Best Jazz

Out of sight. I just wish I had to time to catch up with all this great music being recommended on Forumosa.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz

Does that help?[/quote]
I remember reading a quote from ICRTs Bill Thissen, who said something to the effect that sometimes he doesn’t know if what a band is playing is really jazz, but if they tell him it’s jazz, he’ll take them at their word.
I think that sounds about right.

I’m not a big jazz fan, but got into this guy through Murakami’s writing. I’m not sure how representative he is of jazz, but I like his style.

youtube.com/watch?v=HrrgCKKN … re=related

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz

Does that help?[/quote]
I remember reading a quote from ICRTs Bill Thissen, who said something to the effect that sometimes he doesn’t know if what a band is playing is really jazz, but if they tell him it’s jazz, he’ll take them at their word.
I think that sounds about right.[/quote]
You ask me (humor me), here’s the acid test. Do you hear black Americans in the music? If yes, then it’s possibly jazz. Else, not.

For example, now playing on my machine is Vijay Iyer’s newish Historicity, which was on a lot of ‘best of 2009’ lists for jazz. It’s ok, and to be honest it may actually be something I really grow to love, but imho it ain’t jazz. It’s jazz-like, and pleasantly so.

Iyer’s an Indian-American physicist/musician from Rochester, New York, and he writes interesting music. Check.

But it ain’t jazz.

$0.02

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz

Does that help?[/quote]
I remember reading a quote from ICRTs Bill Thissen, who said something to the effect that sometimes he doesn’t know if what a band is playing is really jazz, but if they tell him it’s jazz, he’ll take them at their word.
I think that sounds about right.[/quote]
You ask me (humor me), here’s the acid test. Do you hear black Americans in the music? If yes, then it’s possibly jazz. Else, not.

For example, now playing on my machine is Vijay Iyer’s newish Historicity, which was on a lot of ‘best of 2009’ lists for jazz. It’s ok, and to be honest it may actually be something I really grow to love, but imho it ain’t jazz. It’s jazz-like, and pleasantly so.

Iyer’s an Indian-American physicist/musician from Rochester, New York, and he writes interesting music. Check.

But it ain’t jazz.

$0.02[/quote]

“Do you hear black Americans in the music”???

I don’t get what your point is here. You mean does it sound like Black Americans playing? You don’t have to be black to play jazz, obviously. Neither do you have to play in an obviously “black” style, whatever that might mean. Case in point Django Reinhardt; gypsy legend, in no way would you mistake him for a “black american”. Same with Stan Getz or Dave Brubeck, Chet Baker, Lee Konitz etc. etc.

Jazz is improvised music based on blues or popular song structures. (Or if modern jazz, purely free improvisation based on anything at all.)

All music comes from a source but is not confined to the source.

[quote=“the bear”]“Do you hear black Americans in the music”???

I don’t get what your point is here. You mean does it sound like Black Americans playing? You don’t have to be black to play jazz, obviously. Neither do you have to play in an obviously “black” style, whatever that might mean. Case in point Django Reinhardt; gypsy legend, in no way would you mistake him for a “black american”. Same with Stan Getz or Dave Brubeck, Chet Baker, Lee Konitz etc. etc.

Jazz is improvised music based on blues or popular song structures. (Or if modern jazz, purely free improvisation based on anything at all.)

All music comes from a source but is not confined to the source.[/quote]
True enough. Thing is, if you don’t hear black Americans in it, it ain’t jazz. My criteria’s probably not well defined, granted, but it’s true nonetheless.

Similar to Justice Potter who said he couldn’t define pornography but he knew it when he saw it, to my ear I can’t define jazz but I know it when I hear it.

I’m sure it’s rude of me, but whenever I hear somebody who ain’t an American play jazz, I always think ‘yeah right.’ And then I snicker.

[quote=“flike”][quote=“the bear”]“Do you hear black Americans in the music”???

I don’t get what your point is here. You mean does it sound like Black Americans playing? You don’t have to be black to play jazz, obviously. Neither do you have to play in an obviously “black” style, whatever that might mean. Case in point Django Reinhardt; gypsy legend, in no way would you mistake him for a “black american”. Same with Stan Getz or Dave Brubeck, Chet Baker, Lee Konitz etc. etc.

Jazz is improvised music based on blues or popular song structures. (Or if modern jazz, purely free improvisation based on anything at all.)

All music comes from a source but is not confined to the source.[/quote]
True enough. Thing is, if you don’t hear black Americans in it, it ain’t jazz. My criteria’s probably not well defined, granted, but it’s true nonetheless.

Similar to Justice Potter who said he couldn’t define pornography but he knew it when he saw it, to my ear I can’t define jazz but I know it when I hear it.

I’m sure it’s rude of me, but whenever I hear somebody who ain’t an American play jazz, I always think ‘yeah right.’ And then I snicker.[/quote]

Well then that’s your definition of jazz that you use in your own solipsist way. But its not the common definition of jazz. I play jazz and have done for 30 years. I’m white and from New Zealand. Snicker all you want; I’m a legend in my own lunch time :sunglasses:

Plus I dare you to snigger at Django, I double dare you. (btw check out Woody Allen’s Sweet and Lowdown for a hilarious take on the legend of Django).

That’s truly sad. :cry:

This thread is blowing my mind!
Thanks for all the uploads, most are my faves, but I’ll be grooving on the ones I’m unfamiliar with this weekend and adding a few of my own.
Good to see chung posting regularly, too.

That’s an ignorant statement of the first order. As if one can tell the particulars of musicians merely by the sound of their instruments.

You can’t contain an art form, restrict it to a particular group, bottle it as one essence… If that were the case with jazz, it would have lived a short life.

The beauty of jazz lies in its diversity, it is a music that grew from countless influences despite it’s beginnings.

On a side note, I saw the Vanguard Jazz orchestra at the National Concert Hall last December and was left wanting. They were brilliant, tight, incredibly good music-wise, but the concert lacked the audience participation that you’d get with a Preservation Hall-type band, or a band that regularly plays in clubs instead of music halls.

I’ve seen this guy in Taipei twice.

No, it’s not. And yes, I would certainly hope one could tell the particulars of musicians merely by the sound of their instruments. Certainly that’s the only way I’m interested in communicating with them. They play, I listen. They’ll certainly need instruments to do their part.

[quote=“Wookiee”]You can’t contain an art form, restrict it to a particular group, bottle it as one essence… If that were the case with jazz, it would have lived a short life.

The beauty of jazz lies in its diversity, it is a music that grew from countless influences despite it’s beginnings.[/quote]
What you’re describing is jazz-like, to me. Which is often not jazz.

I am not a musician, by the way. I have a decent ear, though. I admit that for me it’s a zeitgeist thing.

As is much of life, unfortunately.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! :cry:

Sorry, that was last night’s tequila talking. :slight_smile:

The question is of course, is there anywhere to hear decent live jazz (here I don’t mean wannabes who can’t really play) in Taipei?

Eric Dolphy, from the album Last Date

The flute never sounded this good