Moran, Jason

Vinyl Records and Rare LPs:

All Rise: A Joyful Elegy For Fats Waller
New - LP - B002073201
Sealed, Out Of Print 2014 180gm Original. Promo Score Through Barcode. “Yeah, All Rise: A Joyful Elegy For Fats Waller Is A Tribute To The Great Stride Pianist, But In Jason Moran's Hands, It's Not What One Would Expect. This Album Isn't Full Of Stride Piano, But It Is Full Of Fats Waller's Larger Persona As A Performer. Waller Mixed Jokes And Comic Routines, And Did Whatever He Could To Connect With His Audience In His Act, And If His Piano Playing Was The Hinge, It Sat On A Door That Opened Straight To The Dancefloor. This Album Had Its Beginnings When Moran Was Commissioned By The N.Y.C. Performing Arts Venue Harlem Stage Gatehouse To Create A Tribute To Waller As Part Of Its Harlem Jazz Shrines Series. Moran Came Up With A Unique Combination Of Piano, Vocal Jazz, And Dance That Used Waller's Signature Songs As Springboards. Collaborating With Singer Meshell Ndegeocello, Wearing A Large Papier-Mâché Mask Of Waller's Head Created For Him By Haitian Artist Didier Civil, And Adding Interpretive Dancers, Moran Called His Conceptual Tribute The Fats Waller Dance Party, And All Rise Is The Studio-Recorded Rendition Of The Project. It's A Stunning Mix Of Piano Jazz With Moody, Winsome Late-Night Vocals, And It Has Plenty Of Get-Up-And-Go When It's Time For It. If It Doesn't Sound Much Like Waller, One Could Imagine Waller Would Love It, And His Signature Songs Are Well Represented, Including "Ain't Misbehavin'," Which Ndegeocello Sings With A Wistfully Sultry Edge, "The Joint Is Jumpin'," Which Is Just That, A Joyous And Yet Graceful Romp, And A Ethereal Take On "Ain't Nobody's Business," Which In Moran And Ndegeocello's Hands Becomes A Dark, Moody, And Elegantly Defiant Statement In Modal Jazz. This Set Manages To Be Reverent To Waller's Original Recordings, But Since Facsimile Was Never The Goal, It Also Manages To Create A Completely New Veneer For Them, And The End Result Is A Marvelous Tribute That Still Retains Its Own Shape And Coherency.” Steve Leggett, AMG. more

Ten
Audiophile - Used - 5832040
2024 2LP gatefold reissue for Blue Note's Classic Vinyl series. Still in shrink, tiny top seam cracks under shrink. First time available on vinyl, originally released in 2010. Mastered by Kevin Gray and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal. "Jason Moran's 2010 effort Ten features more of the jazz pianist's smart and forward-thinking jazz. Backed by bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits, Moran reveals himself once again to be a nimble improviser with an ear toward atmospheric and often fractured hypnotic post-bop jazz on tracks like the lilting "Blue Blocks" (commissioned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art) and "RFK in the Land of Apartheid," along with ruminative numbers buoyed by the band's laid-back blues inflections and ever-so-subtle funk grooves. Other tracks, such as "Feedback Pt. 2" and "Old Babies," reveal Moran's more experimental edge, mixing sound effects and his son's voice with more straight-ahead jazz stylings that bring to mind both Thelonious Monk and Oscar Peterson. As always with Moran, there is a heavy classical influence, and compositions like his own "Pas de Deux -- Lines Ballet" and his rambunctious take on Leonard Bernstein's "Big Stuff" do evince, much like the rest of Ten, both a romantic and modernist point of view." All Music Guide - Matt Collar. more