Modern Jazz Shit

All of the Jazz and jazz-tangential stuff that's been coming out now over the past 10 years has been really great, there is some fantastic musicianship on display and loving the pockets of players who are getting together and making awesome shit.

High level it seems like everything is coming out of LA or LDN right now, these are the current jazz pockets with the Sam Gendel/Sam Wilke/Louis Cole/Blake Mills/ etc group. Even the Clown Core stuff, while not "Jazz" has some amazing playing with some jazz improv foundations there so, yeah.

The London scene seems a bit more spread out but it might just be I didn't do my research. But loving the stuff from Szun Waves, Nala Sinephro, Nubya Garcia, so on so on.

Anyway, here's some recent faves.







Also, this thread may already exist in a form so if anyone is good at Admin they can merge it.

I am a massive massive fan of this song:


Does this count?

Also, kinda corny, but almost everything BADBADNOTGOOD does is...good.

chrondog wrote:I am a massive massive fan of this song:

Does this count?

Yeah I think it all counts. I don't have any intention of gatekeeping around the definitions of either "new" or "jazz". Ideally its a place to share things that are modern and taking jazz concepts and theory in new interesting directions.

Also, kinda corny, but almost everything BADBADNOTGOOD does is...good.

I have given these guys a few tries but I haven't much been able to get into it tbh. I don't think its bad, its just more heavily pop-music influenced than what I've been sipping the deep flavors of.

I really like some of the tunes on the latest Pino Palladino album, another album with some Sam Gendel and Blake Mills

C-poots wrote:I have given these guys a few tries but I haven't much been able to get into it tbh. I don't think its bad, its just more heavily pop-music influenced than what I've been sipping the deep flavors of.

Correct. Their schtick is taking jazz to random corners of pop/rap music. They can definitely have a boring "adult contemporary" vibe, but tbh I like that stuff. I like a good amount of "easy listening" bullshit and in my "downtempo" thread last year I went down the rabbit hole of downtempo/world beats which is often easy listening.

The Floating Points/Pharoah Sanders/London Symphony Orchestra album is the kind of thing I would enjoy in a different phase of my life, but I haven't been that compelled to check that kind of stuff out in the last two years. Same with Kamasi Washington who people seem to love.

Good clarification on deep flavors vs the shallow stuff. I'll assume you're not listening to any Kiefer either

Looked through my last year of playlists and don't have much to contribute, but I'll be enjoying.

Have taken an interest in jazz lately so I'm glad to see this thread.

Ben Lamar gay





Eli Keszler


Chicago underground quartet (from 2020)


Anteloper (my son turned me onto this one)


Some of my faves from the last couple years that weren’t already mentioned.

The pharoah sanders/floating points was a grower for me. The first few times I listened to it on bad speakers and in bad situations/settings. It’s not a drive home from work album and listening to it on the Bluetooth speaker, even a good one, is not ideal. Once I listened to it through better speakers it felt like I was actually hearing it for the first time. There are a lot of minimal sounds happening on the edges that were just not perceptible in those other settings. A half gram dose of shrooms turned it into a holy masterpiece. I think that is it’s best setting, a spiritual session, whatever that is for you.

BGwaves wrote:The pharoah sanders/floating points was a grower for me. The first few times I listened to it on bad speakers and in bad situations/settings. It’s not a drive home from work album and listening to it on the Bluetooth speaker, even a good one, is not ideal. Once I listened to it through better speakers it felt like I was actually hearing it for the first time. There are a lot of minimal sounds happening on the edges that were just not perceptible in those other settings. A half gram dose of shrooms turned it into a holy masterpiece. I think that is it’s best setting, a spiritual session, whatever that is for you.

I have to agree with this, if not in exact practice in theory. The first listen through I didn't finish the Floating Points / Pharoah Sanders / LSO album, and on the next listen I skipped ahead to where the orchestra came in and similarly didn't vibe that much with it, both times listening on standard iphone headphones.

Despite all that, I bought the vinyl and on my first play through on that medium it was like a whole different thing. I was sitting in my reading/deep listening chair and let it wash over me without knowing what track I was on, letting some of the natural reverberation of the room color the music in a really enjoyable way, and I think on vinyl a tiny bit of the high frequency harshness of Sanders's playing is softened a bit which I prefer.

Chrono, here's an easy listening type release from 2021 I enjoyed a few tracks from. Fuubutsushi. There is a bit of a Tortoise-at-their-softest vibe sometimes:

If you like this thread ‘The Art of Listening’ channel on YouTube is where it’s at.

C-poots wrote:Chrono, here's an easy listening type release from 2021 I enjoyed a few tracks from. Fuubutsushi. There is a bit of a Tortoise-at-their-softest vibe sometimes:

This album is gorgeous. Thank you!

Picked up this record at the library because I thought the cover was cool. Turns out it's pretty great.

C-poots wrote:

I heard this the other day and it immediately grabbed me. Will check out some of the other recs in this thread, as I don't know this style well.

C-poots wrote:

BGwaves wrote:The pharoah sanders/floating points was a grower for me. The first few times I listened to it on bad speakers and in bad situations/settings. It’s not a drive home from work album and listening to it on the Bluetooth speaker, even a good one, is not ideal. Once I listened to it through better speakers it felt like I was actually hearing it for the first time. There are a lot of minimal sounds happening on the edges that were just not perceptible in those other settings. A half gram dose of shrooms turned it into a holy masterpiece. I think that is it’s best setting, a spiritual session, whatever that is for you.

I have to agree with this, if not in exact practice in theory. The first listen through I didn't finish the Floating Points / Pharoah Sanders / LSO album, and on the next listen I skipped ahead to where the orchestra came in and similarly didn't vibe that much with it, both times listening on standard iphone headphones.

Despite all that, I bought the vinyl and on my first play through on that medium it was like a whole different thing. I was sitting in my reading/deep listening chair and let it wash over me without knowing what track I was on, letting some of the natural reverberation of the room color the music in a really enjoyable way, and I think on vinyl a tiny bit of the high frequency harshness of Sanders's playing is softened a bit which I prefer.

Listened to this for the first time today and yeah, it's gonna have to be a grower. Spent the first 15 minutes waiting for something to happen. I liked the individual parts when they were happening but there is a LOT of space in this.

This entire set...

chrondog wrote:

C-poots wrote:Chrono, here's an easy listening type release from 2021 I enjoyed a few tracks from. Fuubutsushi. There is a bit of a Tortoise-at-their-softest vibe sometimes:

This album is gorgeous. Thank you!

Seconding this, can't get enough of this one.

Alex Albrecht - Resolve

https://ctatsu.bandcamp.com/album/resolve

For fans of the Eli Keszler album. Field recordings mixed with light jazz and ambient touches around the edges. This could have gone into the ambient thread but I chose here instead. Light, atmospheric, and contemplative. A nice listen while I make falafel.

Enjoying all these recs, good thread

I’ve been waiting for this album for a while now and it doesn’t disappoint. The polyrhythms on this album are incredible. Some great guitar playing from Jeff Parker as well. Some of it is very funky, some of it is psychedelic, but it’s all sweaty. Reminds me simultaneously of the beach and the barrio. Give it a go if that sounds like what you want right now.

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/panam-77

BGwaves wrote:I’ve been waiting for this album for a while now and it doesn’t disappoint. The polyrhythms on this album are incredible. Some great guitar playing from Jeff Parker as well. Some of it is very funky, some of it is psychedelic, but it’s all sweaty. Reminds me simultaneously of the beach and the barrio. Give it a go if that sounds like what you want right now.

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/panam-77

Quoting to remind myself to listen to this, sounds like a greasy treat

Oren Ambarchi/Johan Berthling/Andreas Werlin - Ghosted
https://orenambarchi.bandcamp.com/album/ghosted

Bought this over the weekend and I believe fans of this thread will enjoy. Natural Information Society is the closest group I can compare it with. They play a Tuareg adjacent style, very hypnotic. I don’t wanna hype it too much, if you like what NIS or similar leaning groups do then you should check it out.

If you like Future Days by CAN then you should definitely listen to this ^

The new album from Rich Ruth out on Third Man Records has a few really great tracks on it. I was surprised the Jack White associated Third Man was putting out stuff like this but I'm not here to complain. More of that Chicago-post-jazz + ambient type of vibe to it.

Just heard this one for the first time a day or two ago and I've been hooked. The Comet is Coming - Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam

For sure has a more rock/psych vibe but there's a lot of cool jazz concepts being layered in between. Pyramids is a favorite track.

https://eremiterecords.bandcamp.com/album/mondays-at-the-enfield-tennis-academy

This is really nice, I enjoyed the second half more than the first.

Recorded live in a room full of people, but the ambient sound that's captured is hardly ever audience chatter, just a very muffled and subtle racket that comes and goes so if you're listening on headphones it sounds like someone is sneaking up on you or maybe you have rats inside your walls. But that's not a bad thing!

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/28/arts/music/bitches-brew-london-brew.html
An interesting project and worth listening even though it really didn't connect for me on the first couple of listens. The more muted tracks, which really depart from the original, are the standouts on the album.

I am going to be in London in a couple of weeks. A couple of friends are going to take me out to a jazz club. Apparently it is a really active, vibrant, and non-elitist scene. Really looking forward to it.