Rabshakeh

Ron Proby – Evian

John Coltrane - Infinity

Some unique branding there.

Probably one for the Brits more than the rest of the forum, but sad news that Rob Grant, the "Grant" of "Grant Naylor" the writing team behind the original series of Red Dwarf, died suddenly and apparently unexpectedly yesterday. For people of my age group, those first four or so episodes of Red Dwarf were pretty much formative. So this is sad news indeed. RIP.

I've listened to a few more of them this evening. I think after the second record most of them left so it wasn't really the same mix. There's a really sharp decline. Reeeaaally sharp. Now listening to this one: Obviously not the world's greatest record either. But not terrible. I find it hard to put myself in the mindset of Bob Thiele as he set about persuading a dying Louis Armstrong that he needed to record a version of "The Creator Has A Master Plan".

The Last Poets - Chastisement I hadn't really listened to the Last Poets before other than their first two records and Hustlers Convention. This is surprisingly terrible.

Gene "Mighty Flea" Conners – Coming Home I do love Black and Blue. Look at that line up! Phoooaar

The Reform Art Unit With Alaeddin Adlernest

So many of these records are sold in credible shops too. It is quite disheartening.

I believe you advised me to hire a car, which was clearly the right advice, although I didn't because the timing of the trip meant that any exploration was going to be limited. I'm actually quite glad I didn't as I found the experience of being driven around Phoenix fairly hairy in itself. Overall I liked what I saw of the city, which was unique, and people whom I met obviously loved living there. But I found the distances head-spinning. I tried to nip out for a quick trip to a nearby record shop on my first day, and it was hours of driving there and back, and that was without traffic. I've always wanted to see Philadelphia. Americans who I have met online and in person seem to regard it as American's most European city. In the online era, that comment is often followed by photographs of very un-European but pleasant-looking streets. No doubt it is the layout or something imperceptible that is being referred to. I've always wondered what it is actually like, but sadly it seems to be the major American city that I have had the fewest chances to visit.

Everything Is Everything – Just Flash In The Cosmic Pan Does anyone know the connection between this record and Terumasa Hino's Hino's Air? I read somewhere that they're the same band, but this one is obviously missing Hino, and I believe it came out on a different label so doesn't seem to just be alternative takes or something.

Grover Washington Jr - Winelight I think I could write a notional chapter of a notional book just about the growling noise that Washington makes in the chorus of the first track. Grrrnnnnrrrrur

That's good. The last two times I was in the states was Chicago, which, exploration wise, is more or less like a European city, and Phoenix, which... wasn't. I'd assumed that San Diego would have been more like the latter, so that's good to know.

Thanks. It will be work and the usual dread conference centre that follows these things in some US cities, but I'm hoping to get out and about.

Does anyone have any San Diego recommendations? Not a US city that I know...

Peetie Wheatstraw – Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order Volume 7 (4 April 1940 To 25 November 1941)

Rudy Ray Moore – The Turning Point

My first listen to this. Really superior stuff.

John Scofield Band – überjam

Eddie Vinson – Wee Baby Blues

Wait until you read the notional book. It will just be endless dense notional chapters. One of which can definitely be the notional "soul boy" chapter (great name).

I definitely do mean that. Big Jim McNeely etc. I think it is really essential to a deep knowledge of Jazz to appreciate the way that it, to some extent, represents an industry-led bifurcation of the African American music that had existed up to that point. But at the same time I wouldn't necessarily give it a chapter in a jazz book, although I would want it covered as part of swing in the 1940s or the phenomenon of rise of the tenor player.

To give my own response to the post, I have always been impressed by the approach taken by the likes of the Jazz Wax blog, which takes a very expansive approach to "Jazz". It includes big band pop, R&B, mambo records and easy listening, for example, as a part of Jazz's story. Having said that, I am not really sure that it would be necessary to include those musics in a historical overview of Jazz, despite the very substantial and natural overlap they have with the jazz most of us enjoy. Such a book or course would be bloated. I think that in many cases the commercial jazz of the late seventies through mid nineties has less in common with "Jazz" than the likes of Bacharach or Perez Prado. Despite that, I do think that the radio friendly "jazz" of that period should be recognised as a very substantial chapter in the history of Jazz, as a whole. It was the artistic terminus of many trends that had existed in jazz (and specifically but not exclusively fusion) up to that point. More importantly, it was extremely popular among people who regarded themselves as jazz fans. Extremely popular to the point that it absolutely outsold the music most of us enjoy. It was also the form of jazz that probably most influenced non-jazz genres, like R&B, acid jazz, gospel, neo-soul etc. As such, I think that it does probably need a chapter or a lecture or a podcast, as one of the key trends of that two decade period that still shapes the music. (The other three key trends that would need to be included in this notional book or course for the years 1977 - 1995, in my view, would be the acoustic jazz revival; the emergence of an international and institutionalised avantgarde improvisation; and the explosion of retrospective reissues, with its black hole effect). All of this is without prejudice to the fact that, as I assume is the case for most of us, I do not really like 90% of the music in this category. There are some exceptions there (Winelight is great. Sanborn was good at times. I like Whalum) but I don't think it was a particularly fruitful period for jazz, artistically. In due course this view may become old fashioned, just as 1950s views of Jimmy Smith or the criticisms of modal jazz look old fashioned. But I am not really all that sure and any revival of interest in this area would need to take an unexpected form, in my view.

It is full of zingers.

This Onion article from back in the day is a classic: https://theonion.com/no-one-sets-out-to-be-a-smooth-jazz-musician-1819584390/ I think that the most authentically interesting about smooth jazz proper is the intersection with the contemporary trends in "urban contemporary" R&B. From a British point of view, the likes of Incognito and Sade of some sort might have been the last time that jazz of some sort was in the charts. I'm always amazed at the love for Incognito (who I never really enjoyed) among both listeners of a certain age and also younger musicians. Every Incognito fan I have ever met regards himself or herself as a "jazz" fan. Sade is obviously having a big comeback at the moment among younger listeners, although that is perhaps more ambiguous in its relation to jazz. I was also interested to find out that the Fast Show's Jazz Club sketch ("Niiiiice!") which at the time I regarded as such an attack on jazz, was in fact intended by Johnny Thomson, who regarded himself as a big jazz fan, as some sort of purificatory distancing from the excesses of critically acclaimed jazz. His own music picks can be found here, and are clearly Fuzak-aligned: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/nov/11/john-thomson-london-jazz-festival-fast-show-cold-feet