Rabshakeh

It's not far from me: perfect distance for getting kids to sleep in a pram, having a coffee and accidentally buying a record (who could have foreseen?), and then heading home in time for the afternoon session. I also wanted to buy The Wire this week for the Pat Thomas I/V. OTO has a new bookshelf that is the chief draw for me at the moment. It is really an incredible selection. I have no idea whether it will keep up the pace, but I don't know of any bookshop of any genre that can keep up with it at the moment.

Thanks. I have that Brice duo on my list to check out, and will have a look at the Polish one too. On the AS / IA front, the only crossover is that the people on social media whom I used to see enthusiastically endorsing AS records are now enthusiastically endorsing IA records. I don't think they share much musical ground, but possibly they share an audience.

The New Gary Burton Quarter - Guided Tour (Mack Avenue, 2013) Right up there with Burton's best.

Am I missing something? Is this an affectionate nickname?

You're charitable. I have an elaborate theory involving the Illuminati going on which I think better explains it.

Dizzy Reece - Asia Minor (New Jazz, 1962).

I feel like the polish has come off Astral Spirits' operation recently. I'm not sure why (lower marketing budget? oversaturation? getting squeezed out by International Anthem?), but the releases don't seem to be making the splash online and in the press that they once were. I assume there's been no dip in quality. By the way, has anyone encountered anything stellar recently? I'm in the mood for something new, but nothing has caught my eye. It feels a bit like everything got released last year, and this year artists are having a breather. Then again, I may have just blinked at the wrong time.

Not really a response to the above, but I am an original running order completist. There's nothing that enrages me more than a CD reissue that alters the order or adds bonus tracks or alternative takes in the middle. I know I'm not alone in this.

Creative Arts Ensemble - One Step Out (Nimbus West, 1981) A great record, probably one of my favourite non-Tapscott UGMAAs, that I was pleased to find at Cafe OTO. But when I took it home I was surprised to find it is a double LP re-release. Literally 8-9 minutes of music for each side of vinyl. What's the logic?

No lie. She just did this again.

Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few - Cosmic Transitions (2021) A but of a mishmosh of things from the past that are currently fashionable, even down to the vintage Impulse! era font choice. Still, I'll take this over the overhyped jazz kids of my 1990s youth. Just finished this impossible masterpiece: Infinite Search (Embryo, 1969) by Miroslav Vitous To my utter embarrassment, until today I had believed that this was a different album to Mountain in the Clouds, and had even held forth to a friend regarding how Infinite Search was the slightly superior album. They are, it turns out, the same record.

I forgot that was his nickname.

Bill Frisell - Have a Little Faith (Elektra Nonesuch, 1993) From that era when Don Byron really was a name worth following.

Very sad news.

I'm pretty much with you. It was my second listen, and I was not more interested than the first time. Nothing to told it together.

David Murray / Mal Waldron - Silence (Justin Time, 2008) Nice to return to this one. Good and gutsy.

Oluyemi Thomas and Gino Robair - Unity in Multiplicity (Rastascan, 1996)

Plus hard to think of anyone who could have made this bunch pop quite like Charli Persip.

In the mood for a bit of that. I'm going to line up In Greece next.

I felt the same. I got a better noir hit off the Mundell Lowe record. I'm currently on Lester Bowie's New York Organ Ensemble - The Organizer (DIW, 1991)

Pyramids - Lalibela (1973) Trying this one again, given the heavy retrospective hype Pyramids seems to be receiving from the Spiritual Jazz Inc. Marketing machine. I'm still not convinced.

Andrzej Trzaskowski Quintet - Polish Jazz Vol 4 (PNM, 1965)

Mike Westbrook's Concert Band - Marching Song Vol 1 (Deram, 1969) My first time with this one, and I find it very impressive.

Randy Weston - Berkshire Blues (Freedom, 1977; rec. 1965)

It's got a great cover, although I wonder whether I prefer Gardens and Ketchoua by quite a way.