Rabshakeh

Herbie Mann and Bobby Jaspar - Flute Souffle (Prestige, 1957)

Jazz historian Ted Gioia has just done a substack article on Michael Brecker. https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/how-michael-brecker-reinvented-the It's solid rather than spectacular, and served mainly to remind me that I never remember to listen to Brecker. Other than occasional appearances of Steps in the Listening To thread, I get the sense that the same is true of most of us here.

Thank you. Looks like this is the rare instance in life where there's a clear winner.

Nice one.

Thanks

Maybe "stand out" is the wrong term...

Following a passing reference in the 3 Sounds thread, are there any Houston Highnotes that anyone thinks really stand out?

Sometimes this is what you need.

Could be. I think a lot is just down to the need for constant content, informed / personal or otherwise, combined with the consensus-generating force of social media, within a relatively small market.

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.