Contemplazione

Alas, I can't stand Marsalis. His way of playing is either cold-hyper-technical-boring, or ultra-referential, like a quick guide to jazz trumpeters. I don't know the album in question, so I won't comment, but I would definitely choose something different to summarize Great America. Are we talking about jazz and blues? Robert Johnson and Louis Armstrong (with the Hot Five), the "originals," for life!!

Without this record, the concept of interplay wouldn't have had that decisive push to fundamentally revolutionize the world of jazz. Even better than the previous "Portrait In Jazz," and a prelude to the glorious recordings at the Village Vanguard, the historical and artistic importance of this album is overwhelming. Here there is style, a quest for the perfect sound, the use of an extremely wide harmonic spectrum (Evans's love for Ravel and Debussy is legendary). Here there is body and soul, there is the brain, there are even two balls! You're right, Bill knew. To anyone wanting to understand Bill Evans, the first thing I play is "Israel." Congratulations on the review.

SPITZPUPE: Beauty in all its forms...

But you are also a bit Manichean...

SHEPP. PHILLIPS. Good review, even though I don't share the idea that this type of free "maximizes the reality of jazz in the '60s." Before '65 (and even after!), there were many other realities, perhaps (let's say it) even more musically stimulating... the already mentioned quintet of Miles (the peak of all jazz), Bill Evans, Paul Bley, Ornette, Coltrane's own quartet, and many others. In particular, the trio of Jimmy Giuffre with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow (the masterpiece Free Fall) was a catalyst for a revolution within the revolution: against the general chaos, shouted and chaotic typical of the most conventional free, it opposed a sound universe that was clear, full of silences, timbral refinements, tension, and contrapuntal interplay, all in the absence not only of equal temperament but also of metric division, structure in measures, and even a fixed tempo (distinguishing itself even in this last point from the wilder free, based on a constant and quite chaotic primal pulse most of the time). What can I say, Coltrane's Crescent and A Love Supreme reached the highest artistic level for me; after that, it's necessary to distinguish between some records and others...

Pure poetry this piece of cinema! I'm in too much of a hurry, I'll come back to read it another time.

First, I'm always kisses too, both in agreement and disagreement ;-)! I don't understand why you see reaching the masses as a quality, that's all. Miles has made dozens of records, spanning like never before across "genres." Fusì, try "It's About That Time-Live At Fillmore East 7 March 1970" (I'm going by memory, the title might not be exactly right, but then again, who knows!). POWER...

For me, 4.5. "The Way Young Lovers Do" is the highlight of the album. Jeff Buckley's beautiful version from "Live At Sin-é". Ole, nice game of the best singer-songwriter records, I would absolutely add "Songs Of Love And Hate" by Leonard Cohen, and Nick Drake.

Oh, and then to offer to play at the outlet is just pathetic...;-) But a bit of artistic dignity... these folks are scraping the barrel without the slightest sense of good taste.

Danilo Rea: he’s a great pianist, but...why go hear him play (solo or in a group) for the fourth time? After the second concert, the trick no longer works, you catch on. It’s better to stay home and listen to records of geniuses, or go see a concert of a live and kicking Brad Mehldau, the greatest jazz artist of the last fifteen years. One who leaves you ecstatic, who hypnotizes you, rather than simply entertains you. Bollani had impressed me with his incredible solos on Rava’s 2004 album Easy Living, some of the most lyrical and beautiful music one could hear. Alas, he hasn't repeated that, and year after year those creative sparks are fading. Enough with this Brasil, with the imitation of Paolo Conte, etc. Bollà, a bit of pure music, damn it! I had followed Allevi with an exclamation mark in quotes ((!)), just to signify that his jazz music has very little to do with jazz.