A Non-Jazz Recommendation

Beck has undertaken a new project for his website: covering some of his favorite albums, one song at a time, and posting the results. His first undertaking is the first Velvet Underground album. Quite a bold choice, but check out the first two tracks.

Sunday Morning:

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico 'Sunday Morning' from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

I'm Waiting for The Man (dig the detuned guitars):

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico 'Waiting for My Man' from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Beck's been posting one track a week, meaning next week we'll see Beck & Co.'s rendition of Heroin, one of my all-time favorite tunes. I can't wait to see what he does with it.

Dave Douglas And Brass Ecstasy Live From NPR

Via A Blog Supreme (I'm still envious about that name...), NPR has posted video of Dave Douglas and Brass Ecstasy's performance in NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series. Check it out.

Review: Infernal Machines

Darcy James Argue's Secret Society

Infernal Machines

I'm a bit late to Darcy James Argue's party, so I'll be brief. Argue, a heretofore relatively obscure composer and bandleader in New York, just released his debut album, a big band project which evokes both the lofty atmospherics of the Maria Schneider Orchestra and the sounds of modern indie rock. Argue recently wrote of his music:

What if the big band had remained the standard vehicle for popular music? What if every time you turned on the radio, everyone from T-Pain to Rihanna to Katy Perry was backed by a big band? What if Animal Collective and Vampire Weekend and MGMT all had 13-piece horn sections? What if the Rock Band video game came with a whole bunch of trumpet and saxophone and trombone controllers? I am not saying this would necessarily be a desirable situation. But it is fun to think about. At least, it’s fun for me to think about. And my music for Secret Society essentially comes out of me imagining what a jazz big band would sound like in an alternate reality where big bands were still widely popular (instead of a curious anachronism), and where jazz was still on speaking terms with other musical genres.

Judging from the sizable audience for his blog, as well as the many enthusiastic reviews of the album, it appears Argue is not the only person who thinks this would be fun to think about. Argue delivers the goods on the album, to boot. The opening track, Phobos, layers flowing wind orchestrations over an intense guitar line in a way that weds Gil Evans and late-period Led Zeppelin. Transit is another highlight, a bona fide barnburner featuring an excellent solo from trumpeter Ingrid Jensen.

Argue might not change the trajectory of jazz, but he nonetheless offers a refreshing reinvention of the big band form. I can't wait to hear what he comes up with next. Those unfamiliar to Argue's work are recommended to check out his blog and website, where you can download free live recordings of the Secret Society, and his record label, New Amsterdam Records, where you can stream the album and anything else in their catalogue.


Track Listing: Phobos, Zeno, Transit, Redeye, Jacobin Club, Habeas Corpus (for Maher Arar), Obsidian Flow

Do this for the next 30 minutes

Courtesy of Jazz Video Guy Bret Primack, here is the late pianist Walter Bishop Jr. discussing his Theory of Fourths. It is a bit dense for nonmusicians, but nonetheless an interesting discussion of music theory. Thanks, Bret!

h/t @jazzvideoguy

Good Gracious

From If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats comes this Blue Note cover for Lou Donaldson, who wasn't concerned with the world knowing he was a lecherous creep. Such were the early 1960s...

In other corners of the jazz blogosphere:

• At jazz.com, Maria Schneider discusses her twelve favorite Gil Evans tracks.
• Darcy James Argue links a YouTube of Clark Terry playing live with the Wayne Shorter Quartet in 1986. Though Wayne was playing in a fusion vein at the time, Terry does not miss a step. There's a reason Miles Davis treated Terry so reverently in his memoirs; the man can still play with anybody who comes his way.
• Ethan Iverson reviews Douglas Henry Daniels’ Lester Leaps In: The Life and Times of Lester "Pres" Young, a new bio of Lester Young, and offers some good thoughts on the multitude of approaches to jazz criticism. Ethan also recently posted a massive interview with Tim Berne that is worth your time.
  
• Dave Douglas recently guest posted at A Blog Supreme, writing about the business of jazz in a changing economic climate. Elsewhere at NPR, the All Songs Considered blog takes a look at some legendary New Orleans pianists.
  
• Ted Gioia discusses a recent NEA study which suggests that the audience for jazz is both shrinking and aging.
• At WBGO, Dave Brubeck discusses the legacy of his 1959 album Time Out.
• Night Lights has an extensive interview with jazz scholar John Gennari. John's book is essential reading for anyone interested in the history and development of jazz criticism.