Jazz Bastard Podcast

A lot of 2020 was spent in the fetal position, so it's not surprising some interesting jazz releases passed us by.  This episode the boys check out four Blue Note releases from that memorable year, all of which we like pretty gosh darn well.  So at least there's something from 2020 we like.  Pop matters wallows in eighties nostalgia, but what did you expect?  Various Artists - BLUE NOTE RE:IMAGINED; Ron Miles – RAINBOW SIGN;  Artemis – ARTEMIS: Joel Ross – WHO ARE YOU? 

Pat got a four-LP set from John Zorn’s Tzadik label and thought an episode catching up with recent events in the Zorniverse might be a good idea.  Mike thought the title of this episode was a good idea.  Brace yourselves.   All four albums feature Zorn the composer, while only one features Zorn the alto saxophone player and only one features a demonically possessed Muppet on vocals.  Pop matters reveals that Mike still doesn’t like Joanna Newsom and still has mixed feelings about Frank Zappa...

Time for a traditional mixed-bag podcast ranging over the decades and through musical styles, though 2001 gets special treatment for whatever reason.  Artists range from an Ornette Coleman-esque quartet from the sixties to an uplifting piano trio from right now, with an outward questing pianist and trumpeter in the middle of the sandwich...

The jazz world lost Chick Corea this February and we bastards miss him like everyone else.  Well, maybe not like fans of electric-era Return to Forever, but we certainly miss him.  In this episode, we focus on some of Chick's acoustic music, looking at some early works that show both his melodic and avant-garde sides, and his tribute to a predecessor with a considerably less sunny personality than Chick himself...

Mike's on the road for this one, and he's the only one in the car who likes jazz, so things get a bit hairy as he listens to this week's selections.  All were selected by Pat (safely at home) and all are by artists new to both, so there's some fumbling about as they listen to four 2021 releases and try to figure out why they annoy Mike's new cats so much...

Mike thinks "basserageous" is the stupidest title for the podcast yet, but is it, really?  There's a lot of competition.  Anyway, this fortnight's gem looks at ECM albums where the bass is large and in charge, which provides opportunities to talk about ECM's aesthetics, how technological changes in the seventies allowed bass players new prominence, and Pat Metheny's hair.  Mostly Pat Metheny's hair...

In honor of a Record Store Day release of "In Baltimore", we decide to devote an episode to tenor saxophonist George Coleman, who served tours of duty with Max Roach, Elvin Jones, and Miles Davis among others.  The focus is on his mid-sixties to early seventies work as we ponder George's strengths and weaknesses and whether he's been given a fair shake in jazz history...

The Bastards had hoped to host author Will Friedwald this episode to discuss his book on Nat King Cole, but like a ramblin' rose his path wandered from ours and we ended up high and lonesome, talking Nat's vocal albums on Capital by ourselves.   Nat was one of the great Swing era piano players and led one of the first influential jazz piano trios, but we focus on the second half of his too-short career as mainstream vocalist and vowel-wrangler extraordinaire...

We bring the old-ish and the brand-new this week, with two catalog items courtesy of Mike and two 2021 Bud Powell tributes courtesy of Kismet, I guess.  One oldie os a middle of the road Blue Note basic, while the other is a third stream effort that is glancingly echoed in the more orchestrated of the two Bud tributes.  And that's all you're getting out of me - you'll have to listen to the episode to find out more...

Four recent releases by four artists new to the boys - two offering their debuts to the world.  We've got a couple of vibe-meisters (is that instrument getting hot all of a sudden?), a disciple of Darcy James Argue, and a good old-fashioned small-group jazz album with a thematic thing going on.  Oh yeah, and in a completely scientific poll of one listener, we beat out the brilliant classical minds on the Gramophone podcast, so there's that...