CRAZY ATES: 8 GREAT AVANT-GARDE ALBUMS

I love the avant garde period in jazz like none other. This is a branch of the music I admire, explore and study non-stop. There's just something so mezmorizing so many artists created or attempted to create in this music that I love so much. Here are 8 great classic albums that need mention. Of course I intentionally left out Miles, Trane and Ornette. They deserve lists all of themselves...here's to some lesser known or maybe more overlooked artists.

1.Albert Ayler: The Complete Impulse! Recordings of Live in Greenwich Village
Of course most avant gardist wouldn't have been who they were without the gospel according to Albert. His playing is the extreme, the out, the beautiful and the complete horrendous. Most people found and still find Ayler's playing hard to listen to. In fact I forced a class of unruly 8th graders listening to just one of these tracks for punishment on accounts of bad behavior. His playing is like hearing someone crying out in the middle of turmoil, which is probably why he was so active during the civil rights movement. His tunes could remind you of marching bands and classical ensembles all at the same time. Who knows what he would have accomplished if he had not died so young and mysteriously (his body would be found floating in the East River in 1970


2.Bobby Hutcherson: Dialogue
A great line up and great cover art. Dialogue was Bobby Hutch's way of saying that he was the official voice of avant garde jazz on the vibraphone. This album contains a who's who of top notch players including Sam Rivers, Freddie Hubbard and Andrew Hill. All the tracks are thrilling and of course ever searching, especially the title track Dialouge which is a true and literal piece. Check out Sam River's bass clarinet playing, too bad you don't hear much of it during this time period.


3. Andrew Hill: Compulsion
Along the same concept as Dialogue but with a personality of its own. Joined by John Gilmore (another great reed man, just check out His bass clarinet playing!) Freddie again and 2 african percussionists this album will have you listening over and over again. With only just 4 tracks each one pulls you in its groove. The addition of thumb piano, congas and other African drums to a standard jazz quintet will have your cerubelum freaking out.


4.Eddie Henderson: Inside Out
I know this is bias but I couldn't leave my man Eddie out. This recording is an extentsion of the Mwandishi band that he was in but not led by Herbie Hancock but Eddie himself. The tunes are all groove oriented, sparse in melody but extravagent in space, texture and vibe. Even the ARP Synthesizer sounds amazing 30 years later. Eddie's playing is reaching and full of great ideas.


5.Grachan Moncur III: Evolution
What do you get when you mix funky bluesman Lee Morgan with Bobby Hutcherson, Moncur and Jackie McLean? An album of surprisingly amazing music. Personally one of my favorite albums, Grachan doesn't get the props owed as the leading voice in avant garde trombone playing. His tunes are unique and original. Even Lee Morgan who was just getting back into the music scene after taking time off to kick drugs is searching and you wouldn't believe how at home he seems in this context, too bad he was never featured on more albums like these but with his Sidewinder album taking the jazz scene by storm months later its no wonder this little jewel in his work is overlooked.


6.Herbie Hancock: Empyrean Isles
Now argue with me or not this album is the quintessential 60's jazz album. It has a complex bop tune, a modal tune, a funk tune and a complete avant garde album known simply as "The Egg." Maybe the title was given to this song because once you crack it open and give it a listen you hear the wonder of Herbie's searching scheme. All players in this band are top notch and breath-taking. This album is one of my favorites I always come back to with a smile.


7.Booker Little: Out Front
What I love about avant garde albums is that they always have a play on words with "out" involved. Booker was too young when he left us, but he did leave a strong discography behind in his short 23 years of life. A classically trained trumpeter who is the missing link between Freddie Hubbard and Clifford Brown. When ever you listen to early Freddie on the album "Ole'" by Trane you can hear Little in his playing. Had he not died he would have been on so many more recordings. Out Front is a great album. Check out "Moods in Free Time" and then check out Dave Douglas' version and you will see that the things Booker did are so perfect.


8.Eric Dolphy: Out To Lunch
Probably the most cliche' album of this kind to put on here but it just needs a salute. The first time I heard "Hat and Beard" I thought my head was going to implode a la Scanners style. This album is the Sangreal of avant garde albums. H & B was also used in an insurance commercial I believe years back. Dolphy's playing is simply Dolphy: original and matched up with Hubbard is rewarding. I wonder what it would have been with Booker Little in the band. If you get any album of the avant garde, make it this one.

It took me 9 months to figure out the lead singer of the Mars Volta was a dood

Yes you read that title correctly.

It was nearly a year before I was able to figure out that the vocal abilities of Cedric Bixler-Zavala were so....so....on the scale of Mariah Carey.
Don't get me wrong folks I, like so many of you out there, am a closet fan of the Volta but come on it was hard to tell on their first album who that was leading on vocals if you weren't a pop punk/screamo fan of the early O's.
I was introduced to the band by a soon to be unmasked psychotic ex-gf but lets just say that the only good thing she managed to pull off from her very limited pot-destroyed-pea brain, was to play me De-Loused in the Comatorium.
I always felt the Volta were better at naming their albums than most progressive bands. I mean "Train of Thought"? what's next Artic Conundrum?? (thanks shane peters)
I really enjoyed Comatorium, it was unlike anything I had heard before. For me, it was a perfect blend of prog-punk-spacy-avant-garde-craziness that I had very little of in my CD collection back then. (at that time i was listening to mainly SKA...but don't tell anyone)
Their sophomore album, Francis the Mute was one of the most anticipated releases I ever encountered. A small band of college music geeks and myself talked about this album for months and could not stop talking about it after we had heard it. To this day it is one of my all time favorite albums. Once I heard the horns I knew this CD would always have a special place in my heart.
I enjoyed how this album seemed to be much more refined than the first and that the Volta were going in a direction I could really dig. I loved the blend of Spanish and English lyrics, the intensity of the opening track and the mellowness of the 3rd track L' Via l'Viaquez.
Then came 2006. After a mediocre-at-best live release, came the band's 3rd album: Amputechture.
What a disappointment. This album felt like a bunch of B side tunes all in 3/4 or some variation there of and put on the same piece of plastic and packaged as a Volta album. I tried over and over again to dig this album but it just sucked to me. All of the transitions felt choppy, if anything, it was a step backwards. This album should have been a demo to the first release. It probably either was that or the result of a pushy record company. Despite the 4 star rating from allmusic.com, I would have to give this album 2 breadsticks and that is generous.
To anyone who may disagree, I will say I plan on spending some time with all Volta CDs shortly, maybe I am wrong but as of right now: No, no I am not.
Then came the band's redemption: The Bedlam in Goliath. Now a lot of Volta fans gave up on them by the time of this 2008 release but I hadn't. They proved to me that they could make excellent music and one (and one live release) release that didn't live up two its predecessors could be forgiven. I enjoyed the band's 4th studio album. I thought it showed signs of healing, re-tweaking and getting back on course. I loved the effects of the radio static, it gets me everytime. This album gave me hope that there was still hope.
We will see if that hope delivers on June 23rd 2009 when Octahedron the band's 5th studio album is released. I have to say I am quite excited for this CD and hope that perhaps we may have another Francis the Mute on our hands.


Only a schizophrenic drug induced coma of progressive noise rock with effects on the vocals could give us any indication.

De-Loused in the Comatorium 5 breadsticks
Francis the Mute 5 breadsticks
Amputechture 2 breadsticks
The Bedlam in Goliath 4 breadsticks

Wow

So a blog I started following (http://elasticrock.blogspot.com/) has tons of bootleg recordings of the Mwandishi band led by Herbie Hancock in the early 1970's. Now anyone who knows me well knows how much I love this group. I became obsessed with them when I first heard their first self titled album. Once again, I first heard their 3rd release, Sextant and had no clue what I was hearing, so immediately I went back in their discography and listened to their first work and loved it. I even played the first track, Ostinato on my senior recital in college (unfortunetly i was unable to get as many vintage keyboard sounds as i wanted).
What makes this band stand out for me, is its searching, jam filled vibe. Listening to this band is like watching a transformer in slow motion. Every little change has so much meaning for the whole.
Mwandishi comprises a 6 piece band that features Hancock on various keyboards, Buster Williams on acoustic and electric bass, Billy Hart on drums with one of my compositional heroes, Bennie Maupin on reeds, Julian Priester, alto and tenor trombone, and my hero and mentor, Dr. Eddie Henderson on trumpet and flugelhorn with a guest appearence by Dr. Patrick Gleason on Moog and ARP synthesizers.
This band was the Mars Volta of their time. What they did in the jazz world was incredible. A unit that stretched every boundry and form.
They even play one of my favorite Hancock compositions, Toys which I recent put in my band's live book, and of course Ostinato which I only have heard on their studio release.

Also these past two weeks I bought alot of new albums including MMW's newest Radiolarians II and so reviews are heading the breadstick way.

First in a while

So this past week I did some thinking and would really like to add a section of the blog to the idea of a series of "best of's." I am a big fan of www.jazz.com's dozens column that focuses on the dozen whatever is the subject. In my great moment of being the sage that I am I decided on the "Crazy Ates"....i mean come on it goes well with the whole breadstick thing...get it? Ates, like 8 but a play on words for eating, as in eating breadsticks..eh, eh?? forget about it.
So you may hate the title but live with it. I decided that the first incarnation of the 8's would be a list of my favorite or in this case what I feel is the top 8 best trumpet solos performed by Miles Davis.
From his late 50's style which became much more energetic when he decided to form a sextet with cannonball, bill evans, trane, jimmy cobb, and paul chambers to his classic, searching, freer second great quintet of the 60's this was a time where 99% of the material coming out of Miles' horn was brilliant.


1. Straight, No Chaser from the album '58 Sessions:
This solo is a bridge. When I hear the opening lick Miles plays, I hear that the birth of cool days are past and the experimenting is on the horizon. Now this was a crucial year for Miles, in just months he would record his landmark album Kind of Blue, that is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Thats what most people think when they think about Miles's sextet but I like to think of this album as the tour for the album Milestones which would be recording afterwards in the same year. Milestones stands as a corner stone in modern jazz, an album comprised of great tunes and amazing playing from all 6 members.
I love that this has his very much used lick around this time period where he would smear a series of notes and then play short punching quarter notes (check out 1:20 for a great example)
Miles playing on this blues in F from the Newport Jazz Festival again is just captivating. Its brisk and mellow at once. It shows Miles' influence from Fats Navarro and Dizzy Gillespie but has that plays in the middle register, always cool and collected style that made Miles who he was, especially in the 1950's. This style is still emulated today, even by yours truly. A great piece of music.


2.Miles from the album Milestones:
Like I was saying, Milestones is one of my favorite albums. Its never end swing feel and its fiery approach is so mind boggling. Miles' solo on this modal track is one of the first solos I transcribed in college(of course after all the ones from Kind of Blue that all jazz musicians are expected to learn in order of paying some sort of dues to the jazz gods.)
This solo is mellow and well thought out. Its based on a series of motives or ideas that Miles expands upon throughout the solo. A great solo to hear for a young trumpet trying to get his feet wet!
I find myself relearning this solo every time I listen to it. The feel of rhythm section on this tune is outstanding. Especially the bridge where instead of a straight walking feel Paul Chambers creates an ostinato that grooves so hard.

3.Orbits from the album Miles Smiles:
It was very hard picking this track out of not only the 1960's Miles book but this track alone from its fellow tracks on this album. Miles immediately picks up energy and dexterity in this solo right after a brilliant melody by Wayne Shorter. As avant garde as this solo gets, it grooves so hard. Towards the end of Miles' solo he finishes on a motif that is the last few bars of the actual melody. I find myself humming it throughout the whole tune. This track is the opening tune to the album and I get so excited every time knowing, that so much good music is yet to be heard in the preceding tracks, Its almost as if this was Miles' way of introducing a whole piece of music that would just blow you away.
Miles was just getting over poor health and getting into the jist of his new and adventurous band and this solo is like a big "whose my bitch" punch to the nuts to the jazz world, reminding us that Miles was still the coolest mofo in jazz.

4. All Blues from the album Kind of Blue:
Of course you can not have a best of list without mentioning Kind of Blue. In true words, I actually hate talking about Miles in a formal fashion because you always have to mention this album. Don't get me wrong: it IS a masterpiece, but because I had to spend years transcribing it, analyzing it, and reading about it I ended up getting to a point where I didn't want to listen to this CD. I couldn't think of KOB as an album but this item that stood all by itself and needed to be listened to only in certain circumstances, wearing a radiation suit and having a Bible present. It took me from about 2006 to maybe about 3 months ago before I was able to sit with clearer ears and listen to this record. I remembered how much I love All Blues, what an incredible tune. It grooves with this mesmorizing vamp underneath a blues form. Miles's solo starts with a motif which is "sssoooo Miles" and it works. He bases this motif on three notes and he develops it, constantly playing these same three notes in different variations and I just love it. I find myself taking the same approach everytime I perform this tune. Miles was once again saying enough.

5. Agitation from the album E.S.P.:
This was the 3rd album I bought under Miles Davis' name back in high school. I remember getting it at the Virgin Megastore on a trip to NYC and listened to it on the train ride home. When I got to Agitation, I was so confused. It wasn't anything I had heard before. Of course though I was only 17 and had no idea what hell I was listening to....not the best album to start of on.
Miles comes in after a very well played solo by Tony Williams and just when you don't think about it, Miles creeps in on Harmon mute with that decending line that was to become the only part of the melody. After every other performance that would be the only reconizeable line in the whole tune. Its a free formed jazz odessy and it changes so much. After a medium opening, it begins to pick up the pace, only to come back to a slower medium tempo. Its a vehicle to play over and its amazing. Its surprising on an open form you actually hear Herbie comping behind Miles in a more open and loose vibe. Its more of a cause and effect that happens between the trumpet and piano. At one point Miles is just playing long flowing lines and Herbie just plays two chromatics behind me....gets me everytime!!
I love that every other performance of this tune is taking at break neck speed and sounds fresh even today but nothing compares to this.

6. Riot from the album Nefertiti:
OK so I have a little back history with this album. I bought this cd senior year from Phil, who looking back on this I think because even it confused and terrified him everytime he listened to it. Now this album is def not the first Miles album you listen to. For a pair of uneducated and immature ears this album freaked me out. I didn't know what I was listening to, and trying to play it cool when I got to college like it actually made sense to me. Its a chromatic/free orgy. Most tracks either have no piano behind the solos or don't follow the chord changes and to a 18 idiot, you don't pick up on that.
Needless to say, it was my favorite, because it bothered me so much. The track to stand out was Riot, a piece by Herbie, actually the shortest on the album. I love the melody and changing meter. Miles' solo is sleak, paced and hipnotic. It was the first point where I knew I wanted to sound exactly like Miles. The harmony behind him from Herbie Hancock is modal, only based on two scales and the bass and drums sound like an atmosphere for Miles to work off of and through.
Like I said this track is quick, Miles' solo is only about a minute long, but its art. I love when I realize its been a while since I last heard it and get to hear it almost for the first time again.

7. Flamenco Sketches from the album Kind of Blue:
This is by far the best song on this album. The best part is there's two versions so when you listen to it you get it twice. Miles's playing is so beautiful, exposed and thrilling. Everytime I hear this tune I get chills. Its wonderful and thats all that needs to be said. Listen to it for yourself if you need any more details.

8. So What from the album Live in Tokyo:
Best Performance of this tune ever. Miles is on fire and Tony Williams is right there with him. This solo represents that "out with the old, in with the new"playing you hear in the early 60's from Miles. You hear his classic sounds and licks but with a more pushing, reaching vibe. I can't get enough of the all out fury from him with Tony behind him. They play off each other in incredible form and to top it off at a blazing tempo. Of course we get the added bonus of the only time Sam Rivers recorded with the band. Sam is one of my favorite tenorman and what a treat hearing him in this context. Happy Happy Joy Joy

CD Review

Jackie McLean
"One Step Beyond"
Blue Note Records April 30, 1963
re-issued 2009


Recently I picked up a few blue note reissues. One being the album named above. I once heard this disc before when I picked up "One Step's" follow up, Destination Out and didn't really pay any attention to it and come to think of it, I don't know why.
Anyway this album is during that fruitful era in the early to mid 60's where Jackie McLean was releasing alot of great material with various line ups that are all classics. At this time, Jackie mentioned he was looking for a new sound. He was heavily influenced by Ornette Coleman around this time and would even get lessons with the Godfather of the Jazz Avant-garde, also having Ornette play trumpet on an album during this era.
Jackie assembled a band of Blue Note alums including: Bobby Hutcherson on vibes, Grachan Moncur III on trombone, Eddie Kahn bass, and Tony Williams on drums who would be joining Miles Davis 2 weeks from the this recording session.
The album begins with the medium-up tempoed Saturday and Sunday which has a solo section much similiar to the tune "So What." Its a nice touch of the early 60's sound of breaking away from traditional chord changes and into freer soloing.
The two Moncur originals, Frankenstein and Ghosttown are the highlights of the album. Frankenstein is a medium waltz and has an enjoyable melody. Grachan's soloing and writing are really highlighted in this tune. Its definitely one I plan to transcribe and learn myself. The other tune, Ghosttown reminds me of the tracks from Moncur's album, Evolution. Its an open and spacey tune that invites searching and development from all members of the band. Tony Williams is only 17 or so when this is recorded and his playing blows you away. Listen to the fills he puts in between the melody in the beginning of the tune. Bobby Hutch once again does an incredible job in the harmony and supportive departments.
I like this album because its during one of my favorite periods in jazz, where the music was starting to really search. I love this line up, its pretty much just missing Lee Morgan and it would be the Evolution album band all over again.
Either way this album is not essential unless you are a fan of Jackie McLean, this band's other output or just jazz in general.
4.5 breadsticks

Hi

Check out my newest demo recordings. Hopefully a full length album is in the works for the summer
love Nick

www.myspace.com/nickdimaria

Bandwagon here I go,,

So my list is like Jamie's; more a 25 albums I obsessively listened to this past year.
25.Strung up-String Fingers
24.The Musing of Miles-Miles Davis
23.Quintet-Hank Mobley
22.Early Reflections-Bennie Maupin
21.Zaebos-Medeski, Martin & Wood
20.Kneebody-Kneebody
19. Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Splium Endalaust-Sigur Ros
18.Persistence-Joe Magnarelli
17.Pass It On-Dave Holland
16.Iron Man-Jim Rotondi
15.Dance Like There's No Tomorrow-John Ellis & Doublewide
14.Raw Power-The Stooges
13.Radiolarians-Medeski, Martin & Wood
12.Somewhere in the Between-Streetlight Manifesto
11.McCoy Tyner Quartet-McCoy Tyner
10.Vampire Weekend-Vampire Weekend
9. Dave Douglas & Keystone Live at the Jazz Standard-Dave Douglas & Keystone
8.Chulahoma-Black Keys
7.Song of Songs-Woody Shaw
6.Dear Science-T.V. on the Radio
5.November-Jeremy Pelt
4.Self-Medicated-The Slackers
3.Stay Positive-Hold Steady
2.Attack & Release Black Keys
1. Evolution-Grachan Moncur III