House of Drumming.com

Since Steve mentioned Ari Hoenig in weekend chatty I've been thinking about expanding my jazz drummer taste palette. I definitely love jazz and practice jazz all the time and I love the heavies like Tony, Elvin, and Roy... but I find a lot of contemporary "jazz greats" that I don't like as opposed to liking. I like Brian Blade and some Bill Stewart(his sound has changed a lot since Think Before You Think) and frankly I don't get Jeff Watts(flame on)...anyway, what great Ari Hoenig recordings do you recommend(or any great contemporary recordings like Guilana, Ballard...etc.)?

gretsch-o-rama wrote:Since Steve mentioned Ari Hoenig in weekend chatty I've been thinking about expanding my jazz drummer taste palette. I definitely love jazz and practice jazz all the time and I love the heavies like Tony, Elvin, and Roy... but I find a lot of contemporary "jazz greats" that I don't like as opposed to liking. I like Brian Blade and some Bill Stewart(his sound has changed a lot since Think Before You Think) and frankly I don't get Jeff Watts(flame on)...anyway, what great Ari Hoenig recordings do you recommend(or any great contemporary recordings like Guilana, Ballard...etc.)?

Honestly for me, I had to see Ari first. The recordings aren't anywhere near what you experience live, for multiple reasons; that holds for most jazz musicians, but I think there is something extra with Ari. Once I saw him live, my musical world was changed. That said, "Inversations" or "Bert's Playground" are two of his albums I enjoy the most. But really, you have to see it to get it and fully appreciate it .

Andrew<3'sVinnie wrote:

gretsch-o-rama wrote:Since Steve mentioned Ari Hoenig in weekend chatty I've been thinking about expanding my jazz drummer taste palette. I definitely love jazz and practice jazz all the time and I love the heavies like Tony, Elvin, and Roy... but I find a lot of contemporary "jazz greats" that I don't like as opposed to liking. I like Brian Blade and some Bill Stewart(his sound has changed a lot since Think Before You Think) and frankly I don't get Jeff Watts(flame on)...anyway, what great Ari Hoenig recordings do you recommend(or any great contemporary recordings like Guilana, Ballard...etc.)?

Honestly for me, I had to see Ari first. The recordings aren't anywhere near what you experience live, for multiple reasons; that holds for most jazz musicians, but I think there is something extra with Ari. Once I saw him live, my musical world was changed. That said, "Inversations" or "Bert's Playground" are two of his albums I enjoy the most. But really, you have to see it to get it and fully appreciate it .

That's true with any quality music though.

Brad Mehldau Trio - Day Is Done. Jeff Ballard
Aaron Goldberg - Worlds. Eric Harland
Aaron Parks - Invisible Cinema. Eric Harland
Phronesis - Alive. Mark Guliana
Robert Glasper Trio - In My Element. Damion Reid
Terence Blanchard - Flow. Kendrick Scott
Gilad Hekselman - Split Life. Ari

These are just a handful of amazing records with amazing drummers. Kenny Werner trio with Ari is also outrageous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIGJJnQYHO4

For Jeff Ballard, his albums with Chick Corea´s New Trio and Origin are amazing and extremely musical. And his sound is just out of this world.

Dhafer Youssef's Abu Navas Rhapsody is excellent...

If you're an iTunes kind of person; there's a great iTunes Essentials set called 'Jazz: The Young Lions'. Most of the artists are somehow related to the Marsalis stable; but it's a great set to get your ears on a lot of the more expressive [newer school] artists in jazz. Not sure if there's any Ari in there or not, but it's all killer anyhow (at least I think so). My favorite Ari record is the Painter, but that seems kind of obvious if you've done even the most cursory internet searching on Ari.

If you don't dig Tain yet, I understand that, everyone has their palettes when it comes to what jazz is digestible at different points. But keep Tain on the back burner at least because when your ears are ready for it, that shit is killer. I didn't get Tony for a while, but when I came back to him years later, it flipped me out and changed me forever. Same with Roy Haynes. But hey, it's all music, and it's all subjective!

In Studio: Ari Hoenig
>>>

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck/20 ... ri-hoenig/

amoergosum wrote:In Studio: Ari Hoenig
>>>

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck/20 ... ri-hoenig/

Dude, new album!!! Sweet! Thanks for alerting me. Guys, just check the first tune that automatically plays on his page- http://arihoenig.com/ . Ari writes the coolest shit.

Guys like Ari and Ballard, even Stewart...the nature of their novelty is their UNtrained-ness, their own unique awkwardness to their playing (mostly visually). As a result it tends to either rub you the right way because their unconventional thing results in cool results..or they just look weird when they play. So it can kinda backfire. They sound great either way (I don't really dig the Ballard stuff...and I'll take Tain over all of them frankly).