Rabshakeh

What was it?

Squarepusher – Music Is Rotted One Note I've been trying to "educate" myself recently on perceived jazz-adjacent genres of the internet age like "Nu Jazz", "Dark Jazz" and "Jazztronica". Mostly these are jazz in no apparent sense, and the connection between my favourite genre and what is essentially electronic chill out music bewilders me. Also, most of these records don't appeal at all. This is one of the first that I have really enjoyed. I followed Squarepusher for the preceding but, whilst I knew he was an accomplished bassist, I had not realised that he'd taken this turn into music that is at least clearly informed by jazz fusion.

Jo Privat – Manouche Partie

I find that most Shepp records from this era have one good “single” track and a bunch of phoned in filler.

O'Donel Levy – Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky Ah, the 1970s.

I was typing the same thing.

I enjoyed this very short interview with Daunik Lazro on FJB: https://www.freejazzblog.org/2023/05/daunik-jazz-maverick-daunik-lazro-story.html?m=1 I know there's some Lazro-heads on here so I thought that I would share.

Sam Rivers' Rivbea All-star Orchestra – Aurora First listen to this in over a decade. I am less into it than I was. The rhythms, which were exactly what I liked about it, seem very dated and 1990s now. How is this one? It looks like quite a promising mix of musicians.

Sammy Rimington & The Return Of The Mouldy 5 – Reed My Lips A lot of very average trad stuff out there but this one is absolutely great.

I'm a solicitor, so I can confirm that. All firms that I have worked in have been very clearly split: The lawyers generally like international rugby. There are exceptions. Among the Brits, I find that football sometimes follows a city upbringing whereas rugby generally follows the rural and public school upbringing of the greater majority of lawyers in the City. Certainly the assumption is that people in the City will naturally enjoy rugby. Non-lawyers like secretaries, IT and print room staff tend to like club football pretty much exclusively. On the other hand, most of my friends are journalists (for reasons that are obscure to me), an equally middle class job but one where football is as widespread as mockney accents, and rugby might as well not exist. I have always enjoyed the idea of cricket, but never really found the time to understand it. It's funny. Always Arsenal or Chelsea, at least for the Brits. Semi-ironic West Ham fandom hasn't made it to the City yet.

As @mjazzgpoints out, this is partly a class issue. Rugby (Union) and cricket are games you can talk about in "polite" circles. Football (and in the North Rugby League) is not considered so polite. Rugby vs football remains an important and quite complex social cue for Brits of all sorts, even now, although quite what the cue is does differ by age, class, regional / national background, and how the person to whom you are speaking seems to project themselves. A major difference is in the team following. Rugby and cricket do not have anything like the following at the local / team level that football has. Instead, they are far more about the national game. Cricket at county level is almost a joke. I find that in a white collar work or social context in England you will hear a lot more about rugby and cricket, since you will typically be hearing the conversation of middle class people, sometimes from international backgrounds. The friendly rivalry between the national teams is a very important part of rugby and cricket. Tickets to rugby or cricket are a far more common choice for entertaining prestigious clients than tickets to a football match. Conversely, football remains king across most of the country and has its own set of social cues.

My five year old is desperate to go to a game. I've been waiting to pick it until we are on a run of some sort of form. The last thing I want is for his first experience of live football to be miserable faces, booing and endless fearful long balls. He has the rest of his life as a football fan for that.

Jones Jones - Just Justice Larry Ochs, Mark Dresser and Vlad Tarasov. Good stuff. I'm a lot cooler on Halsall and collaborators than most on this forum but I do like this record a lot.

I find the college system in the US really interesting. Lots of my American colleagues are only interested in sports at the college level. It is interesting to me how that shows through. Perceived as more local and more intense. Also the only franchise in many parts of the country where the ability to start a team at grass roots level is restricted. I suppose our closest here is the Championship (2nd tier) game, which does has more "heart" and more local feeling. Although having sat through the relentless negativism of the last season at my club, I'm not sure how much more local feeling I can take.

I think I most enjoyed his first book, The Rachel Papers, before he had really established himself as Martin Amis. Sad to hear of his passing, as with any giant.

The Włodzimierz Nahorny Trio – Heart First listen. It really knocks me out that after all this time there are still so many of these Polish Jazz releases that I have never heard but that are of such high quality. The Other Tet – The Other Tet (Engine, 2009) The Other Tet – The Other Tet (Engine, 2009)

Exploding Customer – At Your Service (Ayler, 2007)

Thanks! Thanks!

Now on: Clancy Hayes & The Salty Dogs – Oh By Jingo

Sahib Shihab – Companionship / Jazz Joint, Vol. 2 Streaming this one at the moment. Does anyone know what the nature of this record is? Is it a collection of outtakes or is it a comp of previously released tracks? Discogs is mighty scanty on info.

Looks interesting. Is it streamable?

Kat-Tet - Women One of a number of excellent fusion or jazz-adjacent records from the French Caribbean that I have found recently through Discogs' recommended function. Islands like Guadalupe and their Paris-centred emigre networks seemed to have been awash with talent in the early 1980s. For whatever reason they don't seem to have attracted the attention of English speaking jazz fans yet, unless I have missed something. They all have great covers (not so much this one) so would make for perfect Instagram clout posting.

George Wettling's Jazz Band – George Wettling's Jazz Band Listening to this one now. Really really superb. With thanks to @Big Beat Steve, who recommended it in the Condon thread.

I'd seen reports yesterday but was too distracted by various life flare ups to post. I loved his playing, although a lot of it is hard to access. The next two or three years are going to be hard.