive than the “regular” label pressings elsewhere.
Oh man, it really varies. I have a good friend from Dublin that is a big record collector and I went around record shopping with him a couple of months ago when he was over here. One advantage of shopping in Japan is that the records are often in fantastic shape and you see extremely rare stuff you are unlikely to find elsewhere. For really rare stuff though, I was blown away by how pricey they have gotten since I used to record shop. Some things were like $1200 or $2000. Nuts.
Yeah, super rare stuff, but still
I fucking love jazz. It transports me to different places in a way that other music cannot. It can be a very spiritual experience. Late at night, Miles or Coltrane (or both together), breaking the silence with something that is wonderfully moving and epic. Sitting on a beautiful Fall day, watching the leaves fall to the ground, and hearing Billie Holiday sing “Autumn in New York”. At 3 a.m., putting on a Chet Baker album where he both plays and croons with chill and ease. Bill Evans on a Sunday morning helping me making sense of the world. Hearing Max Roach, Art Blakey, or any of the best drummers to have ever played, driving rhythms that move everything at once.
My favorite jazz album is Miles Davis Live At Newport 1958. The lineup is Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderly, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb. The audio quality isn’t as good as some of Miles other live albums, but, they come out play hard. It has less subtlety, but feels more like a big, punchy, fuck you. And the intro with the radio announcer sets the stage perfectly, because you don’t see it coming.
Picked this one up today. ECM fills many of my shelves. Absolutely connect with that label’s vibe.
Jazz is a huge part of my life. I love it. Spontaneity, human connection, in the moment creativity, powerful musicianship. It basically is all of the elements of what draws me to music all rolled into one.
hell yeah I do!
That raw, gritty poor quality recording gives an admirable character to the songs. There are absolute musical giants playing together like it’s a playground for them, and recording on whatever they could afford at the time. I’m glad that those coked up execs let some of those really wild albums out there for us to enjoy.
Portraits in Jazz was the first album I sampled back when I started 10 yearsish ago. For you lovely people, if you haven’t seen this already. I highly recommend any musician watch this. This video allows everyone to see how talented the dude was just in his improvisational skill, alone. They also play a quick live set with the iconic trio in a small cozy room, it’s great. The only bothersome thing for me about Bill Evans is that I dislike watching the transition into his later stages in his life it’s a really tragic story. But the dude made so much beautiful noise.
edit: the trio doesn’t perform in this vid my bad there is another one floating around on yt though that is both eye/ear candy if you’re into that old stuffs
Of course… you can’t name em all
there’s a lot of jazz i love. honestly would have to get a bit obsessed by it to really track down all the things i’d probably like. whenever i visited san francisco i’d go to Jazz at Pearl’s which was a really amazing jazz bar/restaurant. i sat in that place for hours watching really amazing players do sets all night. traveling players would come through town… out on the road… Pearl’s was kinda a historic spot. i don’t know if it’s still there. it’s in north beach across the street from city lights books. really some of my favorite musical moments outside of electronic music happened in that place. top tier stuff.
there’s several miles davis albums that are part of my usual rotation of listening binges.
panthallassa is bill laswell taking the original recordings from capitol records of the studio sessions that made up in a silent way, on the corner etc… and according to him put it back to represent more accurately what happened in the studio. the mixing is really good… mixed on a neve in his studio. so, w/modern gear the bass… everything is so good.
but of course, in a silent way, bitches brew, on the corner etc is kinda my fav era.
and of course gotta mention…
there’s other jazz i own but the miles stuff gets the most listens. there’s also “free jazz” stuff like Ornette Coleman that is pretty epic but will run you over you’re not careful. it’s a real head space to get into though. at times seems like madness then will make sense and really jam especially rhythmically… but everywhere all at once too.
and there’s a whole worlds of stuff like this which has Lynch vibes.