adh1907

How sad, RIP. I must admit that I had only recently started to get to know his music on the back of a very good reissue of Infinity on Paul Murphy's Jazzroom records. Searching around for more information after buying the record, I came across this interesting interview in Cadence: http://www.cadencejazzmagazine.com/membersonly/admin/assets/Khan%20Jamal.pdf As an aside, I miss the interviews in Cadence, most of the current jazz press is bland. Anthony London

Channel hopping, came across corny 60s British film ‘Beauty jungle’, blown away by appearance of Tubby Hayes quartet in nightclub sequence! PS more jazz connections, the main character in the film is Jannette Scott, daughter of Thora Hird, who was married to Mel Torme.

That Pacific Jazz 1230 has a stunning cover ( Claxton photo I think). I have a Japanese copy of this and though the Mosaic CD reissue sounds much better, i can’t let go of the LP. Were there other LP covers of this quality and colour around in 1957?

Thank you very much!

Don’t know that one, is it a compilation?

Just catching up with these reissues. Blown away by the sound. I have an original new jazz orchestra (and a poor CD reissue of Windmill Tilter) but there is no point hanging on to these, the reissues are on another level. Looking forward to the rest of the series. Anthony London

Any UK licence payers watch the Guy Barker big band on BBC 4 last night? The presenter was corny and stilted and I found the singers were mostly terrible. The drummer was also either massively over the top or something went wrong in the mix. Nikki Yeoh was the best thing about it. Mind you, the audience clapped like seals throughout so I may be in a minority! Anthony London

Dragon Hill, Ray Russell. CBS Mono. great album. The tracks with Harry Beckett, Lyn Dobson etc are brilliant. ‘Something in the sky’ is a gem.

Bought Ray Russell’s Dragon Hill today Off the rack in a proper shop. Mono copy, sounds great. Never heard before. And managed to bargain with the owner and knock the price down. Took me back to heady pre eBay days. Anthony London.

Saw him at Ronnie Scott’s with Ravi Coltrane, must have been late 80s or 90s, not too loud at all. Seen to remember his Japanese wife involved in some way.

Saoirsa Ronan in the tragedy of Macbeth at the Almeida in London today. Absolutely harrowing. Saoirsa was lay in a puddle water for about 15 minutes at the end. Blood and water everywhere, we got splashed in the third row. Front row looked a nightmare. Anthony London

Love that album.

Matthew Halsall at the Barbican last night, part of the London jazz festival. Never seen him before but he seems to be very popular. The massive venue looked to be full (hardly anyone masked!). He managed to get possibly the best sound I have heard at this hall. To me the tunes sounded a bit samey after a while (I think the harp and congas tended to add a similar flavour to everything ) but there were a few stand out tunes ( generally at the start and end of both sets). Looking forward to Yazz Ahmed later this month. Anthony London.

The Simon Spillett big band at the 100 club playing Tubby Hayes a week ago was amazing. The 100 club is a long narrow basement room and I mistakenly chose the side of the room in front of the trumpet section for my seat. Once the band kicked off with ‘Dear Johnny B’ I immediately lost the upper range of my hearing. It was loud! I moved towards the saxophone section and it sounded much more balanced for me. Top notch musicians and extremely lively performance. Simon was in his element and on top form. Unforgettable, I hope the band is recorded live at some point. Anthony London

Three little words, with Milt Jackson. Invigorating