A Double Shot Of Jazz Underground

This edition of Notes From The Jazz Underground was culled from the June 17th  & June 24th broadcasts.

Ever since we launched Tomorrow's Verse, we've been playing catch-up with these NFTJU posts, so let's combine two of them into a huge Jazz Underground DOUBLE SHOT for your listening pleasure and get us up to date.

The 6/17 broadcast was a dedication to host Paul Abella's wife, Christina, with whom he was celebrating a big ten year anniversary that night.  Pretty much everything here had something to do with her, whether it was overt (Sonic Youth and Tortoise tunes... she's a big fan), or tunes that Paul has turned her on to (Karsh Kale, the RH Factor), or stuff that has a personal story behind it (the Bebel Gilberto cut came from a disc that both sides of the couple had while dating). 

So, was there any musical rhyme or reason to it?  Maybe not so much.  But does it all come from the place that all great music comes from, LOVE?  Absolutely.  Hopefully you dig it as much as Paul enjoyed did making it.

Programming note.  I many have shocked Paul by finding the DKV Trio stuff online (embedded below via bandcamp)... but for the June 24th broadcast we came awfully close to a first: an all Spotify available NFTJU.

There was really no theme to that one, just a bunch of great tunes, and a nod to TV faves Phish.  Here's some highlights:

• Matt Jorgensen + 451 are stunningly good.  Here, they're able to take a mildly heady Coldplay tune and turn it into a really excellent jazz vehicle
• Greg Spero is an excellent local pianist who has moved out to L.A.
• Paul Wertico's disc, Impressions of a City, has more than a little hints of early 70's Pink Floyd.  
• The two Metheny songs show off two of the great Methenyisms:  "Roofdogs" contains one of those moments where he rages just as hard as any rock star, and with Ornette, he completely gives himself over to what Coleman is doing and loses himself in it
• The Theo Croker and Marcus Strickland are new releases that are right on the cutting edge of what's happening in modern jazz right now.
• And of course, there are those two rather lengthy Phish jams smack dab in the middle of the show.  Abella was at both of these shows, though regrettably, we had to replace the Live Bait 11 "Stash" from a similar one from the same year.  Darn Spotify.

Full playlists are below.

Complete Playlist 6/17

Complete Playlist 6/24