This weekend I listened to a good bit of music. This was partly because I got a brand new gizmo (a Chord Mojo2 DAC/Headphone amp) and partly because I had a good bit of work to do and music makes everything better.
The Past
I listened to three older albums this weekend.
First, I listened to Leo Parker’s Let Me Tell You ‘Bout It from 1961. Parker is a rather obscure baritone sax player whose drug problems kept him from recording much, but his 1961 album is a fine early-1960s hard bop and well worth appreciating. I very much appreciated his warm and expansive sound:
In keeping with my mood to appreciate less well-known saxophone players, I put on a Kenny Dorham able featuring Ernie Henry from 1957. Ernie Henry is an alto player who died young, but could really play. It fascinates me to realize that Henry and Coltrane were both born in September of 1926 and to listen to his playing here and wonder what he would have sounded like in 1967:
Finally, I’ve been enjoying the first V.S.O.P. Quintet album which Ron Carter’s Facebook page reminded me was released in April of 1977. It’s a live album recorded the previous year with Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Tony Williams on drums, Wayne Shorter on sax, Ron Carter on bass, and, of course, Herbie Hancock on keys.
The Future
It’s pretty rare that I pre-order an album, but as of today, I have THREE albums on pre-order.
The first is Tom Skinner’s new album Voices of Bishara album Live at ‘mu’. As an avowed pseudoarchaeologist, how could I resist an album recorded live at ‘mu’ (which apparently is a club in London). Anyway, the one track they have released is their take on Abdul Wadud’s piece “Oasis” and I liked it so I’ve preordered the digital album.
Keeping with my theme of jazz cello, I also preordered the new Tomeka Reid album 3+3. I also features Mary Halvorson on guitar whose work I’ve recently come to admire. The first track from the album “Sauntering With Mr. Brown” was enough to get me hooked.
Finally, I’ve preordered Kamasi Washington’s new album, Fearless Movement. I will admit to being a little less confident about this one, but I enjoyed Heaven and Earth (2018) and like Washington’s “fearlessness” (heh) and the scale at which he works. More than that, I feel like Washington is a key voice both in pushing jazz as a medium into the public consciousness while making old (white) “improvised music guys” like me more attuned to the world of contemporary sound.
Archaeology of the Mediterranean World 