Post#626 » by chonestown » Fri Sep 28, 2018 3:59 pm
Absolute great year in jazz and largely because of youngsters. Kamasi Washington is the name with most resonance nowadays, but unlike in past years, his running buddies have put out fantastic records. Trombonist Ryan Porter came with a front-to-back burner, highlighted by a terrific interpolation of not-joking "Night Court Theme" (Harry P Stone, rest in peace!) and keyboardist Brandon Coleman dropped his debut on Fly Lo's Brainfeeder imprint last week. Real heavy on George Duke-isms and pre-Rockit, post-Chameleon Herbie Hancock. In general, LA has really been percolating.
Big sounds coming out of London, courtesy of Joe Armon-Jones and Henry Wu's Kamaal Williams project. K-Dub is very heavily mining the astral-minded deep soul inspired by the likes of Lonnie Liston Smith and any of the underheard heroes on hot-tipped indie labels from the 70s like Strata East and Tribe, but there's very much an IDM influence to production. Armon-Jones is one of many that has broken out due to Gilles Peterson's efforts on the Brownswood label. Unlike some of the stuff off Brownswood, these are more firmly jazz than, for a lack of better term, what used to be referred to as acid jazz.
For my money, the most compelling of all has been coming out of Chicago's International Anthem conglomerate. Drummer Makaya McCraven is easily the one most tabbed to join Kamasi beyond the insular community of jazz listeners. His "Highly Rare" live date is stunning and features him remixing and tweaking a club show. It's hard to tell where the performance starts and the remixing enters and I can't think of an effort that more seamlessly merges hip-hop with jazz. Anybody who checks out Flying Lotus is well advised to bend their ears this direction. McCraven has a new record coming out on October 25 and I am juiced. Will feature collaborations with some of the Londers mentioned previously, as well as arranging genius Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. McCraven pals around with and has featured guys like Tortoise's Jeff Parker - who put out his own fantastic record on International Anthem a couple years ago - and has provided a way out of the neo-conservative morass that has long plagued jazz.