Rabshakeh

Last night for a sequence of bizarre reasons I ended up being guilt tripped into going to watch a touring "collegiate a capella" singing group from an Ivy League university at a gentlemen's club in the West End. Very impressive in its own way. These kids had worked up 15 part harmonies and stale little comic skits, and they were able to perform songs and complex arrangements impromptu in different languages (there were some Norwegians there and they dropped into a perfect version of the Norwegian national anthem, with harmonies). One kid was clearly a bit early music fan and that came out in some of the arrangements. Still, I did feel like I had been abducted by aliens and forced to take part in a cruel experiment in human social anxiety. The kids were fine with it, but the British audience (entirely friends and family) was visibly struggling with the awkwardness.

I enjoyed Welcome To The Afterfuture at the time, and that series of records he did attacking Puff Daddy (as he was then) type glossy rap were a big deal for me as a kid.

There you are. Everyone has their own ears, and I don't doubt that others' are better than mine. Opinions presented above my own and only opinions.

Is that the single? Busta Rhymes was one of the background sounds to my teenage years. The opposite of mumblerap.

Mike Ladd - Negrophilia: The Album I remember being very disappointed with this record back when it was released in 2005. I was deep into Thirsty Ear and, at the time, had not yet realised that "Alternative Hip Hop" as it was called then was a polite cul-de-sac. Revisiting it now two decades later it doesn't seem any better quality-wise (the production in particular is third rate), but it is at least a bit charming, which some of its successors in style could perhaps learn from. There was lots wrong with Ladd's music but at least it always felt like a chat with a friend.

I only know Secret Oyster, but streaming these guys. It is interesting that with time they went more Moody Blues and less jazzy. Typically it is the reverse.

Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber – Black Sex Yall: Liberation & Bloody Random Violets

That's very interesting. Psychicemotus is an album with which I never quite gelled. I wasn't mad on Black on that Nat record either. But where I like him more is that split family record with the Von Freemans. Black is very sophisticated there, and perhaps it really wowed the young Marsalis brothers? Edit: By "sophisticated" here I just mean that he could have played with Miles Davis or someone who would have appealed to a young Wynton. I don't mean to suggest that Ed Blackwell is not sophisticated.

Edition Speciale - Aliquante This one is good, despite the low energy cover. French band playing music that sounds like a mix of the more hardcore Canterbury jazz rock bands with Genesis in instrumental flight. Mad time signatures. Lots of ARP synthesisers.

I often wonder why they chose James Black, given that Marsalis was playing with Ed Blackwell at the time. Edit: Or maybe he wasn't. He was with Ornette already it looks like. Recorded Feb 59. A good record. Almost a split LP between Marsalis and Batiste.

That's interesting. I know the Gulf Coast Jazz record and the 1990s one, which are both pretty good and worth checking out. Having snuffled around Discogs it looks like this is one of four LPs released in a box set of NOLA bop in the 1970s.

What I mean is that normie fans of jazz vocalists not enjoying jazz vocals has a pedigree that could get its own category at Crufts.

Isn't this a standard issue for jazz vocalists though? One that affected Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald?

Young-Holt Unlimited – Oh Girl The only YHU record I return to regularly. Echoes Of Swing – Blue Pepper What's the story with this release? Is there a connection with the classic jazz label Good Time Jazz? Is it a tribute or something sort of licence deal?

Great record, there.

I have no particular objection to Wynton or Branford. Wynton has in my view done a handful of very good records, some very poor longer compositions, and he now seems to have matured into a musician with stronger Louis Armstrong influence whose playing I find striking. Branford has a solid back catalogue of decent records and leaving that aside, has done a major service in elevating jazz' standing with the hip hop crowd, which is still bearing fruit. But I have always found the clique of younger New Orleans-based jazz musicians nurtured by Ellis, among whom is Jason Marsalis, to be a particular disappointment. To my ears, their output is solid but very tepidly by the book retro stuff. I have no problem whatsoever with retro bop etc., but I find that their work lacks freshness and excitement. And it always comes wrapped up in this package of New Orleans heritage, references to Mardi Gras and gumbo, and a certain sense of superiority, which I find to be undeserved given their output.

Musil seems to be gaining traction in the English speaking world. That's a book I greatly enjoy although obviously it has flaws that you can see from space. Currently keeping myself going through IJ by remembering that I still have a fair few Pynchons to read.

I really enjoyed it. Much better playing from Shepp than on his other late period records. The band is great and lots of variety.

Eddie Harris - Instant Death

I’d love to know how that tour went.

Wolf Eyes & Anthony Braxton – Live At Pioneer Works, 26 October 2023 Their first collaboration was obviously a big fun piece of news but this is really far more substantial as music.

Thanks, and will do. Looks great.

Mihály Dresch Quartet / Archie Shepp – Hungarian Bebop Ocho - Ocho David Murray Black Saint Quartet Featuring Cassandra Wilson – Sacred Ground Matthew Shipp Trio – The Conduct Of Jazz Car journey to Walthamstow and back for a children's birthday party.

Thanks. I always find it weird how Mosaic doesn't just tell you which records are represented in the sets.

David Murray - Sacred Ground