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Stick Up! is a Tone Poet, so it get's that lovely laminated gatefold with photos, and superior vinyl pressing, highly recommended.

Need to do listen to Alabaster DePlume more, as well as that Charles Stepney album on International Anthem.

What are the jazz thread readers top 1o albums of the year (not necessarily all jazz)?

In no particular order for me

Dezron Douglas - Atalaya
Makaya Mccraven - In These Times
Myele Manzanza - Crisis & Opportunity V0l.3, Unfold
SAULT - 11 (still haven't wrapped my head around the avalanche)
Little Simz - NO THANK YOU (yeah I know it's only just out)
Ryo Kawasaki - Juice (re-issue)
Shabaka - Afrikan Culture
Soil & "Pimp" Sessions - Lost in Tokyo
Ron Trent presents Warm - What do the stars say to you
Bobby Hutcherson - Stick Up! (re-issue)

Bubbling under: Comet is Coming, Doomcannon, Kokoroko, Danger Mouse & Black Thought, Anteloper, Lambchop, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Binker & Moses

Brought a second HomePod Mini for the office to make a stereo pair, and it much improves the sound. Has anyone played around with positing and/or surfaces to put these on to improve the sound further, as they have a downward firing speaker?

I've not tried the Anker, but have the Sennheiser HD350BT and like them as cheap(er) bluetooth headphones. Similar price to the Anker when they're on offer. No active noise cancelling, though.

Myele Manzanza is doing a record signing at the excellent Soul Brother records in Putney today from 1pm.

Enjoyed Makaya McCraven last night. I wondered how he'd work live, and he kinda does it in a hard-bop style- start with the 'chorus' of the track taken from the main loop of the recorded version, everyone takes turns to solo/improvise and then back in the with chorus. Along with Makaya on drums, he had Junius Paul on Bass (still need to get around to listening to his album), Matt Gold on Guitar, Marquis Hill on Trumpet. Mildly disappointed there wasn't a bigger group, but then I suspect carting Brandee Younger and her harp around Europe isn't so practical.
Liked Hill on Trumpet a lot, and he also did back-up percussion.

Got given a free 'Artists In These Times' official fanzine type thing on entry, which interviews people involved in making 'In These Times' and how they're surviving as an artist. Picked up the new Dezron Douglas album, and Makaya's In the Moment from the International Anthem stall. Like the new Dezron Douglas a lot, straight up acoustic jazz that feels kinda timeless, but also still fresh.

Does anyone here get on with Kamasi Washington's stuff? I like his stuff, but most times I go to put one of his albums on, I end up taking it off. I'm not normally precious about production or mastering, but there's something about his albums- a very full sound in combination with compressed dynamic range and narrow soundstage, that I find difficult to listen too.

I've just taken Heaven & Earth off, and put Herbie's Crossings on instead, and it's a night and day difference- much more space and big soundstage; sounds great.

Orange Express. I'm going through a bit of a late 70s/early 80s smooth/fusion period at the moment.

I've listened to the Domi & JD Beck's album a couple of times. They're undoubtably talented, but it hasn't really wowed me yet

Apparently, 2022 Tone Poets, a large chunk of the BN80/Classic series, and some of the current artists releases; along with some merch. Hopefully popping in next Friday before going to Mildred's at Kings Cross for food, and then off to see Makaya McCraven. Life is good!

Was also back in London's famous London this weekend with work, and was good to go back and visit Soul Brother and Sounds of the Universe. Came back with records from their used bins from Herbie Hancock, Sadao Watanabe, Ron Carter and Horace Silver.

Loving the new Ezra Collective album. 2022 continues to be another great year for Jazz.

Still only scratched the surface on the SAULT motherload, need to spend more time with them. Perhaps I need to put them onto minidisc, listening to music via streaming or files just ends up being background music for me*

*Nothing wrong with listening to music via non-physical formats of course, just my own bent.

Vibes fans- Bobby Hutcherson's Stick Up! gets a Tone Poet re-release on Friday. Sneaked a copy today, and it's great.

Yeah, I'm loving that one. Love when the kids do the metal 'waghhh' on The Jungle, it's so cute. I suppose we'll never know, as it's SAULT, but I wonder if any of the kids play on it, as well as sing?

Ooh, I'm tempted. Seed. and Camilla George also. My birthday weekend too...

I've got onboard the Audio Technica VM95ML hype train, after buying one to replace an Ortofon VMS 20E II with third party bonded elliptical. Night and day for tracking and detail, most of the older records that I had that sounded shitty on the inner tracks now sound excellent. Onwards to finding a replacement for the arm.

Seem to go on eBay with broken bias belts for £100-150.

The logical choice to replace the R200 would be a used RB300 as it doesn't need any extra drilling, and is cheap, but I kind of want another silver arm. Which either means finding someone who's willing to repair the R200, and spending up to get something like a SME 3009.

How important is VTA?

I have an old R200 arm on my Rega Planar 2, with the belt on the VTA adjustment broken.
I don’t know what VTA is set, I could feel the belt snap whilst I was turning the dial. I know it has some applied, as the arm swings back and when free floating.
For the most part playback is fine, although I get some distortion on inner tracks on some records. I don’t know if this is due to the turntable, or the record itself.

Thinking of changing cartridge (currently Ortofon VMS 20E II with third party bonded elliptical stylus), where perhaps VTA might be more critical? Fixing the R200 is apparently a pain, so may be easier to replace the arm. Any issues with buying a used RB300 to replace it? Or other suggestions welcome.

Anyone been to Idle Moments on Columbia Road? Excellent record/wine shop with a healthy selection of Japanese Jazz releases. Went in there for first time and spent far too much money.

Makaya is obvs great, but also love your Rega 25, love a Rega with a wood surround. I have the OG Planar 2 with wood

Do they not have any audio anywhere yet? Can't seem to find anything. 🤔

No, can't find anything either. They're playing on 20 November in London .

First EP in early 2023 apparently

Edit - a little bit of audio on this Instagram post
https://www.instagram.com/p/CT41ZL_qAya/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

And almost all of those attending will be using various products: bikes, clothes, phones , which are products of the petro chemical industry.

Cognitive dissonance?

Jesus fucking christ, I even posted the meme a few posts above yours and you still went and did it.

Well, yes? It's also a campaigning organisation.

Edit- although I suspect those pages are going to be scrapped as they still reference HSBC. I'll look forward to BC's new campaigning, sponsored by Shell.

Yeah, it absolutely is. Will be there this Saturday though, and it's booked out (same with Mildred's down the road a bit).

Cheers both! I see Brown Penny (led by Cassie Kinoshi of KOKOROKO and Seed Ensemble fame) have a vibes player called David Mrakpor, will be interested to hear their stuff.

For British Cycling in particular, they're accepting sponsorship from a company that contributes to things it campaigns against. It's like when WWF started promoting NFTs (before an embarrassing 'it was just an experiment'), or when the anti-fracking Green Party cosied up to friend of the fracking industry, Jo Swinson.