Rabshakeh

Ha! Some of them are super expensive non-music without resolutions, but there are a few records from that scene that are recognisably jazz but just very slow and sensitive: Jakob Young for example. It would be a fun experiment. Change the speed setting and whack up the bass.

Yeah. Mostly the ones I already knew. Vesala, some judicious Garbarek, and Stenson. The weaker ones are the endless releases by the younger musicians that at the time just seemed to be churned out by ECM and which, with the benefit of the internet, really were just being churned out. Tord Gustavsen etc. All released with album covers that just seem to be stock imagery of dull grey landscapes. A whole generation of young musicians who seemed to be picked to fill a niche.

Interesting that what is very much absent from this list is not so much European musicians as Nordic musicians (save for a few). I am currently doing a Spotify plunge into those Scandi ECM mainstays that filled the jazz sections of my youth, which is what brought me to this thread. ECM's output in the first 15 years of this millennium was heavy with Norwegians, Swedes and Finns, plays very considered expensive music. It is not all bad, but what I would say is that it is a surprisingly low hit rate. Probably the lowest for any run on a record label that I can think of. And there is so much of it.

Have you listened to his earlier records? Yo me those were completely dismissible whereas this is decent enough. It is like something on ECM.

Another one who is very popular with the Reddit crowd.

I actually gave it a go, and I agree with you that this is not at all a bad record. I have only listened to his first few, which were competent. This is much better. I don't hear Eick but I do definitely hear modern ECM, with the piano playing muted role behind the trumpet, and with more compositional subtlety than I would have expected

Is there maybe a difference between the hype that these Young Lions received and the focus on the likes of Joey Alexander? The Young Lions were a record label push and, if the musicians didn't catch, they were quickly dropped and ended up obscure. Whereas Joey Alexander continues to be genuinely popular (in jazz terms). If you go on Reddit and ask the jazz fans there to recommend you good recent jazz the likes of Joey Alexander will be mentioned immediately, along with Hiromi and Bill Charlap (the three practicing jazz acoustic musicians whom Reddit seems to love the most). Joey Alexander isn't going to lapse into obscurity. Nor is he "young" at this stage by any measure. He is seven albums in and ten years into his recording career. The failing Young Lions of the late 80s and early 90s never got that kind of grace. I think if you're looking for overhyped youngsters today you should be looking away from acoustic jazz, which has effectively been deserted by the critics. The critical and modern jazz orthodoxy has long since shifted towards mixed genre crossover and "spiritual jazz", fronted by younger musicians who look the part. The last seven or so years has seen a flood of new entrants, now clearly ebbing fast. Many of the new entrants seem to have already effectively tapped out.

Joey Alexander is big on YouTube, along with others, like Hiromi Uehara. That's what that community likes. You could hardly call either of them overhyped, given that they're not really mentioned by critics, but something about them has caught the eye of the Reddit community. To add to @JSngry's earlier point, there was also a larger pool of talent that was connected directly to the previous hard bop era pool of talent in historical terms, and they had a larger commercial audience. Musicians like Alexander are just kids who do well at music at school and then get to record. There aren't many of them and they're selected to please teacher, not other musicians or the buying public (commercially this stuff is a non-event in 2025). It isn't the same thing as having a natural well of hundreds of talented players from regional towns already semi-developed, and used to playing for audiences ranging from university jazz clubs, old ladies in churches, to kids hanging around jukeboxes.

What is this record? Is it a comp?

I'm told that it does not sell. If you label a beer as "mild" it is commercial death. So they label it as an approximate style (depending on the type of mild) like "red ale", "brown ale" or "porter". The porter at the ex-Jerusalem Tavern is very much in the fruitier mild style.

Bobby Bradford with John Stevens Bought at Bob's Blues and Jazz on my recent trip to Chicago

I think in the micro brewing era stout and porter is probably the most interesting area. I think milk stouts tend to be quite reliably good. @mjazzg - In case you're interested, St. Peters seems to have upped its game in this area recently. The former Jerusalem Tavern in Clerkenwell has reopened under a new and stupid name and has two good ones that really impressed me: one nice rich stout and a fruity porter that was really a mild in porter's clothing.

That's an interesting looking one. I'll definitely check it out.

Thanks both for the article and insight. I am never sure whether I really like those records. What prompted me to ask was really the strange way that Bowie is featured. The records seem to move between the Milosc sections and the Bowie sections. Each excellent but not necessarily communicating. On the Gdynia one Bowie is almost a capella most of the time. It seems like a strange mix. On earning opportunities, I wasn’t paying attention at the time, but I’d assumed the AEC was big news at that point and could easily sell out venues. For anyone who hasn’t heard of Milosc by the way I would recommend their non-Bowie records. Part of the wider trends in jazz in the postmodernism period, but there’s a good core of playing and songwriting there,p. Same for some of their other peers in their micro scene.

In the 1990s, Lester Bowie recorded around three records with Milosc, a Polish band that was part of the (in my view underrated if potentially annoying) "Yass" scene. I don't think any of them are really classics, but it is surprising that he collaborated with them to such an extent. I'm not aware of any "Poland" section of the biographies of Bowie (contrast to Paris, Jamaica or Nigeria). Does anyone know what lay behind the relationship and why so many records were released?

Look, it was indoors. I was able to wear a tee shirt. Chicago is, it turns out, very cold. Have some mercy. Good gig. A different feel to your average Wednesday night OTO crowd or my comparatively limited NY experiences.

I haven't brought a hat with me. I'm not convinced I would have survived.

Oh cool. I'd missed that. I'm really excited to be going. For some reason he doesn't come by London much and I haven't seen him before. Also, fun to see a gig in a new city. Even with this sleet and wind.

Going to see Rempis' Ballister at Constellation in Chicago tonight, with thanks to @Chuck Nessa for flagging the venue.

Excellent. Rempis is on at Constellation on a night I may be able to attend.

Sandy Brown's Jazz Band – McJazz

Milford Graves and Don Pullen - Nommo

What an oddly effusive article. Most of these statues that are pictured look like hackwork.

Hopefully they can get their own waterfall too, soon.

Flying on Sunday so if anyone has any other recommendations I'd be grateful to know.