04-07-2018 9:06 - JAZZ:MiX # 33 jazz tracks on the the JAZZ_line 1986-1974

Joe Zawinul

04-07-2018 9:06 - JAZZ:MiX # 33 jazz tracks on the the JAZZ_line 1986-1974 / 3:47 # Joe Zawinul,  Willem Breuker Kollektief, Mark King, David Friesen, Claus Ogerman / Michael Brecker, James Blood Ulmer, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Gary Burton, Jack DeJohnette New Directions, Keith Jarrett, Zbigniew Seifert, Joe Diorio, Flora Purim

J A Z Z   M U S I C

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1986-1974

An outstanding jazz pianist/keyboardist who worked with artists such as Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davis.  Joe Zawinul belonged in a category unto himself -- a European from the heartland of the classical music tradition (Vienna) who learned to swing as freely as any American jazzer, and whose appetite for growth and change remained insatiable. Zawinul's curiosity and openness to all kinds of sounds made him one of the driving forces behind the electronic jazz-rock revolution of the late '60s and '70s -- and later, he would be almost alone in exploring fusions between jazz-rock and ethnic music from all over the globe. He was one of a bare handful of synthesizer players who actually learned how to play the instrument, to make it an expressive, swinging part of his arsenal. Prior to the invention of the portable synthesizer, Zawinul's example helped bring the Wurlitzer and Fender Rhodes electric pianos into the jazz mainstream. Zawinul also became a significant composer, ranging (like his idol Duke Ellington) from soulful hit tunes to large-scale symphonic jazz canvases. Yet despite his classical background, he preferred to improvise compositions spontaneously onto tape rather than write them out on paper.
Joe Zawinul 
The Harvest (Joe Zawinul) 6:02
Zeebop (Joe Zawinul) 4:52
Carnavalito (Joe Zawinul) 6:19
from  Dialects 1986
If Joe Zawinul was out to prove that he didn't need Weather Report anymore, he succeeded spectacularly in this virtual one-man show. Zawinul recorded many of the vocals (assisted now and then by Bobby McFerrin and a vocal trio) and all of the synthesizer and rhythm machine tracks himself in his Pasadena home studio, yet the results are anything but mechanical. Zawinul in fact achieves a rare thing: He manages to get his stacks of electronics to swing like mad in these pan-global grooves that pick up where WR was about to leave off... This is an important, overlooked album because it proves that electronic instruments can reach your emotions and shake your body when played by someone who has bothered to learn how to master them.

The Willem Breuker Kollektief is a jazz group formed in 1974 by 10 musicians leaded by Dutch bandleader Willem Breuker. The band plays unconventional jazz mixed with different styles, from latin to (contemporary) classical to theater and vaudeville.
Willem Breuker Kollektief
Like Other People Say 1:43
Hap Sap (But Not From Jaffa) 5:59
Driebergen-Zeist 10:00
from To Remain 1985
...There's a sense of wonder combined with the glee of a kid in a candy shop that he exploits with passion and humor, going so far to have composed sections with some band members "misplaying" their parts while others exasperatedly wait for them to get it right...

Virtuoso bass player and singer of English pop band Level 42 known for his bass-slapping technique. 
Mark King
Essential (Mark King) 18:36
I Feel Free (Pete Brown / Jack Bruce) 4:50
from Influences 1984
EXCLUSIVE! Level 42’s Mark King speaks to movingtheriver.com about his classic solo album Influences, released by Polydor in July 1984.

Talented and prolific jazz bassist who has continually experimented yet remained decidedly accessible.  A technically adept, immensely intuitive bassist and pianist, David Friesen is a forward-thinking performer whose albums touch upon spiritually minded contemporary jazz, folk, world traditions, and acoustic post-bop.
David Friesen
Amber Skies 8:16
Voices 7:17
from Amber Skies 1983
One of bassist David Friesen's better jazz sessions as a leader, this set (which has been reissued by other labels on CD) has some excellent playing by tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson on "Amber Skies" and "Underlying," a rare opportunity for flutist Paul Horn to take a solo in a straight-ahead setting ("Blue and Green"), and was the first opportunity that pianist Chick Corea and drummer Paul Motian had to work together; percussionist Airto completes the sextet. The diverse originals, all by Friesen, feature each of the players quite favorably, and the overall results are stimulating.

The prolific arranger and orchestrator, Claus Ogerman moved from Europe to the United States in 1959 and began an association with the Verve label, where his arrangements were featured on albums by Frank Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim (1967's Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim -- the first of two collaborative albums by the pair), Astrud Gilberto, Bill Evans, Wes Montgomery, Stan Getz, Cal Tjader, and other leading artists
Claus Ogerman / Michael Brecker
A remarkable technician and a highly influential tenor saxophonist (the biggest influence on other tenors since Wayne Shorter), Michael Brecker took a long time before getting around to recording his first solo album. He spent much of his career as a top-notch studio player who often appeared backing pop singers, leading some jazz listeners to overlook his very strong improvising skills.
Cityscape (Claus Ogerman) 8:46
Nightwings (Claus Ogerman) 7:45
from Cityscape 1982
...This 1982 collaboration with the late jazz saxophonist Michael Brecker is one of his most successful works, not least because the overlap between the extended harmonies of jazz and the chromaticism of the late German Romantic polyphony in which Ogerman was trained is large enough to allow Brecker to operate comfortably -- his improvisations seem to grow naturally out of the background, and the intersections between jazz band and orchestral strings come more easily here than on almost any other crossover between jazz and classical music. The mood is nocturnal and reflective. Brecker at this point had not yet made an album as a bandleader; he was primarily known to those who closely followed jazz and R&B session musicians. The album was originally billed as a release by Claus Ogerman with Michael Brecker. Yet notice how skillfully Ogerman eases the fearsomely talented young saxophonist into the spotlight....

Free jazz has not produced many notable guitarists. Experimental musicians drawn to the guitar have had few jazz role models; consequently, they've typically looked to rock-based players for inspiration. James "Blood" Ulmer is one of the few exceptions -- an outside guitarist who has forged a style based largely on the traditions of African-American vernacular music. Ulmer is an adherent of saxophonist/composer Ornette Coleman's vaguely defined Harmolodic theory, which essentially subverts jazz's harmonic component in favor of freely improvised, non-tonal, or quasi-modal counterpoint...
James Blood Ulmer
Timeless (James Blood Ulmer) 4:22
Night Lover (James Blood Ulmer) 5:23
Free Lancing (James Blood Ulmer) 4:38
from Free Lancing 1981
After cultivating a huge underground reputation both as a sideman in Ornette Coleman's Prime Time band and as an increasingly influential musician among the more experimental edges of the New York City punk and noise scenes, James Blood Ulmer was finally, in 1981, given a major-label contract by Columbia. Free Lancing was the first of three albums for the label before he, like many before and after, was unceremoniously dropped... But it's Ulmer's stinging guitar lines -- rough-hewn, corrosive, and scrabbling -- throughout this recording that make it one of his finest.

Inventive, intelligent, and talented pianist/keyboardist whose distinguished career has covered modern jazz, fusion, hip-hop, and dance.  Herbie Hancock will always be one of the most revered and controversial figures in jazz -- just as his employer/mentor Miles Davis was when he was alive. Unlike Miles, who pressed ahead relentlessly and never looked back until near the very end, Hancock has cut a zigzagging forward path, shuttling between almost every development in electronic and acoustic jazz and R&B over the last third of the 20th century and into the 21st
Herbie Hancock
Spiraling Prism (Herbie Hancock) 6:25
Shiftless Shuffle (Herbie Hancock / Paul Jackson / Bennie Maupin / Harvey Mason, Sr. / Bill Summers) 7:07
from Mr. Hands 1980
Herbie Hancock's lackluster string of electric albums around this period was enhanced by this one shining exception: an incorrigibly eclectic record that flits freely all over the spectrum. Using several different rhythm sections, Herbie Hancock is much more the imaginative hands-on player than at any time since the prime Headhunters period, overdubbing lots of parts from his ever-growing collection of keyboards...

Chick Corea has been one of the most significant jazzmen since the '60s. Not content at any time to rest on his laurels, he has been involved in quite a few important musical projects, and his musical curiosity has never dimmed. A masterful pianist who, along with Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett, was one of the top stylists to emerge after Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner, Corea is also one of the few electric keyboardists to be quite individual and recognizable on synthesizers...
One of the two great vibraphonists to emerge in the 1960s (along with Bobby Hutcherson), Gary Burton's remarkable four-mallet technique can make him sound like two or three players at once.
Chick Corea and Gary Burton
Señor Mouse (Chick Corea) 10:17
Crystal Silence (Chick Corea / Neville Potter) 12:09
from In Concert: Zürich, October 28, 1979 (1980)
During Chick Corea's freelance period after Return to Forever broke up and before he formed his Elektric Band, the pianist collaborated with many of his favorite musicians. This two-LP set contains eight duets with vibraphonist Gary Burton (highlighted by "Senor Mouse," "Bud Powell" and a remake of "Crystal Silence") along with one solo performance apiece by the two masterful musicians. The music is often introspective, but there are some exciting moments.

Premier percussionist and drummer often considered the finest modern jazz drummer of the '70s after Elvin Jones and Tony Williams.  At his best, Jack DeJohnette is one of the most consistently inventive jazz percussionists extant. His style is wide-ranging, and while capable of playing convincingly in any modern idiom, he always maintains a well-defined voice. DeJohnette has a remarkably fluid relationship to pulse. His timing is excellent; even as he pushes, pulls, and generally obscures the beat beyond recognition, a powerful sense of swing is ever-present. His tonal palette is huge as well: No drummer pays closer attention to the sounds that come out of his kit than DeJohnette. He possesses a comprehensive musicality rare among jazz drummers.
Jack DeJohnette
feat: John Abercrombie / Lester Bowie / Eddie Gomez
Bayou Fever (Jack DeJohnette) 8:40
Dream Stalker (John Abercrombie / Lester Bowie / Jack DeJohnette / Eddie Gomez) 5:55
from New Directions 1978
This album was indeed a new direction for drummer Jack DeJohnette, by then an ECM mainstay who with this effort flirted with the free-flowing atmospheres then characteristic of the label’s popular European projects. John Abercrombie—another household name whose amplified strings do wonders for DeJohnette’s impulses—forms, along with Chick Corea veteran Eddie Gomez on bass, a triangular foundation upon which trumpeter Lester Bowie—the album’s shining star—builds his towering sentimentalism...  A spacious inner current, heir apparent to a straightforward jazz with no strings attached, feeds into every moment of New Directions. The performances are attentively recorded with a present, live feel that gives the drums all the room they need, and us all the sonic candy we crave.

Keyboard player who became one of the most extraordinary solo improvisers in jazz, with considerable mainstream success and a wide range of styles.  Pianist, composer, and bandleader Keith Jarrett is one of the most prolific, innovative, and iconoclastic musicians to emerge from the late 20th century. As a pianist (though that is by no means the only instrument he plays), he literally changed the conversation in jazz by introducing an entirely new aesthetic regarding solo improvisation in concert. Though capable of playing in a wide variety of styles, Jarrett is deeply grounded in the jazz tradition. He has recorded over 80 albums as a leader in jazz and classical music. And he has won the Down Beat Critics Poll as a pianist numerous times, including consecutively between 2001 and 2008.
Keith Jarrett
Questar (Keith Jarrett) 9:10
Tabarka (Keith Jarrett) 9:11
Mandala (Keith Jarrett) 8:17
from My Song  Rec. November, 1977 (1978)
In addition to his solo piano concerts and the American group he led that featured tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman, Keith Jarrett was also busy in the mid-'70s with his European band, a quartet comprised of Jan Garbarek on tenor and soprano, bassist Palle Danielsson, and drummer Jon Christensen. Due to the popularity of the haunting "My Song," this album is the best known of the Jarrett-Garbarek collaborations and it actually is their most rewarding meeting on record. Jarrett contributed all six compositions and the results are relaxed and introspective yet full of inner tension.

A masterful improviser who could have ranked at the top with Adam Makowicz and Michal Urbaniak, Zbigniew Seifert's early death robbed Poland of one of its top jazz artists. Seifert started on the violin when he was six, and ten years later started doubling on alto sax...
Zbigniew Seifert
City of Spring (Zbigniew Seifert) 6:33
Man of the Light 9:43
Stillness (Cecil McBee / Zbigniew Seifert) 4:56
from Man of the Light 1976
...Seifert wastes no time combining Coltrane's "sheets of sound" with a folkloric melodism rooted in Polish traditionalism on the fiery "City of Spring." German pianist Joachim Kuhn plays with the intensity and modal vernacular of Coltrane's pianist, McCoy Tyner, but evokes a more personal sound through his unmistakable European classicism and near-reckless abandon. Bassist Cecil McBee and drummer Billy Hart play with equal exuberance on this breathtakingly up-tempo opener that sets the bar high for the rest of the set, while Seifert delivers a solo of cathartic virtuosity. The title track, based around a visceral, mid-tempo 5/4 ostinato, is just as thrilling, with Kühn and Seifert contributing solos as captivating and relevant today as when they were first recorded in 1976.
Seifert also proves capable of compositional depth and passionately beautiful calm. "Stillness"—a duet with McBee, but featuring Seifert's overdubbed violins as a mini-string orchestra—is, indeed, based on relative stasis and a spare set of changes, with McBee's robust-toned solo of equal lyrical mettle to his ever-ardent leader...

Technical virtuosity and imaginative improvisation made Joe Diorio (born: Joseph Louis Diorio) one of the busiest jazz session guitarists of the '60s and '70s. Reviewing a mid-'60s performance, influential jazz critic Leonard Feather wrote that Diorio was "one of the most mature and uncompromising (new) plectrists to work the room since Joe Pass."
Joe Diorio
Windows (Chick Corea) 5:30
Poem (Joe Diorio) 2:31
from Solo Guitar 1975
Solo Guitar was the debut recording by virtuoso guitarist Joe Diorio, a fine musician who has spent a good part of his career in jazz education, so his recordings haven't always received the attention they merited...

Influenced by both traditional Brazilian singers and the improvisations of American jazz divas like Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, Flora Purim was one of the most adventurous singers of the 1970s...
Flora Purim
Stories to Tell (Flora Purim / Miroslav Vitous) 3:41
Casa Forte (Edú Lobo) 3:53
Mountain Train (Ernie Hood / Flora Purim) 3:14
Silver Sword (Miroslav Vitous) 5:40
from Stories to Tell 1974
Though her recordings for Chick Corea's Return to Forever provide a better introduction to her vocal talents, Stories to Tell is an excellent outing by Flora Purim and friends. Assisted by a cast of jazz/fusion all-stars led by husband Airto Moreira, Purim shows off the wide range of her abilities: from wordless vocal soaring to songs with lyrics in English and Portuguese, from uptempo percussion-driven workouts to beautiful ballads. In addition to Airto, the assembled cast includes bassists Miroslav Vitous and Ron Carter, keyboard wunderkind George Duke, guitarists Earl Klugh and Oscar Castro-Neves, and trombonist Raul de Souza. Also, Carlos Santana turns in one of his patented sizzling guitar solos on "Silver Sword." With material from Antonio Carlos Jobim, Vitous, Milton Nascimento, McCoy Tyner, and Purim herself, this is an album worth savoring.