Jazz Bastard Podcast Patrick Burnette

Big bands tempt the ambitious jazzer with their expansive possibilities for arrangements, the variegated colors they offer, and their sheer power.  But, boy, those budgets!  These days you need a generous label or a grant or two to make things work.  We take a look at a very seventies example of the genre and then a brand new effort by a young woman barely old enough to drive.  A guitar trio and a guitar solo fill out the episode, and they couldn't be at further ends of the in to out spectrum.   In the end show, Mike fills us in on a couple major acts he caught recently in San Diego.  Grace Fox – ELEVEN O’SEVEN;  Oz Noy/Riverside Trio – RIVERSIDE; Samo Salamon – DOLPHYOLOGY; Oliver Nelson – SKULL SESSION.

We listen to three releases from 2022, two exploring some interesting corners of jazz repertoire and one bringing back a format that thrived in the '50s.  Then, just for kicks, we get a message back from the future of 1987.  Does label Cellar Music contractually oblige its artists to cover a certain Benny Golson tune?  Listen to experience our hard-hitting investigation.   In pop matters, Mike offers Adele a sandwich.   It's a gesture of love and support, people.  Mark Helias – THE CURRENT SET; Aaron Seeber – FIRST MOVE; Grant Stewart – THE LIGHTING OF THE LAMPS; Scott Burns – TENOR TIME.

It's time for a deep dive, listeners, and the subject this round is underappreciated West Coast keyboard wizard Hampton Hawes.  Hawes did most of his best known recordings for Contemporary Jazz, and we'll look at a couple of releases on that storied (but also underappreciated) label, as well as a collaboration with Charles Mingus and a sample of Hampton's seventies output, when the sideburns got longer and the keyboards got plugged in.  Hampton Hawes: BLUES FOR WALLS ; FOR REAL; FOUR! Charles Mingus:  MINGUS THREE.  Pat takes a ride with Casey Jones in pop matters.

Drummers are the under-sung heroes of the jazz world.  At their best, they lift up and enhance whatever the so-called front-liners are up to while being ready to step up and say their piece when called upon.  But every now and then things get a bit . . . sticky.  This episode explores four recordings where to varying degrees the drummer goes a little wild and oddity results.  Charlie Parker - BIRD & DIZ; Dexter Gordon – ONE FLIGHT UP; Mostly Other People Do the Killing – DISASTERS VOLUME 1; Slide Hampton – MELLOW DY.

"Going Pop" can mean many different things where jazz musicians are concerned, from adding electricity (dang it, Miles, why you do that?), to covering pop songs, to actually experimenting with writing pop songs (not too many take this path and few emerge unscathed).  And then there's rare jazzer combining jazz and pop songs, as you'll soon find out.   This time out we look at approaches all over the spectrum, ending with a vocal album Mike has already pegged as an album of the year contender.  Cecile McLoren – GHOST SONG; John Pizzarelli – DOUBLE EXPOSURE; Reuben Wilson – LOVE BUG; Bill O’Connell – A CHANGE IS GONNA COME.

A great big heapin' helping of a certain blind pianist's work provides the anchor for this time's outing, as we look at one disc from six of a new box set and then fan out to look at a little known second-hand disciple of the great man along with two other stylists further removed.  Pop matters further reveals Mike's ongoing obsession with all things Buckley.  Lennie Tristano  - PERSONAL RECORDINGS, Disc three; Billy Lester -  FROM SCRATCH ; Deanna Witkowski – FORCE OF NATURE; Roberto Occhipinti – THE NEXT STEP .