Thanks for your response, Bulldog
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Originally Posted by Bulldog
Unfortunately, I can relate all too well to Karen Mantler's Business Is Bad! I love the song though. It's a balancing act, isn't it? It sounds smooth enough to be accessible to non jazz lovers, but not too smooth that it ends up being dull and too inoffensive. There's still that experimental, improvised-sounding edge to it to keep the other side of the listening spectrum hooked. Sounds like there's a bit more of that angle to Surviving You. Good shout, I like this lass. I could picture seeing her trio playing at a bar in Vienna or something, I likey.
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There's something hugely endearing about Karen Mantler, I find. She's the child of Michael Mantler and Carla Bley and grew up under Carla's piano. So she's kinda from avantgarde / jazz lineage. But right from her first record back in the 80s, her line has sorta been that she's no good and can't get her stuff in order. Her first four albums are loosely about her and her cat Arnold. In her second album, her cat gets the flu. In the third, it's dead and the cover shows her in black mourning at Arnold's grave. In her fourth, she's trying to replace Arnold and kinda failing.
So she's kinda this oddball and it's a little hard to tell how much (if any) of her self-deprecating humour is based in reality. You can see her confidence on the piano falter in the Business is Bad performance during her solo after about 2:35 in what seems like a very Karen Mantler-ish moment. She seems scared of doing something ambitious that might not work, so she keeps it super simple. But her hands know the chords and her timing is great when she's just playing, so she's obviously very capable.
Her earlier records are more fusion-y, but on this one it seems a choice was made to keep things simple in terms of instrumentation and solos etc. and I actually like it better.
The way I found her is she's collaborated some with Robert Wyatt and later projects performing his music for Comicopera, so there's just the most tenuous Canterbury link which led to my discovery. She's not for everybody, but deserves a bigger audience, I think.
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Originally Posted by Bulldog
What I'm getting from Aksak Maboul is...I can't even remember the name of the sound (and I won't cheat by Googling it), but it's that kind of 80s, synthwave vibe that propped up the Thor: Ragnarok soundtrack, you know? Where's this lass from? I had a thread on here waaaaaaaaay back about listening to one album from every country in the world, and it sounds like she'd fitted right in with that. I like the cut of her jib...Veronica Winken in particular. Nice, bouncy kinda vibe, I could picture myself cranking that before I head out of my hotel room to a few bars for the night. And pfft, I'm sure you couldn't make people fed up with you talking about them if you tried  |
Aksak Maboul is mostly known for their two earliest album, particularly their second one which has this gem on it:
Fred Frith from Henry Cow plays on that so Aksak Maboul was part of the Rock In Opposition movement / bands back in those days. I would guess a lot of old fans won't appreciate their new direction (I know one who doesn't).
For myself, I hear the avantgarde mixed with the more accessible and sometimes, they get it just right (imo). Afflux De Luxe is fairly straight forward, but it has a great key change in the verses and there's a polyrhythm where the melodic percussion plays a different time from the other instruments. The way they use the male vocal as a sorta percussive element is kinda interesting.
Veronika Winken is more in-your-face weird, I guess. There are some nice details, like the little guitar part that comes into the verse after about 2:50 minutes.
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Originally Posted by Bulldog
As for Snarky Puppy, the danger for me with big band jazz is that they can sometimes end up sounding like the band in Whiplash...not a bad thing, but the kinda music in that film did sound to me like the soundtrack for some 60s spy thriller. I dunno, maybe it's just me. But What About Me?....there's more to that. A bit more colour, a bit more vibrance. Again, I likey.
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I also immediately made the connection to Whiplash
Ironically, they came out around the same time. Maybe the movie even helped boost the band a little.
I haven't actually listened to much SP beyond that one album, but I've been meaning to check 'em out. One of the astounding feats of We Like It Here, I think, is that they recorded and filmed it live in the studio and it just sounds amazing. Their playing is tight and the mix is great.
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Originally Posted by Bulldog
And Triste...oh god, I think I'm in love  I love this kinda music. I just love that carefree atmosphere, the solos that punctuate it, that metronomic rhythm. Do send more of this stuff my way if you can. |
I've been on the search, but this is an astounding track in my opinion. Alba Armengou who sings makes such a performance and sounds phenomenal, especially here with those backup singers. This circle of jazz artists with Alba singing have made more songs, although so far this version of Triste seems to be on a different level.
What turned me on to this kinda latin vocal jazz to start with was the album Feminina with Joyce, so that might be worth checking out. I think it's from 1981.
It's hard to pick a favourite from that album because it's great, but here's a song she wrote as a lullaby to her daughters Clara and Ana whom you can also hear singing towards the very end of the track.