On Sat, Jul 3, 2010 at 2:10 AM, david <gnome@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Or (to me) the endless soundalike lookalike stuff that passes for way too > much jazz these days? Sorry, to my ears, the days of jazz performers that > actually sound like themselves seems to have passed. Too many players now > seem to be trying only to sound like someone else. how are you "listening" to jazz in the first place? if you do so mostly via traditional broadcast radio then its not surprising that you have this impression. precisely what one calls "jazz" is pretty hard to pin down (it is certainly not limited "that swing"), but i listen to soma fm's "sonic universe" streaming music service, which bills itself as being on edge of jazz, and you will find (as i have) dozen's of artists there who all consider themselves as being very much a part of the jazz tradition yet definitely do not sound like someone else. over the last six months, these are some of the people i've either discovered or gotten very much deeper into thanks to sonic universe: marc beacco (acapella + 1 instrument) jon hassell (knew of him, but not since the 70's) avisahai cohen (extraordinary bass player & trio, playing unbelievably syncopated stuff) marcin wasilewski trio (polish p/d/b trio with an incredibly delicate sound) tomasz stanko (trumpeter, his trio is the trio just named) portico quartet (UK quartet centered on the hang drum) cinematic orchestra (UK ensemble that exists in the space between jazz & trip-hop) bugge wesseltoft (keyboard player blending modern electronica with scandanavian jazz) tord gustavsen (piano player who echoes bill evans but through a very scandanavian lens) andy sheppard (UK sax player mixing in non-jazz rhythms and sounds from everywhere) nik baertsch's ronin (extraordinary ensemble that blends minimalism, jazz with a funkier sense) dhafer youssef (incredible oud player creating stuff with influences from around the world) there are many more that i've discovered by cruising around on emusic.com. my experience is that jazz on the radio in the US is basically dead, but that it also hardly represents what is happening in jazz either. _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user