Discovered today on YouTube: a recording of an amazing set by Michael Brecker and his “Quindectet” chamber orchestra, at Tokyo’s Blue Note jazz club. (I played on that stage too, with Al Jarreau, for a two-week run. Best jazz audience ever.)

This recording wasn’t very long before Michael’s untimely death, but his playing was as powerful as ever. He was a force of nature.

Blue Note, Tokyo, Japan - February, the 2nd 2004

Michael Brecker - Saxophone
Gil Goldstein - Piano, Accordion
Alex Sipiagin - Trumpet
Petr Gordon - French Horn
Robin Eubanks - Trombone
Bob Sheppard - Flute-Soprano
Dan Willis - Double Reeds
Roger Rosenberg - Bassclarinet, Baritone
Joyce Hammon - Violin
Meg Okura - Viola
David Edggar - Cello
Adam Rogers - Guitar
Boris Koslov - Bass
Antonio Sanchez - Drums
Danny Sadwick - Percussion

A short film by Benny Box

Sometimes a song can get stuck in your mind. Become a little piece of unwanted music, that keeps looping for the rest of your day.

Neurologist claim that stuck songs are like thoughts we’re trying to suppress. The harder we try not to think about them, the more we can’t help it. The phenomenon is also known as earworms, and the ongoing ‘dim di da da dum’ causes a kind of brain itch you can’t scratch.

Jazz that nobody asked for is an ode to all those unwanted songs out there, that has nowhere to go. The music that haunts this film, is the amazing swing jazz tune ‘Quaker City Jazz’ by the long forgotten ‘Jan Savitt and his Top Hatters’. In 1937 they were the first jazz big band to feature an african american vocalist.

The film is made without any financing, and has no commercial purpose. The love of all things animated has been the driving force for the small team of 3 persons that has created it.

thejazzmovie.com

Credits

Directors: Rune Fisker & Esben Fisker
Idea: Rune Fisker & Esben Fisker
Storyboard: Rune Fisker
Animatic: Rune Fisker
Character design: Rune Fisker
Background design: Esben Fisker
Animation: Pawel Binczycki, Rune Fisker, Esben Fisker
Compositing: Rune Fisker, Esben Fisker, Pawel Binczycki
Sound design: Pawel Binczycki
Music: ‘Quaker City Jazz’ by Jan Savitt and his Top Hatters ‘Intro’ by Balkan Balagan
Produced by Benny Box

This is the first track from the latest live album by British guitar phenomenon Guthrie Govan and his band The Aristocrats, with the equally gifted Marco Minneman and Bryan Beller on drums and bass. Here’s the album; if you’re into guitar pyrotechnics, it doesn’t get much more impressive than this: Boing, We’ll Do It Live! the Aristocrats at Alvas Showroom.

I’m posting this partly because I need to test our SoundCloud integration since they changed their code, and also because it’s a quirky, funky, stripped down, freaking great record, and how cool is it that you can stream the whole thing through SoundCloud?

You should buy it - I did: Songs for Imaginative People.

My favorite song might be “Moonlit.”

[Video removed for copyright reasons.]

I’m not sure what you call this kind of music — “progressive jazz?” This is one of Metheny’s most complex extended compositions in a stunning live performance from 2005. For some reason it reminds me of a harmonically sophisticated jazz version of the progressive rock group Yes (sans pseudo-poetic lyrics).

I’ll never forget the first time I heard Keith Jarrett, in Japan. In 1973. In a tiny, smoky, crowded sushi bar/jazz club in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district, drinking hot sake, transported to a new understanding of music. The realization that a human being could improvise such transcendent music was a huge inspiration, a door opening to a new universe of possibilities. That night we listened to the entire vinyl recording of Facing You and it changed my life.

The Köln Concert was released two years later in 1975, and it remains one of the pinnacles of Jarrett’s live improvised work, with moments so beautiful they’re not of this earth. This YouTube recording is the full album, in high resolution.

Discovered this amazing treat at YouTube - the full concert DVD of the Keith Jarrett Trio’s “Standards” concert on March 30, 1996 at Tokyo’s Hitomi Memorial Hall. This DVD is long out of print, and it’s one of the most beautiful and virtuosic sets this exceptional group has ever played. (I have a DVD copy but it got damaged somehow and won’t play any more.)

It’s been a tough few days, but music like this reminds us of the best human qualities: invention, improvisation, and humor, with a touch of chaos. Enjoy.

Jazz piano legend Dave Brubeck died on Wednesday at the age of 91, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Exclusive Milken Archive footage of the Dave Brubeck Quartet performing St. Louis Blues by W. C. Handy. Recorded live at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Dave Brubeck, piano; Bobby Militello, saxophone; Michael Moore, bass; Randy Jones, drums. For more Dave Brubeck videos, please visit [Link: www.milkenarchive.org….]

Brubeck’s iconic signature piece, “Take Five:”

He’s influenced so many musicians that his impact on our culture will last as long as humanity does, even if everything he ever personally recorded were to magically disappear tomorrow.

Amazon’s Dave Brubeck Library

Time to wake up this joint with a little bit of “Ula Ula” by Argentina’s Illya Kuryaki and the Valderramas.