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2024 0-9 z y x w v u t s r q p o n m l k j i h g f e d c b a

Jim Black - My Choice '2021

24bit
My Choice
ArtistJim Black Related artists
Album name My Choice
Country
Date 2021
GenreContemporary Jazz
Play time 52:35
Format / Bitrate 24 BIT Stereo 1420 Kbps / 44.1 kHz
Media CD
Size 297; 561 MB
PriceDownload $4.95
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Tracks list

       Back in the 90s, producer Stefan Winter got to know and appreciate
drummer Jim Black as a JMT sideman of Tim Berne and Uri Caine. 20 years ago, the
young drummer fulfills his dream of releasing his first leader album on the
label that is also home to the recordings of Tim Berne, Uri Caine and Paul
Motion. For the anniversary of WINTER & WINTER, Jim Black compiles his personal
selection of the recordings of his group AlasNoAxis: Music for open ears, for
explorers of the unusual and unconventional. The musicians of AlasNoAxis combine
jazz elements, new wave and grunge to create their very own sound. Stefan Hentz
writes: »…atmospheric songs in which the saxophone sings while bass,
drums and Hilmar Jensson's peculiarly motionless guitar shred the familiar and
pile up new energies with the fragility of dissolved harmonies, the power of
their power chords or even with true feedback orgies.«
My Choice: When Stefan (Winter) initially approached me to record my first album
as a leader for WINTER & WINTER, I told him »yes« on the condition that I
was only interested in recording my own compositions. He said »I want you to
record your own compositions.« I said »But you have no idea what kind of
music I write!« He replied »I trust you…« The fact was, I
didn’t have a clue what to write… but an invitation to be more than
you can imagine yourself being is a call to grow.
I was raised on rock radio growing up in Seattle, along with the 8-track tapes
in my parents’ car blasting Burt Bacharach songs performed by the
Carpenters, the 5th Dimension, and Dionne Warwick. I completely forgot that part
of my musical upbringing during my jazz obsessed college years. When I moved to
Brooklyn in ’91, my ears changed for the better by listening to the very
eclectic and interesting mix of music coming from a small listener supported
freeform radio station, the legendary WFMU from East Orange, New Jersey. Since
they were a major influence on my tastes and direction, I made the simple
decision to write exactly the music that I would want to hear on the radio.
Raised on John Coltrane and Albert Aylers’ musical energies combined with
my love of distortion and melodic singer/songwriters seemed like a mix I would
want to hear. [Not lost on me, the band Sonic Youth was already focusing on this
through their own lens.]
Oh, delusions of grandeur, what one wouldn’t give to write the next Beach
Boys’ »Pet Sounds«… Instead, the first song I wrote was the
absolutely strange »Optical« [track 8] included here.
Sometime in 1999 I read somewhere that singer/songwriter virtuoso Joni Mitchell
would pick up a guitar and tune it to a random tuning that she thought sounded
good, and would then proceed to slowly figure out her own chords and
progressions while singing melodies on top to write songs… [Sounds like a
great idea, let’s go!]
Thus began my journey to write all of the music for AlasNoAxis on various
randomly tuned electric baritone guitars, while having no idea how to properly
play guitar. A slow and painstaking process to say the least but one well worth
the effort and unexpected rewards. Removing all technical knowledge from writing
on an instrument forces one to only write exactly what one hears – there
are no instrumental skills or tricks to save you. If I couldn’t sing the
melodies, I wouldn’t write them down. After I had the songs, I needed the
right band to provide all of the sound, color, shape, energy, and to breathe
life and soul into these sonic imaginations.
After two minutes of thought, it was an obvious choice to give them to my oldest
and most open-minded musical friends at that time: Chris Speed, Hilmar Jensson,
and Skúli Sverrisson. With these gentlepersons, you are working with artisans
that play, arrange, and spontaneously compose from the inside of each
composition, highlighting the meaning and message of each section of every song.
You can trust nobody will come to the music and simply drop a familiar musical
‘style‘ on top; they are going to search for approaches and sounds
that make each song unique – even spending hours rehearsing 1 bar of
material to find the just the right vibe.
The compilation [»My Choice«] you are in possession of is a sampler
platter. Hopefully it piques your interest to explore each of these six albums
in full. Thank you for listening to our music.
Special thanks to Stefan and Mariko for the trust and believing in my music,
even though they had no clue what they were getting into. — Jim Black

Jim Black, drums
Hilmar Jensson, guitar
Chris Speed, tenor saxophone, clarinet
Skúli Sverrisson, bass

1.01 - Jim Black - Z (4:29)
1.02 - Jim Black - Cahme (4:38)
1.03 - Jim Black - Maybe (4:11)
1.04 - Jim Black - Naluch (5:09)
1.05 - Jim Black - Let It Down (6:10)
1.06 - Jim Black - You Know Just Because (5:15)
1.07 - Jim Black - Super K’s (4:27)
1.08 - Jim Black - Optical (5:06)
1.09 - Jim Black - Dogs of Great Indifference (6:55)
1.10 - Jim Black - Awkwarder (6:16) 

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