AndreyHenkin

Thanks to everyone for the links, references and analyses. Very helpful. Too bad Tom Johnson died in 2025; he would have been a great source.

Does anyone any idea when this was first used in print to describe that circle of players and small DIY venues? Now it is ubiquitous but some journalist must have used it first. References to downtown jazz can be found in DownBeat as early as 1962 but that is strictly geographical discussing clubs rather than an aesthetic description.

A scan of the Laubich-Spencer discography is available at: https://archive.org/details/arttatumguidetoh0000laub

pianist John Mehegan

Absolutely. Like it or not, the Windham Hill catalogue is worth discussing. And since so many jazz histories would ignore free jazz or European jazz or soul-jazz or electronics-driven jazz, why add to the problem? If you were teaching a class on heavy metal—which I do—you cannot ignore nu-metal even if it is as commercially-driven as smooth jazz.

You are included in the book a couple of times, quoting interviews you did.

Unfortunately they are not publicly available.

I think they are all on their recent CD reissues.

One amazing source is the log books of Rudy Van Gelder, who was as fastidious with information as he was with sound. Every session is documented and has been a great research tool for me. ECM albums rarely were made in a day, which is why they tend to list month and year. That said, when a single session date was in effect, they rarely included that. One example that comes immediately to mind is Arild Andersen's A Molde Concert, which just says August 1981 but took place on August 4th according to the Molde Jazz Festival people I contacted. One early label that was great about including recording dates was Argo.

Are there labels in particular where you have seen that happen other than Blue Note. I agree any lack of information on a recording is maddening. However, that happened all the time in the 20th Century. Columbia was the most egregious but hardly the only one. Concord was not great. But what I never understood was including minimal to no information about recording dates and personnel but a massive explanation of what microphones were used.

It depends on the profile of the outlet. Don Sebesky's obit at Broadwayworld.com didn't mention his jazz work at all. Most Richard Davis obits talked more about him playing with Van Morrison and Bruce Springsteen than Andrew Hill.

Though quite vapid, the TV series that came from Clueless was actually pretty good and kept all the characters apart from leads Alicia Silverstone and Paul Rudd.

Maybe this is common knowledge but since moving to Harlem last year I discovered Rodgers and Hart grew up right next to each other.

Closest thing to jazz would be Centipede's Septober Energy but that is too sprawling to have any chance of hearing him, even at the end of side three where he listed as a featured soloist.