Jazz Bastard Podcast

Feb 25 2025 321 ep. 83 mins 215

Jazz Bastard Podcast artwork

Two strikingly handsome middle-aged men get together every other week to discuss jazz in depth. Irreverent, irascible, engaged.

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Jazz Bastard Podcast 310 - NYT Top 10 Part Fin

Feb 25 2025 77 mins

All lists come to an end at some point (often after ten entries) and this third and final podcast on the New York Times' selections for best jazz albums of 2024 considers the final two entries plus two more 2024 releases which the boys - spoiler alert - like quite as much as the chosen ten. Hummable melodies and beautiful woodwind playing highlight the also-rans. Meanwhile, in pop

Jazz Bastard Podcast 309 - NYT Top 10 Part 2

Feb 11 2025 66 mins

The boys are back to take on four more entries from the New York Times' Best of 2024 list and Mike especially is happy with these selections. "Spiritual Jazz" leaves a imprint on several of this episode's albums and bastard number 2 loves it. Pat meanwhile is relieved that Blue Note's entry is the best yet, in his opinion, by a rising young artist, but he finds one of the other ent

Jazz Bastard Podcast 308 - NYT Top 10 Part 1

Jan 28 2025 91 mins

At the end of the year, media outlets make lots of lists, so many lists that there's even one for best jazz recordings. At the start of the following year, the bastards pick one lucky list to listen through and question every step of the way. This time it's the Times' turn, and Mike is especially skeptical of the paper's first four choices. Pat's just happy things didn't turn out w

Jazz Bastard Podcast 307 - Live from the Archive

Jan 14 2025 70 mins

There's a new Record Store Day ritual in the jazz world - archival live releases from one of the many labels Zev Feldman has a hand in running. This year's two RSD days saw several releases on labels like Resonance, Reel to Real, and Elemental Music and the boys take a gander at one release from each of these wizards of the archive as well as pondering a brand new live release reco

Jazz Bastard Podcast 306 - Way Down Low

Dec 31 2024 83 mins

To start off what is certain to be an interesting new year, Mike and Pat look at leader dates by the deepest of the regularly-used saxophones, the baritone. All four leaders are specialists on the unwieldly horn, though some do dabble in doubling from day to day. Two are composers and one has a crush on that greatest and most irascible of bassists, Charles Mingus. Serge Chaloff –

Jazz Bastard Podcast 305 - Christmas Hedgehogs and Foxes

Dec 17 2024 70 mins

Every musician, it seems, does a holiday album sooner or later, and visions of residuals dance in their heads. But given the flood of releases each year, it's hard to stand out, and the canon of Christmas favorites is already pretty crowded. How to make your mark? You could try to do one or two distinctive things well. Or, you could try a little bit of everything. Listen as Mike an

Jazz Bastard Podcast 304 - Waiting and Waiting for Gardot

Dec 03 2024 81 mins

A couple releases exploring older repertorie, a out-ish excursion that goes all over the map, a young woman singer with our time on her hands. Yep, it's a classic mixed bag courtesy of eclectic Mike, with the bastardy mostly courtesy of Pat. Melody Gardot – LIVE IN EUROPE: Micah Thomas – MOUNTAINS; Brian Landrus – PLAYS ELLINGTON & STRAYHORN; Warren Wolf – HISTORY OF TH

Jazz Bastard Podcast 303 - Jazzed in the Mouse House

Nov 19 2024 80 mins

Jazz has gone some pretty wacky places - Russia, South America, the White House - but believe it or not, sometimes it even invades that princess-industrial complex we know and love as the Disney corporation. Listen and learn as Mike leads us deep into this heart of darkness and we see how a rainbow of different jazz artists come to terms with the musical productions of that most pr

Jazz Bastard Podcast 302 - Big Feet and Nu Blues

Nov 05 2024 71 mins

Halloween's in the rear view mirror but the boys still have a mixed bag of treats on offer, including an album whose cover boasts the best costumes of the year. A piano playing Duke makes his appearance on the 'cast for the first time in roughly 300 episodes and we dig deep into a percussionist's tricky second album from 2006. Like a trick or treater, this episode is short and swee

Jazz Bastard Podcast 301 - Revenge of the Son of Rule of 3

Oct 22 2024 85 mins

Podcast 301 picks up where 300 left off, looking at albums from 1993, 2003, 2013, and 2023. Jazz trends get a little harder to pick out once the new millennium begins, but at least our 1990's selection is REALLY 1990's, right down to the haircut and clothes colors. In Pop Matters, Pat discusses seeing Ben Wendel live at the Jazz Kitchen. Look out - that saxophonist has effects peda