Entire genres that only need one thread #1: "Jazz"

[VinylGuy]

New Jeff Parker slays. Late addition to my favorite albums of the year.

Such a cool relaxing listen. I love how tight and loose it is at the same time. Cant wait to grab it the vinyl.

[tragabigzanda]

[VinylGuy]

New Jeff Parker slays. Late addition to my favorite albums of the year.

Such a cool relaxing listen. I love how tight and loose it is at the same time. Cant wait to grab it the vinyl.

I like that there are different elements in each track. The opener has some lowkey hip hop vibes; Late Autumn had a real minimalist thrust. The last track had some reggae aspects. But it all feels cohesive.

yeah and i do love how they handle the experimentation in each song, its never boring and they never go full ¨ey look at how good i am¨ that a lot of these lives releases have.

The bassist released a solo album, ill check it out.

[tragabigzanda]

[VinylGuy]

New Jeff Parker slays. Late addition to my favorite albums of the year.

Such a cool relaxing listen. I love how tight and loose it is at the same time. Cant wait to grab it the vinyl.

I like that there are different elements in each track. The opener has some lowkey hip hop vibes; Late Autumn had a real minimalist thrust. The last track had some reggae aspects. But it all feels cohesive.

yeah and i do love how they handle the experimentation in each song, its never boring and they never go full ¨ey look at how good i am¨ that a lot of these lives releases have.

The bassist released a solo album, I’ll check it out.

oh sweet, I like her playing a lot. And agreed about their restraint.

You know Jeff Parker is in Tortoise, yeah? Their album TNT shares a lot of similarities to this one.

yeah i know. Its been a while since i listened to those guys. Yeah, TNT has a resembles but i guess its frame its with Alt rock and this one is clearly way more jazzy.

[tragabigzanda]

Top 10 maybe?
Hello Morning
Close Captioned
The Kill
Place/Position
Do You Like Me?
Latest Disgrace
Recap Modotti
Nightshop
Break
Life & Limb

I'd maybe bump Life & Limb for Epic Problem

[Kalevi]

Really loving the new Jeff parker

[VinylGuy]

yeah, the new Jeff Parker is awesome.

¨Easy Way Out¨ is so good. I love how it builds in such a calm, relaxing way.

[tragabigzanda]

[VinylGuy]

Really? What’s the name of it

[tragabigzanda]

[VinylGuy]

oh yeah this is a previous release yeah.

[tragabigzanda]

[Kevin Davis]

Some late entries into my "favorites of 2024" canon -- Endlessness by Belgian composer Nala Sinephro, a beautiful mixture of ambient/electronic sounds, strings, and conventional jazz elements, in conversation over the course of a 10-track suite full of recurring motifs, textural mood swings, and the occasional perfectly-placed trad jazz solo. I know there are some other folks here who like the Floating Points/Pharoah Sanders album from a few years back -- this album is very much in the same neighborhood as that, but at the same time has a voice that is entirely its own. I haven't really ranked my favorite albums of the year this year but once they've all had the chance to settle, this could definitely be my #1. Below are a couple tracks that serve as a nice mini-showcase for everything the album does, but I strongly recommend the whole thing -- 45 minutes that IMO goes by incredibly fast.



and

Trumpeter Avishai Cohen's Ashes To Gold, which was recorded in November 2023 and is his musical response to the October 7 attacks (Cohen is based in NYC but is originally from Tel Aviv). Like the Sinephro record this one also contains a multi-part suite (five movements in this case), plus his quartet's take on a Ravel piano concerto, and this beautiful closer "The Seventh," composed by Cohen's daughter and played beautifully by his group here:


New Jeff Parker is on deck next. Happy New Year, everyone!

[tragabigzanda]

[Kevin Davis]

Absolutely! And likewise thanks to you for repping so hard for the Jeff Parker -- I'm into my first proper listen and this thing is awesome! The rhythm on "Freakadelic" is sinister and hypnotizing -- reminds me of some of those Miles Davis tunes from the early '70's like "What I Say" where Michael Henderson just repeats one 2-3-note riff with zero variation for like 20 minutes, while this fury of sound happens over the top. What's happening on top here is much different, of course, but that approach to rhythm takes a level of discipline and patience that I really admire.

I really liked Suite For Max Brown from a few years back but for some reason never really dug further in, and I think I like this even more -- something about a working quartet just hunkering down and doing its thing really appeals to me in that old school cut-the-crap-and-get-down-to-business sort of way.

[tragabigzanda]

[Kalevi]

Jeff Parker's the new breed is good

[tragabigzanda]

[Kevin Davis]

I’ll have to check out “What I Say” — I’m no Miles aficionado by any stretch.

While I enjoyed Suite For Max Brown, I found that not much of it stuck; songs were often short and felt more like sketches of ideas, and they’d be done before I had a chance to settle in. Though this new one is making me want to go back and revisit it.

This is not entirely dissimilar to my experience with Suite, to be honest — I really liked it but haven’t gone back to it much, for reasons similar to those you describe, plus (not unlike some of Kamasi’s albums) it has a bit of a “dipping its toes into too many rivers” feel to it that makes it hard to know what mood calls for it. That’s not at all a knock on the quality of the music, but I suspect I will return to the new one for pleasure a lot more.

Interestingly, just now remembering this, but I had Tortoise’s It’s All Around You in college and ended up trading it in because I couldn’t really get into lock-step with it, and thinking back it was for many of the same reasons. No idea if I’d feel the same way about it now — probably worth a revisit…