Burning Ambulance Podcast

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Jason Palmer Feb 28, 2019

Show notes

Trumpeter Jason Palmer is based in Boston, where he teaches at Berklee and plays regularly at Wally's. He's recorded extensively as a leader, and has also worked with players as different from each other as Matana Roberts and Grace Kelly. He's just released a new double live CD, Rhyme and Reason, with the help of Giant Step Arts, a nonprofit formed by photographer Jimmy Katz and his wife Dena that provides jazz artists with funding for albums - Giant Step pays for the recording and the manufacturing, and even the publicity, and all the artists have to do is figure out a way to sell the CDs.

In this interview, we talk about a lot of different subjects, including some of Palmer's previous albums, some things he's got coming up, the whole Giant Step Arts thing, his work in Damian Chazelle's movie Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, and more. It’s a very interesting conversation, and one I hope you’ll enjoy.

Music heard in this episode:

Jason Palmer, "Herbs in a Glass" (Rhyme and Reason)

Jason Palmer, "Waltz for Diana" (Rhyme and Reason)

Linda May Han Oh Feb 07, 2019

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Bassist Linda May Han Oh grew up in Australia, and moved to the US a little over ten years ago. In that time, she’s risen to a position of real prominence on the current jazz scene. She’s very much in demand as a bandmember, playing on albums by Dave Douglas, Art Hirahara, E.J. Strickland, and George Colligan; she’s a member of Pat Metheny's new quartet; she's recorded four albums as a leader, with a fifth one on the way later this year; she teaches at the Manhattan School of Music and other places; and she’s a member of the collective We Have Voice, which is working to achieve greater gender parity in jazz.

In this interview, we talk about a lot of different projects, including some she barely remembered playing on. We talk about the various things she’s doing now, how she sees jazz changing at the moment, and where she sees it going in the future. It’s a very interesting conversation, and one I hope you’ll enjoy.

Music heard in this episode:

Linda Oh Trio, "Morning Sunset" (Entry)

Linda Oh, "Footfall" (Sun Pictures)

Linda Oh, "Thicker Than Water" (Initial Here)

Dave Douglas Quintet, "Little Feet" (Time Travel)

Linda May Han Oh, "Mantis" (Walk Against Wind)

Branford Marsalis Jan 24, 2019

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Branford Marsalis, for those who don’t know, is a saxophonist, and the older brother of Wynton Marsalis, the trumpeter and leader of Jazz at Lincoln Center. They’re from New Orleans, and started out working together, first in Art Blakey’s band and then on each other’s albums. They were already on separate paths by the mid-'80s, though, when Wynton started becoming more and more of a traditionalist and Branford joined Sting’s band. He was also the bandleader on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno from 1992 to 1995, he played with the Grateful Dead onstage several times in the early '90s and has guested with other jam bands since then, he played on Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power”...basically, he’s a much more adventurous musician than people sometimes think.

I’ve been a fan of his work for a lot of years – albums like Crazy People Music, The Dark Keys, Contemporary Jazz, Braggtown, and Four MFs Playin' Tunes are all really impressive, high-level acoustic jazz, without being so complex that they’re alienating. His current band includes Joey Calderazzo on piano, Eric Revis on bass, and Justin Faulkner on drums. Justin’s been with him for ten years, and the other two guys have been around for twenty. They’ve got a new album, The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul, coming out in March, and it’s really, really beautiful stuff; I expect it’s gonna be a record I come back to a lot over the course of the year.

In case you’ve never heard an interview with Branford Marsalis before, much like his brother, he has a lot of opinions about what is and isn’t jazz. So you should be prepared for that, when listening to this conversation. It’s a fun one.

Music heard in this episode:

"Spartacus" (Crazy People Music)

"Snake Hip Waltz" (The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul)

"The Dark Keys" (The Dark Keys)

Melvin Gibbs Jan 10, 2019

Show notes

Melvin Gibbs is the bassist for the avant-rock/jazz/metal/dub trio Harriet Tubman, whose new album The Terror End of Beauty is out now and sweeping up rave reviews everywhere. Before forming Tubman with guitarist Brandon Ross and drummer JT Lewis in 1998, Gibbs was a founding member of Defunkt and of Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society (alongside future Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid); he played in Sonny Sharrock's band; he appeared on John Zorn's Spillane and The Big Gundown; he was a member of Arto Lindsay's band Ambitious Lovers; and from 1994 to 1998, he was the bassist for the Rollins Band.

In this episode of the Burning Ambulance podcast, Gibbs talks about his time with Jackson, with Rollins, and with Harriet Tubman; about whether his music is jazz, and how one even defines such a thing; and much, much more. This is the standard, free version of this episode, and runs 64 minutes. There is an extended, 92-minute version of the podcast available exclusively to Patreon subscribers; join at patreon.com/burningambulance for $5 a month to hear it. Future episodes of the podcast will be similarly expanded, and additional subscriber-only stories will also show up from time to time.

Rune Grammofon Dec 20, 2018

Show notes

The final Burning Ambulance podcast of 2018 is a very special episode. Back in May, I went to Norway for the Nutshell jazz showcase and interviewed several Norwegian jazz artists – that was in episode 19. And just a couple of weeks ago, at the end of November, I went back to Norway, for the 20th anniversary of the Rune Grammofon label.

Rune Grammofon is a fantastic label that has put out albums by Motorpsycho, Supersilent, Arve Henriksen, Bushman’s Revenge, Elephant9, Fire!, Maja Ratkje, the Espen Eriksen Trio, the Hedvig Mollestad Trio and many, many others. To celebrate their 20th anniversary, the founder and label owner, Rune Kristoffersen, booked two nights of shows at National Jazz scene, a club in Oslo. The first night featured Maja Ratkje and Motorpsycho, and the second night featured Fire! and the Hedvig Mollestad Trio. And I was one of the foreign journalists invited to come over and see the shows, because I’ve been a supporter of the label for a long time – I’ve reviewed their releases for The Wire and for Burning Ambulance, I interviewed Arve Henriksen for a cover story back when BA had a print magazine, et cetera, et cetera. I wrote a review of the concerts for Down Beat, which you can read on their website, and while I was in Oslo I interviewed Rune, Maja, Bent Saether from Motorpsycho, Mats Gustafsson from Fire!, and Hedvig Mollestad, and you’ll hear all of those conversations, as well as music from each of them, in this episode.

Here's a list of the music you'll hear in this episode:

Motorpsycho, "Ship of Fools" (The Tower)

Fire!, "The Hands" (The Hands)

Maja Ratkje, "Trio" (Voice)

Motorpsycho, "Manmower" (Roadwork Vol. 5)

Fire!, "Up and Down" (The Hands)

Hedvig Mollestad Trio, "First Thing to Pop is the Eye" (Smells Funny)

Sky Music, "Chaser" (A Tribute to Terje Rypdal)

Roxy Coss Nov 29, 2018

Show notes

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Roxy Coss is a saxophonist who's put out four albums as a leader and has also recorded with Jeremy Pelt (a guest on episode 21), and as a member of the Posi-Tone Records all-star band New Faces. Her most recent releases are The Future is Female and the New Faces album Straight Forward, both of which came out this year.

In addition to her music, Roxy Coss is the founder of WIJO, the Women In Jazz Organization, a collective that has a whole bunch of projects in the works in terms of education, expansion of opportunities for female musicians, and much more. We talked about that a lot in this interview, along with her various recordings, the evolution of her style on the horn, and much more. I’m sure you’re going to find it very interesting, as I did.

Here's a list of the songs you'll hear in this episode:

Roxy Coss, "Nevertheless, She Persisted" (The Future is Female)

Jeremy Pelt, "The Calm Before the Storm" (Face Forward, Jeremy)

Jeremy Pelt, "Boom Bishop" (Water and Earth)

Roxy Coss, "Waiting" (Restless Idealism)

Roxy Coss, "Chasing the Unicorn" (Chasing the Unicorn)

Roxy Coss, "Crazy" (Chasing the Unicorn)

Roxy Coss, "She Needed a Hero, So That's What She Became" (The Future is Female)

New Faces, "King Cobra" (Straight Forward)

JD Allen Nov 08, 2018

Show notes

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JD Allen is a saxophonist I've been listening to since 2011. He puts out an album a year, the latest being LoveStone, and in addition to his work as a leader, he's worked with Jeremy Pelt (a guest on episode 21), David Weiss, Orrin Evans (a guest on episode 9), Cindy Blackman and many others.

He's something of a classicist — he's got a really big sound on the tenor, reminiscent of Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon and other legends — but his music is very modern and creative, with one foot in the blues and one in the future. In this episode, we discuss his early career, the years when he first came to prominence with Jeremy Pelt's quintet and his own trio, and much more.

Here's a list of the songs you'll hear in this episode:

JD Allen, "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" (LoveStone)

JD Allen, "Naked" (Graffiti)

Jeremy Pelt Quintet, "Sweet Rita Suite Part 2: Her Soul" (Soul)

David Weiss & Point of Departure, "Black Comedy" (Snuck In)

JD Allen, "Another Man Done Gone" (Americana)

Lisa Hilton, "Too Hot" (Escapism)

JD Allen, "Radio Flyer" (Radio Flyer)

Keyon Harrold Oct 25, 2018

Show notes

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Keyon Harrold is a trumpeter who has been making quite a name for himself in the jazz world over the past few years – The Mugician is his second album under his own name, but he’s also worked with Gregory Porter, Marcus Strickland, David Sanborn, Dr. Lonnie Smith, and a bunch of hip-hop and R&B artists, including Beyonce, Jay-Z, Maxwell, Mary J. Blige and Big K.R.I.T. He was also picked by Robert Glasper and Don Cheadle to be the trumpet player on the soundtrack to the movie Miles Ahead in 2016.

His music is a hybrid sound that combines jazz, funk, R&B, hip-hop, rock, and some really nice string orchestrations. The Mugician is a major artistic statement, one that fits in with the work people like Glasper, Christian Scott, Terrace Martin and others are doing, but is definitely its own thing. At the same time, it extends a long history of jazz musicians engaging with the popular sounds of the time, whether it’s Herbie Hancock embracing funk in the '70s and hip-hop in the '80s or trumpet players like Donald Byrd and Eddie Henderson, who made albums that were straight-up disco records but still included some serious blowing.

In this episode, we discuss both of his albums and why he took nine years between them; his work with other musicians; the Miles Ahead experience; his support of Black Lives Matter and his childhood growing up in Ferguson, Missouri; and much more.

Here's a list of the songs you'll hear in this episode:

Keyon Harrold, "The Mugician" (The Mugician)

Various Artists, "Junior's Jam" (Miles Ahead)

Keyon Harrold, "TMF Nuttz" (Introducing Keyon Harrold)

Various Artists, "What's Wrong With That" (Miles Ahead)

Marcus Strickland, "Sissoko's Voyage" (Nihil Novi)

Christian Sands, "Frankenstein" (Facing Dragons)

Keyon Harrold, "Ethereal Souls" (The Mugician)

Zev Feldman Oct 11, 2018

Show notes

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Episode 27 of the Burning Ambulance podcast—the first episode of Year Two of the show—is the first one not to feature an interview with a musician. Instead, I’m talking to Zev Feldman, who’s a producer working primarily with the Resonance Records label.

Resonance has been around for ten years and has mostly specialized in releasing archival music by legendary jazz artists. Their first big release was Echoes Of Indiana Avenue by guitarist Wes Montgomery—it featured some previously unheard early recordings. They’ve subsequently done several other albums of his music, including a live concert recorded on his only European tour in 1965. They’ve also put out albums by Stan Getz, Charles Lloyd, Bill Evans, Larry Young, and John Coltrane, among many others, and Zev is the guy who actually travels the world locating these lost recordings and putting in all the legwork to get them licensed, make sure they’ve got the rights, and do everything else that leads to the physical release. The thing that makes Resonance releases so great, by the way, is that they’re not just about throwing the music out there—they have really in-depth liner notes, tons of historical photographs, interviews with the surviving musicians or people connected to the recordings in some way, and beautiful packaging overall. They’re all about preserving the love of physical music formats. They do special releases for Record Store Day every year, putting out the vinyl versions before the CD edition and stuff like that.

They don’t just release archival music, either—they also put out CDs by new artists, and Zev and I talk a little bit about that in this interview. We also discuss some of the non-Resonance work he’s done, like the Thelonious Monk record Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960 and a big project he did the other year, reissuing 25 titles from Xanadu Records, a small '70s label that really deserves much more attention than it’s ever gotten.

There's a lot more music in this episode than usual. Here's a full listing of everything you'll hear:

Thelonious Monk, "Well You Needn't" (Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960)

Grant Green, "I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing" (Funk in France: From Paris to Antibes 1969-70)

Wes Montgomery, "Full House" (In Paris: The Definitive ORTF Recording)

Bill Evans, "Very Early" (Another Time: The Hilversum Concert)

Larry Young, "Mean to Me" (In Paris: The ORTF Recordings)

John Coltrane, "Crescent" (Offering: Live at Temple University)

Andreas Varady, "Radiska" (The Quest)

Mark Turner & Ethan Iverson Sep 27, 2018

Show notes

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Episode 26 of the Burning Ambulance podcast features a conversation with saxophonist Mark Turner and pianist Ethan Iverson; it's also the one-year anniversary of the show. I want to thank every single person who’s listened to the show in that time, and assure you that Year Two is going to be even better.

I’ve known both Ethan Iverson and Mark Turner for a while; Ethan actually wrote a blurb for a crime novel I self-published last year – it’s called Fifty Foot Drop, and you can find it on Amazon if you want – and a few years ago, I was hired to run a social media campaign for Mark when he had a new album out on ECM. Ethan and I had never met face to face, though, before this interview, which was recorded backstage at the Jazz Standard in New York on September 18, the night they were there to perform songs from Temporary Kings.

Temporary Kings is their first record as a duo, but they’ve been playing together for more than a decade, along with bassist Ben Street, in a quartet led by drummer Billy Hart. And obviously they’ve both had very strong careers on their own – Ethan of course was the pianist for the Bad Plus for a long time, and recorded a trio album, The Purity of the Turf, in 2016 with Ron Carter on bass and Nasheet Waits on drums. He’s also starting to build his own career as a writer, both on his blog and in pieces for the New Yorker. Mark has recorded as a leader for Criss Cross, Warner Brothers and ECM, was – and maybe still is – a member of the trio Fly, and plays a lot as a sideman in all kinds of different contexts. He’s also got a second album of duos out this year – Faroe, with guitarist Mikkel Ploug.

This conversation was really fascinating for me. We talked about each man’s early career, about projects they’ve worked on together, musicians they both know, early influences, social media, and a lot more. At certain points, you’ll notice that it almost becomes me and Ethan interviewing Mark, which I thought was hilarious but also really apt, because Mark is an incredibly smart guy and very philosophical in a really unique way. His attitude toward his life and career is unlike anyone else I’ve ever spoken with, and I’m really glad he was willing to be interviewed for the show.

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