Jazz Bastard Podcast

The boys aren't called bastards for nothing and sometimes they can be hard on unfamiliar musicians.  This episode they are pleased to revisit two artists whose earlier projects got rough treatment but whose new releases tickle a bastard's fancy.  At the same time, they discuss two artists brand new to the show and like their releases as well.  What are the odds?  (Seriously, we don't know.  We're both bad at math...

Female vocalists take the stage this episode, with voices ranging from small and whispery to bold 'en brassy and approaches ranging from the hardest of hardcore jazz to relatively pop-oriented (if not populist or low-brow).  Most of these are brand new releases, so grab them up and support musicians stuck, with the rest of us, in lock-down mode.  Pop matters trots out some obscure artists including Faun Fables, Paolo Nutini and Lorna Hunt...

In this wide-ranging interview, the boys talk with bassist Nicholas Krolak, a Philadelphian with insights on pacing a set, marketing difficult-to-publicize music like jazz, the cost of including standards on a cd, and the oblique thinking of Bad Plus pianist Orrin Evans.  There's also some discussion of "bachelor cookies" (not a euphemism) in there.  Nicholas Krolak - VOICE = POWER; Booker Ervin - TEX BOOK TENOR; Orrin Evans - FLIP THE SCRIPT.

Listeners of a certain age will remember the Saturday Night Live "sound" - all squealing saxes and twice-removed soul gestures.  In this podcast we talk about one possible precursor to the sound and three of its best known practitioners - some of whom may or may not have partaken in Bolivian Marching Powder from time to time.  No Pop Matters this round, as it ended up growing so big it got its own .5 edition...

Does harp music fill you with images of celestial angels - or a (relatively) tamed Pharaoh Sanders?  Either way, there's something for you here in this brief overview of "cosmic" jazz.  We start with a good, long look at the early career of Pharaoh Sanders and his brief gig with displaced resident of Saturn, Sun Ra, then move on to Alice Coltrane's contribution to the formation of cosmic/spiritual music...

Ya want big bands?  We got big bands.  Sometimes we got one in each speaker.  In this exploration of the more extroverted side of jazz, the boys explore works by a blazing trumpet player (and world-class womanizer), a so-so clarinetist with a heart of gold, two piano-playing band leaders who both worship Duke Ellington, and two (but it sounds like thirty) major-league skin-pounders...

Lockdown can't stop the boys from interviewing interesting musicians (it's not like we did it in person before . . .)  This time pianist, composer and educator Danny Green visits our slightly demented neck of the woods to discuss his latest project (a group called LP and the Vinyl with a vocalist covering . . . gasp . . . rock and pop tunes as well as jazz standards) as well as three albums that influenced his approach to music making...

Sometimes the boys just can't agree.  This is one of those times.  Two new selections split them down the middle (though they at least "like" both selections), while one of the two oldies drives poor Mike (and Mike's family) up the proverbial wall (or is that escalator?)  Carla Bley (and poet Paul Haines) – ESCALATOR OVER THE HILL; Matt Ulery – POLLINATOR; Mathis Sound Orchestra – WORLD UNITY; George Adams – AMERICA...

This is a strange one, listeners, as the boys compare and contrast various jazz "best-of" lists for the 2010's and then let you, the listener, "behind the curtain" as they decide how to populate the next four shows of the podcast.  Mike's rubric:  something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue...

The boys start their trawl through some best-of-decade picks they missed during the last eight years by focusing on four albums in the, let's face it, somewhat amorphous "something old" category.  By which we mean, I think, albums on best of decades lists featuring well-established artists playing in fairly familiar modes...