Sometimes podcast hosts just want to watch the world - or at least their co-host - burn. Hence the explanation for the inclusion of a pretty inexplicable pander-fest in this otherwise august and serious podcast. The other selections (all recent releases) incorporate humor in a couple of cases, and, well, don't in the most serious selection. Pat reports on a live concert by the more furrowed-browed of the alto saxophonists while Mike catches a few much needed zzzz's. Grace Kelly with Strings – AT...
Apr 24, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Season 12Ep. 289
After a couple episodes away, we return to the New York Times list of best jazz albums of 2023 and finish it off. It's happier days for the most part. The boys acknowledge that these selections are all, more or less, actually jazz, and some are even pretty enjoyable. Jonathan Suazo – RICANO; Mendoza Hoff Revels – ECHOLOCATION; Micah Thomas – REVEAL; Matana Roberts - COIN COIN CHAPTER FIVE: IN THE GARDEN.
Apr 10, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Season 12Ep. 288
For some fans, the story of jazz saxophone begins with John Coltrane. This episode, the boys interview Owen Broder, who gives propers to Coltrane's old boss, Johnny Hodges. Mainstay of the Duke Ellington band and lover of lettuce and tomato sandwiches, the Rabbit (as he was known) possessed the most sumptuous sound ever heard from an alto saxophone and knew every microtone of the territory between each note of the scale. Owen talks about his Hodges Front and Center duology, other projects in the...
Mar 27, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 12Ep. 287
Many years ago, bastard Mike suggested that our anniversary shows feature groups comprised of as many members as the anniversary was of years. How's that for a mouthful (mindful?) Anyway, good idea until right about now. Eleven is an awkward number unless you're fielding a footie team, and the boys have some issues finding albums that fit the bill or even glance in the direction of this anniversary. Next year, all bets are off. Nat Adderly – THAT’S RIGHT; Bobby Selvaggio – STORIES, DREAMS, INSPI...
Mar 13, 2024•1 hr 19 min•Season 11Ep. 286
Join our intrepid but grumpy explorers Mike and Pat and they continue their journey through the New York Times Top Ten list of Best Jazz Albums from 2023. The boys look at three more albums off the list and once again have questions about the selections. Then they discuss an album from 2023 not on the list, and, naturally, emit rainbows. We don't recommend you make a game of drinking whenever one of them calls "category error" unless you have a high tolerance for alcohol - and bastardy. Chief Xi...
Feb 28, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Season 11Ep. 285
Humans love making lists, and it's likely this activity will continue until the cockroaches take over. (Cockroaches mostly love hiding under cabinets). Some humans on the New York Times made a list of the top 10 jazz albums of 2023. Pat and Mike take about three selections from that list and one other interesting release from that recently past year. Do they take issue with some of the NYT's choices? They wouldn't be bastards if they didn't. Jaimie Branch – FLY OR DIE FLY OR DIE FLY OR DIE (WORL...
Feb 14, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Season 11Ep. 284
This episode's title is a wee bit misleading. The boys don't meet Mr. Mahavishnu (John McLaughlin, of course) but rather Matt Phillips, long-time listener to the podcast who just happened to write a very good book on the famous fusion guitarist called "John McLaughlin - From Miles and Mahavishnu to the 4th Dimension." The book covers the whole of McLaughlin's recorded career - not just his best known years with the Mahavishnu Orchestra - and our conversation is also wide-ranging. And, no, Mike h...
Jan 31, 2024•1 hr 28 min•Season 11Ep. 283
Few players have made the splash in the archival jazz game as Zev Feldman, who has discovered many lost jazz gems (and a little Fool's Gold) and shown how these issues can be events when packaged properly with good artwork and notes. This fortnight's show looks at two of his recent productions and two historical albums in the Latin Idiom. Did the jazz detective uncover more classics, or did his deductions go awry? Tune in to find out. Cal Tjader – CATCH THE GROVE; Wes Montgomery – MAXIMUM SWING;...
Jan 17, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Season 11Ep. 282
Sometimes Mike's dreams do come true. Take this all-tuba led episode, for instance. He's always loved the big horn in jazz groups, and here we delve into five albums spanning the decades led by tuba players. (Oddly, though, five of the featured leaders were all born within a five year span). Will the boys come up with deep insights? Please listen to ascertain. Howard Johnson – GRAVITY!; Jim Self & John Chiodini – TOUCH AND GO; Dave Bargeron & Michel Godard – TUBA TUBA; Ray Draper – THE R...
Jan 03, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Season 11Ep. 281
One of the bastards loves holiday music (Mike loves to flex his knowledge-of-obscure-Xmas-tunes-muscles) and so the holiday episode has become an annual tradition. Luckily, every year at least a few jazz musicians put out a holiday album (if under duress) and archival and historical finds are always there to enjoy as well. Various Artists – A JAZZ CHRISTMAS; Shorty Rogers – THE SWINGIN’ NUTCRACKER; Louis Armstrong – WISHES YOU A COOL YULE; George Burton – the YULE LOG Ken Serio – A JAZZY YULETID...
Dec 20, 2023•1 hr 16 min
At Mike's suggestion, we devote an episode to the recently departed European avant-garde powerhouse Peter Brotzmann. The sound quality is a bit off. Pat says he forgot to press "record." Listeners know he was probably just cowering behind the couch. Mike shows us the breadth of the fire-breather's career, touching on a mid-size ensemble session, an electric gig with rock elements, a more introspective duet, and Brotzmann's uncompromising debut. Pat whimpers. Peter Brotzmann: FOR ADOLPHE SAX; GOI...
Dec 06, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Season 11Ep. 279
Jazz - mysterious, challenging, expressive . . . funny? Rarely, one might think, but some artists display a sense of humor, even if it's subtle. In this episode, the boys listen to five albums with at least some humorous aspects. Things rarely get "funny ha ha" but hey, this isn't a Zappa podcast, now is it? Karen Mantler – BUSINESS IS BAD; George Benson – WHITE RABBIT; Mostly Other People Do the Killing – THIS IS OUR MOOSIC; Horace Silver – JAZZ HAS A SENSE OF HUMOR; Ray Anderson – BLUES BRED I...
Nov 22, 2023•1 hr 37 min•Season 11Ep. 278
It's been a crazy few weeks with an extra order of cray cray on the side coming up, so we're running our first "classic" episode, this one a throw-back to 2013! Come for the insights you missed, stay to appreciate the slightly more sophisticated editing you've been enjoying the last few years. Covers are the order of the day as the bastards look at three albums that hew closely to earlier inspirations, with a special focus on Coltrane. John Coltrane – INTERSTELLAR SPACE; Greg Bendian – INTERSTEL...
Nov 08, 2023•1 hr 44 min•Season 11Ep. 14
We all know "smooth jazz" is a forbidden genre among hard-core jazzbos, but sometimes you run across albums that have no interest in pandering to the listener, but also don't display any rough edges or dirty elbows. Call it "polished," "refined," "plush," or "mellow" - but don't file it next to Kenny G - or Albert Ayler, for that matter. Noah Haidu – STANDARDS; Javier Nero – KEMET, THE BLACK LAND; Brad Turner – THE MAGNIFICENT; Matt Ulery – MANNERIST.
Oct 25, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Season 11Ep. 277
Most jazz fans know Dizzy Gillespie's crucial role in the creation of bebop and every good collection should have at least a few tracks from his glory days of the forties. The man wrote "Night in Tunisia" for heaven's sake! But what happened later on, after his partner Bird was gone and the listening public had moved on from ooh-bop-sh-bam madness? In this episode we look at five recordings from the following decade and ponder why a genius-level player like Dizzy struggled after the bebop revolu...
Oct 11, 2023•1 hr 59 min•Season 11Ep. 276
There are many storied jazz venues, but for a great recorded legacy, none quite matches the Village Vanguard. So many epochal improvised moments put to tape! So many clinking wine glasses captured for eternity! Such a matchless, smoky atmosphere of creation in the heat of the moment! (Insert record scratch here.) The boys don't look at the best known monuments from the place, but rather start with a lesser known session from the end of the seventies and then examine three brand new "Live from th...
Sep 27, 2023•1 hr 26 min•Season 11Ep. 275
The boys love chasing after the esoteric, the brand new, the little known. But sometime, we also like to talk about the, well, big label bangers. That is, big labels in jazz terms, which really means small subsidiary branches of huge media conglomerates, but let's not get into that now. Some famous names are back this episode and we talk about their latest releases - sometimes a great deal later than their date of death. Artemis – IN REAL TIME; Brad Mehldau – YOUR MOTHER SHOULD KNOW; Brandee You...
Sep 13, 2023•1 hr 23 min•Season 11Ep. 274
The theme this episode is - got ya! - there isn't a theme. What we do have are two mildly historical piano-led recordings by musicians who couldn't be more different if they tried, and two new releases by musicians also pulling in different directions. Get a large group together and go for eclecticism? Or just multi-track yourself and add a duet partner to the mix? You, dear listeners, can pick the approach you like. Chucho Valdez – LIVE AT VILLAGE VANGUARD; Misha Mengelberg – NO IDEA; Ben Wende...
Aug 30, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Season 11Ep. 273
A music with as complicated and rich a history as jazz is always going to be subject to rediscoveries and reappraisals and we wouldn't want it any other way. This fortnight's episode focuses on a pioneering practitioner on that truly rare avis, the jazz harp. Yes, we're diving into the early work of Dorothy Ashby in honor of a new box set celebrating her first six albums. So throw aside those conceptions of cartoon animals going to heaven and bourgeoisie travelers grooving at the Holiday Inn and...
Aug 16, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Season 11Ep. 272
Summertime, and the livin' is sweaty - at least for us in the Midwest right now. Along with being the most perspiration-friendly season, Summer is also consecrated to travel, which can make it difficult to align two bastard's schedules. Hence this solo podcast looking at jazz box sets. Yes, the vinyl revival is all grown up enough to get its own self-indulgent shelf-benders and Pat is hear to talk about several of them. Various Artists – THE BIRTH OF BEBOP; Bill Evans – TREASURES: SOLO, TRIO, AN...
Aug 02, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 11Ep. 271
We all know about fusion - the (sometime unholy) union of jazz and rock that tried to find a new audience for instrumentalists in the 1970s. But there have always been, well, odder experiments with electricity in jazz, more like intrusions of the rock world than integrations, and we look at four rather varied examples in this here podcast. Running the gamut from harmolodic blues-slinger to fusion axe-hero to . . . Herbie Mann? - these artists let the guitar off da hook and, possibly, into your h...
Jul 19, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Season 11Ep. 271
After an all-female vocalist episode, let's shift gears at look at some big band albums, shall we? We look at a brand new release with material from the thirties, fresh from somebody's closet, a retro-style outfit having the most fun they can while the pandemic closes in, an Indiana ensemble celebrating an influential Indiana record label, and an arranger for hire let out in the green fields of inspiration. Then in pop matters, quick detours to prison and cover bands. Vince Mendoza – BLAUKLANG; ...
Jul 05, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Season 11Ep. 270
Time for an all-singing, no-dancing, some joke-telling show featuring four female vocalists. We've got three brand newish releases and one catalogue item which, given it debuted after we were out of college, is making us feel old. Like everything else. Tune in to find out which Grammy Winner (TM) we annoy. Esperanza Spalding / Fred Hersch – LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD; Holly Cole – BLAME IT ON MY YOUTH; Lizzie Thomas – DUO ENCOUNTERS; Nadia Washington – HOPE RESURGENCE.
Jun 21, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Season 11Ep. 269
After months of emails, technical difficulties and scheduling snafus the bastards are proud to present their interview with Swedish trombonist Karin Hammar. You may not have heard of Karin, or caught her sister act the Sliding Hammars back in the day (when she duetted with a sister who also played trombone ) but if you like albums with strong thematic unity, a mellow vibe, and great engineering, we think you'll like "Opening."
Jun 07, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 11Ep. 268
Mike ran across a soundtrack or two in his library excursions and hence and episode that's just what it says on the tin - a look at four soundtracks by jazz musicians. We explore which efforts work as "albums" and which are more a series of useful cues and snippets that don't necessarily create a coherent listening experience with no pictures on offer. Plus, as a bonus Mike encapsulates each film so you can decide if you'd like to see - or skip - the inspiration behind the music. Who knew Charle...
May 24, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Season 11Ep. 267
Welcome to "What's in the Bag?", where Pat pulls out a few vinyl discoveries - some reissues, some crate finds - for Mike and him to dissect. It's kind of a continuing feature on the show when we run out of other things to discuss, and is not to be confused with "What's in the Box?" where the contents are always Gwyneth Paltrow's head and a scratched copy of Duke Ellington's Greatest Hits. Our selections include a recent RSD release of live Ahmad Jamal, who unfortunately passed between programin...
May 10, 2023•1 hr 27 min•Season 11Ep. 266
Some of our podcasts have themes. This podcast has a wide-ranging mix of three 2023 releases and one moderately historical entry from an ECM guitarist whose name Pat dare not pronounce. Can the jazz violin be a force for good? We think so. Can Pat find a Pyroclastic release that tickles his fancy. You betcha - but no more spoilers. Terje Rypdal – Ketil Bjornstad– LIVE IN LEIPZIG; Ingrid Laubrock – THE LAST QUIET PLACE; Canadian Jazz Collective – SEPTOLOGY: THE BLACK FOREST SESSIONS; Sara Caswell...
Apr 26, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 11Ep. 265
We spend a lot of time on this show exploring what you might call, if you were a lapsed academic with pomposity issues, the accessibility spectrum. Some jazz is pretty easy to get - and some just ain't pretty. In this show, we travel quite a way across the spectrum listening to coffee-house ready (but good) jazz and stuff that would just plain shut that java hut down. Nadje Noordhusi – FULL CIRCLE; Esbjorn Svensson – HOME.S; Dan Weiss – DEDICATION; Gebhard Ullmann – FOR NEW ZEALAND.
Apr 12, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Season 11Ep. 264
With Wayne Shorter's death at age 89, jazz lost an innovative composer, saxophonist and bandleader. Mike knew a tribute was needed but didn't want to explore the usual suspects, so the boys take a trawl through lesser-known aspects of Shorter's career (while throwing in an overview as well to orient the less familiar). We look at his work as a sideman (both celebrated and little known), his brief re-emergence as a leader in the mid-seventies, and his acoustic comeback with his great quartet of t...
Mar 29, 2023•1 hr 39 min•Season 11Ep. 263
Jazz's symbiotic relationship with Brazil's bossa nova is well-known. Lesser known are the many non-Brazilian jazz artists who took elements from North American models and modified them as they saw fit. This episode explores albums recorded by artists from Chile, Venezuela, Argentina, and . . . well, Brazil, because too few people know what four Tamba's add up to these days. Pop matters includes discussion of live jazz shows seen by each of the boys as well as more Dylan, 'cause Mike's just fixa...
Mar 13, 2023•1 hr 31 min•Season 11Ep. 262
