Rabshakeh

Thanks!

This one is so overplayed. I liked it when it first came out but it has been spun at so many weddings and school discos that I can't take it seriously any more.

Derek Bailey, Tony Bevan, T.H.F. Drenching, Sonic Pleasure and Alex Ward – Limescale

I don't think I have ever seen these records. Are there any in the series that you recommend particularly?

I recommend it. He's revisiting his own songs. Ellery Eskelin and Ray Anderson on the front line, neither of whom is a draw for me but they are very good here. I love those Hats. A great run.

Gerry Hemingway Quartet – Devils Paradise What a good record this is. It is my first time listening to it.

Alfa Mist – Bring Backs This one is popular in Jazz reddit at the moment. It is essentially background music with a hip hop influence. It is Muzak really, but with a sense of self importance.

This one's a good record. RIP.

Oliver Sain - Fused Jazz

Yes. Good record. Not a million miles off the more famous Quartet Afterstorm record, which is pretty similar. Now on this one, which goes well beyond the Criss Cross standard fare: Orrin Evans – Listen To The Band

John Lindberg / Albert Mangelsdorff / Eric Watson – Dodging Bullets

Jimmy Heath – The Gap Sealer

Yeah. I also assumed carbon monoxide. Odd to not announce anything, but I guess that news moves too fast nowadays.

I found the story very strange.

What music were they making?

Massacre – From Beyond

Gorguts – Considered Dead

Is this the same Moffett family that did that great recorded called Charles Moffett and the Moffett family?

The Fonda/Stevens Group – Evolution

To me, his music is just texture, and, for all the electronics that are designed to move jazz forward, his music seems very tepid and slightly behind the times. More impressive players were doing more daring work in the same area a decade ago. To be honest though, I think his stylings just reflect what you need to do to get ahead as a younger jazz musician these days. I don't really blame Croker. But he's certainly not an artist who I am interested in seeing live.

Ike Quebec - It Might As Well Be Spring

Gordon Beck Quartet – Experiments With Pops

Cecil Taylor - Jumpin' Punkins Back when I was getting into jazz, I bought two of the 1961 CT vault releases. This one and Cell Walk. I wasn't that impressed by them and I went along with the then-prevailing critical consensus that they were lesser works that showed CT constrained by the labels. They also suffer from a slightly old fashioned production sound. On revisiting them for the first time in years, and having listened to a much broader range of jazz in the meantime, they are a bit of a revelation. Not just to hear Taylor comping on standards behind a band, but the way that they represent a path not taken (at least until the later 1970s), where traditional jazz and swing are layered onto free jazz in an exciting and quite visceral way. I can really hear the seeds of great groups like Pullen / Adams on these records. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if Pullen took inspiration from them, as the connection seems much more apparent than to Taylor's later performance modes.

Chris McGregor's Brotherhood Of Breath – Live At Willisau Troxler's finest. I wish that his designs were more widely available, as they really are iconic and I'd love to have prints.

Frank Zappa - Hot Rats