Jazz

[Slytherin]

I like Herbie   There is a band called Second Line jazzband that I have listened to live a few times and like.. But as you say Zombie dear ( ) " I don't like all Everything, I just know what I love when I hear it"  
 

Edited September 26, 2013 by slytherin

[Thorn Wilde]

My dad played bass and soprano sax in a big band when I was a kid. Always loved hearing them play. These days I prefer more experimental and fusion-y stuff, but then I've never been a genre purist with any of the music I love.

 

[Zombie]

Oh mein Gott, was für ein Horror! Yeah, a lotta peeps are gonna hate on this big time. Don't care, I like it so there!
Brazillian composer Eumir Deodato stuck a groove on Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra - famously used by Stanley Kubrick in 2001: A Space Odyssey - and this charted in 1973. It's been glued to some stunning NASA video of the ISS and our home planet

 

[Ron]

James Carter is one of my favorite sax players. Below is a link to the James Carter Quintet playing at a 2009 peace festival 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS0DZ-Gvvms&list=PLD7B3E28E1C1B7F3F

 

 

Zombie, may I ask what gear you listen to your music on?

Edited October 21, 2013 by Ron

[JamesSavik]

 

Duke Ellington- Caravan

[Aditus]

There were times I hated the clarinet, not anymore...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSOJ4g1s_Kw

[Zombie]

Bullitt
From the classic 1968 Steve McQueen movie, Lalo Schifrin's iconic jazz soundtrack.

Because it's movie music it was written for the screen action not as a standalone piece. But it's still worth listening to

Shotgun - Jr Walker and the All Stars [1965]
Some may say this is R&B ... but ... OMG that squealing raspy tenor-sax jazz riff!

Junior Walker [Autry DeWalt Mixon Jr] was a Motown session musician who became a big name Motown star with this, their first hit, on which Walker sang as his vocal debut only because the session singer failed to show

 

There were times I hated the clarinet, not anymore...

 

Lucky for you the pan piper was off sick that day

 

Zombie, may I ask what gear you listen to your music on?

 

Sorry, Ron, overlooked this Nothing special. Used to have turntable, tuner and analogue amp separates but all thrown out years ago. Currently looking at the best way to link Blu-Ray, PC and digital downloads but digital quality just ain't the same
 

[Tomas]

Not to everyone's liking: Stan Kenton, and Bob Graettinger. 

[Ron]

Sorry, Ron, overlooked this Nothing special. Used to have turntable, tuner and analogue amp separates but all thrown out years ago. Currently looking at the best way to link Blu-Ray, PC and digital downloads but digital quality just ain't the same

 

Digital Audio is the future of music I think and there is good reason for it, it is amazingly portable. Unfortunately, it is impossible to play digital from a computer directly and get excellent sound. The computer clock puts out a synchronous signal and music needs to be asynchronous so no matter what you play the music through, it will not sound ideal. You need a DAC (digital analogue converter) that will take the computer signal and convert it to get the best sound from it. DAC's also can have the ability to upsample the signal and make the music sound even better. But no amount of upsampling will take an original signal that has been dumbed down in mp3 and make it sound spectacular.

 

My playing is like this:

 

USB Hard-drive --> USB Cable --> Computer (lossless music files)  --> USB Cable --> DAC (upsampling to 24/196) [CD is 16/44.1] --> RCA Interconnect Cable --> Stereo (integrated) [this could also be surround processor for TV system] --> Speakers ------ or you can bypass stereo/surround processor if you have powered speakers.

 

or this:

 

Computer --> plug in asynchronous DAC --> Headphones   or   RCA Interconnect Cable --> Stereo (integrated) [this could also be surround processor for TV system] --> Speakers ------ or you can bypass stereo/surround processor if you have powered speakers.

 

but mostly this:

 

iPod Classic (lossless native ACC encoded music files ripped with error correction) --> Pure i20 iPod dock (which contains a DAC) --> Digital Optical S/PDIF cable --> Upsampling DAC (you can skip this because dock contains its own DAC [non-upsampling]) --> RCA Interconnect Cable --> Stereo --> Speakers

 

I get amazingly excellent sounding music from my iPod on my system. I also get amazingly excellent sound from my downloaded 24/192 FLAC files from my computer. I am fortunate to have an amazing pair of stand mounted speakers, B&W n805, to listen to the music from. But even with great speakers or great headphones, if the music is dumbed down or going out in the incorrect signal it will not sound its absolute best.

 

I hope this post isn't too far off topic, after all you need some way to play the jazz. I'm not aware of a way getting Blu-ray music files onto a computer but you can get downloadable DSD (SACD encoded files) and there are computer softwares available (just as you would need to play FLAC encoded files) to enable playing them from your computer. Once again, you will need an asynchronous DAC connected to your stereo/sound processor to be able to do so properly.

[Zombie]

Gadzooks, Ron, now you've awakened my inner geek! *reaches for specialist magazines ...*
 

[Aditus]

*blink* Where is my google?

[Slytherin]

**hides my CD Walkman under a pillow**

[Ron]

**hides my CD Walkman under a pillow**

 

A CD Walkman will sound better playing through a DAC as well 

[FrenchCanadian]

The best piece of Jazz that I know... Sing, sing, sing

 

[Ashi]

My Foolish Heart:  It's very hard to find a perfect version with a vocal.  The one that impressed me when I first heard it is this arrangement with excellent intro/outro by Bob Mintzer Big Band and sung by Michael Franks.  It's a little slower and mellower than other versions, so be patient (and admire the sublime quality of it), but I do believe it's better than Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennet, or Astrud Gilberto's version (the last is my favorite version sung by a female vocalist).

 

http://youtu.be/tSdYjgMgJT4

 

Lyrics:

 

The night is like a lovely tune.

Beware! my foolish heart.
How white the ever constant moon.

Take care..., my foolish heart.

There's a line between love and fascination,
That's hard to see on an evening such as this,
For they both give the very same sensation.
When you are lost in the passion of a kiss.

His lips are much too close to mine

Beware! my foolish heart.
But should our eager lips combine,

then let the fire start!

For this time it isn't fascination,

or a dream that will fade and fall apart,

This time it's love, this time it's love,

my foolish heart!

It's love, this time it's love,

my foolish heart!

 

And another good jazz standard is I Fall in Love Too Easily.  This one is the young Chet Baker version.

 

http://youtu.be/3zrSoHgAAWo

 

I am sure there are some more jazz numbers I do remember, particularly Ella Fitzgeral, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday (and nobody mentioned Coltrane and Monk yet?).

[Kitt]

Stands guard in front of my turntable and vinyl with a shotgun.

 

 

 

I'll add all the digital stuff but you cant take my vintage albums!

[Ron]

Stands guard in front of my turntable and vinyl with a shotgun.

I'll add all the digital stuff but you cant take my vintage albums!

 

Nor should anyone want to take away your albums.  There is enjoyment in vinyl to be sure and the album artwork can be fantastic. Keep in mind that they can also be transferred to digital and that is great if they are unattainable on CD and you want to listen to them on the fly when you are not at home.

Edited November 11, 2013 by Ron

[JamesSavik]

 

 

[Zombie]

I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free, Billy Taylor
I love this gospel jazz piano style

This year is the 50th anniversary of two brilliant songs: Sam Cooke's A Change Is Gonna Come, and this number. They were both anthems for the black civil rights movement in 1960s US and have resonance today for gays. But I just love it anyway. It was the theme music of the BBC Film show on TV in the 1980s - which is where I first heard it  - and also for the 1996 film "Ghosts of Mississippi"


Count Basie and Oscar Petersen
- smootchie smooth piano blues ...

  Edited November 11, 2013 by Zombie

[Blackguard]

Ohhhhh! Had I known there's a Jazz thread I'd have returned a few years sooner

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOm17yw__6U

 

Really, I just love Wes Montgomery. One of the most tasteful guitar players (no, 'tasteful guitar player' is not always an oxymoron ) in history. His technique was of course 'wrong' by any standards but that's how he got his unique sound. It's a lot harder than it looks and once you think you've nailed it you realise you're making a fool of yourself.

 

So What?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9A2bPzLHnU

[Zombie]

So What?

 

Been waiting for someone to post Miles Davis - the inventor of cool

 

The Cuban pianist Rubén González retired in the 1980s. He didn't play piano again for eleven years.

Then the American musician Ry Cooder made contact and kick-started a second career for the old man, in his eighties, touring solo and also with the Buena Vista Social Club until 2002, and recording with combos like this...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR0vMyDoDN0

 

[Aditus]

 

The Cuban pianist Rubén González retired in the 1980s. He didn't play piano again for eleven years.

Then the American musician Ry Cooder made contact and kick-started a second career for the old man, in his eighties, touring solo and also with the Buena Vista Social Club until 2002, and recording with combos like this...

 

 

 

I don't like this piece but the man sure is brilliant.

[Zombie]

It's not jazz as such but a rich mix of references to European classical works and jazz phrases from a lifetime's immersion in music. All overlaid with a pulsing Cuban Latin American rhythm. I've listened to it many times and usually hear something new I'd missed before Old musicians just know so much!

 

[Aditus]

Yes, I can imagine that you do but for me it's simply too much. It's  like a crash course.

[mickey1952]

All Together, Schroeder and I, Night and Day...

 

Where do you start? Where do you stop? There's no such thing as bad jazz. But for me, it all still starts with who and what got me hooked in the first place. The Dave Brubeck Quartet, and Take Five. And one of the highlights of my life was donning a tux and experiencing the magic of Mel Torme and George Shearing at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas in the early 80's.