My first jazz purchase was Dave Brubeck's Carnegie Hall recording (Volume 2 no less), and then McLaughlin's Extrapolation  - fortunately I was working Saturdays in record shop where these albums were found in sales dumper bins - followed by Tony Williams Lifetime Turn It Over (after hearing it on Radio Luxembourg). I tried to go deep,  purchasing volume one of Mike Westbrook's Marching Song in '69  but got my money back soon after -  its has taken me 35 years to get into that album, a form of late 60's avant British jazz that was showing all the signs of not being derivative of American jazz. And then my early exposure to Indo-jazz fusion  by the double quintets of John  Mayer /Joe Harriott.  (I will admit I saw the Temperance Seven around this time  while increasingly cringing at the music of Kenny Ball and Acker Bilk). During the late 60's  got myself into delta blues, especially Son House and Big Joe Williams (who the UK  jazz DJs  always announced as a "blues shouter") . The attraction of Nice (which Nice tune can you hear John Surman?) and then Soft Machine fusing rock with jazz and then hearing the brass rock of Electric Flag, followed by BST and then Chicago, fulfilled the then unknown desire for this hybrid.  Indeed this music exposure allowed me to follow Machine into avant garde fusion, although with the exception of Bundles I found them increasing disappearing up their own backsides musically.  Then with Bitches Brew and Inner Mounting Flame  I was completely hooked.

 

I am always seeking out something new and exciting and hence sites like this provide that sort of message board.

 

I have presented a radio show on Loughborough Campus Radio for approximately 30 years originally called Jazz Ffollies and now called The Alternative Alternative Show, which features at least 40% jazz related music each show - which probably makes me the oldest DJ on student radio.  (BTW I try to model my presentation style between the BBC's late Peter Clayton and John Peel). I have compile the monthly UK student jazz chart for Jazzwise magazine for nearly ten years - in part based on listeners' feed back. I'm proud to say I wrote the liner notes for my axe hero Allan Holdsworth's album 16 Men of Tain, You'll find me acknowledged on a few other albums. I did a tiny bit of background research for Graham Bennett, as well as being one of the proof-readers, for his Soft Machine biography Out-Bloody-Rageous - I nailed  the fact that Bill Oddie was the origin of Machine's Stanley Stamp's Gibbon Catalogue title (I like trivia). You'll find a few of my photographs around the place - Gary Husband snafued one for his opening web page although my favourite is one of Randy Brecker taken at the same rehearsals.

 

 

And finally I'm one of the jazz rock fusion collaborators at Prog Archives.

 

What  I am currently listening to:

(the forthcoming) The New Universe Music Festival 2010 recording issued by Abstract Logix - lots of lovely Indo-jazz fusion

Cheiro da Vida's 1988 album - excellent Brazilian jazz fusion

Metalwood's first album - nice mix of jazz fusion and post-bop.

 

 

 

We have gotten some jazz fans from the rock site, but I think the people who are the biggest jazz fans are to be found elsewhere.

Needless to say though, plugging the site anywhere isn't bad. 

Me personally, I'd like to see more jazz fans here that get into older jazz and diversify our coverage a bit.