Rabshakeh

Did Jo Jones do that too? I'm wretched and can't think of anything.

Yes! The Nordine is a perfect example. Maybe even at the time it was more of a "jazz culture" thing, rather than a "jazz" thing?

When a character in a film or TV show goes into a jazz club, you know it is a jazz club because there is a drummer in shades playing ti tu tu ti tu tu ti on his hi hats. That hi hat pattern is immediately recognisable as a symbol that jazz is occuring. Can anyone think of actual examples of this drum pattern in the jazz of the 1940s to 1960s. Maybe I'm just tired and struggling to think of it whilst listening to Andrew Cyrille.

Sunny Murray w/ Sabir Mateen – We Are Not At The Opera I didn't expect to enjoy this one anything as much as I am enjoying it. Not sure why I didn't.

I love the Folkways label, both their more authentically traditionalist and more modern output. Magical stuff.

As I say, cask conditioned bitter is my drink of choice, but generally these days porters and stouts are what I drink because changes in beer marketing mean they tend to be far and away the best on offer. Sadly it isn't easy to get decent ale in London at all any more. That's even true outside of London these days. I was in a pub in deepest darkest Dartmoor recently which surprisingly had really excellent food, but sadly only the most terrible beer you can imagine. Triple hopped and hazy IPAs and other horrible stuff. And Dartmoor has some of the best water and best breweries in the UK, so it is a real shame. I will as a rule always order a milk stout if I see a milk stout. No brewer without good taste makes milk stout, and it is a forgiving style anyway, so you are safe ground pretty much always. I was always surprised that cask conditioned bitter hasn't really caught on in the States. The US micro scene is really strong and people are knowledgeable. (It isn't like here where micro breweries are just a way of branding trendy crap.) You'd think that someone would go on holiday to Yorkshire or Bath and come back committed to brewing a rival to Old Peculiar or Landlord or a Gem or whatever. They're not that commercial due to the time it takes and the need for good water, but I am still surprised that its not really being tried.

Martial Solal – Locomotion

Is Jason the one who keeps flying the New Orleans flag in particular? I think he runs with a clique of impressively bland musicians. Those Los Hombres Calientes records might as well be written by AI.

Curtis Fuller – Two Bones One of the best Tucker / Harewood performances, I think.

Back on beer, a new pub has opened right next to my house (almost) called the Pocket. It specialises in microbrewery beers, has a great atmosphere with competent jazz band and/or traditional sing-along piano, charges by percentage alcohol (nice idea) and is a spin off of Kentish Town's much loved Southampton Arms. The only problem is that the beers are all incredibly terrible. They change selection almost daily but there are days when there is not a single beer of which i can get through a pint. It is not just the notorious over-hopped cheaply made IPAs but also rank rotten brown ales and horrible chewy porters. I am a bitter (drinking) man typically and I am used to ruefully ordering a Guinness because it is the only non-microbrewed beer in your average middle class London pub, but this is a particularly extreme example of its type. Whilst micro breweries have made a difference (particularly in the US where the microbrewery scene is much better and the initial underlying beer culture was probably worse imo) they can be a curse. I'm always amazed at how many people will happily drink absolutely terrible beer from these places. It is even worse with the dreaded "bio-wines". Inept, cheaply made chemical crap which tastes disgusting, goes with no food, and immediately goes off before it can be served. But with a shiny label and a premium price tag. In the Pocket's defence it does not have that premium price tag (for an Islington pub it is very cheap) and it does, like the Southampton Arms, have an excellent selection of scrumpies, but I don't drink cider because I am a responsible adult (my wife is from the West and does go for a half of her native brew, from time to time). Micro brewing and bio cost-cutting has yet to hit cider it appears.

Playing this one again. A sensational record, sketching in some of the space between Black string band traditions and both New Orleans brass and Memphis jug styles.

Various – Music From The South (Volume 1: Country Brass Bands)

My kids are big fans. Currently reading a poem a night to them as a treat after lights out. That's a really great one. Both Ehrlich and Malaby at their respective best.

Such a great line up but I was a bit disappointed with this one. What's your view?

Such a great record.

Sergio Armaroli, Francesca Gemmo, Barry Guy - At Sotto Il Mare First Visit

Thanks! I haven't heard that record but it is on my list. I'll check the Kovacs record out.

Hate to say it, but Andre 3000 may be approaching "old fart/curmudgeon" status himself. His heyday was whilst I was at school.

I think you've hit the nail on the head. A strange record that I really enjoyed. Murray was as you say at that weird point in his career where he was dropping a new random album every week, and I think he may be the weakest link here. The music is so rhythmically strange that he comes across as tin eared at times. He just plays through them and can't adjust. But luckily there is enough going on (new to me) that the record comes off. Ferenc who I don't know is a big part of uniting the different styles. I'd appreciate any recommendations that you have for either cimbalom music or this type of records featuring Ferenc, who I really don't know.

He apparently recorded the tracks in 2013. So it is really was just timed for the Met Gala. I imagine Andre 3000 found an old USB at the back of his sock drawer, and decided it would be fun to use the recordings as part of a four dimensional Met Gala costume. As you say, the critical plaudits which it has received have been more concerning than the actual music. Iverson's record has a series of extracts from glowing reviews of what is essentially a quality-free vanity release. Glowing from both fans and legacy critics. That lack of discernment, and lack of interest in even appearing discerning, is dangerous for culture.

David Murray, Gipsy Cimbalom Band Balogh Kálmán Featuring Kovács Ferenc

Some good mentions recently. Cortex is another one. I recently listened to this one: Birdland – In A Temple Of Silence Yugo bonus points although they recorded in Switzerland. Despite the name and the artwork it is shredding Mahavishnu type stuff. A little indigestible maybe.

Some cool stuff in there.

TwinKeys – Tarkus And Other Love Stories Carrying on a day of bad listening. This looked like a fun concept of two pianists handling prog rock themes, but it is pretty dull.

Snarky Puppy - Immigrance My cousin loves these guys so I periodically check them out. Hard to see what is good about it. It seems to be just sequencer music, with musicians playing their parts to a ticker. So there's no tricks of phrasing or rhythmic interplay or anything much really. The tunes are just pastichey. Why you would listen to this rather than e.g. MPS big band jazz funk records or something bewilders me. Let's see how her collaboration with Matthew Shipp goes first.