Rabshakeh

Glad you're enjoying it!

I sometimes feel that the free improv scene is a little played out. A lot of the scene, younger or older, has been ploughing the same furrow since the mid 1990s, and sometimes it feels like it needs a refresh. But I think that's always the case with a mature scene. There are still lots of new and interesting acts popping up all the time. I depends where you look.

These are great documentaries. Or at least the first two are. There's some other threads around about them here.

That's got to be it. Interesting that Harriott's music was known to Dizzy Gillespie.

Silver Leaf Jazz Band – Jelly's Best Jam

Charlie Haden & Christian Escoudé – Gitane Haden carries such an incredible jazz pulse on this record.

In Heining’s book on British jazz, he mentions that Dizzy Gillespie criticised Harriott, and a hurt response by Harriott. Does anyone know what this is a reference to?

I suspect that what will happen is that in three years, those of these apps that have survived will have their own personalities and will have specific types of users. For now, they're just different, crappier, versions of old Twitter (including Twitter itself). The problem with Mastodon is it is a bit dead. I like it the most in terms of feel, but there just isn't the user base at this point in time. All of these apps are great sources of information. I get a lot of recommendations out of them, find out about gigs, new articles, who has died, etc. It's not all politics or posting about what you've just cooked.

Good record and a fun cover.

I find Instagram has a wider variety of things posted. There is a fair amount of swing, trad, South American fusion, etc. Twitter is probably more narrow and trend driven, so I learn about less interesting music, but it helps to find out about other stuff.

I follow a couple of people on here on Instagram and Twitter. It seems like the latter is now collapsing, but it's still not clear what is going to replace it. There are a few contenders out there: Threads, Bluesky and Mastadon seem to be the main ones, plus legacy Twitter. I have no actual problem with Twitter. I don't see much in the way of trolls or political extremists (both the result of careful pruning and muting). But it is clear that posting numbers are plummeting and there is far less energy and engagement there than before. I've tried moving to Threads but it seems pretty unusable. It's like the worst and most inane bits of Instagram but without the cool bits (and crucially without any of the accounts I follow on Insta). It's basically a beta though at the moment and it might improve. Equally, it might get even worse. Bluesky is obviously closed to most people still. Clearly it has missed the magic week when everyone has fled twitter, but, equally, it might work, unlike Threads. I don't know Mastadon. It's been going for a while but clearly hasn't really taken. Instagram still seems great. No change there. But it's nice to talk and Instagram is not a talky place. What are other forum members thinking of doing?

So great. They nailed with this one.

Keith Tippett / Andy Sheppard – 66 Shades Of Lipstick

Why not? Pharaoh had a couple too.

My own personal smooth jazz taxonomy is: Fusion Lite (Bob James, Grusins, Joe Sample) Quiet storm / babymakers (George Howard, Najee, early Kenneth Gorelick, Benson) Slick jazz pop (Sade, Hiroshima) New age / ECM / whispy post jazz (Very late Garbarek) "Mall Jazz" well written instrumental pop (Rippingtons, Spyro Gyra) Supermarket CD section instrumental pop (later Kenneth Gorelick, Dave Koz, Chris Botti) It's that last category that's the killer, as far as I'm concerned. The rest of it is cool. I'd happily listen to Najee all day.

Dave Valentin – The Hawk All the talk of smooth jazz got me going.

Sadly, this has been strictly forbidden by the Sages: "it is forbidden to sound musical tones on the Sabbath, whether using a musical instrument - e.g., a lyre or a soprano saxophone - or using another object. It is even forbidden to tap with one's fingers on the ground or on a board or to play mawkish pre-scored melodies over synthetic rhythms. All of these were instituted as a decree" (see Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Sefer Zemanim, Hilkhot Shabbat, 23:4, and similar passages in the Orach Chaim. The Maharal notes (on the basis of a midrash that is now lost) that the provision explicitly relates to musicians from the Gorelick family, and that it was enacted for the Sake of the World). It is a real shame that we shall never get to hear what Kenny G would have sounded like playing this material.

Yeah. Pentecostal smooth would be something. But I think that the mainstream of contemporary gospel in 2023 is probably closer to Kirk Whalum than Reverend Charlie Jackson.

Decent enough article that isn't paywalled for me for some reason. Basically about a guy who worked at a smooth jazz station in the 90s and how it was alright. There's not a great deal of enthusiasm or music referred to in the article. More of a "weird ex jobs" type thing. I don't mind smooth jazz at all. At least not as a concept. I never understood the hate. At its best (Grover!), it's the more gospelised side of soul jazz and fusion with more contemporary rhythms, or even just instrumental R&B (in the modern sense). Both of those are types of music that I am happy to listen to. Obviously it is not always at its best. Perhaps growing up at the height of Sade's dominance on London's musical architecture made me immune to the hate. I still like Sade. My late grandmother used to listen to London's 'jazz' radio station that played solely slick glittery R&B music, all sub-Sade, with occasional saxophone breaks. I still have happy nostalgic memories of those times, tootling around in her tiny Yaris, through the comparative grime of drizzly 90s London, listening to this shiny overproduced music. Smooth jazz seems to contain different micro-genres. I'm less into the stuff that the author's stations seemed to play, like the Rippingtons and Acoustic Alchemy. That's music that always makes me imagine an opulent American shopping centre. "Mall Jazz?" Maybe those went out to a suburban West Coast US audience (that seems to be where the author was based) whereas the Kirk Whalums that I enjoy were more targeted an East Coast drive time market? I just don't know. Two interesting things in the article: First, he compares the social usage of smooth jazz radio to modern Spotify 'jazz to chill to' playlists that are so popular with younger listeners now. That's not an original idea, but it's worth remembering that the world never really moves on, just moves around. It's not a secret by now that many of the tracks on those bland playlists are by fake bands of session musicians cooked up by studios for the purpose of securing a chunk of generalised streaming revenue: an even more obviously commercial approach than the smooth jazz of the 80s and 90s. Secondly, he points out that a lot of modern electronic music has begun to sample smooth jazz heavily, particularly the 'vapour wave' pseudo trend of a few years back. I'm not deep enough into the music to identify a Kenny G sample, but apparently that music was built on them.

Wow. I’ll check this out!

That's great stuff. You've taught her well. My 3 year old is a funk monster. It's got to have rhythm. I've got a 5 year old boy, but he has no strong views except that he likes jumping around.

How old's your daughter? I've got a 3 year old, and I'm always trying to get her moving.

Thank you! A lot of interesting stuff there but good to know what you think makes it to the top

Amina Claudine Myers is great on this one. Absolutely at the centre of everything.

It might have been my blank eyed, spittle-flecked Rickey Kelly cultism that scared him off. I would have kept my distance too. Who is the guy who wrote the bit at the end, then?