What Jazz are you listening to now?

[elmo]

Jackie McLean, Larry Willis, Don Moore, Jack DeJohnette playing "Moonscape" from the album 'High Frequency' criminally this album has never been available as a single cd. The only way you can get it on cd is to buy the Mosaic box set,

https://youtu.be/ufb171-Zf-E?feature=shared

elmo

[Ian Thumwood]

I heard Neil Cowley on Jazz FM. He is someome I had forgotten about but was even more perplexed about whether he is a jazz musician. Just struck me as not moving on from the 2010s but did not like it then either

[Ian Thumwood]

I cannot stand Petroc Trelawny and have to turn him off when he appears on rhe radio. I felt the sane about Sean Rafferty too. The Morning and Evening Radio 3 programmes have become too lightweight and I find listening to Nick Robinson on Radio 4 sufficiently mischievous to keep me amused.

The worst presenter has to be Lou Hannon on Radio Solent who is really irritating.

I am looking for a CD planet for my car.

[Jazzrook]

The Jazz was better but I still think Jazz FM was unbelievably good for 12 months.

I don't know about the contemporary scene anymore but Jazz FM seems more pop music than jazz and there is too much which is dominated by music with a back beat. Not heard of 90 per cent of the new music played but the older material by the likes of Roy Ayers , Lee McCann , Van Morrison are not going to convert Jazz fans . Too many singers and instrumental jazz seems limited to the waste of space music of Robert Glasper ..... few other jazz musicians can have dissipated their talent as much as him.

Have to say Radio 3 classical coverage un the weejly commute is pretty woeful too . No CD in my car so largely Radio 4 for me this week.

On Saturday’s Radio 3 ‘Breakfast’ there’s always a woman presenter who sounds as though she’s addressing a kindergarten. Anyone else irritated by this?

JR

[Ian Thumwood]

The Jazz was better but I still think Jazz FM was unbelievably good for 12 months.

I don't know about the contemporary scene anymore but Jazz FM seems more pop music than jazz and there is too much which is dominated by music with a back beat. Not heard of 90 per cent of the new music played but the older material by the likes of Roy Ayers , Lee McCann , Van Morrison are not going to convert Jazz fans . Too many singers and instrumental jazz seems limited to the waste of space music of Robert Glasper ..... few other jazz musicians can have dissipated their talent as much as him.

Have to say Radio 3 classical coverage un the weejly commute is pretty woeful too . No CD in my car so largely Radio 4 for me this week.

[Tenor Freak]

Didn't it change its name to JFM for a while, and then revert back to Jazz FM when people complained at yet more broadcast jazz rationing, while still largely broadcasting ""Smooth Jazz" - or Smoothies Jazz, as I call it?

Yes, it's changed its name a few times over the last 35 years of existence. Sordid details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/102.2_Jazz_FM

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

"David Maker, one-time Jazz FM boss who rejected accusations the station had strayed beyond jazz by pointing out that even jazz fans can't agree what jazz is"

This is very like a (university ) post modern pro trans argument I recently read which argued (broadly) that as no two women were absolutely alike in their lives and experiences (no overarching narrative) anyone could therefore be classed as a women if they so desired based on THEIR experiences etc. Let's not be hatefully prescriptive. That's a real "bad"

Anyway there was also once briefly "The Jazz" station? I remember it playing stretches of Blue note etc on a loop. Also it had the ubiquitous Helen Mayhew who according to Wiki is also the voice of some of Brighton's bus services. I make no judgement.

[Ian Thumwood]

Me too, back in the early 90s when I was using the Jazz Archives in Loughton public library for research, I would snack lunch in the car, parked up in a neighbouring street, with Jazz FM for want of anything better as company: "Smooth Jazz" - 70s/80s Bob James etc - being the latest category dreamed up by the publicity machine thought it had been arlound a lot longer, usually as conventional backing for Soul singers such as Marvin Gaye. Didn't it change its name to JFM for a while, and then revert back to Jazz FM when people complained at yet more broadcast jazz rationing, while still largely broadcasting ""Smooth Jazz" - or Smoothies Jazz, as I call it? They used to do a Dinner Jazz slot of an evening, where one could hear more authentic jazz scheduling. If the network is still going I might be bothered to check it out, but that would mean sacrificing something probably more worthwhile. Such a hectic life!

It is not worth it. Jazz influenced pop music.

[Serial_Apologist]

My new car has DAB radio so I am able to listen to Jazz FM . This station was brilliant when in launched in 1990 but changed policy after 12 months and became really commercial. In 2025 it seems to given up any pretext of being a jazz station. Shockingly bad.

Me too, back in the early 90s when I was using the Jazz Archives in Loughton public library for research, I would snack lunch in the car, parked up in a neighbouring street, with Jazz FM for want of anything better as company: "Smooth Jazz" - 70s/80s Bob James etc - being the latest category dreamed up by the publicity machine thought it had been arlound a lot longer, usually as conventional backing for Soul singers such as Marvin Gaye. Didn't it change its name to JFM for a while, and then revert back to Jazz FM when people complained at yet more broadcast jazz rationing, while still largely broadcasting ""Smooth Jazz" - or Smoothies Jazz, as I call it? They used to do a Dinner Jazz slot of an evening, where one could hear more authentic jazz scheduling. If the network is still going I might be bothered to check it out, but that would mean sacrificing something probably more worthwhile. Such a hectic life!

[Ian Thumwood]

My new car has DAB radio so I am able to listen to Jazz FM . This station was brilliant when in launched in 1990 but changed policy after 12 months and became really commercial. In 2025 it seems to given up any pretext of being a jazz station. Shockingly bad.

[Jazzrook]

Andrew Hill Quartet with Jimmy Vass, Chris White & Leroy Williams playing ‘Snake Hip Dance’ recorded in July, 1975:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=-8KxS4NocEo

JR

[Serial_Apologist]

Here’s Prof Stanley Unwin on Classical Musee with mention of the French hormone!

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=zuTJETfRoWU

JR

[Jazzrook]

Fascinating: those guys were really the first to break the jazz mould in the E Bloc, and doubly brave for that: one would excuse them for poor standards but that was never the case, quite the opposite - lovely accompanying drumming on this. On a lighter note, I was reminded of Prof Stanley Unwin's word jumblings while reading the Polish words for the instruments.

Here’s Prof Stanley Unwin on Classical Musee with mention of the French hormone!

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=zuTJETfRoWU

JR

[Serial_Apologist]

Krzysztof Komeda Quintet with Zbigniew Namyslowski, Tomasz Stanko, Gunter Lenz & Rune Carlson playing ‘Kattorna’ from their 1965 album ‘Astigmatic’, awarded a rare ‘crown’ in the Penguin Guide:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=e8FYNCYeBXI

JR

Fascinating: those guys were really the first to break the jazz mould in the E Bloc, and doubly brave for that: one would excuse them for poor standards but that was never the case, quite the opposite - lovely accompanying drumming on this. On a lighter note, I was reminded of Prof Stanley Unwin's word jumblings while reading the Polish words for the instruments.

[Jazzrook]

Krzysztof Komeda Quintet with Zbigniew Namyslowski, Tomasz Stanko, Gunter Lenz & Rune Carlson playing ‘Kattorna’ from their 1965 album ‘Astigmatic’, awarded a rare ‘crown’ in the Penguin Guide:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=e8FYNCYeBXI

JR