Rabshakeh

Sorry. Getting old and repeating myself... These are some good records.

I always see her left shoulder as a sort of white mitten coming over the side of the guitar.

They sound to me a bit like the ICP Orchestra, but maybe less interesting. Any recommendations for albums welcome.

I somehow missed this bunch pretty much entirely. They seem extremely famous on parts of the Internet of Jazz. Any views on them or their solo albums?

Chet Baker and Lee Konitz – In Concert Quite a complex one, particularly given the state of Baker's other releases around this time. And a bit of a seeming outlier for India Navigation to release. I've never actually listened to this one. Is it the same as Extension Red White and Blue?

That is still a favourite of mine. Particularly the Webern.

Jon Jang and The Pan-Asian Arkestra – Tiananmen!

George Melly & The Feetwarmers – Nuts

ICP Orchestra – Oh, My Dog

That's great stuff!

Evan Parker, John Edwards and Chris Corsano - A Glancing Blow

The Ed Curran Quartet – Elysa Love this one.

Dexter Gordon – More Power!

That double CD is just so good. I was disappointed when I first bought the LP and realised half of it wasn't there. In many ways it is to be expected. The dividing line between the chosen take and the outtake is going to be small in jazz, and sometimes the outtakes are going to be as good if not better. With the Ornette Atlantic outtake records, I am always impressed at how many great songs he had lying around that just didn't make it onto the official albums. The most extreme case from my point of view is not Ornette, but the Frank Lowe album Black Beings, for which the outtake section reintroduced on CD is substantially superior to the original LP.

Same, but it isn’t the best of the outtakes records. The other two are, to my ears, on a level with the original records, whereas this one feels more like outtakes and b sides. My favourite outtakes record for Ornette is the outtakes from Science Fiction. I forget the name. I think it’s better than the original record.

Yes. Sorry. Those two comments were intended separately.

Ornette Coleman - To Whom Who Keeps a Record

Is Kudu getting the same treatment? Some great stuff on there, even with the rather weaker cover art and packaging. Some of that Benson stuff is top notch. I think Body Talk is the one for me.

The Harlem Hamfats – Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order, Volume 1 (18 April To 13 November 1936) - Hamfat Swing

Cecil Taylor - Cell Walk for Celeste

Marco Di Marco Quartet – In New York I don't know Dave Tofani but he's pretty snappy on this.

This is the issue for me. As long as Allmusic hits around 60% of an artist's discography it is at least worth reading, but when it comes to what Allmusic considers to be non-core genres (trad and latter-day swing amongst them), you are lucky to have 5% coverage, if any. I should add that I have only ever encountered Allmusicguide in its online form. Never seen one of the books.

I'm a big fan of the "stream everything" approach, but you have to know what it is before you can stream it.

Sadly the Third Ear and Music Hound lists don't seem to be on the web for easy viewing. I'll keep an eye out for them though as I go. Thanks for the tip.

Yanow's alright. I grew up on Allmusicguide on the internet. Obviously there's no point in following what it says to the letter, but as a tool to expand horizons it is incredible. It taught me more about life than my own parents. But on the trad stuff its pretty poor. Lots of records are unreviewed so you don't know what's good and what isn't. And the dreadful deadening phrase "this recording will appeal to fans of traditional jazz" recurs again and again for any record that is reviewed.