Jazz for aficionados

I was meaning to listen to Melissa Aldana more closely, so Audio-B-Dogs reference to her over the last few pages, told me now was the time. I only have had time to listen to 3 recordings a couple of times. My initial and final oversimplicated observation is she sounds like Wayne Shorter in the way she writes and in the way she plays, with a voice of her own mixed in. This in itself is not a bad thing. I will be paying attention to future records.

I will say I hear no masculine or feminine sounds if I am listening to a recording. Just good music and playing. Now, if I am looking at her I can hear more feminine sounds. Call it what you want. I find it interesting that Audio- B-dog, said he loves her music after seeing her live, and then shows us a live recording where he says she has a feminine sound. Maybe, I'm not the only one effected by my eyes.

I struggle with people pushing a subgroup forward on age, sex, color, or any other reason short of ability. I could name 10-20 young musicians, over the years, who are playing all types of music, with no voice yet, but are lifted up because they are young, when there are 100's of older great musicians who have never gotten their due, and can't put food on the table. Then once the youngster, gets older, starts actually playing great, with his own voice, people no longer care because they are older. Drives me a little nuts. You don't hear as much about Joey Alexander now that he has developed his own voice in early twenties, except from Jazz lovers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MUFhBaLm4I

My brother is always pushing women to the front in sports, music, and other endeavors. I think they have to stand on their own excellence, not some manufacturerd push because they are women, and they absolutely can stand on there own talents, and I would hope that their femininity would be part of their sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42X2rb60_Mk

I won't even have to mention all the BS that people have had to put up with due to skin color in music, as full books have been written on that.

After writing all that, I must say I don't agree with the whole Masculine/ Feminine sound idea. So, a Johnny Hodges ballad is Feminine? Hell no! Beautiful yes!

https://youtu.be/_ww-XDuaxcw?si=U7wgDEPIuQbI0Lk2

https://youtu.be/CYg_3pQN-LU?si=ae_7wf47y-lnPdBw

Thanks for your response(s), @audio-b-dog.

re Rattle:

Q: How can one tell that the floor of the stage is level?

A: The viola players are drooling out of both sides of their mouths.

😊

frogman, so funny that you're hip to the violist jokes. At the L.A. Phil we had a lead violist named Carrie Dennis. She must have been one of the best violists in the world. In her twenties she was chosen as the L.A. Phil's lead violist but she went to Berlin instead. Then she came back to the L.A.a Phil. She used to sway her body like crazy to pretty much any composer. I used to like to watch her. She brought the concerts to life. She performed Bartok's Viola Concerto in bare feet. Then one day she did not come to work. She disappeared, and as far as I know, nobody knows where she is.