Ideal Bread Project on Kickstarter

If you love the music of Steve Lacy, then you need to know about Ideal Bread, a quartet that offers their own interpretations of Lacy's compositions. The group is composed of Josh Sinton on baritone sax, Kirk Knuffke on trumpet, Adam Hopkins on bass and none other than Tomas Fujiwara on drums. They've released two CDs so far: 2008's The Ideal Bread (KMB-Jazz) and 2010's Transmit (Cuneiform Records). Now they've got an ambitious new project up for funding on Kickstarter: "Recompose and reimagine" all 26 compositions on Lacy's 3-CD box set Scratching the Seventies. They're about a quarter of the way to the goal of $8,000, and they have until August 23 to make it happen. Take a look at the project description on Kickstarter and give till it hurts!

Update: The group more than met their goal, raising a total of $8,600 by the deadline. Congratulations!

Jim Hall ArtistShare Project

Bassist Scott Colley emailed me with this message about guitarist Jim Hall's latest project:

I just wanted to share with you that I recently did an interview about guitarist Jim Hall that was published in his new 3-CD box set Jim Hall: Live! Vol. 2-4. This is a truly spectacular set of recordings from a legendary jazz guitarist, and a good friend. You can check out Jim's fan-funded live project on ArtistShare here.

I hope you enjoy this music from Jim, who is an inspirational figure for me.

Best,
Scott

It looks like the project is well on its way to being fully funded, so visit his ArtistShare page to order the single CD or the box.

Catching Up With Keith

Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/ Jack DeJohnette
Somewhere
ECM

Keith Jarrett - Piano
Gary Peacock - Double Bass
Jack DeJohnette - Drums

I had avoided this group for most of its incredible 30 year existence because I was put off by the emphasis on standards. I mean, they've been done to death, haven't they? How many more versions of "All The Things You Are" do we need? Also, I had heard maybe one song a few years back and thought it was snoresville at the time, for some reason.

Well I stand corrected! I finally took the plunge and I am loving this CD. Jarrett finds a way to say something new with his approach to each composition. And perhaps because he has a reputation for being difficult, I'm surprised at how much wit and humanity he puts into his performance. Sometimes he'll play very close to the melody or resolve a phrase in a straight-forward way, if the situation calls for it. I think that actually takes some courage, when a lot of jazz musicians would try to go in a more abstract direction. The interplay between the three musicians is as good as advertised. I love the fire-breathing days of Jack DeJohnette, so it's interesting to hear how he adjusts his approach in this context. Somewhere has me thinking about a second Standards Trio purchase. (Sigh)

(Originally posted in the Organissimo Forum)