Jazz for aficionados

rok2id

The majority of jazz aficionados like I said up thread are "stuck" in the old days listening to the greats of the 1940 -1970 era. Your statement above simplifies my response.

Name ONE sax player today that you think is as good as the old timers?

Name ONE trumpet player? ONE piano player? ONE bass player? ONE drummer?

I for example have 20 plus Art Blakey cd’s. Jeff Tain Watts, a modern drummer has a total of 5-6 cd’s recorded under his own name. Does that make Watts inferior to Blakey? Times change. Back in the day when jazz was popular the musicians were constantly in the studios recording. Miles Davis once recorded 3 albums in less the a week to finish his contract with Prestige Records to accept an offer from Columbia. Its not quantity that counts but quality.

I have about 50 Coltrane cd’s counting box sets and 75 Miles cd’s counting box sets. Name ONE player in todays time that will ever put out so much material.

No doubt in my mind Trane was the best with Parker,Rollins, Hawkins, Getz, Pepper et al grouped behind Trane in no particular order. But JC could definitely hold his own with many of the old timers including Sonny Stitt, Jackie Mclean, Pharoah Sanders, and yes, even Dexter Gordon.

Likewise Stanley Clarke could hold his own with Charles Mingus on bass to name a modern bass representative.

Jeremy Pelt and Roy Hargrove come very close to Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Kenny Dorham and Donald Byrd on trumpet

Plus I get to see all of these guys live and is that not the best way to listen to jazz?

Gretchen Parlato

Big fan of Jeff 'Tain Watts

Pjw,

...'No reason to get excited
The thief he kindly spoke
There are many here among us
Who feel that life is but a joke '...

'When Jazz ruled the world' article

https://www.udiscovermusic.com/in-depth-features/when-jazz-ruled-the-world/?utm_source=ka&utm_me...

pjw, thanks for the recommendation and clips; I enjoyed them. I heard JC live at the Village Vanguard early on and enjoyed his playing. He is even more impressive now.

No question that JC could hold his own with some of the old timers. In fact, I believe he is a traditionalist at heart more than anything. When he plays he evokes the style of “old timers” like Arnett Cobb, Don Byas and Hawkins with that highly stylized and very robust tenor sound. What is unique about him is that he combines that style and sound with “techniques” on the saxophone that hadn’t been explored nor mastered to that degree by the old timers. He has great control of the extreme high register and it’s almost odd to hear playing in that range combined with the “old timer” tone approach. He double and triple tongues; practically unheard of back then. He growls and slap tongues. He plays with a tremendous amount of exuberance which, as you point out, is considered by some to be merely “showing off”. I’m not quite sure what showing off means, but that level of exuberance practically at all times is why I am mixed about his playing; eventhough he is a very exciting player and certainly knows how to appeal to an audience. A lot to be said for that. I like JC; a lot. I just wish he would do a lot less of that stuff. Moreover, I don’t believe he has the fluidity and command of complex harmony that some of the “newbies” have. A lot of what he plays is relatively simple harmonically and he is not the kind of player that can rip through “Giant Steps” the way that a player like Eric Alexander can. Different players bring different things to the table. I enjoy most a less exuberant and more harmonically disciplined way of playing. Still, I like that a player like JC is keeping alive a style that is not always screaming “Coltrane!”.

Another “newbie” with a sound that evokes some of the old timers, but with a modern harmonic concept:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4gTzj1EicAU

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8wnETzFQ2ok

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YebOyztBhwA