Rabshakeh

Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Still going. Spring is on its way.

That's up there with Abdul Wadud's "By Myself" in my list of reissues that I would order upon announcement.

Gene Harris really was quite magical.

For sure. I'm just surprised there wasn't anything better that they found.

I like the 3 Sounds a lot. A big fat wide swing. I'd go with the highly original choice of Introducing... as my favourite.

Currently revisiting Joshua Redman's Elastic (Warner, 2002). I remain surprised at how heavily pushed Redman's, perfectly competent, music was. Was jazz in the 1990s in such straits that this was the best on offer? These albums are still in print even now.

Highly regarded / heavily sampled. I've always seen Kawaida as effectively Mtume's record. He wrote all the tunes. The Alkebu-Lan record seems to have accrued a cult appeal over the years that is a bit out of synch with what I actually hear on the record. It's all over social media at the moment. Between that record and Kawaida, he is basically the face of the 'spiritual jazz' explosion.

My family is 100% double or triple vaccinated over the age of ten. I and my wife are the only doubles, and that's purely for logistical reasons - I would have had the booster if timing had been right, and I will have one later in the year. Of the ten of us, all have had symptomatic COVID in the last three weeks. The sole exception is my three year old son, who is not vaccinated (he's three), but who may have been asymptomatic (his 1 year old sister did have symptoms). Other than my 78 year old dad, who is an old hand by now, it was the first bout for everyone, including my brother and his fiancée who are doctors but have remarkably not had it yet. As for literal results - it's been pretty mild, for which I think we can thank the double and triple vaccinations.

Maneri Ensemble - Going To Church (AUM Fidelity, 2002)

There'll never not be another Sonny Stitt album.

That’s a good call. I haven’t listened to that one in too long.

Oh no. A great musician and a stalwart. As well as his great leader dates, I’ve been very much enjoying him on Dwight James’ the Inner Heat over the past few weeks.

I’m onto the second volume now. It’s so lyrical. I wish half the solo piano trio records had this quality to them. I think it gets lost in the shuffle between the early piano trio records and then the more famous RTF stuff. I rarely remember that they exist. Too ‘pretty’? Or more jazz heat?

Thanks. That sounds interesting.

I personally tend to like the perceived "forward" choices more. There was a point in the mid 00s when publications like Jazz Times seemed to be skewing in the opposite direction. I don't really think there is anything wrong with a skew either way, unless you get to the point where the critics are talking about one thing and the listeners are paying no attention, which is a risk, particularly with a skew towards the avant. I doubt it's curiousity or being better versed in the music, at least not in the current publishing world, where content creation and matching your competitor is the name of the game if you want that sad minimum number of clicks. If it was, one would expect to see a diverse range of records in the different polls. In fact they have been quite similar across all publications I have seen this year.

Chick Corea - Piano Improvisations Vol 1 (ECM, 1971)

I don't know. To my ears, those early Chicos sound choked by being too "progressive" (in the 50s jazz sense). It's a subjective view that I'm sure is wrong, but I'd have liked them a bit more relaxed and a bit less artificial. Bongo heat is a good call on a grim Monday afternoon. I'm feeling the London greyness seeping into my bones today.

Mark Stryker (of this parish) made an interesting point a few days ago on twitter about how jazz critics polls in the last few years seem to be increasingly skewing away from inside / straight ahead / mainstream jazz and towards more 'outside' stuff, when compared to the strikingly mixed / miscellaneous choices in the 1980s. I think it is a point that is particularly noticeable this year. Even the Jazz Times poll set out above skews heavily avant (albeit a sort of mainstream-ised version of it). Of the top ten, eight fall into the avant garde bracket. I'd be interested to see how it compares with the readers' poll, when it comes out.

I mis read the post. My apologies. I definitely think that the service is worse now. Presumably either some licensing arrangements have lapsed or recent advertising is getting in the way of core functionality. Similar for Tomtom's and, I think, even for Google, which is noticeably worse at finding results than it was five years ago.

I struggled with it a little too. I need to give it another go. Great cover.

That looks interesting, particularly as a complement to the Mingus autosexography.

A Nice Day is such a great Buddy Collette record. Really beautiful playing and over the last year it has been moving to the front of my personal favourite choices for west coast records. I think I'd previously had him in my head as the interesting soloist on those early Chico Hamilton records that I don't much care for, but in more natural settings he's just wonderful. The above discussions seem fairly muted - I'd be interested to know whether the board has moved in a more Collette friendly direction since these early discussions. Also, a lot of interesting looking but long defunct links in the thread above.

Have you tried Shazam? A bit shaky these days, but still tends to work for jazz.

If it's anything like the YT stream, I know what you mean.