Jazz Bastard Podcast

Some people accuse critics of being subjective, but when discussing music there's always one Platonic fact you can point to above and beyond the shifting tides of fashion and trend:  does Mikey like it?  In this case, yes, yes he does.  He likes all four of this episode's albums.  Pat, on the other hand?  Still a bit bastardly.  We kick the episode off with some reader comments and end it talking about 80s music and Joni Mitchell, so something for everyone...

Ron Carter is one of the most recorded bassists in the world and anchored the second of Miles Davis' "great quintets" so he ain't no slouch.  His leader work, however, isn't always given the respect it deserves.  Exactly how much respect, you ask?  Just sit down and listen to the bastards sift out that question as they look at four of Ron's best leader dates from four different decades of his far-reaching career...

It's that holiday season once again, and Santa Mike insists we cover a slate of season-appropriate releases.  Are they jazz appropriate as well?  Not really, but two are jazz adjacent and one at least features an ex-Messenger, so there's that.  There's also, er,  Swamp Dogg.  Pop matters travels from Sufjan Stephens to late eighties England to the soothing, ambient sounds of the Zamboni, nature's Andreas Vollenweider...

The robots are coming!  The robots are coming!  And they're after our jobs - as lounge singers.  Skynet would not be amused.  But we kind of are  - at least, Mike says his first encounter with a vocaloid will be ever imprinted upon his brain.  Don't worry - this episode isn't all about our electronic replacements qua masters.  We look at music by flesh and blood performers too, one of which has a crush on Indianapolis native and renowned writer Kurt Vonnegut...

We look at three 2022 releases this time (albeit one recorded way back in 1972) along with the first harbinger of the new year.  There's an electronic sounding long-playing debut by a pair of youtube wunderkinder (all played in real-time we promise), a straight-ahead tenor sax trio, another star-studded portfolio album from a rising sax star, and a sprawling live opus from the music's greatest bassist/composer...

After almost a decade of planning and putting it off, the boys finally face their greatest fear:  group jazz singing.  What happens when three or four hipsters harmonize?  Is it safe to even try to find out?  Mike's not sure about that, but we tried anyway, and came up with this insight: you can't keep a good Boswell down.   In pop matters, Pat brags about having seen all three incarnations of the Bad Plus live, so stay tuned for that...

The boys have been at this podcasting game for ten years now (plus a few "bonus" episodes) and celebrate with a tenth anniversary show dedicated to - what else? - tentets.  And yes, spell-check, 'tentet' is a real word.  We journey from the 1950's to the right-now's in quest of ensembles to big to be a combo, too little to be a "big" band, and generally like what we find...