Rabshakeh

Exactly. One wonders why someone like Marsalis would work on something like this? Is it just a touring live show for well meaning teachers to bring primary school kids to? There's a lot of talent on the record. Wycliffe Gordon is a hell of a trombone player. Marsalis sounds great. But it's a complete nothing record.

Barbara Dane – Trouble In Mind

Okay. I didn't know the label. My apologies. I also only just realized that the record was archival and had been recorded in 2006. The fact remains, the Louis Armstrong record is not a good record. I am not a Marsalis fan or a Marsalis hater, but it is clearly below his level, and below the level of most dixieland since the second world war. It's an embarrassing record that I would not want associated with my own name. I am surprised that is what Marsalis is doing because, like it or not, he is a giant of the jazz world. I have not heard of this record. Is it good? Presumably this is not going to be a bad reenactment of a very historical form of jazz. I don't know what the relevance is to the Louis Armstrong record, other than that it is Wynton and JATLC.

Well. See you there next year, if opening games are anything to go by. Hope the water's nice. Just bought a ticket to go and see Dulwich Hamlets with my kids on the coming Summer Bank Holiday. Maybe that will be a more positive taster.

The quality in the Championship this season is crazy, sadly.

It's a really good one. Both have put out some fairly forgettable records, but I liked what they did here a lot.

Ralph Towner / Gary Burton – Matchbook (ECM)

New season. My kid is desperate to go to a football game this season, but it's shaping up to be possibly the most depressing low morale season in my club's history. We live in Arsenal territory, and his uncle is an Arsenal fan. I keep hoping he'll just see sense and I can take him to Emirates.

Sadao Watanabe – How's Everything Streaming to this one now. First listen. Was it a big commercial or critical hit at the time? The YouTube comments are unusually excitable.

Wynton Marsalis – Wynton Marsalis Plays Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives And Hot Sevens (Blue Engine, 2023) Marsalis' new record, just released on a tiny label, to no excitement whatsoever. This is competent unswinging museum-re-enactment quality dixieland. It is not even close to the basic standards of post-war Dixieland Armstrong worship. I find it really absorbing just how extreme Marsalis' fall from relevance has been. It feels like there's no failure too embarrassing. How can a figure like Marsalis have failed to become a respected elder statesman putting out records that still generate a buzz just because of his name? Those of his peers who have survived like Kenny Garrett, Terence Blanchard or James Carter (and in retrospect it does seem like an ill-starred cohort) have fallen into that role nicely. Whereas Marsalis is doing... this. To complete indifference. On the other hand, the amount of time he's spent on early jazz re-enactment recently has given him a new smudgy trumpet tone that I do like. I enjoyed his playing on that Farnsworth record last year. That was leagues better than this. Edit: As has been pointed out below, this is not a new record, but is actually an archival JATLC release from 2006, on its own label.

Welcome!

Oh yeah! A great example. Great stuff. Italy as always showing the sophistication and verve that gave us Giotto, Antonioni and Verdi.

Looks really interesting.

I have never explored Sarah Vaughan's records from the mid 60s to Pablo. It looks like a lot were Vaughan singing pop tunes. I don't recognise almost any of the covers. Are any of these records worth checking out?

Of course. Hence le fromage. I've met many lovely Lithuanians, including from where my family originally came from. Always best to keep things civil, is my view.

I think Quadrophenia and Tommy are probably music tie ins like Buena Vista social club. Was Tommy an album first or a film first?

But other than Superfly, what are we talking?

Taken over by the USSR before the Nazis, I think, as part of Soviet Russia's agreement with Nazi Germany to divide up the area. The territory was then invaded by the Nazis as part of the attack on the USSR, but Lithuania had already lost its independence before that. Its involvement in the Second World War might be politely described as "mixed", and perhaps best left at that. When I first went to Russia as a 14 year old on a school trip, the teachers biggest fears were that we would drink the street vodka. This was in the Yeltsin era, and antifreeze being sold as vodka was a big issue. In this case I think my great uncle just went blind from age (Glaucoma, maybe) and general bloody minded old person's distrust of doctors. Sorry! 🧀

Gil Evans – Svengali Bill Harper / David Sanborn right in the front row. The version of Harper's "Cry of Hunger" on this, with both of them soloing over tight orchestration, may be one of my favourite jazz tunes of the 70s.

I like the idea of opposing sides: Chick, Herbie or ECM. I certainly knew ECM only fans as a youth, but that was the 1990s and by then ECM was a different beast altogether.

What are some examples where a soundtrack to a commercial film is better or more well known than the film itself, or subsequently takes on a life of it's own? Not counting films that are tied in to an album, like Buena Vista Social Club. The Harder They Come has to be the leader. Surely only a fraction of the people who own that soundtrack have even thought of watching the film, although the film itself is sort of low fly good. Superfly, with it's Curtis Mayfield soundtrack is another example. Black Orpheus and Lift to the Scaffold are two other examples, both more closely tied to the jazz world.

Born in Russia in what's now Lithuania but all this happened in South Africa, where he'd emigrated. Blind from age, I think.

I like this kind of thing, so I googled and found the article. It’s basically just a panegyric. Quite disappointing. Also, slightly bizarre the central conceit that Dr. Butler is a forgotten figure - he’s one of the most (in)famous A&R men in jazz.

Darren Barrett – The Attack Of Wren (2004) First listen to this. Generally, I am really glad that we are past era of neo-boppers 'shocking' the public by suddenly making records that Incorporated influences after 1958. I'm sure that Darren Barrett enjoyed hip hop, but he left school in the 80s and it doesn't sound like he had updated his knowledge of hip hop since then before releasing this. The amount of successful records in this bracket is vanishingly small.