Then you might want to put Ornette Colman on the sidelines my good man. I'll second KF's recommendation of Mingus Ah Um. I don't like it quite as much as the two Mingus albums I listed earlier, but it's a close third.Quoting Sven (view post)
If you do venture into fusion, but don't want the funktified Herbie Hancock version, Bobbi Humphrey and her badass flute on Blacks and Blues is pretty sweet too.
Way to keep an open mind there champ!
I'm not a big fan of 'free' jazz either. But there is some amazing fusion, that is a fact.
Sometimes free jazz is the best music ever.
Everyone has their biases. I'm just keeping it real, dawg.
If you like traditional jazz, my two suggestions are tailor-made for you.
True.
And you can safely and assuredly disregard any and all of my recommendations, except for the Monk album.
Au contraire, my friend. I've already checked out some Don Cherry and John Surman per your suggestion (not in depth, mind you) and it sounds pretty interesting!True.
And you can safely and assuredly disregard any and all of my recommendations, except for the Monk album.
I guess the kind of avant-garde stuff I'm talking about is, like, this. Seriously, why would anyone choose to listen to that?
Okay then. We're kind of on the same page.
I don't like that style of free jazz either, where it sounds like everyone in the band is playing their own song unaware of what everyone else is playing. It's like walking into a Guitar Center and hearing everyone jamming in the different departments at the same time.
That Don Cherry album is amazing.
Surman can get pretty out there, and is often considered 'free jazz', but he still works with some structure.
If you wanna build an appreciation for Jazz, you might wanna watch Ken Burns' Jazz documentary. Tho it's heavily slanted to old, straight jazz & bebop, it does give a good history and will introduce you to a lot of really worthwhile artists.
As for me, the albums that really got me in to it are Dave Brubeck's Time Out, Thelonious Monk's Monk Alone, John Coltrane's Blue Train, Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. You also can't go wrong with Oscar Peterson, Dave Evans or Stan Getz.
Once you get your feet wet with that sorta stuff, you could try the more challenging stuff, such as the aforementioned Money Jungle, Charlie Mingus & Ornette Coleman.
Losing is like fertilizer: it stinks for a while, then you get used to it. (Tony, Hibbing)
Eh? For free jazz, that's actually pretty melodic and listenable (and hence not terribly thrilling).
You oughta get some Brötzmann into yer system.
I figured I'd opt for a familiar. I know there's crazier stuff, but Coleman is more accepted.
Sweet Jesus, this is awesome.
Yeah - that's the kind of stuff I don't dig. Sounds like Guitar Center on the last shopping weekend before Christmas.
But what makes that clip great is the way the classic jazz crumbles into sweet, cacophonous discord.
This is the part I don't understand.
Even if you don't like free jazz on its own, it's made spine-tingling in that clip by its contrast with the classic song that it disrupts. It's like the deconstructive scenes in Synecdoche, NY; it gives a sense of everyday reality being peeled away to reveal the shrieking saxophone below.
I admit, its dissolution was impressive, but this whole "shrieking saxophone below" thing doesn't make a lot of sense to me. In theory, I may see what you're saying. A sound is sound type-deal. I like the idea of something piercing the fabric of complacency to let in the darkness just beyond our perception.
But does it have to be so unbearable to listen to?
So true! Jazz musicians, just like art film directors and literary authors, spend years honing their craft so that they can make the common man feel stupid.
It's like you've spent all your life wondering, "what's the point of it all?" You try to fill the void in your heart with good oldtimey jazz, but it just doesn't work. There's a lingering uncertainty, a note of unease drifting amidst the pleasantness. So in a delirious fit, you tear up the floorboards in your house... and there's Brotzmann, wailing on his sax.
And speaking of Polish jazz musicians, Krzysztof Komeda's Astigmatic is awesome and definitely not on the "free" or "fusion" side of the spectrum. He also did the music for several of Polanski's films including Knife in the Water and Rosemary's Baby though I haven't heard those scores on their own.
Have you ever listened to Merzbow? 10 minutes of him and free jazz will sound downright pleasant.
I've never been into the whole noise scene. I like melody and harmony too much.
I like sound.
I've had a couple Merzbow albums for a while now and I'll have to be in a real patient mood to take the dive. The live album that he did with Boris however is pretty sweet. I prefer noise when it's combined with metal or ambience that lends it a transcendent quality. The Goslings are harsh but there are moments in their songs that will knock your socks off. Then there's noise for the novices, as Bonerz would call it, like this, which I absolutely love. But Fuck Buttons are hardly in the same stratosphere as Merzbow, so classifying them as noise, even melodious noise, is probably a stretch.
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