Rabshakeh

Self-explanatory title. What are some records by bands released after the death of their leaders that you consider to be good? Some obvious examples that pop into mind are: Mingus Dynasty - Chair In The Sky Sun Ra Arkestra - Swirling

I don't know this set, but I love this stuff. Mass market subscription box sets of recreations of swing standards is what actual jazz history is made of.

But were the big bands of the late 1960s and 1970s connected to these other backwards-directed moves from the mid-70s onwards? I don't really see the music of Don Ellis or Maynard Ferguson as having much in common with the great American songbook turn or with the revival of bop or In The Tradition type avantguard jazz. The one connection that there might be is with the growth in jazz education, which produced players for the big bands at the same time as pointing towards the the past and helping spur interest.

That's fair. I didn't realise Terry Funk just died. I had it in my head he had died a year ago or so. Maybe I had read a report of an illness or something. That's a shame. He was consistently my favourite wrestler across the ages.

Max Eastley / Steve Beresford / Paul Burwell / David Toop – Whirled Music

Going to watch the AEW All In show at Wembley this evening. It's a massive event. I can't believe the size of it or the quality of the card. I haven't been to see wrestling since my son was born (5 years ago) and that was small British promotions linked to NJPW, so this is a big deal. Very excited.

What's the concept? Is it lesser known African American early jazz groups? Or is it more chronological? I used to love those box sets for early blues and roots etc. They were a huge deal for learning about that stuff, even if I tended to stick what I liked on a comp. But in those CD buying days I was not listening to early jazz at all. I missed out. I see it is streamable.

It seems an obvious thing to say, but listening to a record on CD, vinyl, tape/minidisc, download or streaming is a very different experience. Sound quality is nothing to do with it. Some records "work" on vinyl but never worked on CD. I stream a lot, mostly whilst sat in front of a computer watching my life tick away, but almost never in my life have I managed to sit still at a computer to listen to a downloaded or ripped album from an MP3 library in full. I don't know why, but it is just like that.

Keith Jarrett – Keith Jarrett At The Blue Note - The Complete Recordings I-VI (ECM, 1994) I'm not really Keith Jarrett's audience, but a recent attempt to reappraise Braxton's Leo Standards megaboxes has brought me back to this too. The quality throughout this one really is very high (although it does nod at times). It seems to me (and others who like later Jarrett more than me may have more informed opinions) that it really dwarfs the other Standards Trio records in quality, as if it were a self conscious Great Work. In contrast, I'm not at all a fan of the Braxton Leo standards boxes, despite liking Braxton's music more, and despite enjoying his other, more targeted, standards sets from around the same time (Tristano, Parker Project etc). So I have found revisiting this record and Fred Hersch's Songs Without Words a salutary experience. Overall, any massive box set grates a bit for me (why not make your statement concise? Or, if you're going to record 16 albums of doing the washing up because listeners deserve your Genius, split it up, as a concession? ("Solo (Kitchen) 2019, Vol 17")), but some records are massive for a reason. "These are the Alps", to use a line from Basil Bunting, in reference to another baggy and enormous Great Work.

Quite a coat. Thanks!

That might have been an easier job.

Increasingly one of my favourite Pharoah records. Certainly my favourite of the Transversales.

What is he wearing?

Kids and wife love this one. Happy place music. Kids currently happily charging around and enormous fake castle playground, so they're good.

Thanks. Which are your favourites. I can use these as a threat if the kids don't behave.

I hadn't listened to them for ages. I forgot how good many of them are (although some are a bit snoozy). The decision to have the string players was a good one. What are the later ones that you're referring too? I mainly know the ECMs. Actually, listening through a couple of Best of the 1990s lists from randoms on the internet. They show up a fair bit, along with the endless Keith Jarretts.

Byard Lancaster – It's Not Up To Us Trying to get the kids into a better mood before a road trip to Leeds Castle

Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble – Toward The Margins

Ralph Lalama & His Manhattan All Stars – Feelin' And Dealin' First time listening to this one and I really knocked me out, which these Criss Crosses rarely do. I'd be interested to hear more about Lalama. There's not much out there in the internet.

Fred Hersch – Songs Without Words (Nonesuch, 2001)

Barney Kessel – Bossa Nova Another record I assumed would be better than it is. So kitsch it could be a 90s band like the Cherry Popping Daddies overdoing it.

Larry Carlton – Strikes Twice

Jaimie Branch – Fly Or Die Fly Or Die Fly Or Die ((World War))

Amir ElSaffar – Two Rivers first listen to this, and really enjoying it. As with other records by ElSaffar, I wonder what he'd sound like playing on someone else's record as a sideman. He seems to be a really great trumpeter. I'd love to hear him playing e.g. label mate Henry Threadgill's compositions.

Ketil Bjørnstad, David Darling, Jon Christensen, Terje Rypdal – The Sea II Angry bathtime music.