Jazz Bastard Podcast

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 thr...

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...

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 fusio...

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...

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 – BLA...

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,...

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...

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 o...

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 La...

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 – FUL...

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 k...

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...

The boys take another walk down the "out" side of the street this episode, with looks at a little known outing from one of Charles Mingus' trumpet players to a twin-guitar / alto sax ensemble, to two rather challenging works on the Pyroclastic label.  Mike's more patient with those efforts than Pat.   Who's ready for some asbestos earmuffs?  Pop matters delves into what Ig...

The boys have been at this podcasting game for ten years now (plus a few "bonus" episodes) and celebrate with a tenth anniversary show dedicated to - what else? - tentets.  And yes, spell-check, 'tentet' is a real word.  We journey from the 1950's to the right-now's in quest of ensembles to big to be a combo, too little to be a "big" band, and generally like...

After almost a decade of planning and putting it off, the boys finally face their greatest fear:  group jazz singing.  What happens when three or four hipsters harmonize?  Is it safe to even try to find out?  Mike's not sure about that, but we tried anyway, and came up with this insight: you can't keep a good Boswell down.   In pop matters, Pat brags about having seen all three incarnati...

We look at three 2022 releases this time (albeit one recorded way back in 1972) along with the first harbinger of the new year.  There's an electronic sounding long-playing debut by a pair of youtube wunderkinder (all played in real-time we promise), a straight-ahead tenor sax trio, another star-studded portfolio album from a rising sax star, and a sprawling live opus from the music's gr...

The robots are coming!  The robots are coming!  And they're after our jobs - as lounge singers.  Skynet would not be amused.  But we kind of are  - at least, Mike says his first encounter with a vocaloid will be ever imprinted upon his brain.  Don't worry - this episode isn't all about our electronic replacements qua masters.  We look at music by flesh and blood performers too, one...

It's that holiday season once again, and Santa Mike insists we cover a slate of season-appropriate releases.  Are they jazz appropriate as well?  Not really, but two are jazz adjacent and one at least features an ex-Messenger, so there's that.  There's also, er,  Swamp Dogg.  Pop matters travels from Sufjan Stephens to late eighties England to the soothing, ambient sounds of the Zam...

Ron Carter is one of the most recorded bassists in the world and anchored the second of Miles Davis' "great quintets" so he ain't no slouch.  His leader work, however, isn't always given the respect it deserves.  Exactly how much respect, you ask?  Just sit down and listen to the bastards sift out that question as they look at four of Ron's best leader dates from four...

Some people accuse critics of being subjective, but when discussing music there's always one Platonic fact you can point to above and beyond the shifting tides of fashion and trend:  does Mikey like it?  In this case, yes, yes he does.  He likes all four of this episode's albums.  Pat, on the other hand?  Still a bit bastardly.  We kick the episode off with some reader comments and end i...

Sometimes "tribute "can be a dirty word in jazz - a sign a project's only justification is a well-known name - a warning that reverence may have trumped inspiration on a record.  But it doesn't have to be that way.  This episode, the bastards look at four 2022 releases that each celebrate a towering figure from jazz's past without getting tangled up in its shadow.   With d...

From time to time the bastards do a show devoted to one artist, and this time, happenstance leads us to feted and prolific "out" trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith.  His career stretches back to the seventies and he's worked with a murderer's row of avant garde musicians, but we're focusing on more recent work with him as a leader.  Strap yourselves in for a challenging ride but d...

It's the shock of the new as the boys take on three 2022 releases that stretch our heads in various directions, including a solo guitar outing, a visit to a mythical cave, and a trumpet excursions that goes even stranger places.  After that, a chill-out album from Blue Note is a welcome change of pace if nothing else.  Pop matters delves into this year's edition of the Chicago Jazz Fest,...

Two fifty is as good an artificial milestone as any, so the boys decide it's time for a GOAT episode.  First they wrestle a top-twenty artist list into shape, arguing that there's so much consensus out there little work remains to be done and still taking an hour doing it.  Then it's on to the tricky bit - picking out 21 through 40.   Totems will get tumbled, weird choices will get...

It's an episode years in the making when Mike is finally able to track down guitarist, composer, and raconteur Duck Baker.   We discovered Duck through his solo recording of Herbie Nichols' tunes, but Mike finds out that Duck has collaborated with such luminaries as John Zorn, Roswell Rudd, and Eugene Chadbourne while keeping up a stream of solo and group releases and composing dozens of...