paulfromcamden

Thurston is a regular at London record fairs and no stranger to the jazz dealers. He's generally pretty friendly and really is the total record nerd his reputation suggests 😀 Living in the UK it's always a treat to visit used record shops in Europe. It sometimes feels like our European neighbours were all digging Mingus and Monk while we Brits were stocking up on Chris Barber LPs... One of those pirates with the weird paper sleeves? I have a Taiwanese Jimmy Smith LP with both a Van Gelder stamp and a bunch of Chinese characters in the run-out groove. I couldn't figure out what that was about until I read how they created the stampers from regular imported US copies 😂🙃

Probably not if you're looking for jazz tbh.

Downbeat obit. https://downbeat.com/news/detail/vocalist-andy-bey-dies-at-85

Yes me too. Given the history of BYG would also be nice to know the artists and their estates are getting paid!

BYG website indicates it's being operated by the Charly label. CHARLY BEGINS THE FIRST MAJOR REISSUE CAMPAIGN OF LEGENDARY FRENCH INDEPENDENT RECORD LABEL BYG Definitive editions of original BYG albums reissued as deluxe LPs edition on audiophile vinyl and expanded CDs in deluxe gatefold digi-sleeves. Newly remastered by Nick Robbins from recently discovered original BYG tapes. Each format comes with in-depth sleeve notes by authors and music journalists Kevin Le Gendre and John Masouri in fully illustrated booklets and LP inserts.

Can still be ordered from Cafe Oto. Other distributors may also have copies.

Just to add my impressions. This was the fourth time I've seen The Cookers play over the past few years and quite possibly the best I've heard them. Can't comment on the sound balance as we were front row and mostly hearing stage sound with the piano reinforced through the fill speakers on the front of the stage. From where we were sitting the sound was superb and Billy's drums were in no way overpowering. I didn't pick up on any tension in the band. There was a lot of interaction with the audience and a great moment when Donald took a seat after one of his solos and Eddie turned and congratulated him. The whole evening had a really nice vibe. The introduction at the start struck me as weird and kinda disrespectful "please welcome x who has played with y and z etc etc.." No one ever introduced Bill Evans as "here's a guy who once played with Miles..." This is a band consisting of absolute legends. Surely everyone in the room knows who they're about to see. Everyone played superbly but the revelation for me was Donald Harrison who absolutely killed it. I walked past him in the street afterwards and wish now I'd gone up to him and told him how much I'd enjoyed his playing. Thanks for playing David - we cherish the experience too. Come back soon!

So not their usual $100 for a double LP... I get that they're about producing high quality editions of music with a finite audience but it would take them 30 minutes to make this stuff available as a $10 Bandcamp download. At the moment the label has a distinct whiff of elitist gatekeeping.

I think one other consideration with Bandcamp is that it allows music to be released that may not otherwise see the light of day. We've all seen CDs on merch tables that were pressed in a run of 1000 or whatever five, six, seven years ago and haven't sold out yet. The market for improvisation is healthy but not huge. Now good quality digital recordings can be made at reasonably low cost it's great to have a way of releasing more material without having £££s tied up in boxes of CDs. I always prefer physical product but Bandcamp seems like a good option for music we might otherwise not hear.

Congrats on your Ruckus! Brilliant little bikes. I ride a Yamaha XF50 daily - similar idea but like a beer cooler on wheels. Loads of space for groceries under the seat 😀 I ride in most weathers unless there's a lot of snow or it's really icy on the road. I've done that a few times and it was a bit unnerving. Otherwise those little wide wheels are really solid and grippy. I've always gone with a full face helmet. The one time I was knocked off (car pulled across my lane at a junction without looking....) it was the chin part of the helmet that took the impact. Also consider a white or bright yellow helmet - they make a big different in helping car drivers see you in low light. A helmet that can take a pinlock insert will help with fogging - though I generally ride with the visor up anyway so I can hear what's going on around me on the road. Little bikes like ours don't make much noise. If you haven't already consider getting some decent boots. A pair of DMs will do it or there are lots of 'bike trainers' that give more support to your sole and ankles if you take a tumble.

Sad to learn he holds these views. A quick google was an education. I somehow managed to completely miss this previously.

Just wondering out loud if anyone knows how Charles is doing and if he's playing at the moment?

I only met Steve a couple of times - I think first when he was performing his Insomnia Poems at at Cafe Oto. He inscribed a copy of his Evan Parker poems for me ("I don't normally do this but...") which I treasure. A really really nice guy - within ten minutes of chatting instantly your new best mate. I was very sad to hear of his passing just a few months later.

For some reason I've accumulated loads of Keith Jarrett records - they just seem to regularly turn up in the cheapo boxes. Always happy to find cheap Art Pepper records or Konitz I don't have. I have a pile of Coleman Hawkins records as they're often dirt cheap and always good. Kind of jealous of the US members finding Lockjaw or Cal Tjader records for a few dollars! It's a bit harder here in the UK... 😆

I love a bargain bin! Often you find nothing but sometimes you get lucky - I found a nice 50s Count Basie test pressing on Columbia for a quid not too long ago. My top record fair tip is to always check the £2 box of the dealers that don't sell jazz (i.e. most of them) as quite often any jazz they buy in as part of a collection will get dumped in there as they just want shot of it. I'm jealous of our Dutch members. Old jazz records in the UK tend to expensive and scarce but I always have good luck hunting for cheap records in Amsterdam. Anyways, all good fun and FAR more rewarding than flicking through the latest £45 reissues..

I'm pretty happy to see Black Unity reissued too and there are a few other titles I'd like. The selection seems a lot less conservative than the Acoustic Sounds series (Ella and Louis, Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson etc). Just hoping that by the time they're imported to the UK they're not the now seemingly standard £30+

Possibly more of interest to British members but the (UK) National Jazz Archive has a bunch of British journals digitised. https://nationaljazzarchive.org.uk/explore/journals?

Art Ensemble - Odwalla? Donald Byrd - Jamie (from Ethiopian Knights) ..?

I'm guessing the musicians will get copies so there's a good chance it will turn up on the merch table at a gig sometime soon...

Maybe not quite the same thing but I struggle to get rid of duplicates of the same title if I have, say, a scruffy original pressing and a tidy Japanese reissue. I try and justify it to myself if one if stereo and one is mono but the truth is I can't choose so just keep them both. I have three copies of the New Thing At Newport (plus the CD somewhere..) Stupid record fetishism but there are worse things to obsess over I guess.

Act One is a great record. I should track down some more of his records as leader. Good thing Xanadu LPs can still be had for beer money

Happily I've experienced this too - especially when VG grade records turn out to just be dirty and sound great after a clean! Most Discogs sellers will try to put things right in my experience. More annoying is buying a used record in person that looks in good order then getting it home and discovering someone's been playing it with a rusty nail... thankfully they're generally pulls from the £2 boxes so I'm happy to just chalk them up as 'misses. All good fun!

Surely the only 60s Prestige title to include a track for prepared piano...

I think there's a lot of truth in this. But it also doesn't help that a lot of these releases are hyped as being audio nirvana and come with a hefty price tag to match. You can't really blame folk for expecting a properly manufactured LP when they're being charged £35. I've not had too many problems. My BN Classics Idle Moments arrived scuffed and has surface noise. It's not super intrusive so didn't bother to return it. I have so many beat up old 50s/60s pressings that I have a reasonably high tolerance for surface noise and clicks anyhow

My simple set up: Numark Pro TT-2 turntable with Shure M55E Sony CDP-XB930 CD player Croft Phono Integrated amp Altec 9842 speakers I need to sort out a better turntable at some point but I quite like sound it makes and it's nice to be able play 78s. Headphone amp on the way so I can listen to skronky free improv without worrying about a divorce.