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I've been struggling to get into jazz for a while now. There's elements I love about it, the oil slick stylings and atmosphere that makes me feel like I should be choking on a cigar in a back alley bar where you just know key players in organised crime hang out on their days off. That's why I like der Club of Gore, Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, Davis's Ascenseur pour l'Echafaud and some post-bop stuff like Mingus. I don't love the fact that jazz musicians seem to only be capable of playing at two volumes, on or off, but for me the biggest deal killer with 90% of jazz is the fact that it doesn't change. The structure, tempo, time signature and feel of the piece is a totally static backdrop for some soloist to wank to. Help me love jazz, goons.
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Aug 12, 2015 00:21
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 13:51 |
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c0ldfuse posted:What type of non-jazz music are you into? I like a lot of shoe gaze influence stuff, a lot of post-rock and math rock as well. Getting into drone doom and 20th century avant garde as well. It's basically a lot of really loud, noisy rock. I like textures and extensive dynamics, basically. BigFactory posted:And what have you given a good critical listen to that you don't like? There's coming up on 100 years of recorded jazz out there. It's hard to cherry pick a couple records and call it a day. Most recently in my memory, Supersonic Jazz, various collected David and Coltrane (I liked Equinox well enough). I wouldn't call my knowledge of jazz complete or comprehensive, but I think I have a handle on the standards that people who aren't into jazz know about. SubG posted:How do you feel about Monk, say Brilliant Corners? It's about as change-y as any composition ever is, but still has a lot of soloing which I guess you might regard as wankery if you're not into that kind of soloing. I really appreciate how quickly this piece changes itself up, but the "I can run up this scale in more ways than you can imagine" stuff is a bit of a turnoff. I really don't listen for melodies much and I feel like these no doubt brilliant notes don't actually mean much to me. I listen far more for atmosphere, tone and timbre.
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Aug 12, 2015 02:52
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BigFactory posted:Maybe you just don't like jazz? See that's the problem, I like some jazz a lot. Not liking jazz would be easy. Let me rephrase. People, please tell me good dark jazz/doom jazz/noir jazz/incredibly seductive post-bop albums to listen to. Cymbal Monkey fucked around with this message at 03:10 on Aug 12, 2015 |
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Aug 12, 2015 03:06
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BigFactory posted:Those are not typical terms people use to describe styles of jazz, but if you like Charles Mingus and haven't heard Let My Children Hear Music, I think it's his best. At least it's my favorite. Mid 70's, pretty close to the end of his career, it's got a big band feel and it swings but it's got the avant garde inspiration too. Shut up those are totally legitimate jazz genres. 
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Aug 12, 2015 03:39
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SubG posted:The weird thing for me here is that when you're talking about Monk it sounds like you're not talking about Monk and when you're not talking about Monk it sounds like you're talking about Monk. But whatever. I should also say I only have a vague grasp on the terminology.
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Aug 12, 2015 03:41
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BigFactory posted:Maybe start with some books, then. I'm mostly going on the facts that I know what Darkjazz is and my friend told me Mingus is post bop.
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Aug 12, 2015 03:46
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Star posted:Based on you liking Ascenseur pour l'Echafaud I think I understand what you are trying to find even though your terms are, as people have said, not the more orthodox ones. More muted, slower jazz and a general lack of fast, more bebop-y improvisation huh? I would recommend looking up more of Miles stuff if you haven't already done that since he is the master of laidback, cool jazz (when he feels like it; the man can do anything), maybe his modal stuff, Porgy and Bess, Sketches of Spain, Miles Ahead, stuff like that. In general, I'd recommend trying out modal jazz and look into some of west coast jazz, I think it will be more to your liking than swing or bebop. Hopefully you'll find something you like. Otherwise drop some links to youtube with examples. Sketches of Spain was loving cool. I love that full sound and slow melancholic progression. Hank Mobley I wasn't as big on but I couldn't really figure out why. It really didn't fall into any of my standard jazz complaints but it didn't tickle me for whatever reason. The Bill Evans piece is really pretty but I think lacks atmosphere. I love the Chet Baker piece. When it comes to jazz leads that's how I like it done. Slow and thoughtful. Blues for Pablo has some great segment but the more lounge-y segments lose me (watch me have misused that term) That was a fantastic post though, thanks a bunch! SubG posted:If he's not digging on Monk because he thinks he's just seeing how many ways he can play the scale I really wouldn't expect him to be into modal stuff. I quite liked The Black Saint, that's a really cool album. J_RBG posted:[some links] In a Silent Way was so cool. I love the gradual but marked progression. I love things aren't mixed far apart (the lead isn't overwhelmingly louder than the rest of the instruments all the time) and I love Davis's use of subtle dynamics (subtle by my standards at least). I love how everyone in the mix feels like they're doing something, not just walking up scales back and fourth. This is a loving awesome recording. Those Alice Coltrane songs though, especially the second one. Those are a loving trip and holy poo poo they sound loving amazing. I'll definitely be exploring her work more. Bitch's Brew, also cool as hell. Thanks for that! As far as theory I can read jazz chord notation and know what that means and I know how chords are put together.
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Aug 13, 2015 04:41
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