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10 Tracks that inspire me (posted by Elan Mehler)

10 Tracks that inspire me

1.  African Flower Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Max Roach Money Jungle This song (the whole album really) is like the perfect storm.  There is such a great push and pull between players and such real pure improvisation that so rarely graces the "all-star" format of similarly concieved albums.  No one else but the Duke could have pulled this one off. <> 

2.  Romain Bill Evans and Jim Hall Undercurrent A work of glowing achievement.  Listen to the moment when Hall and Evans'solos starts to collide, the kind of beauty and synergy that can only happen (and then rarely) in improvised music.

3.  Tehillim Steve Reich Tehillim A rhapsodic, otherworldly and surprisingly lyrical work.  Tehillim fits together in the most intricate and crystalline of ways, without losing any of its emotional impact.  The ideal setting for a sacred text.

4.  Time the Revelator Gillian Welch Time the Revelator Welch and her writing partner David Rawlings have an amazing ability to meld lyric and melody.  They write real melodies that go in surprising directions without a hint of artifice.  This whole album has been rattling around in my brain for years.  

5.  Manteca Dizzy Gillespie At Newport This track was my introduction to Jazz.  The opening line "I'll never go back to Georgia, I'll never go back to Georgia..." evolves into a burning trumpet solo and killing group sound.  You can hear the band surprising itself. An ideal example of sustained swing and guaranteed to get anyone with a pulse out of their seat.

6.  Nicollette Kenny Wheeler Angel Song Wheeler is a master of organic and lyrical writing. David Holland, Bill Frisell, Lee Konitz and Wheeler apply truly selfless musicianship and skill to fleshing out some of the most beautiful Jazz compositions of the 20th century.    

7.  Since I've Been Loving You   Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin 3  Zeppelin has been one of my favorite bands since my big sister introduced them to me when I was eleven years old.  I'll never get sick of them.    

8.  Wa Habibi  Osvaldo GolijovAyre  Golijov is a fearless and fiercely creative composer.  This song cycle was written especially for Dawn Upshaw's voice and the results are transcendent.        

9.  I Want to Leave You   Adam Mcbride-Smith Good and Gone   Adam is a local Brooklyn guy, not yet getting the attention he deserves.  Like Gillian Welch, he has a knack for wedding a great lyric to a genuine and innovative melody.  Check out what he does with the bridge on this tune.  

10.  Nomad's Nourisher   Matt Joy Pulse   Matt is someone who's been inspiring me with his compositions for a long time.  He has an unique technical ability on solo guitar but his compositions are what have always amazed me.  He writes songs that obey almost none of the "jazz" conventions and yet when you hear his songs, they make so much sense, everything leads exactly where it should, that you can't believe someone hasn't already written them.  

<><>We play some of his songs, including this one, with the quartet.   Narrowing a list down to 10 tracks is by necessity a bit arbitrary.  I picked these tunes because they are songs that have truly inspired me and have influenced my conception and sound and also because they are not, for the most part, part of the cannon.  I could also easily have picked among much loved tunes from Miles, Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Thelonious Monk, Paul Bley, Sonny Rollins, Cecil Taylor, Keith Jarrett as well as Muddy Waters, Ali Farke Toure, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.  <>

  • Posted by Gilles Peterson
  • Aug 28, 03:40 AM

Just been listening to Elan’s Elvis presley blues… Man ! thats good, ! soo mellow I nearly fell off my perch…

Posted by Ant
Sep 17, 08:49 AM

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