In the spirit of a similar questionnaire over at Do The Math, I sent a bunch of questions out to some Australian jazz musicians. I'll be updating this post as more get sent back to me, but in the meantime, we have Paul Grabowsky, Tim Stevens and Barney McAll.
The idea with these is for people to get a bit of an insight into what these great musicians are into, and also to (hopefully) get some recommendations for new things to check out.
Paul Grabowsky: check him out
1. Favorite/particularly interesting jazz album?
Miles Davis 'My Funny Valentine' Ornette Coleman 'In All Languages"
2. Favorite/particularly interesting 'world' recording?
Young Wagiluk Group (S.E. Arnhem Land), Karaikudi R Mani "Sruthi Laya"
3. Favorite/particularly interesting classical recording/piece?
Beethoven String Quartet Amin op 132
4. Name a Jazz recording you're mad about but not many other people would know.
Andrew Hill 'Smokestack' Sun Ra "Space is the Place"
5. Name a (genre other than jazz or jazz) record you're mad about but no one would've thought you'd be into.
Esquivel "Space Age Bachelor Pad Music"
Beatles "Abbey Road"
6. Give me 3 of your favorite Australian Jazz recordings.
Aaron Choulai 'Korema'
The Necks 'Sex'
Mark Simmonds 'Fire'
7. Most underrated Australian Jazz player?
Ian Chaplin
8. Most underrated non-Australian Jazz player?
Warne Marsh
9. Name a gig (or two or three) you saw in Australia that really stays with you....
Steve Magnusson Trio Bennetts Lane 2007
Phil Treloar Feeling/Thought Sydney Conservatorium 1988
The Necks Corner Hotel 2008
10. Favorite book(s) on music?
Schoenberg Style and Idea
Slonimsky Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns
Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians
Tim Stevens: check him out
1. Favorite/particularly interesting jazz album?
Miles Davis: Filles de Kilimanjaro
2. Favorite/particularly interesting 'world' recording?
The Necks: Mosquito
3. Favorite/particularly interesting classical recording/piece?
Bartok: String quartet no. 3
4. Name a Jazz recording you're mad about but not many other people
would know.
'Gone with the wind' featuring Art Tatum and Ben Webster
or 'One' by Andrea Keller (on 'Angels and rascals')
5. Name a (genre other than jazz or jazz) record you're mad about
but no one would've thought you'd be into.
The Go-Betweens: Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express
6. Give me 3 of your favorite Australian Jazz recordings.
Browne/Costello/Grabowsky: Six by three
Hustas/Keller: Icedreaming
John Sangster: The joker is wild
7. Most underrated Australian Jazz player?
Graeme Lyall
8. Most underrated non-Australian Jazz player?
John Taylor
9. Name a gig (or two or three) you saw in Australia that really
stays with you....
Paul Grabowsky, Gary Costello and Allan Browne at Mietta's, early-mid 1990
Tony Gould, Lach Easton and Steve Heather, Palace Hotel East Hawthorn,
c.1992
Kenny Kirkland, Adam Armstrong and Andrew Gander, Wangaratta 1996
Joshua Redman trio, Melbourne Recital Centre, April 2009
10. Favorite book(s) on music?
Scott DeVeaux: The birth of bebop
Igor Stravinsky: The poetics of music
Leo Treitler: Music and the historical imagination
Barney McAll: check him out
1. Favorite/particularly interesting jazz album?
The Survivors Suite - Keef Jarrett.
This is a complete picture where you have to listen to the whole.
Dewey Redman is completely masterful here as are all these icons.
2. Favorite/particularly interesting 'world' recording?
Djelika by Toumani Diabate
3. Favorite/particularly interesting classical recording/piece?
Morton Feldman Piano and String Quartet - Aki Takahashi and Kronos Quartet
4. Name a Jazz recording you're mad about but not many other people would know.
Victor Feldman "The Artful Dodger"
5. Name a (genre other than jazz or jazz) record you're mad about but no one would've thought you'd be into.
Eyeless in Gaza "Pale Hands i Loved So Well".
Had a huge Influence on me .
6. Give me 3 of your favorite Australian Jazz recordings.
John McAll "Black Money"
Chris Abrahams "Walk"
Andrea Keller "Angels and Rascals"
7. Most underrated Australian Jazz player?
Adam Ponting
8. Most underrated non-Australian Jazz player?
Masabumi Kikuchi
9. Name a gig (or two or three) you saw in Australia that really stays with you....
"Transwaste" at the Middle Park Hotel. This was Peter Jones, Jamie Fielding, Michael Sheridan (forget who played bass).
Industrial and very free music which, having caught the train in from Mooroolbark at 16 years old...changed my very DNA.
Paul Grabowsky at RMIT Glasshouse. Solo piano Concert. Especially remember a song he played for his Rabbit. Paul brought fire from another tribe.
Jamie Fielding at RMIT Glasshouse with Martin Jackson's band. It was like watching/hearing a magician or sorcerer. Jamie was on the precipice of discarding "Jazz" so
I got to witness a ghost music and a future music in teh same performance.
Meeting Jamie that day also stays with me and I was changed by that.
10. Favorite book(s) on music?
But Beautiful by Geoff Dyer
Ethics, Etiquette and our Jazz Society by Scott Tinkler
(Forward by Michel Tortoni)
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Friday, May 1, 2009
Geri Allen/Paul Motion/Charlie Haden
Recently I discovered this trio's album, "Segments". Having already listened to "Etudes" and "In the Year of the Dragon", I'm already reasonable familiar with all of this trio's approach to music making, but, listening to this record, it struck me how this group often doesn't get to respect it deserves for an approach to playing 'songs' of various kinds in a creative way.
If you are a drummer, bass or piano player and don't own any of these records you have a massive hole in your library that needs filling (don't we all). If you play any other horn, then you should check this stuff out anyway.
The thing I really love about all of these guys playing is that they are all more concerned with line, rather than with clearly outlining harmony and form (or so it sounds to me). This gives the music amazing forward motion. Anybody who knows anything about these players knows they are masters of the aforementioned, but they never let it get in the way of great ensemble playing, in fact they are using their command of form and harmony to move past any dependence on it.
The more I think about that last point, the more I really think it sums up why I like this trio so much, and how I want t0 approach playing jazz repertoire (I mean that in the broadest sense). I was going to go into a whole lot of stuff about influences, particularly of Geri Allen's, and why I don't think that many people studying jazz have this down as essential listening, but it doesn't really seem that necessary now.....enjoy.
If you are a drummer, bass or piano player and don't own any of these records you have a massive hole in your library that needs filling (don't we all). If you play any other horn, then you should check this stuff out anyway.
The thing I really love about all of these guys playing is that they are all more concerned with line, rather than with clearly outlining harmony and form (or so it sounds to me). This gives the music amazing forward motion. Anybody who knows anything about these players knows they are masters of the aforementioned, but they never let it get in the way of great ensemble playing, in fact they are using their command of form and harmony to move past any dependence on it.
The more I think about that last point, the more I really think it sums up why I like this trio so much, and how I want t0 approach playing jazz repertoire (I mean that in the broadest sense). I was going to go into a whole lot of stuff about influences, particularly of Geri Allen's, and why I don't think that many people studying jazz have this down as essential listening, but it doesn't really seem that necessary now.....enjoy.
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