Rabshakeh

I really came away thinking that she had about five tricks and not much more. Amadou made it good by tying it together and keeping it punky, which meant that I was less concerned by Amba's repeating herself.

No flute. Very similar to the first set, really. Do you know Amadou in any other setting? I don't think I have ever heard of her.

Saw Zoh Amba at Cafe OTO, with Farida Amadou on bass and Chris Corsano on drums. It was a good gig. I am half and half on Amba and a bit sceptical on Corsano, but I really enjoyed it. Amadou, who I didn't know at all, played 80s harmolodic influenced electric bass, which gave the whole performance a gritty punk free jazz edge. I went with two civilians, who both really enjoyed it.

Yeah. That's a great record. Sabuuuuu

It's no Jazz Espagnole

This is one of my favourite Sanders records. There is a real smoothness to it, along with a lot of brawn. My wife burst laughing when I brought it out of the bag.

Charlie Parker - Bird/The Savoy Recordings (Master Takes)

Ironic name. I was very impressed though.

Abdul Zahir Batin & The Notorious Ensemble – Live At The Jazz Cultural Theatre

Joel Futtermann, Jimmy Lyons and Robert Adkins – In-Between-Position(s) - A Trio In Eight Movements

Another recent acquisition, this time not a jazz record: Albert Collins - Ice Pickin' Again, happy to own this one finally.

It's one of my favourite of his weirder ones.

Eddie Harris - Instant Death A record that I have wanted to own for a while but which never showed up at the right price point, bought on recent trip to Phoenix.

I did not know about this. Having checked up on it, it looks really interesting! A family affair. How does it sound?

I started listening to jazz in the 1990s, during the reissue era that Cuscuna himself ushered in. At the time, those pastiche-Reid Miles style re-covered CD reissues of LT-era releases were everywhere. It really shaped what I listened to and bought. Cuscuna and his involvement in the LT series and beyond is a piece of jazz history that I would love to see explored in a detailed longform article. Anyway, RIP.

Has anyone listened to any of these yet? Any that are outstanding? Any that didn't need to be issued?

This really made me chuckle

I agree. "Church influence" is funny in this case, since presumably it comes from records. I'm not sure of how substantial the pentecostal saxophone scene was in East Sussex in the mid- to late-1960s, but I'd guess that the answer is 'not very'. Where did he first come across this stuff, and what other records are there that influenced him? Vernard Johnson is not exactly a house name of here. One thing that I don't hear much with Butcher is an Ayler influence, which is where you would have assumed he would have started from. It's a good record by the way. Very enjoyable as breakfast music, even if my wife is a bit less tolerant of outwardly churchy music.

Vernard Johnson - I'm a Witness Too I forget who on this board recommended this gospel saxophonist. Apparently a big influence on John Butcher. $2 purchase from Zia Thunderbird from a recent trip to Phoenix, Arizona.

How is this one? I never really dug these guys, but I always liked how their records looked. Something about the late 1970s jazz ecosystem.

That's a good record. I really like it. Not really the same thing, but I like George Szabados too, in Hungarians from the era.

Just listened to this one for the first time. Excellent record. Good rich sound to it.

Les McCann - Layers

That's dedication. All the signs of RSD were there, including some funny handwritten notes. Genuinely nice vibe. Everything that a local record shop should be, and obviously rewarded for it by the customers. Yeah. I didn't want to suggest that I actually felt threatened at all. It was 10:30am on a Sunday morning when I visited, and it looked okay. The only thing that was alarming was how keen everyone was to tell us how dangerous it was for us to be there. No problem. I was pretty time-poor, and I got lucky to be able to get out and about on the Sunday morning.

I ended up getting a free Sunday morning so I did go to Zia, with a Scottish colleague whose interest was piqued. Two locations: the Bethany shop and the one on Thunderbird. A funny trip, and a slice of life. I had to travel from North Scottsdale, which is a long trip, despite the deceptive maps, which I've now realised show not blocks but geometric square areas of development, each containing hundreds of blocks. The Uber driver on the way to the Bethany Zia, which I'm told was in "Maryvale" (one of the only areas of Phoenix that seemed to have a name that was in use) made sure to warn me that it was in a "terrible neighbourhood", that I needed to keep my eyes open for trouble, and then asked whether I was "packing a piece", I assume as a joke. The shop was next to a Walmart, so we went in (good for gifts, and Walmarts are exotic and exciting Americana to Brits). The check out staff, when they heard our accents and had all come and shaken our hands(!), advised us very kindly that "this is a really bad area, and you should make sure you leave as soon as possible". The Bethany Zia had a shabby and rather fraught feel to it, but the staff were lovely and it had some cool stuff in it, including lots of underpriced jazz funk / Gilles Peterson-friendly stuff that would have been six times the price in London. Weirdly, it also has a large selection of Ogun records, by the likes of Elton Dean and Mike Osborne, as well as some Soft Machine-adjacent rock records. No idea how those had got there - I've never seen that sort of thing even in the UK. Security was tight and you had to be walked in and out of the shop to ensure nothing was stolen. The Thunderbird Zia was night and day in contrast. Clean, and thronged with happy customers, some with their children, and with a great selection of other (non-musical) stuff like books, old mags, and the like. Anyway, I found some great stuff in both, including a few things that I had been looking for over a few years but had never found at the right price point to justify Discogs. Neither of the shops was a jazz specialist, but they had generous shelf space set aside for it, equal to the entire stock of many London record shops. As always, record-shopping in a foreign city is a great way to explore it. And I didn't even have to wear that gun.