[Dixielandjazz] Ben Ratliff (NY Times) Waxes Nostalgic

[Stan Brager]

Thanks for the tip, David. This, the music of the Flat Earth Society,  is
intriguing music to say the least. I liked their novel approach to the sonic
aspects of their music while maintaining the feel of the early jazz in the
case of "Spooks", swing in the case of "Daybreak Express" and "Carman".
Their arrangement of  "Daybreak Express" hewed quite closely to Duke
Ellington's version. They sounded as if they enjoyed making their music. I
wonder how much is improvised and how much is strictly written out?

Stan
Stan Brager
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Richoux" <tubaman at batnet.com>
To: "DJML Jazz" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Sunday, December 26, 2004 4:09 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Ben Ratliff (NY Times) Waxes Nostalgic


> Hi all,
>
> Since I do a traditional jazz show at a radio station (kfjc.org) that
> is known for presenting the most extreme forms of "music" I get to hear
> all sorts of unusual forms of music that might be called jazz by some -
> it now really is a catch-all term for improvised, "real instrument" or
> "electronic-turntable-computer plus real instrument" music that can
> have either roots in various historical themes or be nebulous
> spontaneous creations - whatever this 21st Century is going to be, the
> term "Jazz" will still be around.
>
> One of the recent CDs we received is from a Belgian group called Flat
> Earth Society or FES - they are a 20+ member orchestra that digs back
> to the early days of jazz but takes it to extreme  modern levels. There
> is a New Orleans Dirge, a few swinging stomps and a lot of other
> oddities. I KNOW most of you on this list will probably run away
> screaming, but maybe some might actually enjoy hearing what is
> happening outside the sphere of TRAD OKOM. One of their CDs is an
> exploration into the heart and soul of Louis Armstrong: St Louis Blues,
> Memphis Bound, Black and Blue, Perdido Street, Little King Ink, Lucky
> Ol' Sun, Caravan, Plenty o' Nuthin, WWW and a few more! I have not
> heard all of it yet, but I am waiting for a shipment from Euro-land
> (and taking a big hit from the weak US$.)
>
> The CD we have is a collection of their early work on a US label Ipecac
> ( yes, vomit inducing, I know...) called "Isms" and they also have a
> website at www.fes.be  where you can hear a few samples of their other
> CDs. Amazon has the Isms CD with short samples.
>
> I bet they would b a fun group to see live ;-)
>
> Dave Richoux
>
> On Dec 26, 2004, at 2:42 PM, Charles Suhor wrote:
>
> > One interesting thing about this is the implicit maybe explicit
> > recognition here that fine modern jazz doesn't have to be reaching for
> > something entirely new. I think we're hard-wired to respond to
> > improvisation that's firmly anchored in song structure. We get that
> > with early jazz, swing and modern jazz, up to but not including
> > free-form jazz, where dependably recurring underlying patterns are
> > gone. Ratliff isn't asking "Where's the next Coltrane?" or bemoaning
> > the fact that no new trails are being blazed in the best two CDs of
> > the year. Too bad that so many in the wide-excritics don't take
> > another step and acknowledge today's OKOM players by bringing this
> > appreciation of good-jazz-now to premodern jazz players.
> >
> > Charlie Suhor
> >
> > On Dec 26, 2004, at 9:10 AM, Steve barbone wrote:
> >
> >> Below are, according to Ben Ratliff, NY Times Jazz Critic, the TOP 2
> >> Jazz
> >> Albums released in 2004. Maybe not quite OKOM, however they are both
> >> very
> >> interesting picks.
>
>
>
>