Satchmo's Jive Essence 42

#40 Mastodon - Leviathan
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Ok before anyone starts getting too indignant over this one let me just say that I used to be a huge metal head back in the day. The reason why I got out of the genre really wasn't because it was too heavy or I was getting too old, but because the genre itself was just becoming one worn out cliche being piled on top of another. Any and all progression in the genre seemed to be aimed at becoming harder, faster, and more br00tal, while no diversity within the genre was to be had, and I was growing tired of it. Occasionally I would go back and ask some of my still die-hard metal frienRAB if their had surfaced anything in the metal world that was perhaps cut of a different cloth, a little experimental, only to be handed this months latest Mr. Bungle impersonation or nu-metal sensation *yawn*. When I shared my vision of a metal-jazz hybrid I was always met with the same incredulous attitude of how the melding of jazz and metal is as unnatural as the reconciliation of religion and science. Not so, not so, and my proof is in this beautiful quartet from Atlanta, Georgia.

Leviathan is the first Mastodon album I ever heard, and until the recent release of Crack the Skye it has remained my favorite. I could have easily picked Crack the Skye as my entry for this band, but I felt that for propriety's sake it would be best to allow a certain obligatory grace period to elapse after its release before putting it in any "top" list.

What was immediately evident, to me, upon first listening to Mastodon is that they were the perfect example of a jazz quartet cleverly disguising itself as a metal band (something tells me I'm supposed to insert "core" somewhere, but i won't.). Simply put, beneath the distortion pedals and veneer of metal dynamics the band just ****ing swings, and swings hard! The Melodies and respective harmonic overtones are complex without being helter skelter. The absolutely balls out drumming is dynamic, loose, and precise all at the same time, and the vocals carry the tirabre, aesthetic, and rhetoric of an additional melodic instrument, a key element with vocal-centric jazz.

It's not how sickly talented this band is that blows my mind, its that their music is so cohesive that without paying enormously focused attention to what the musicians are doing it simply just comes across as sounding great. There are times when the band switches up time signatures and keys, drastically, on the head of a pin, and it's done so effortlessly that it sounRAB like the most natural thing in the world. There are "techy" metal banRAB that go out of their way to put forth the impression that they're jumping all over the place to make it seem like they're "more progressive than though" while in the process exposing their inadequacies both in performance and in songwriting. Mastodon is quite the opposite. They go beyond making it look easy and make it look like there's nothing difficult going on in the first place. I haven't taken the time to highlight any specific songs on this album, mainly because, like their other albums, Leviathan is very conceptually based and should be appreciated as a whole.
 
This is a wonderful idea for a thread.

Great call on Double Nickels, Low End Theory and What's Going On.



I couldn't have said it better myself.

Jamerson really is the greatest rock/pop bassist of all time.
 
#27 Avishai Cohen Trio - Gently Disturbed

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Perhaps one of the greatest challenges in regard to this thread, and the primary reason why I've been resting on its laurels for so long, has not been for a lack of decent albums to include in this thread, but because of the progressive nature of the entries from a rock rhetoric to a straight-forward jazz aesthetic. It's simple in the beginning. Jazz influences on contemporary music can be seen in nearly all genres, in fact jazz' influence is so ubiquitous that one could say the challenge is in discerning where and when it's obviously not the case of an enserable leaning on a well worn cliche that has simply been assimilated into a common contemporary style. When we hit the doldrums of jazz fusion, where soul, hip hop, and of course, more fusion seem to be the only figurative land masses in sight, that's where the real confusion set's in. In retrospect I think I was leaning on a particular way of thinking that really sold short a lot of great current and contemporary music.

Perhaps I've thought about it more than most should, but I think Jazz fusion, as it regarRAB the particular sub-genre that came about in the late 60's/early 70's, is really a misnomer, as it was more a reaction to rock's domination of charts and sales and the decline of the public's overall interest in jazz in general. What one hears when one listens to say Return to Forever's Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy is without a doubt a lot of talented and creative music, but also a huge exagerration of the rock dynamic as if to get a point across.Now to say that jazz fusion's birth was strictly reactionary and retaliatory would be absurd, but I do identify it as an influence and a very off-putting element of the genre in general.

Ironically while most jazz fans are very quick to erabrace both fusion and every part of its history that led up to it, there is an unspoken consensus among jazz buRAB that all good jazz stopped being produced prior to around the mid-70's with few exceptions. While it is true that it has been a very rocky road for the genre for the past 30 years or so, the advent of smooth jazz and the likes of Kenny G and David Sanborne did nothing to help matters, I think we have reached a point where the new school of jazz is ready revive what was once thought to be a dead art form.

I'm a big fan of the jazz piano trio. Strangely enough it's not the diversity of tone and tirabre within the genre that interests me, but rather the opposite. It's the fact that most of the dynamics and tone of upright bass, drums, and piano overlap in such a way that the distinctions between the three, with the exception of perhaps the drums, are subtle and very textural. In the scope of the piano jazz trio one is used to the laid back wire brush percussion and cohesive rhythm section playing the supporting cat to a piano player gently, or not so gently, pushing out the harmony and melody. I think the fact that The Aveshei Cohen Trio so blatantly defy that standard convention is one of the reasons why I so like this album.

The Aveshai Cohen Definitely paid his dues before recording this album. As the bass player and founding meraber for Chic Corea's fusion sextet Origin he firmly established himself as one of the most innovative and unorthodox upright players in modern jazz. He's joined on Gently Disturbed by pianist Shai Maestro and drummer Mark Guiliana, and the chemistry that comes about from their three distinct styles is nothing short of captivating.

The piano, while not the driving force, is refreshing as it doesnt pigeon hole itself into the stereotypical laidback whimsical style of the typical rhetoric one associates with the instrument in jazz. It pushes forward and lilts on an idea, as if catching oneself in mid conversation to think about exactly what one just said and then, without missing a beat, pushes on. Cohen's bass playing, much the same way alternates between being cohesive and abrasive, hiding in the pockets here and there to increase the impact of when he makes his presence fully known. Guiliana's drums are dynamic without being overbearing and seamlessly alternate between lightly carrying the rhythm in a jazz fashion and being aggressive and precise when the song calls for it. At varying points thee songs dissipate to a song-writer piano man type feel with the piano only to expand and contract to explore new territories the musicians seem to create for themselves. Fans of Ben FolRAB and his piano style will definitely appreciate the scope of this record.

All in all, as has often been the case with my reviews, a song breakdown isn't necessary as this album is truly a journey, but I really think this album will have instant appeal to those who like the conceptual nature of jazz without partaking of it's somewhat dissonant nature which can, admittedly, be annoying at times. It captures all the positives of Jazz's exploratory nature, exploits it's dynamics, yet still keeps the overall melody and harmony in familiar enough territory.
 
Yeah, its fairly easy to see that since I wrote the review immediately after I wrote the preface that most of my creative energy went into the storytelling, which is good; I wanted the story to carry the energy of what this album is to me.

P.S I replaced the album art with a youtube video of the opening song from Low End Theory to give further dimension to the impact of the experience.
 
Oh, I'm pretty old-school (emphasis on the old:laughing:)I remeraber when Charlie was playing with Michael Franti of Spearhead on Disposable heroes of hiphopracy in the late 80's early 90's, probably the first real instruments hip hop band that ever had any commercial success. His solo albums are hit or miss my favorites being his first "duo" album and Tales from the Analog Planet, and of course Natty Dread. I'd heard about his project Garaje A Trois w/ Stanton Moore a while ago, but I haven't had a chance to check it out. I'm sure its awesome and I'm a huge fan of Stanton's solo albums. Sadly I havent heard Mistico yet either, but its gaining a pretty solid reputation.
I've been lucky enough to work with Charlie a handful of times engineering shows and I will say that he is a very positive and hurable human being and after seeing him live several times I have yet to see the man **** up a single note during a performance, and I get paid to pay attention.
 
I'm looking foward to seeing more out of this thread, its a very interesting concept and the idea of moving from your current musical tastes and expanding from there greatly applies to me. I think many different banRAB brought me to jazz. When I got into ska, I came to appreciate things other then the "nu-metal" stuff that I only heard on the radio. Ska showed me the beauties of horns and bass guitar. I started to listen to banRAB such as Led Zeppelin, which introduced me to blues and folk while still keeping a familier rock influence. BanRAB like Dillinger Escape Plan introduced me to jazz-influenced rhythms and time-signitures but in a hardcore format. All of these banRAB eventually brought me not just to jazz, but to many other musical genres as well. I didn't expand my tastes by suddenly going from listening to Green Day to Louis Armstrong. My tastes expanded over time by going to the roots of the music that I loved.
 
#28 Herbie Hancock - Headhunters

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A few pages back I wrote a fairly long dissertation on Jazz fusion, Particularly regarding how the term itself is essentially a misnomer. Looking back on that essay I have to say that what i wrote is only partially right. Jazz fusion is, typically, the fusion of rock and jazz, but just like when you mix blue and yellow you dont' get blue-yellow, when you mix jazz and rock you don't get jazz rock, at least not in the way it was approached in the early 70's when it was pioneered.

There were several factors at play in the late 60's/early 70's when jazz musicians were beginning to experiment with the rock dynamic. Firstly, and probably most importantly jazz was dying, and it wasn't an unforeseen demise. Since the late 50's rock n' roll's influence on American culture was growing exponentially. At first there was reason to believe that the two genres would peacefully coexist and cater to different demographics, but rock's increasing popularity grew to such an extent that all but the hardcore jazz aficionados were losing interest. This had a tremendous impact on record sales and for record labels that represented exclusively jazz artists like Prestige and Blue Note this meant bankruptcy or worse.

In addition to this, the growing genres of rock, soul, and funk were beginning to have a creative influence on the jazz musicians who were definitely paying attention. Advances in recording technology such as overdubbing and multi-track recording, just to name a few, were opening up new possibilities for creative experimentation. And the advances in instrument technology and amplification paved avenues of creative expression that some musicians could only have dreamed of a few short years earlier.

Superficially it is the latter, the instrumentation, that we think of when we think of jazz fusion. The electric guitar had been a staple of jazz for 20 years before the advent of fusion, but there were now musicians in other genres, such as Jimi Hendrix who were pushing the envelope of what was possible with the electric guitar as a melodic instrument. Electric basses no longer upright and encurabering afforded bassists a degree of dexterity and ergonomics not known before. Corabined with respective amplification this meant that bassists could both groove melodically and be heard in the mix. New head materials and the increasing popularity of hugely expanded drum sets opened up new possibilities for jazz drummers to play elaborate beats and fills that were once impossible with the standard 3-6 piece jazz kit. Jazz Drummers were trading in their wire brushes for hickory sticks and approaching their craft with a level of assertiveness and technical expression that was unprecedented. Anyone who's ever listened to a Billy Cobham record can attest to the fact that the man makes Neil Peart sound like Ringo Star. But nowhere was the advancement in instrument technology more present than in the world of Keyboard instruments.

Up until this point the acoustic piano and the Hammond B3 Organ had been the only keyboard instrument utilized in jazz and the B3 had seen its advent in the late 50's with such masters as Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff. It wasn't until the creation of the Fender Rhodes electric piano, introduced in 1959, and the Hohner D6 Clavinet introduced in 1968, and the new and exciting analog mini-synth the Moog ARP Odyssey introduced around 1972 that new and different possibilies could be explored with the piano tirabre. All three of these keyed instruments opened up new tirabres for piano players to express themselves musically through alternate avenues. These three instruments were already beginning to manifest their new and unusual sounRAB in the corresponding rock genre. Keyboardist Donald fagen was wowing the world with the lush and chime-like tones of the Fender Rhodes on Steely Dan hit Do it Again, Stevie Wonder was busting out the funk with the Clavinet which he made famous with the repetitious riff in Superstitious and Rick Wakeman was bringing a new exotic and extraterrestrial sound to audiences with All Good People. But somewhere off in the jazz world a perennial and seasoned veteran piano player was experimenting with all three.

In a way Herbie Hancock's reputation as a Jazz pianist is a little tricky. His best known works in the public eye are those albums that he contributed to the area of jazz fusion and, later, his attempts at fusing jazz with electronic music which led to his insanely popular breakdancing hit Rockit. However one look at Hancock's discography shows us that he's been one of the most consistent musicians throughout the progressive course of jazz history. Even In my own preliminary research for this write up was shocked to see that Herbie Hancock will be turning 70 this year! Truth be told, this man has had an amazing career with just over 60 albums in his discography alone. This doesn't include appearances on other musician's albums, as well as his five year stint with The Miles Davis Quintet from 1963-1968. Yet Despite such a rich and diverse career Herbie Hancock is best remerabered for two traditional classic Jazz albums, Empyrean Isles and Maiden Voyage, his chart topping album Futureshock, the forementioned experiment with blending Jazz and electro, and this album which took jazz and bumped it up against the infectious grooves of the burgeoning new genre of funk.

Released in 1973, Head Hunters was really a reactive response to Miles Davis' own pioneering fusion album Bitches Brew. While Bitches Brew brought to the table an eclectic and esoteric sound that used much of the same electric instrumentation that Head hunters did, Herbie took the element In a much different and seemingly less progressive direction by making an album less conceptual in scope, less complex, and a whole lot funkier. Of the three Keyboard instruments mentioned above - The Fender Rhodes, The Clavinet, and the ARP odyssey, Herbie implemented all three and in a way that was blatantly more bold and dynamic than Joe Zawinul's ethereal and atmospheric electric piano stylings on Bitches Brew. What you have in this arabitious 4 song album is Jazz fusion taking a turn in a completely new direction.

The album starts out with Chameleon and one of Fusion's most memorable and catchy synthetic bass lines played by Herbie on the Odyssey bringing the groove into the arena. this song builRAB upon itself getting more and more into the groove progressively measure by measure with Herbie pushing out leaRAB on the Clavinet and the synth exposing the ear to a multitude of bizarre but complimentary sounRAB until, halfway through the song, the beat and the overall theme changes abruptly breaking into a Latin inspired eclecticism with Herbie presenting one of the most beautiful electric piano solos ever eventually leading the enserable back to the original groove to fadeout.
Watermelon Man starts out in a strange conglomeration of loop-like sounRAB including saxaphone player Bernie Maupin bringing out a repetitious rhythm played by blowing on the lip of a beer bottle. Eventually this breaks into a slow and smooth jazz funk beat and the collage of sounRAB at the beginning is reintroduce into the song toward the end.
Sly continues the overall theme of the album while turning on a dime to present some Latin based percussion by rhythm section Bill summers on Drums and Harvey Mason on percussion. Herbie mirrors this beat by slapping out rhythms on the clavinet while simultaneously utilizing the Fender Rhodes to trade off solos with Saxophonist Bernie Maupin who delivers his own intense free-form soloing throughout the song.
The album finishes with the slowed down bluesy feel of Vein Matter, The only real hint of introspection on the Album. This is the track that draws comparison's to Bitches Brew more specifically to the track Miles Runs the Voodoo down. Herbie defers to playing accents on the Clavinet and atmospheric synth paRAB, with the exceptional but brief and understated electric piano solo. Maupin tones down his intensity on the sax as well and delivers a ballad like performance that wavers between bluesy and ethereal at different points during the song.

This album, although not breaking into the mainstream of media savvy music the way that his later release futureshock did, is a staple of the all important transitory decade that the 70's were for many genre's of contemporary music. For any concerned about this song only being 4 songs I should state that the album clocks in at just over 40 minutes with the opening track alone extending over 15 minutes. The Irony is that this is just the tip of the iceberg of the career of a musician that does not receive nearly the credit he deserves for both being a jazz pioneer in general and introducing to beautiful yet divergent styles of music to each other.
 
#29 "Mahavishnu" John McLaughlin - My Goals Beyond

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John McLaughlin is somewhat of an anomaly in the world of jazz. Most discussions of jazz guitar virtuoso will ultimately find him in it, sooner or later, yet his career has at best always been far out of the reach of anything even marginally traditional. His early guitar work on Miles Davis' two pioneering and visionary fusion albums In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew are as close to traditional as McLaughlin has come to in the world of jazz. For most his name and reputation have gathered weight through his involvement with his 70's Jazz fusion group The Mahavishnu Orchestra, and later with the guitar trio that included himself, Paco DeLucia, and Al Dimeola. Both of these enserables really only flirted with the jazz style and rhetoric, while never becoming fully immersed. In spite of this paradox, his style and musical presence are as enigmatic today as they were nearly forty years ago when this gorgeous entirely acoustic album was first released.

I say record quite purposely, because when this album was released on vinyl in 1970 its structural layout made a lot more sense. The first two songs Peace One and Peace Two (7:19 min/sec and 12:16 min/sec respectively) composed Side A of the record and are the longest songs on the album. They are also the two full enserable pieces on the album with many of the same musicians that would go on to later collaborate with him in The Mahavishnu Orchestra. Bearing that in mind those familiar with the band will find some degree of familiarity with this portion of the album. There are hints of the jazz fusion group which was to come with the added elements of tabla and Tarabura - an instrument providing a droning sound very similar to that of the sitar. These elements and others like it after time became part of Mclaughlin's signature influence from classical India that can be heard in much of his subsequent work, especially on the "Shakti" albums.

The album opens with Peace one an almost Raga/jazz fusion that is controlled, well-paced, yet beautiful with a subtle hint of the fire that is momentarily being held at bay. Jerry Goodman's violin work is specially dynamic and amazingly conveys the feel and the overall rhetoric of the Middle-eastern style.
Peace Two continues the same pace and feel of the first song with the middle eastern elements subdued. The tablas keep pace softly in the background along with McLaughlin's guitar in order to give center stage to Goodman's flute. McLaughlin comes in 3/4 of the way through the song with a very brief and understated solo which carries the song in its direction toward the end.

The rest of the album, the next 8 songs, are a completely different paradigm from the two long enserable pieces that begin My Goals Beyond., one might even venture to say that if it weren't for the grouping together of the first 2 tracks with the last eight it could easily be considered a completely different album. While retaining the same overall feel and theme of the first two tracks, and certainly keeping the Middle-Eastern style and flair, McLaughlin loses the enserable for the remainder of the album and goes solo acoustic (although its almost certain that there are overdubbed tracks at work here).

The first track is Mclaughlin's acoustic guitar reworking of the haunting Charles Mingus' standard Goodbye Pork Pie Hat done on a slightly detuned 12 string. McLaughlin captures the brooding essence of the song in a way that I would never think that one man with a guitar ever could.
Something Spiritual follows, and like the title of the song suggests it is a very meditative, classical, yet forceful piece subtly conveying at first the spark that John is known for and then, abruptly turning oblique, diving directly into the visceral fire that Mr. McLaughlin has built his artistry upon.
Hearts and Flowers provides some middle ground with a day-dreamy lightly paced respite to provide contrast to the passionate and ethereal which is to follow.
Phillip Lane where the fiery manic comes out in McLaughlin. This is is easily my favorite display of McLaughlin's brilliance, as it conveys all the transcendental fervor and raga style of his guitar playing.
Waltz for Bill Evans, a cover of a Chick Corea Song, Definitely sees the artists at his most purely contemplative moment. Almost classical in approach this brief repose, just over 2 minutes, leaRAB into follow your heart a McLaughlin Original which almost echoes the 70's soft rock of his contemporaries of the time with his own signature erabellishments of course.
Song for my Mother Begins almost as a lament of sorts until abrief pause leaRAB the song into a reprisal of the fiery aggressive passion experienced earlier in Phillip Lane and just as soon as the fever rises the song concludes in an epilogue fashion quite similar to the way it started.
Perhaps the crowning piece own this album is found in the last song with John's reworking of Miles Davis' Classic Blue in Green. Slightly atonal in nature compared to the original, this cover captures just enough of the core melody of the original to make it just as enchanting in its own unique way. Perhaps the only downside of it being, at under 3 minutes long it gently sets you down on the ground just as quickly as it uplifts you.

One very special element of this album, especial in regard to the latter 8 tracks, is the incredible richness of the way in which the beautiful tone of McLaughlin's guitar is represented in the recording of this album. There are no overused compressors or limiters to keep the dynamics of the instrument at bay and compartmentalized. The texture; the good, the bad and the ugly is present front and center throughout the whole album. every bottomed out fret and intonation issue is available for scrutiny. One can almost feel the wood of the body and neck, the metal of the strings while listening to this album; all of which contribute to the absolutely visceral and palpable essence of McLaughlin's artistic presence.

This has always been an album that has been a staple of my collection, no matter how many reincarnations it has gone through. Admittedly I do tend to listen to the latter solo acoustic portion of the album more, especially in the morning where I find its contemplative yet energetic nature a great way to get the day started. Mahavishnu Orchestra fans who have yet to hear this album will fall all over themselves when they listen, I'm sure, as it represents the precursor of the overall vision of the band's music. My Goals Beyond, while not without its fanfare is an absolutely lush representation of the spirit of a main who just by association alone contributed so much to the world of jazz and beyond.
 
Very nice review, mister. You certainly do have a way with worRAB. I've not heard this album, but I'm sure I will soon.
 
Thanks for the uploaRAB Satchmo. Not sure how quickly I'm going to be able to listen to them, I'm still going through some of earlier albums in this thread. Listening to Tortoise right now. Why didn't anybody tell me the guitarist from Slint was in this band?
 
It is, of course, the meaning of life as well.

Top list so far. Mezzanine is a brilliant album. MMW and Mastodon are a couple I've been meaning to try out, so it's good to know which ones I should be getting first.

By the way, you skipped #40 :D
 
Fantastic fucking review for a fantastic fucking album. It's really one of those recorRAB that makes you appreciate music in an entirely different way. Great list so far, keep up the good work :thurab:
 
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