Evening of Jazz

A different kind of Jazz playlist. Not a lot of household names here. No jazz standards here. That doesn't mean it can't be enjoyable. Maybe at this point in my development, even preferable .....

• Signal Quartet - Endless Runner
• Naomi Moon Siegel - Electric Flower
• Isotope 217 - Kryptonite Smokes the Red Line
• Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble - Maxville to Vanport
• The Bureau of Fiction - Remember the Maine
• Fire Orchestra - I See Your Eye (Part One)
• Chris Lee - Green In Grey
• Eric Nachtrab - St. John's Bridge
• Colin Vallon - Brin
• Chicago Underground Quartet - Strange Wing

Dusty Shoebox Playlist

Going through old shoeboxes tucked away in the furthest corner regions of my closet ..... shoeboxes full of cassette tapes, both commercially made tapes and assorted mixtapes from years long past. If the mixtapes were once made with a specific person in mind, the recipient and intention has been forgotten.   

There was a time when these received frequent listens around my place. Though it's been a while for most. It's enjoyable getting reacquainted.

• Counting Crows - A Long December
• Toad the Wet Sprocket - Crazy Life
• Duncan Shiek - Barely Breathing
• Indigo Girls - Power of Two
• Warren Zevon - Sentimental Hygiene ..... I can't imagine a radio station DJ following 'Power of Two' with this, unless it was me.
• Tom Waits - Better Off Without a Wife .... My college roommates introduced me to this in 1978. (I can't mention 'college' without saying: Go Beavs!! (Oregon State University)
• Duncan Shiek - Wishful Thinking .... Never hear of his music anymore but he was getting much recognition back in the 1990's. 
• Jackson Browne - The Barricades of Heaven / I'm Alive
• Peter Himmelman - Closer ..... Sending a message.
• Sarah McLachlan - Building a Mystery
• Little Feat - Under the Radar ..... "My heart is a mountain, I'd walk on fire to get to you."
• John Hiatt - Cry Love ..... I love the mandolin.
• John Hiatt - Shredding the Documents

Drone On

I get to celebrate the 'Black Friday' version of 'Record Store Day' tomorrow. 

If I choose to that is.

Don't have to work so I'm semi-excited about the chance to attend on the same day.

Not that I'm planning to be standing in line at 8:00am when the doors open.

I've never been the stand-in-line type personality.

But I'll swoop in after the crowds have died down and pick from what remains. 

That works for me. 

On the turntable today .....

7-inch vinyl from 1991.

Found in the punk section of the record store. Picked up a week ago. I laughed at punk when it exploded in the late 1970's. Beginning to appreciate it in my senior years. In small doses that is. I can't sit and listen to it for long periods. Hence, I have a small but growing collection of 7-inch punk records. Seems like the perfect format for the genre.

Sam's Place

I had no idea. A total surprise to discover a new Little Feat album. Released this year on their Hot Tomato record label.

I've been a huge fan since their late 1980's reformation. 

This one with all lead vocals by their percussionist and occasional (until now) lead vocalist, Sam Clayton. There's also a duet with Bonnie Raitt. Great blues sounds. 

Little Feat always reminds me of my old friend Mitch. (R.I.P.). He was a huge fan of their 1970's music and the vocals of Lowell George. He would refuse, despite all my efforts and offers to make mix-tapes and cd's, to listen to anything the band recorded after Lowell George's passing in the late 1970's which is about the time that I began paying attention to their sounds through a Jackson Browne bootleg album containing the song, "Long Distance Love."   

Sunday Evening Playlist

Two days of vacation away from work coming up. In a rootsy-Americana-bluegrass-newgrass-Zydeco kinda mood. Tonight's playlist .....

• Grateful Dead - Ripple
• Greensky Bluegrass - Old Barns / Into the Rafters ..... "You keep losing pieces that I just can't carry, I wish we'd all stop spinning, cause these words weigh nothing when you're too far away."
• Dry Branch Fire Squad - Golden Ring
• The Stanley Brothers - Angel Band
• Jesse McReynolds _ Standing On the Moon ..... "Standing on the moon with nothing left to do, a lovely view of heaven but I'd rather be with you." / Deep Elem Blues
• Herb Pedersen - The Hey Boys
• Bluerunners - Made Up My Mind
• Paul Barrere & Fred Tackett (from Little Feat) - Long Black Veil
• Tony Rice Unit - Nine Pound Hammer

Dust & Grooves

I ordered this book and it's scheduled to arrive in my snail mail by the middle of next week. If the postman knocked on my door tonight at midnight with book in hand, I'd be beyond excited, possibly requiring sedation.

Tons of photos, interviews and essays with vinyl record collecting geeks and nerds. I'm a longtime member of that club. Over half a century in fact.

Vinyl collectors showing off their records. Volume two. Hardcover, limited edition first pressing. I found a hardcover copy of volume one a few years ago. It sits on my coffee table and is opened, perused and enjoyed often. I drool over the photos of the various collections.

It's my current solo goal in life to live long enough to open up and leaf through the pages of volume two and admire it from closeup and afar alongside volume one. I may have to rearrange bookcases and devote an entire shelf to these two volumes and the photo cards that were an accessory to the first volume.

Such is the level of my vinyl mania. 😊 

Flashing Back (Again) Playlist

 Just some classic songs heard today and tonight. A flashing back playlist ....

• King Harvest - Dancing In the Moonlight (1973)
• Paul McCartney & Wings - Listen to What the Man Said (1975) ..... Everyone hoping still for the Beatles to reunite. There were still great songs to be heard.
• Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose - Too Late to Turn Back Now (1972) ..... If only we could return to those days for a few hours, once or twice a year. That's not asking for too much is it? 
• Harry Nilsson - Coconut (1972)
• Robert Palmer - One Last Look (1976) ..... Don't look at the year. But thinking back there's just something about the style and sound. I can't explain but this kind of marks a point of change for me from early 70's and high school to the mid and later 70's, college and beyond. I didn't realize it at the time, I thought there were other markers of change back then, but this has become my modern-day difference. I now need to hear it every month or two.
• Maria Muldaur - Midnight at the Oasis (1974)
• Todd Rundgren - Hello It's Me (1972) 
• Stealers Wheel (Gerry Rafferty) - Stuck In the Middle With You (1973)
• The Zombies - Time of the Season (1969) ..... Flashing even farther back. Autumn feels like the time to hear this song.
• Ace - How Long (1974) ..... Hated it back when it was a hit and all over the radio. Time has brought appreciation though. 

Joseph Arthur Playlist

I was in a Borders Books & Music on a Saturday night in 1996 or 1997. I recall it being 9:30 in the evening. The local act playing there that evening had just finished up and I wandered over to the compact discs, saw an interesting album cover at a listening station, noticed Peter Gabriel's very distinctive, Real World record label on the cd spine, slipped on the headphones and discovered the music of Joseph Arthur. 

• Big City Secret ..... The first song heard. I was instantly hooked.
• Enough to Get Away ..... From his Nuclear Daydream album. I listened to the album repeatedly when it was released in 2006. One of my desert island disc choices.
• Can't Exist 
• Even Tho
• Travel as Equals ..... I love the idea for the official video. Three musicians, short video clips with different poses.
• Saint of Impossible Causes .... The chorus stays with me.
• Echo Park
• Redemption's Son
• Mercedes .... Another of the songs I heard during that first listening experience.
• We Began to Dance Again
• In the Sun
• When I Was Running Out of Time ..... "You got a painted face and a body made of clay, you are my superstar."
• A Smile That Explodes

Half Century Ago Playlist

What I might have been listening to fifty years ago today, just starting out on my freshman year in college. Very emotional and transitional days in my world ..... 

• Gregg Allman - Multicolored Lady
• Bob Dylan - You're a Big Girl Now .... Every song from the record became a classic for me but this one stands apart from the others. 
• Jackson Browne - Late For the Sky / Walking Slow
• James Taylor - Mud Slide Slim .... Falling in love for the first time. I'd been listening to this all summer just prior to the Dylan and Browne albums being released.
• Steely Dan - Rikki Don't Lose That Number
• Neil Young - Sugar Mountain .... My buddy from grade school and high school had a bootleg version where I first heard the song.
• Cat Stevens - But I Might Die Tonight
• Country Joe McDonald - Drug Store Truck Driving Man .... From the Woodstock album. My vinyl collecting mentor introduced me to this tune.
• Stephen Stills and Manassas - Down the Road
• The Eagles - Doolin' Dalton
• Poco - A Good Feeling to Know
• Stevie Wonder - You Are the Sunshine of My Life
• Paul McCartney & Wings - Band On the Run .... I didn't become a Beatle fan until much later in life but I loved the Band On the Run album.

Operation Northwoods

I've been avidly seeking different directions in jazz for two or three years now. I discovered PJCE Records .... Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, dedicated to the music of Portland area artists. 'The Bureau of Fiction' by Operation Northwoods is the latest find. From 2013.

Recorded on February 4th of both 2011 and 2013. Chamber jazz sounds with bits of avant-garde.

A couple of the band members are also part of the group, The Ocular Concern, also recording for PJCE and also recently added to my collection.

Son Volt Day

At work this afternoon, had the office mostly to myself and all I could think to play was Son Volt. A short playlist ......

• Creosote .... I usually don't care for the pedal steel sound but it sounds perfect here.
• Drown .... Had to turn up the volume just a little. 😉
• Medicine Hat .... Singing along here.
• Rex's Blues
• Back Into Your World .... This was my personal anthem for a while.
• Looking At the World Through a Windshield
• Route .... Again, nudged up the volume.
• Right On Through
• While Rome Burns
• Underground Dream .... You know how a single line of lyric can spark the thought of someone special? Well, that happened.
• Like a Hurricane .... Jay Farrar covering Neil Young's classic. "I wanna Love you but I'm getting blown away."

Middle of the Week Playlist

Just a middle-of-the-week, later evening playlist of somewhat random and hopefully not too obscure but if so maybe that's a good thing, jazz offerings. Because this is how I'm leaning tonight. If I could be so allowed ..... 

• Jared Schonig - Tig Mack
• Arve Henriksen - Lament
• Horace Parlan - Headin' South
• Avishai Cohen & Big Vicious - The Things You Tell Me .... There's two Avishai Cohens working the same general genre of jazz so if you decide to seek out more, make sure you get the right one. This one plays the trumpet, the other is a bassist. .... or just listen to both!!
• Danny Green Trio - Katabasis
• Gabor Szabo - Half the Day Is the Night
• Hugh Masekela - Jungle Jim
• Lisa Hilton - Adventures and Alibis
• Chet Baker & Paul Bley - Diana
• Jean-Luc Ponty - In the Kingdom of Peace
• Ambrose Akinmusire - Piano Sketch (Beyond Enclosure) / Purple
• John Surman - Slanted Sky
• Christian Scott - Litany Against Fear

Bonus Track ....

• Oliver Schroer - The Tears of Mary .... Not Jazz. Maybe modern classical. Solo cello piece. A good ending to the day. 

The Folk Implosion

On the turntable today ....

I was excited to discover a week or two ago, the news about this release. It just took a few days and it was waiting on my doorstep. 'Walk Thru Me' by The Folk Implosion.

Primarily Lou Barlow and John Davis. They apparently had some ups and downs between them over the years and went different ways but have gotten back together for this recording. I'm hoping for more collaborations in the future. A quirky, Indie-Rock sound.  

GoGo Penguin

These days, I listen to GoGo Penguin as much if not more than any other group. Piano, acoustic bass and drums. Soaring musical ideas. 

I don't know what the Jazz snobs would think of them .... if they would think their music repetitive and simplistic. I think they are creative, innovative, melodic ..... Their music generates visual images of places I've never known.

A short playlist in case you feel the urge to check them out .... and LISTEN:

• Raven .... I see a raven soaring through a dark sky approaching an incoming storm.
• Wave Decay
• You're Stronger Than You Think
• Window
• Everything Is Going to Be OK
• Parasite
• Ascent
• Last Words .... I love this title for a song.
• Saturnine
• Kamaloka

I've discovered several other bands and new sounds because of their music. Mammal Hands, Portico Quartet, Robohands, Ghost Funk Orchestra, Phi-Psonics, Vega Trails .... all part of my searching for alternative jazz sounds.

Mandolin Orange

While journaling this evening, heard the song 'A Thousand Amen' by Mandolin Orange and had to listen again .... and again .... and again. And after all that, one or two more times. A lonesome melody played on guitar and fiddle with two voices.

Funny how sometimes the perfect music for a moment and the mood just arrives. Almost like it was waiting for years to be heard by this set of ears. 

"Water froze our bones

You'd swear it froze our minds

To some it's all they'd known

Not raised the quiten kind."

Leo Kottke

Leo Kottke - 12 String Blues: Live at the Scholar Coffeehouse. On the Oblivion Recording Company label. From 1969.

Found today at my old record stores booth at an antique mall. An original copy. One of only a thousand that were printed. It's never been re-printed or reissued on compact disc so there's not a lot of copies to be found. 

Six and twelve string acoustic guitar with vocals. Three songs are instrumentals.

I saw Leo Kottke in concert in Corvallis, Oregon sometime around 1975-1977. Amazing performance. I used to say that it sounded like there were two or three guitarists on stage that night. 

Midwest Gospel Radio

 

Heard tonight for the first time and it's been on repeat since. 'Midwest Gospel Radio' by Yonder Mountain String Band. 

A short instrumental banjo powered piece that has the power of inspiring memories and flashbacks. So how is it that I'm just hearing it tonight?

Angry Red Planet

I've been attempting to populate and grow a punk rock collection. This makes number three in the collection, all on vinyl .... unless you consider The Ramones as punk (I don't). And maybe this is closer to post-punk or garage rock? 

'Give 'Em Enough Dope' by Angry Red Planet. From 1989. A decade after what I've always thought were the Punk Years.

One side was recorded in studio and the other side is live.

I don't pretend to be knowledgeable on the history of punk rock. Since I don't know much, I tend to look for interesting cover art and obscure bands that I've never heard of. A certain mood is required to sit still and listen. I just sit quietly without judging, taking in the sounds and the energy. 

Found on Record Store Day 2024. 

Rikki Don't Lose That Number

As I get older this song becomes more vital to me. I struggle to explain. The song, the lyrics, the melody bring back such powerful torrents of memories of that time, those days, and moments passing by, places, emotions, moods, sensations, relationships, friends, teachers, school days, endings, beginnings, things I haven't known since ..... what else is there? 

It represents a time in my life that I occasionally yearn to return to. And the realization that much of what I'd known to that point was ending and that things were about to change. Transitions to a something different that I was far from eager to see take place.

Much of those days are a blur now. The song provides pieces or fragments of clarity. 

A few years ago, I met one of the persons this song reminds me of. I only knew her back then by seeing her around high school. I was far too shy and terrified to ever dare saying hello. Then one day, decades later, I crossed paths with her in the grocery store and it was her that recognized me. Then shortly later I attended a small 'fish fry' at the house of a mutual friend. She was there. I wasn't going to go as I was worn out after a day at work but she got on the phone and asked me to show up. So I did and it was so wonderful getting to know her. I even confessed (and in front of her husband) to having a high school crush for her. 

Rikki wasn't even my favorite at the time but over time it has become so meaningful for me.

I'm Only Sleeping

It took hearing a YouTuber's cover version of this song to appreciate the original version. Several listens later over the past two days and it's quickly risen to top-3 status on my favorite songs of the Beatles list. Right there with 'Martha My Dear' and 'You've Got to Hide Your Love Away.'

The mid-1960's through the mid-1970's was such a unique ten years of songwriting that will likely never be matched. It's cliche and perhaps bias, and maybe even snobbish on the part of us older folks that lived through those years but songs like that just don't get written anymore.

Weekend's Vinyl Finds

Saturday vinyl search and finds. The place was busy and crowded so the search was cut short. I did have a couple records in hand at one point that were returned to the bins. I did take home:

Jimmy Raney - 'Live In Tokyo.'  from 1976. A new name for me and certainly a different face/name than most of the recordings I see shared in the vinyl community. I noticed Sam Jones on bass and I do have an album of his that I enjoy. 

A guitar focused jazz trio recording. There's a short, very complimentary review on the All Music Guide website.

'Town Hall Concert' by Charles Mingus. Recorded in 1962 (I think) and I assume originally released then. This is a reissue and something about the feel of the record and sleeve in my hands caused me to wonder if it was possibly a poor audio quality reissue but hey, it's Mingus!! One of the masters. I gave it a spin today and it sounds great. 

Big Band or orchestra jazz on clear vinyl and Destination Moon Records. (Which caused me to smile.) Post Bop sounds.

I was intrigued by several of the album covers in both the indie rock and punk sections. Charles Mingus is always a sure thing for me. And though I think that I have pretty good intuition on such matters, I'm always hesitant to take multiple financial chances on titles that I know nothing about. I need to take notes and research such things. 

Just Arrived

New arrival on my doorstep today. 'Call On the Old Wise' by Nitai Hershkovits. 

From 2023 on ECM Records.

Solo piano. Highly improvisational jazz.

I tried something radical with the first official spin on the turntable .... I played side two first. As it's playing, outside the rain started to fall and the wind kicked up. Then, just as suddenly, the rain and wind stopped, the clouds parted and the sun came out. Seemed oddly appropriate.  

Sleepy Playlist

Saturday evening playlist. Feeling pretty sleepy here so it could be a short one ..... 

• Yo La Tengo - Aselestine ..... Watch the animated video. Had me rethinking decisions and possibilities. And moving toward the sun .... Don't ask me what that means. 😕 
• Slowdive - Shanty ..... Labeled a shoegaze band which likely prevented me from discovering them prior to three or four days ago. 
• Ultravox - Dancing With Tears In My Eyes
• The War on Drugs - I Don't Live Here Anymore
• Bob Schneider - Metal and Steel ..... I've been searching among the random shoe boxes in the closet for a specific cassette of a radio show recorded long ago. I know the tape brand and type, a Maxell II .... so I found a loose tape, inserted it into the cassette player, pressed 'play' and this song started playing. 

What I found: A mix tape made decades ago. I don't recall if it was meant for somebody. 

• Pete Yorn - Strange Condition ..... The next song on the tape. Followed by .....
• David Gray - Babylon 

That was it. Three songs. Eighty minutes remaining of blank tape. Did I get shut down? Did I run out of ideas on the theme? It's a mystery all these years later.

And I'm still searching for the tape I was looking for. Hot takes from Jim Rome's sports talk radio program. I have the empty cassette case. Some 🤣 stuff there at deserving topics.

Circles Around Me

Been listening to this song almost daily lately. 'Circles Around Me' by Sam Bush. 

"I remember everything"  🎝🎝 .....  All this reflection. All these flashbacks and memories. Some songs are magical to cause such instant and visual reactions. (Not that I just came to that realization.) It can be an incredibly powerful personal experience and just a couple notes or a few lyrics can initiate the flood. 

Vinyl Finds

Went vinyl record hunting this evening .....

Came home with: 'In a Sentimental Mood' by Jim Hall. Recorded in 1969 and released on Pausa Records in 1981; 'Trilogy' by Tal Farlow. Also released in 1981 on Inner City Records; and 'The Legendary Django Reinhardt, a 1976 release on GNP/Crescendo Records. 

It wasn't intentional but just the luck of the vinyl bins flips and what was revealed but all three were jazz guitar players. 

The excitement of vinyl finds "in the wild" is still a real experience. It's been over fifty years of searching and the thrill of a spontaneous find hasn't lessened.

Tonight's finds came with a music history moment. The owner of the shop informed me that Django Reinhardt was a two finger guitar player ..... index and third fingers due to burns to half his body.

The record sleeves are all in great shape. For me, that's as much of a selling point as the condition of the vinyl record and the recorded music on the record. I like attractive packaging and interesting cover art and photos. 

Jazz Playlist

Friday night (short) Jazz playlist .....

• Horace Silver Quintet - Song For My Father
• Pharoah Sanders - The Creator Has a Master Plan
• Geri Allen, Esperanza Spalding & Terri Lyne Carrington - Unconditional Love
• Lee Morgan - Ceora
• Bill Evans - Remembering the Rain ..... This should probably be the last song to be played, to end the evening. And a great song title!!
• Charlie Haden & Keith Jarrett - How Deep Is the Ocean
• Jessica Williams - Alone Together 
• McCoy Tyner - Message From the Nile