Jazz Bastard Podcast

The boys start their trawl through some best-of-decade picks they missed during the last eight years by focusing on four albums in the, let's face it, somewhat amorphous "something old" category.  By which we mean, I think, albums on best of decades lists featuring well-established artists playing in fairly familiar modes.  Any, the results are mixed (surprised, anybody?) but do let...

This is a strange one, listeners, as the boys compare and contrast various jazz "best-of" lists for the 2010's and then let you, the listener, "behind the curtain" as they decide how to populate the next four shows of the podcast.  Mike's rubric:  something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.  Having already discussed 250 (count 'em) albums fr...

Sometimes the boys just can't agree.  This is one of those times.  Two new selections split them down the middle (though they at least "like" both selections), while one of the two oldies drives poor Mike (and Mike's family) up the proverbial wall (or is that escalator?)  Carla Bley (and poet Paul Haines) – ESCALATOR OVER THE HILL; Matt Ulery – POLLINATOR; Mathis Sound Orchestr...

Lockdown can't stop the boys from interviewing interesting musicians (it's not like we did it in person before . . .)  This time pianist, composer and educator Danny Green visits our slightly demented neck of the woods to discuss his latest project (a group called LP and the Vinyl with a vocalist covering . . . gasp . . . rock and pop tunes as well as jazz standards) as well as three alb...

Ya want big bands?  We got big bands.  Sometimes we got one in each speaker.  In this exploration of the more extroverted side of jazz, the boys explore works by a blazing trumpet player (and world-class womanizer), a so-so clarinetist with a heart of gold, two piano-playing band leaders who both worship Duke Ellington, and two (but it sounds like thirty) major-league skin-pounders.  Much musing o...

Does harp music fill you with images of celestial angels - or a (relatively) tamed Pharaoh Sanders?  Either way, there's something for you here in this brief overview of "cosmic" jazz.  We start with a good, long look at the early career of Pharaoh Sanders and his brief gig with displaced resident of Saturn, Sun Ra, then move on to Alice Coltrane's contribution to the formation...

The boys take a break by cobbling together an episode from a lengthy pop matters segment discussing Funkadelic, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Suzanne Vega, and Dr. Demento (among others) with an episode of Pat's Vinyl Corner covering Blue Note's recent LP issues as well as box sets by Coltrane and Leonard Bernstein (?)

Listeners of a certain age will remember the Saturday Night Live "sound" - all squealing saxes and twice-removed soul gestures.  In this podcast we talk about one possible precursor to the sound and three of its best known practitioners - some of whom may or may not have partaken in Bolivian Marching Powder from time to time.  No Pop Matters this round, as it ended up growing so big it g...

In this wide-ranging interview, the boys talk with bassist Nicholas Krolak, a Philadelphian with insights on pacing a set, marketing difficult-to-publicize music like jazz, the cost of including standards on a cd, and the oblique thinking of Bad Plus pianist Orrin Evans.  There's also some discussion of "bachelor cookies" (not a euphemism) in there.  Nicholas Krolak - VOICE = POWER;...

Female vocalists take the stage this episode, with voices ranging from small and whispery to bold 'en brassy and approaches ranging from the hardest of hardcore jazz to relatively pop-oriented (if not populist or low-brow).  Most of these are brand new releases, so grab them up and support musicians stuck, with the rest of us, in lock-down mode.  Pop matters trots out some obscure artists inc...

The boys aren't called bastards for nothing and sometimes they can be hard on unfamiliar musicians.  This episode they are pleased to revisit two artists whose earlier projects got rough treatment but whose new releases tickle a bastard's fancy.  At the same time, they discuss two artists brand new to the show and like their releases as well.  What are the odds?  (Seriously, we don'...

As lockdown enters day number "both of us have lost count, haven't you? ", the boys decide to check out some new releases.  There's a prestige project celebrating the First Couple of jazz, offerings from North and South of the US border, and a lo-fi jam session cut and pasted for your listening pleasure.  Then Pat apologizes for the Alan Parsons Project and the Damned. Somebody...

The boys focus on two pianists this time - the recently departed McCoy Tyner (stalwart of John Coltrane's "great quartet" and indefatigable leader of countless record sessions) and the long-departed Lennie Tristano (reclusive doyen of cool jazz education).  The subjects couldn't be less alike but both made fascinating music.  Normally, we'd insert some kind of joke right a...

Four six-string masters going solo are the focus for this fortnight's podcast, and they cover the gamut from acoustic true-believers to studio mavens ready to mix it up with multi-tracking and effects pedals.  What are the benefits - and dangers - of attempting jazz without compadres?  Wouldn't you know it, Pat & Mike have opinions on that topic.  Pop matters focuses squarely on the...

In this very special episode the boys sit down to talk with alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and raconteur David Binney, who talks about his long career in jazz, his recent move from New York to Los Angeles, his upcoming projects, and his work mentoring young musicians.

After the "politicapocalypse" (Mike's coinage - ask him) of the previous episode, the boys decides to gently transition away from that minefield by looking at two artists more obliquely engaged with political discourse and two artists more or less removed from it entirely (by temperament and timing).  To soothe Pat's scalded nerves, Mike brings a couple "cool" cats to...

Try as he might, Pat can't escape Mike's jones for jazz mixed with politics, so he submits and the boys do a trawl through just a few of the examples of art-music and rhetoric spilling forth from improvising musicians less than thrilled, let us posit, by the political bent of the last few years.  Do the bastards pontificate more than the music they're criticizing?  You be the judge....

Inspired by bassist Cecil McBee's star-turn on Lloyd McNeill's Elegia, the boys devote a whole episode to examining works led by Cecil or just plain enhanced by his presence.  He's had a wide-ranging career as a side-man so they cherry-pick what highlights they can while wondering if the next setting on the engineering knob after "10" and "11" is really "sex...

The boys look at three recent releases including a vocal-focused celebration of Canada, a two-hander by composers of children's television soundtracks and a Swedish flutist upset with the political tides of the last few years.  After a spirited, if dispiriting, discussion of jazz as "protest music" propers get paid to a pivotal recording of avant-funk-folk jazz by a co-founder of th...

Purely because Pat ran across a classic artist and a brand new find (for him, at least) who are both women guitarists, we decided to build a whole show around artists fitting that description.  Which lets us cover four very different albums while still leaving Mike time to complain about classic rock eminence Kansas.  Emily Remler – EAST TO WES; Leni Stern – WHEN EVENING FALLS; Camila Meza – RETRA...

The Bastards' Christmas present to you (should you listen to this episode the day it drops) is a seventh anniversary celebration featuring - you guessed it - septets.  And copper, sheep, speculation about the role a great title makes in creating a jazz classic, and all sorts of other goodies.  Unwrap and enjoy.  The Fat Babies – 18TH AND RACINE; Oliver Nelson – BLUES AND THE ABSTRACT TRUTH; P...

Every now and then when the holidays roll around, the boys celebrate by surveying some jazz-related Christmas releases.  This is one of those now and thens, and they've picked an eclectic bunch indeed.  After the tinsel talk winds down, Mike muses about Nick Cave (little known fact - Nick is Santa's favorite artist), tries to guess Pat's glam rock favorites, and gets an update on &q...

William, oh William, it was really nothing - but an all-Bill all the time podcast!  At Mike's suggestion, this round's musicians are all named Bill.  Heck, half of them are white guys named Bill Evans who gigged with Miles Davis.  How's that for homogeneity?  Don't fret - the other Bills at this party bring heavy-gauge avant credentials to balance things out.  Bill Evans – YOU...

You won't bee-lieve how hard it is to avoid apian puns in this podcast description, but we'll do our best after this sentence.  Mike and Pat dig into the Beehive catalog and pluck five albums out its sixteen-strong lineup.  Small independents like Beehive kept bebop alive during the dark days of fusion, and the boys find out how.  They also talk way too long about “In High Profile’s” unf...

A couple oldies, a couple newies - the boys sort out the third (THIRD!) Contemporary Jazz Quintet release they've discussed in the podcast's history, pay their propers to Jack DeJohnette's best ensemble of the eighties (realistically, of ever) and then look at an avant pop and an avant jazz album from 2019.  Kenny Cox – LOCATION ; Jack DeJohnette – SPECIAL EDITION; Dopolarians  - GA...