Music Monday: Thorton, Smith, Jarrett, Pop

I had a chance to listen to some music this weekend while I read for class and did some low stakes writing work. 

I was pretty excited to read that the venerable French label BYG Actuel is at work remastering some of the their catalogue of significant free and avant-garde jazz. It looks like next on the list is Clifford Thorton’s Ketchaoua (1969). The album is worth listening to if you like free jazz. Thorton’s cornet (and his percussion) is distinct even amid Archie Shepp’s soprano sax, Arthur Jone’s tenor, with Graham Moncur’s trombone, Dave Burrell’s piano, Beb Guérin bass, and Sunny Murray on drums doing far more than accompanying Thorton. It gets pretty wild, but it is never chaotic. I should do a music Monday on Thorton’s stuff especially since a lot of it isn’t available on streaming, but for now check out Ketchaoua:

For whatever reason, I’ve been thinking about trumpet players. I even tried to give Susie an awkward impromptu typology of trumpeters. I hope she’s forgotten it. Part of what prompted it was listening to some Louis Smith. Smith was a fine bop and hard bop trumpeter who recorded a bit with Blue Note in the late 1950s. He’s definitely in the Clifford Brown school and his 1958 date, Here Comes Louis Smith, is pretty great. He’s accompanied by the a typical Blue Note-ish group: Cannonball Adderley, Duke Jordan and Tommy Flanagan on piano, Doug Watkins on bass and Art Taylor on drums. It is a nice album and well worth a listen.

Finally, this past Friday was the 50th anniversary of Keith Jarrett’s famous Köln Concert. I haven’t listened to this album for 50 years, of course, but it has to be at least 30 and maybe almost 40. I still don’t love it. I like it, I appreciate it, and at times, I even come tantalizing close to getting it, but I’ve never really wanted to hear it. Each year, around this time, I put it on and enjoy it:

https://youtu.be/-B0Coi2nKok?si=_vURDyIx89ATYoY5

As a post script, I’m thoroughly enjoying Iggy Pop’s live recording from Montreux Jazz Festival in 2023. The videos from the concert are really something else and the horns on “Passenger” just do it for me: