Need post-y2k OUT jazz recommendations

Yeah Duane come on cough em up.

Duane, I hope you've been working on you "best of" list for 2004, I'm still tryng to get some of the tittles you picked for last year.Thanks for introducing us to all those wonderful artists.

Hey, thanks, all, for the great recommendations. I especially enjoyed the Jazz with Bob Paralocha link. I used to listen to Bob way back when he was with KJAZ. Obviously, there's a lot to check out here! Thanks!

Hey Crazy,
If memory serves, you're in the S.F. Bay area where there's no shortage of high quality boundry stretching musicians (Good For Cows, John Schott, Ben Goldberg, Fred Frith, ROVA, Telepathy, Married Couple, United Brassworks, Scott Hill...). Unfortunately, appreciation for their music is often a limiting factor. Recently the (non profit) Jazz House in Berkeley got demolished to make a parking area for the police station and no new venue has been found yet. The Jazz House (more than any other Bay area club) featured the most innovative and talented artists around (way too many to list at one sitting).

Yoshi's, in sharp contrast has shown a preference for maximizing the bottom line over helping to build an audience for great musicians who are inclined to push the envelope. The Jazz in Flight run at Yoshi's (which was usually a monday night event) has been squeezed out/basically evicted. The series included Nels Cline, Gebhard Ullmann, Gerry Hemingway, Ellery Eskelin, Bobby Previte, Dave Douglas, Marty Ehrlich, Mark Helias, Michael Formanek, Joe Fonda and lots of others that i missed or can't recall. Yoshi's occasionally does still book some great stuff, but geez after Tuck and Patti and Diane Krall have a sell out run at $30 + per ticket how about featuring some amazingly advanced players who take a few risks (even if it's only on Mondays).

Local gripes aside, it's a great time to be a fan of intoxicating music that doesn't conform to a generic mold.
Century and Ejlif hit a homer for you. Sorry if some of these overlap:
Andrew Cyrille
Fred Frith (Massacre discs and Traffic Continues)
Frank Gratkowski
Vinnie Golia
Rich Halley
Jean Derome
Tom Walsh (NOMA)
John Rapson
Lunge
Michael Vlatkovich
Damon Short
Trio Convulsant
Kevin Norton
Cuong Vu
Tippographica
Blast
White Widow
Per Henrik Wallin
Peter Brotzmann
Pierre Tanguay
Rene Lussier
P.O.N.
Lucas Niggli (highest recommendation)
Ahvak
Mephista
Absolute Ensemble
Maarten Altena
Ken Vandermark
Ruins
Eric Boeren
Nils Wogram...
Check out the Bay Area Improvisers site for gigs, get addicted, we need more guys like Century, Ejlif, and DaveJ857.

Just add late Spring Heel Jack (his post drum'n'base years) and Evan Parker to all of the above.

John Scofield - Uberjam

Jing Chi - There are three different releases currently available

Tabla Beat Science - some might not consider this jazz, but I think it will meet your criteria

Crazy4blues- this list is a good place for the latest in jazz:
http://www.jazzwithbobparlocha.com/top40/index.html

If you into live recordings check out: CHRIS POTTER QUARTET
Lift: Live at the Village Vanguard

centurymantra really hit a home run on his post. Just wait till Duangoosen gets to this one, he can really give you an earful. In fact I would reccomend doing a search of his threads and you will pick up all kinds of knowledge about out jazz and progressive music.

I'll add a few of my own that centurymantra didn't already hit.

Tim Berne very talented composer and saxophonist. He has a number of groups that are all worth checking out, including Hard Cell, Big Satan, Science Friction, Bloodcount, Paraphrase. The band he picks for his groups are the real highlight as well as his awesome songwriting. You will not be dissapointed with any of his newer stuff from any of these groups you can check his website www.scregunrecords.com and hear sound clips and order the stuff direct.

The Claudia Quintet "I Claudia" John Hollenbecks quintet featuring drums, vibes, accordian, sax and bass. a lot of tricky stuff going on, but catchy as hell too.

Anjelica Sanchez "Mirror Me" on Omnitone Records. Great songs and a great band, one of my favorites I got last year.

Confrence Call with Gebhard Ullman. I saw these guys live, incredible, musicians on a higher plane. Joe Fonda and Michael Jeffery Stevens on bass and piano with Gerry Hemmingway on drums. They have a few CDs that are all probably pretty hard to find, but if you can get your hands on "Final Answer" start there.

Vijay Iyer "Pantropic Modes and Blood Sutra" just get em both.

David S. Ware giant of the tenor,riding the tidal wave caused by Coltrane. I love all his CDs especially the older ones. "Godspelized and Surrendered" are good places to start.

Scortch Trio W/ Raoul Bjorkenheim. No need to discuss get em both.

Lucas Niggli. Modern drum genius. This guys trio blew my mind live "Rough Ride" is a great one to start with.

I could go on and on and on, but I'll stop here for now. With any of this stuff the thing to do is look at who is playing in the group, chances are they are in other groups that are also great and it branches out from there.

-Ryan

Go to the following yahoo group..its the only kind of music that is discussed .
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/improv-trade/

I can offer a few recommendations for you:

*Anything involving Kahil El'Zabar is a good bet - both his Ritual Trio and the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble make some great music.

*William Parker is an amazing catalyst for modern jazz and I'd expect that most recordings involving him are worth seeking out, in particular his collaborations with Hamid Drake (another name to watch out for)

*You can try the Aum Fidelity, HatHut, and CIMP labels for consistent production of high quality modern/avant jazz sounds. Silkheart Records is another good one, although I'm not sure how active they are with recent output.

*Fred Anderson made some excellent, far-reaching recordings a decade or two back, but has begun producing recent music with an equally sincere impact. He has a couple recordings on Delmark records that are great and well worth seeking out.

*A few more names...Peter Brotzmann, Ellery Eskelin, Dominic Duval. You could also check out some of the projects involving Sabir Mateen and his east coast crew with a dig into the music put out by the No Neck Blues Band if you feel like expanding the limits of the 'jazz' classification for a foray into some pretty out-there 'modern improvised music'.

*You should also keep an eye on the Thirsty Ear label's 'Blue Series' for some great modern, progressive jazz stuff. They've put out music involving the aforementioned William Parker and a host of others; Matthew Shipp, Mat Maneri, etc. The discs I've heard from this series have been consistently good to excellent.

*I didn't mention John Zorn right off the bat since I'm sure this will be thrown out by a few other folks and you may be familiar with him already. If not, you can brave the dig into his immense discography as well as the releases on his Tzadik label.

Enjoy!