Rabshakeh

Lloyd Miller, who led some interesting dates in the 1960s based out of the University of Utah, mixing West Asian classical musics with third stream type jazz, also died at the every end of this year. Probably after these lists were assembled.

RIP.

Bobby Bland - Two Steps From The Blues

Jimmy Witherspoon - At The Renaissance Trying to soothe my wife's hangover with this one.

I don't normally buy vinyl records that I haven't heard and haven't heard of. But in those days I had space, loft era free jazz was that bit cheaper, and those were names on which I felt I could take a bet.

Human Arts Ensemble – Under The Sun

Now on: Roscoe Mitchell Quartet – The Flow Of Things One of two happiest random buys I have made.

Sam Rivers Tuba Trio / James Newton – Flutes!

Just wishing everyone on this forum a happy new year, and a happy, healthy, peace-filled 2025. I've been lurking around here for years and posting only for the last four, but I'm still amazed at how much I learn from other posters.

Keiji Haino – Watashi Dake?

The Gene Harris Trio – Genie In My Soul First listen by streaming. Turns out that it is not the Gene Harris. A completely different pianist and style.

Roscoe Mitchell – One Head Four People One of his best in a while.

I was wondering what mid-table English Championship team Queen's Park Rangers had to do with Nebbiolo.

Oh. I think I have asked that before.

What's QPR?

Ismael Rivera Con Kako Y Su Orchestra – Lo Ultimo En La Avenida This one's a good'n.

Nubya Garcia – Odyssey Her second record. Seems about as bland as music can be to my ears on first listen.

WSQ - Steppin'

It took me a while but I got it eventually.

David Murray, Questlove and Raymond Angry – Plumb

It was contemporary at the time? It is a self-published big band record to from 1981, close-ish to early George Russell maybe. Definitely worth streaming.

Karlton Hester And The Contemporary Jazz Art Movement

That's terrible. We were like that last year. One of the worst fortnights of my life, and it didn't go away really until months after. This year we got the kids flu vaccinations (hardly essential at that age but I don't regret it) and we have escaped with no more than sore throats so far.

Faces – A Nod's As Good As A Wink...To A Blind Horse Listening to this whilst the kids are in the bath, being unusually well behaved. It is one of my favourite rock records, largely for its sloppy stupidity, and young Rod Stewart's vocal performance. Great record. My wife is currently on an Albert Collins kick. Even in these days of hipster ubiquity, one of the most uniquely dressed men of all time. Legendary. I was lucky enough to have an English lit teacher when I was 7 who had the whole class reading Inglan is a Bitch. I have very strong memories of reading it and marvelling over the different meanings of "beech" (as it was spelt). Obviously he couldn't be "bitch", as that was rude. Was it "beech", as it was spelt, or perhaps "beach", with savage irony? Maybe it was "bitch"? I knew not to ask my parents. I remember the classroom scene like yesterday, although it was now a few decades ago. I think it was some of the first poetry I really remember reading, other than poems like Horatius at the Bridge, The Jabberwocky, or the Highwayman, which my Dad introduced me to. Certainly it was the first poetry that I remember really thinking about. The teacher made a big deal about having had to go deep into Brixton (to our 7-years-old ears, a legendary no go zone) to purchase it, in pamphlet form. It was the late 1980s, when London certainly was rougher, but I have often wondered how much of that was actually true and how much of it was just about casting a glamour over impressionistic kids. Certainly the books we were reading were unusually poorly printed. I have no idea how easy it would have been to purchase 30 copies of Linton Kwesi Johnson poems at the time in London. Years later, I was speaking to an uncle from the part of my family who remained in SA after Sharpsville. Apparently this record was one of the few that got through the Nationalists' cultural restrictions of the time, and it was a huge deal in the anti-apartheid movement. Reggae along with House was one of the most important foreign influences on South African music post-apartheid, and this record was apparently one of the main influences on the likes of Lucky Dube and other legends of that era.

It has a few duff tracks and some superb tracks. When I first heard it, it really blew me away but with time I think I rate it less highly.