Hot House: a blog dedicated to jazz criticism

Returning Summer 2013

2012-12-16T16:39:00.000-05:00

School has kept me inactive, but that ends in June, whereupon I'll revive this here blog (maybe under a new name, maybe not). I've listened to so little jazz that it's kinda embarrassing to admit. (I did love new work from Vijay Iyer, The Bad Plus, Robert Glasper, and ERIMAJ, though).

Here are a few things that I'll be listening to in the meantime. See you in six months.

Happy Birthday Miles

2012-05-26T13:32:00.001-04:00

Marion Brown in 1967

2012-04-20T08:29:00.000-04:00

Robert Glasper on Bullseye

2012-04-19T09:25:00.000-04:00

"I'm playing jazz that's 2012."

Bullseye

tUnE-yArDs at Coachella

2012-04-18T13:17:00.002-04:00

Not quite jazz, but I love the way Merrill Garbus incorporates improvisation into her live performances.

Ornette

2012-04-16T07:14:00.000-04:00

Ornette Coleman Trio Performing The Soundtrack (1966):

Via @destinationout

Esperanza Plays The Daily Show

2012-04-14T15:04:00.000-04:00

Part 1:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Esperanza Spalding - "Black Gold"

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog

The Daily Show on Facebook

Part 2:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Esperanza Spalding - "Crowned & Kissed"

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog

The Daily Show on Facebook

Happy Birthday Herbie

2012-04-12T17:02:00.002-04:00

Jazz and Baseball

2012-04-10T17:55:00.003-04:00

How Baseball Gave Us Jazz:

One hundred years ago, a hard-throwing but erratic minor league pitcher named Ben Henderson was getting ready for his opening day start for the Portland Beavers against the Los Angeles Angels. Henderson had pitched well for the Beavers the previous year, but he began the 1912 season with a well-earned reputation as an unreliable drunk.

Henderson gave a Los Angeles Times reporter a preview of what he had planned for the game. "I got a new curve this year," he explained, "and I'm goin' to pitch one or two of them tomorrow. I call it the Jazz ball because it wobbles and you simply can't do anything with it." The headline for the item, from April 2, 1912, was simply "Ben's Jazz Curve."

Be sure to read the whole thing.

Also, an interesting point on virality: A few jazz blogs linked this story about three weeks ago, but it wasn't until yesterday when I saw any baseball blogs link it. The long-tail theory does not account for bimodality, but considering the overlapping interest clusters that comprise the internet, perhaps it should.

Photo of Louis Armstrong baseball tam via Uni Watch

Spring

2012-03-21T08:00:00.000-04:00

Bill Frisell - Winter Always Turns into Spring
Emily Remler - Mocha Spice
The Wee Trio - Avril 14th
Medeski Martin & Wood - Down on Me
The Bad Plus - Never Stop
Duke Ellington - Lotus Blossom
Ambrose Akinmusire - The Walls of Lechuguilla
Vijay Iyer Trio - Mmhmm
Jack DeJohnette and Bill Frisell - After the Rain
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - United

Listen to this playlist in Spotify

Rudresh Mahanthappa's Tiny Desk Concert

2012-03-20T07:30:00.000-04:00

I totally slept on Rudresh's last album (Samdhi), must catch up.

Via NPR Music

Eric Harland makes ruins sound like a drum kit

2012-03-19T08:00:00.000-04:00

Via NPR Music. Eric Harland sounds like I think I do when I drum on my desk with pens, except a million times better.

Accelerando

2012-03-16T12:33:00.000-04:00

Vijay Iyer's latest, Accelerando, was released earlier this week. He and trio-mates Stephan Crump and Marcus Gilmore have produced a worthy follow-up to 2009's masterful Historicity. As with Historicity, Accelerando is informed by a strong rhythmic sense that hypnotic sometimes, jarring others. I've been playing it on a constant loop for the past few days, and this should persist for awhile. As with Historicity, this one will probably be at or near the top of a slew of year-end best-of lists.

Actions Speak (recorded at Winter Jazzfest 2012 in NYC):

Mmhmm:

EPK:

Image via.

Hipness and its Discontents

2012-01-30T18:41:00.000-05:00

Via.

2011

2011-12-31T15:09:00.000-05:00

Thanks to my return to school and other blogging obligations I've been pretty quiet around these parts lately. Which is too bad, since I would have loved to take the time to comment on the latest jazz internet controversies.* I've still got three album reviews in the queue that I have barely started, but alas. I resolve to blog more at some point, but that's as much of a commitment as I'll make for now.

As always, I will list some of my favorite music of the year (jazz and non-jazz) below. I can never listen to anything approaching a comprehensive list of the music released in a given year, but suffice it to say these albums below made me take notice this year.

Ambrose Akinmusire - When The Heart Emerges Glistening
Gretchen Parlato - The Lost And Found
Ben Williams - State of Art
Joe Lovano Us Five - Bird Songs
Orrin Evans - Captain Black Big Band

And my favorite non-jazz of 2011:
Bon Iver - Bon Iver
Cults - Cults
Feist - Metals
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
The Roots - Undun
St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
Tune-Yards: w h o k i l l
Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo
Wye Oak - Civilian

And one final farewell to Paul Motian, Sam Rivers, Bob Brookmeyer, Andre Hodeir, Hitch, Mad Dog, Hubert Sumlin, Pete Rugolo, Al Davis, Fred Shuttlesworth, The Big Man, Gil Scott-Heron, Harmon Killebrew, Sidney Lumet, Pinetop Perkins, and anyone else I have left out.

Here's to a happy 2012.

*Especially the jazz/Black American Music debate. I'm all for moving beyond the word "jazz," which is way too small a word to encompass all the music stuffed under its umbrella. But suffice it to say, anyone who calls himself the savior of anything (as Nicholas Payton does vis-a-vis "Archaic Pop") sets off my bullshit detectors immediately. I'm glad someone is not afraid to write candidly about the racial aspects of American music, but maybe one day the internet can handle a complex discussion like this without devolving into a pissing match within a few minutes...

Trombone Shorty plays Tiny Desk

2011-10-09T16:12:00.000-04:00

W H O K I L L

2011-09-28T10:33:00.000-04:00

tUnE-yArDs are an indie rock outfit surrounding Merrill Garbus, whose personality and ecumenical style would fit right in with the Nextbop/Revivalist set. W H O K I L L, their album released earlier this year, is among my favorite albums of 2011 so far.

Just call him George Steer-ing

2011-09-26T20:55:00.000-04:00

Not an Onion video, Playing jazz for cows in France:

I've been a vegetarian for ethical reasons (i.e. anti-factory farming) for four years. However, I would most definitely eat a steak made from one of these cows. I'd put some Miles on my turntable while I ate it, too.

Autumn

2011-09-24T14:16:00.000-04:00

It's playlist time again...

Brad Mehldau: August Ending
Happy Apple: Green Grass Stains on Wrangler Jeans
Miles Davis: Fall
Dave Holland: Four Winds
Vijay Iyer Trio: Mystic Brew
Chick Corea: Windows
Medeski Martin and Wood: Your Lady
John Coltrane: Moment's Notice
The Bad Plus: Flim

Listen to this playlist on Spotify

That's One Way to Do it...

2011-09-01T11:42:00.000-04:00

Jazz solos transcribed on recorder, presented without comment:

Happy Birthday Bird

2011-08-29T11:02:00.000-04:00

Ballad (Hawkins, Bird, Jones, Brown, Rich)
Celebrity (Bird, Jones, Brown, Rich)

Personnel: Charlie Parker, alto saxophone; Coleman Hawkins, tenor saxophone; Hank Jones, piano; Ray Brown, bass; Buddy Rich, drums

A Lost Art

2011-08-25T13:01:00.000-04:00

Baseball stadium organ players are an endangered species, but in Atlanta one man keeps on keepin' on, and readers of this blog would probably dig him:

His Twitter feed is a must-follow. Even a Marlins fan (I know, I'm probably the first one you know) can like him.

Herbie @ TED

2011-08-03T10:46:00.000-04:00

Nice embouchure, Barry!

2011-07-12T11:14:00.000-04:00

So do you think Obama is more of a JJ Johnson guy or a Kai Winding guy?

via f yeah dementia!!1!

Trane's House

2011-07-08T09:07:00.001-04:00

Via the AV Club:

Philadelphia: The John Coltrane House

Further reading: A Love Supreme, But a House in Ruins (NYT)