Rabshakeh

Definitely. I always liked the covers. A unique look.

Ha! Great description.

I really enjoyed it. A little too polite at times, but I think Sanders' playing is excellent.

I was going to ask the same. Again, the internet doesn't help at all.

Currently listening to Overhang Party by Kaoru Abe and Sabu Toyozumi (Kojima, 1979). Nice to hear Abe (a real hero of my teenage years) on bass clarinet.

Thanks. That's reassuring, although it seems like a strange recording drought for someone whose career looked like it was going places.

Does anyone know what has happened to Jones? It seems like he hasn't recorded since 2015. Wikipedia tells me nothing.

Currently enjoying the new Alexander Hawkins on Intakt. It’s been a good week for free jazz / modern comp crossover.

Nice one.

I haven't but I like Steve Lehman a lot so I will definitely give it a go. Thanks for the recommendation. No objection to hip hop / rap at all on my side. I think I just don't normally like jazz where the musicians are being required to solo over tight break beats.

Now onto this one: Steve Grossman's Shapes To Come (PM, 1974).

Courtney Pine's Underground (Verve, 1997). I am pretty allergic to hip hop crossover (at least for pre-Kanye/trap era hip hop) and when I was a teenager I regarded this album in particular as Satan. But returning to it now, it strikes me as one of the few jazz-side records of the era to successfully make the jump: the musicians don't sound like they are doing their best in a 120bpm straightjacket (which I think is the chief danger of the genre, even for records like Shipp's Equilibrium). Not sure why my views on it have changed - presumably I've just got older and less demanding.

It's very good! Pharaoh sounds incredible, and the compositions set him off well. As you say, Floating Points has nailed that Impulse! spiritual feel, but without pastiching it. Is this a recent reissue by NoBusiness? I hadn't heard of it. It's very good! Pharaoh sounds incredible, and the compositions set him off well. As you say, Floating Points has nailed that Impulse! spiritual feel, but without pastiching it.

It's generating a lot of traction online. I'm going to give it a go.

Just finished Grover Washington, Jr. - Live at the Bijou (Kudu/CTI, 1977) Now onto Other Afternoons (BYG, 1969) by Jimmy Lyons, starring Lester Bowie, Alan Silva and Andrew Cyrille. One of the standout BYGs from that period in my opinion.

I’ve nursed a soft spot for Mr. Leimgruber since No Try No Fail, so I’m interested to hear what people have to say about this one.

JSngry pretty much summarised my thoughts. I think I was expecting 90s Frisell with 70s Teitelbaum with late 70s / early 80s Andrew Cyrille drumming and writing the material. I got very excited at that prospect. It wasn't that. Perhaps it needs another listen.

Exactly. The temperature is great and there have been hardly any shark attacks this year.

Thanks again for this recommendation. I have been listening to it regularly. It sounds incredible. What a great job they did on it. And no nonsense inserts!

I love it. Pruning a record collection is probably one of the only areas of pure control and agency left in the modern world. Nowhere else in my life do I have that kind of power.

What a cover! I'm currently listening to The Declaration of Musical Independence (ECM, 2016) by the Andrew Cyrille Quartet, starring Bill Frisell, Richard Teitelbaum and Ben Street. I'm pretty disappointed by it. The combination of Bill Frisell and Richard Teitelbaum got me really excited, but to my ears it is just a noodley ECM reverbfest.

Most of it. Kamasi Washington too. I listen to and love a lot of recent jazz music, but I honestly find it hard to get excited over some of the stuff Chinen is pushing as being the cream of the crop.

Hopping along.

Hmm. It's the sort of book that gets put on first year university reading lists, or which mainstream non-jazz fan music critics read and refer to so that they feel they are keeping current. I'm not sure that's a reason, either. But I'm reading it anyway. It is very zippy. It is okay. Okay, a lot of the music that Chinen is so enthusiastic about and considers to represent an "explosion of creativity", or whatever, makes me want to chew off my own leg to escape, but I can get through that.

I've picked this up and started it because it has been getting quite a lot of mentions on social media. People seem to really enjoy it and refer to it a lot as an authority on where jazz is going. From what I have seen so far, I am not sure that people on this board will be quite as favourable. It is very much an exploration of the "modern mainstream" jazz space (Mehldau, Iverson, etc.) and some more current genres like neo soul which have had some influence on that sort of jazz. Avant garde genres and Criss Cross / Steeplechase type retro genre work are pretty much ignored, save for stuff like David S Ware and John Zorn. I note that most of the above thread is people discussing the book before reading it. Has anyone else read it?