EXTRAORDINARY RENDITIONS Jazz  - But Not As We Know It... Enlightened by John Altman’s excellent Jazz Journal article on little known standards and their use by musicians and in the movies I was inspired to profile some jazz musicians in unusual contexts. These tracks can all be sampled and bought on Itunes or heard in their entirety at Spotify.com Koto Song Dave Brubeck And Paul Desmond “1975 The Duets” Universal Classics B00006316F A free music duet by Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond? Wait! Come back! It’s actually a lovely, lyrical tribute to the music of Japan. Brubeck evokes the Japanese Koto, by playing on the strings inside the piano while Paul Desmond flaps the pads against the bell of his saxophone, setting a timeless, desire-less Zen atmosphere. Desmond then imitates the Japanese flute, the Shakahachi, helped by his customary breathiness. Brubeck, now using the piano keys, finds a single Asian tonality over which the saxophonist weaves a meandering melody. Unique and exquisite.   Bill Evans (orchestration by Claus Ogerman)   2nd movement Largo “Symbiosis”  Universal Classics and Jazz B001KEL7IY This thoughtful, tranquil track was featured in the wise and funny movie Sideways, about a pair of mid-life goofs going on a Vineyard tour of California before one of them has to marry and maybe grow up. Once you hear the opening two chord motif it becomes a part of you forever. Bill Evans plays solo, introducing a wistful theme before the strings help develop this into a unique blend of jazz and classical sensibility. It's not just dry experimentation but an intensely moving statement. The first three tracks on "Symbiosis", the opening movement of this suite,  comprise the sort of 20th century classical/jazz music that is more interesting than appealing. It’s certainly worth hearing once, and you might enjoy discovering more of its secrets with repeated listening. But the last two tracks can be listened to by anyone who loves Bill Evans ballads and great orchestral writing - and even members of the general jazz-hating public. Track six builds to a furious lengthy climax that has to be heard to be believed, after which the delicate opening is reprised. Bill Evans’s orchestral projects usually contain two or three hauntingly beautiful tracks, such as Granadas on the "Bill Evans trio with Symphony Orchestra" (Verve) and some that are very good but not an essential purchase. The final two tracks of "Symbiosis" may be downloaded alone, of course. Which may be the wiser course of action if you do not grappling with algebraic music more intriguing than satisfying. Chris Potter’s solos on Steely Dan’s "Two Against Nature" Reprise B00004GOXS You may be familiar with Phil Wood’s solo on Doctor Wu from Steely Dan’s "Katy Lied", also his fine work on Billy Joel’s Just The Way You Are, both of which were genuine bebop solos with enough melody in them to please the ear of the uninitiated. Steely Dan are hardcore jazz freaks from way back (Walter Becker produced a Warne Marsh album) and they’re happy for Chris Potter to burn. He is one of the most powerful post-Brecker players, combining soul with complex chromaticism, also as powerful and thrilling as you could wish for. He’s perhaps best at giving you an energy rush but he’s played very sensitively with Jim Hall too. One of the best current tenor players, he triumphs on Gaslighting Abbie, Janie Runaway (alto) and West of Hollywood, which contains a final four minute acrobatic display which quibblers may think overbalances the song. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, the creative nucleus of Steely Dan, probably couldn’t bear to cut it.  Attempting this closing work out would keep most saxophonists busy for years. Yet the track remains listenable due to Steely Dan’s trademark painstaking production and their Rolls Royce funk rhythm section.  Some people confuse the surface gloss of their music with a candy floss sweetness. In actual fact the lyrics are pretty damn bleak, debauched and cynical, world weary, sometimes dealing with hard drugs and soft women, or the impossibility of love and the pain of divorce. These highly literate songs generally can't be decoded at first hearing and the band itself is named after a dildo from a William Burroughs novel. This is 'sacharine', 'smooth' or 'adult rock'? Really? Anyone who has heard Wayne Shorter at his most majestic emoting over fiendishly complex chords and thunderous Steve Gadd drumming from Aja on "Aja" may disagree. If you're new to these highly intelligent mid-life beatniks the later Steely Dan is of more interest to Jazz fans. Let's face it: the planet is getting crazier and so are they. Title of the last cd? "Everything must go." Hard to argue with that.                               visit http://www.chrispottermusic.com/  for his brilliant straight jazz work, sheet music, online tutoring and much more. Hubert Laws  The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky from "The Rite of Spring." originally CTI  6012 now a $6.99 download (entire album) from artistdirect.com Jazz-funk is not generally popular with critics, who sometimes think it’s an easy option, although it’s infinitely harder to play in time and tune and record it well than it is to produce a ‘pet shop on fire’ session. Although I’d prefer ‘The Pet Shop Boys on fire’. Now you’re talking... I’d love to hear the majority of free-jazz-only musicians sit in on this session and play the parts in front of them. Not that easy now, is it? As for Hubert Laws, he has flawless technique, an individual sound and is an expert bebopper and Coltraneologist, also good enough to be a classical soloist. Some dislike this music because of its luxurious production values and the 1970s waterbed and bong hit aesthetic but if Stravinsky isn’t radical enough for the naysayers then there’s nothing more I can add. Hubert Laws’s The Rite of Spring keeps the mysterious pagan vibe of the original and manages to make the difficult uneven time signatures groovy. (Steve Gadd is on drums) Mr Laws is virtuosic and passionate throughout an album of difficult 20th century classical music which nevertheless grooves its ass off. And what’s wrong with mellifluous music anyway? My "Above the Clouds" (Naxos 86041-2)  for Soprano sax and Church Organ (Steve Lodder), recorded with a gorgeous natural reverb, nothing like as polished as Mr Laws's projects of course, sold well worldwide, despite much of it being improvised. It was dismissed by a charmless gargoyle of a promoter with: “My wife would like this.” Being a sensualist myself, women-friendly music seems like a good idea. Try charming them with a bearded buffoon screeching and flutter-tonguing multiphonics over clattering pots and pans. Doesn’t happen, does it?