Rabshakeh

Any music with rhythm is maths jazz (counting). The only non-maths jazz form of music so far discovered is unaccompanied Tuvan Throat Singing.

Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet - Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet

Sue Lynch and Regan Bowering ‎– Sax and Drums I always understand "maths" in musical prefix terms to just mean "has jarring changes in time signatures". A way of saying "proggy" without also suggesting that the music might be lame.

Gabriele Mitelli, John Edwards and Mark Sanders – Three Tsuru Origami

Aja Monet - When The Poems Do What They Do This is a jazz poetry record that I have been enjoying recently. Monet's poetry isn't very good (she is very much a product of academia), but she's learned her lessons well from records at least and she knows what delivery works in this context. The band is great. The artist formerly known as Christian Scott, the Pinderhughes sisters (who I don't know but for whom I will look out for) and several others. Sleek modern spiritual jazz. Maybe I am just getting old and more tolerant of this stuff, but I liked this record. Black Eagle Jazz Band - Gretna 1982 Now streaming this really top notch Dixieland circuit record from 1982 via YouTube, after a mention of it in this month's Syncopated Times.

It was reissued by Fresh Sounds.

Leroy Hutson – Hutson

John Hicks – Impressions Of Mary Lou Only my first time listening to this, but damn it is good. I love Hicks so I am surprised that it only came to my notice recently.

Cappy Lewis - Get Happy With Cappy

What is the third of them?

Thanks My worst is first hand record shops that sell records, pot plants and coffee table books. They always have an espresso machine. Online vinyl culture loves them. There's only one kind of record shop I want to visit and that is the one that stocks stuff that I cannot otherwise purchase. That means second hand shops only.

Arthur Blythe - Metamorphosis

I'm still inspired by my recording shopping in Singapore, another city that supposedly has no record shops but which turns out to have some good ones. It remains the best way to really see a city. Supposedly there is at least one very good one in Beijing, although it is quite far out and I suspect I won't be able to get there. This list seems pretty good: https://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2024/01/19/six-beijing-record-shops-are-worth-visit-browsing-listening

Art Ensemble of Chicago - Certain Blacks

Not exactly. Princess G is meeting me there.

It could not be a less exciting work travel reason if it tried to be. Let's just pretend I will be wearing sunglasses playing rocking saxophone on a skateboard as I do 180°s on a half pipe and leave it at that.

I mean, it is work. It's definitely work in this case.

RIP. Sad to hear.

Even Dusty Groove's copywriters seem to be struggling with this one: "the approach of the album really sets them in territory that makes it difficult for them to take any wrong moves" I'm not sure praise could get higher.

Is this a record. I can't see anything about it on the internet.

Okay. This might be a hard one: what about record shops in Hong Kong and Beijing? I'll be in those cities briefly over the coming weeks and may get an afternoon or so off.

What I tend to project onto Pepper more is that Arthur Rimbaud / Poete Maudit thing. I listen to e.g. Blues for the Fishermen and I hear a self-conscious aesthetics of descent to the depths in the pursuit of art. That record in particular has aspects that are clearly designed as signals de profundis. Prison and heroin were part of it, and in that sense I can hear prison. Lots of jazz critics and writers try to project the same thing onto Charlie Parker, but it washes off because the Charlie Parker who spoke for himself never seems to have been into that look all, whereas from what I have read of Pepper he was more the type.

Art Ensemble of Chicago - Nice Guys

Don't expect anything mind blowing as I said. But good. The violin adds some fresh texture and it doesn't run into the rhythmic and harmonic problems that affects a lot of failed retro attempts. There is even a touch of very non-Coltrane groove on a few tracks. Who would have thought that all it took for prices to be north of £200 in a week was to put the words "Japanese" and "spiritual jazz" next to each other in a sentence.

Jemeel Moondoc Sextet – Konstanze's Delight Sinsuke Fujieda Group – Fukushima Much hyped but actually pretty great overall to my ears. Obviously not ground breaking: it sounds like John Coltrane. But it is really good. What isn't great is those prices.