Jazz, jazz, jazz, jazz, jazz, jazz, jazz, jazz

Sunny Murray/Albert Ayler

Jazz music's been coming to me from many angles. From the "No Wave" facebook group, spending time with my best friend—and jazz aficionado—in Holland, to my own not too shabby jazz collection on vinyl. I became acquainted with a host of musicians from the past I had never listened to before and I re-listened to lot a familiar ones as well. All of the numerous jazz tunes in the Top 100 2022 are free jazz (or New wave in jazz, avant-garde, fusion, etc.) The double portrait format, moreover, results in many portraits of jazz musicians I never painted before. Sunny Murray, drummer with Albert Ayler is one of those musicians. Albert Ayler, and the song Ghosts, had been listed multiple times in the past, but never did I paint Sunny Murray, or bass player Gary Peacock before. Ghosts was recorded a week before I was born in New York City. It comes from the LP Spiritual Unity on the ESP (Esperanto) label. I bought the LP The ESP Sampler earlier this year that includes abridged versions of numerous outstanding jazz recordings, introducing me to a whole new clique of jazz men (they're all men, all 50 of them,save for Patty Waters.) Spiritual Unity is one of a handful of discs I already had in my collection from ESP (I own Spiritual Unity on CD rather than on vinyl.) 

Cecil Taylor/Jimmy Lyons

The Cecil Taylor track in the list is called Mirror and Water Gazing from the LP For Olim. [Soul Note 1987] The LP, that I've had for a long time but never featured in the Top 100, is a solo piano concert recorded 1986 in Berlin. The recording took place while Jimmy Lyons, his long-term collaborator, was on his dying bed due to cancer. The LP is dedicated to the "living spirit of Jimmy Lyons."

Miles Davis/Teo Macero

The remaining two new jazz paintings concern tracks that were also listed in 2021. Rated X by Miles Davis and Anthropology by Jon Ibragon are again both high in the Top 100. Last year I paired the Miles Davis portrait with that of the percussionist James Mtume. Mtume passed away in January this year. Teo Macero is a componist and sax player but is best known for his production work at Columbia Records. He worked extensively with Miles Davis and contributed greatly to the groundbreaking early 1970s records such as Bitches Brew and On the Corner. Rated X comes from Get Up With It that contains unreleased recordings from both Bitches Brew and On the Corner.

Jon Ibragon/Charlie Parker

Like last year I coupled Jon Ibragon with Charlie Parker as the LP Bird With Streams [Irabbagast, 2021] contains solo improvisations by the saxophonist Jon Ibragon on themes by Charlie Parker. Click here to read more on last year's painting. The Charlie Parker portrait comes from the LP The Happy "Bird" [1951, Charlie Parker Records] one of a handful LP's I have of his and that I all played while in my studio painting the portraits. Charlie Parker almost single-handedly started modern jazz in the 1940s.

Getting Ahead

Wolgang Laade/Amadu of Buzi

The Tataro solo is another track that was listed last year as well. A snippet concerning the recording can be read here. A tataro is a bundled pan pipe much like the ones used in the Solomon Islands I've written about before (in this post for example.) The music of the south coast of Papua New Guinea actually shares many characteristics with their neighboring islands in Melanesia. The painting sort of forms a pair with the one I did just before. My main adaptions from the painting of Tran Quang Hai together with Nang Suy are the scale relations between the two and warming (toning down) of the stark black and white contrast.)

Tran Quang Hai/Nang Suy

Female voice and flute again repeats from the Top 100 2020. Nang Suy alternates between singing and playing the flute in such a manner that one is an extension of the other. The track was recorded by Jacques Brunet but the painting is of Tran Quang Hai, who wrote the liner notes to the recording. Tran Quang Hai (Vietnam, 1944) is an important practitioner and researcher of Vietnamese traditional music. Nang Suy is from the Kmhmu Highlands in Laos. I did not have an image for Jacques Brunet.

Jon Ibragon/Charlie Parker

The next in line to be painted brought me back to the popular music of the United States. Earlier this year saxophone player Jon Ibragon released the record Bird With Streams, playing the music of Charlie Parker (hence "Bird" in the title of the record.) Bird With Streams was brought to my attention through a record review by Kevin Whitehead on NPR radio. The review was coupled with another new record of another tenor saxophonist J.D. Allen. The coupling, and theme of the review, was about how the jazz world dealt with the practice in the COVID-19 era. For Jon Ibragon it meant seeking out solitude in the woods. He recorded Bird With Streams at Falling Rock Canyon in California. It's a lo-fi recording and the sounds on the record include the sounds of nature. I immediately listed to the whole record on Bandcamp and was blown away by especially the opening track Anthropology.