Recent reads. One of these books was utter shit. Can you guess which one?
10.03.2026 16:54
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Recent reads. One of these books was utter shit. Can you guess which one?
Random picture of cheese from a few years ago. (Wipes away tear with fist).
Going to check out the Wildflower Quintet tonight at Peggy's Skylight peggysskylight.co.uk/events/wild-... Not heard them before but no relation to Idris Rahman's Wildflower (trio).
Recent reads:
Forgot to say that Marilyn was absolutely lovely but utterly scatterbrained - as you'd hope for such an improviser.
I've met Marilyn Crispell a couple of times. She was astonished by my resemblance to the late Ken Pickering who used to run the Vancouver Jazz Festival. When I did meet Ken some years back we were both astonished by our resemblance to each other. A good reason to drink beer together.
@robertsheppard.bsky.social Good to catch up the other day despite the sweaty mob! Don't they realise they don't have to run five miles before they go to the pub? They can just go straight there.
Tomeka Reid Quartet - dance! hop! Skip! (Out Of Your Head)
#Music #MusicSky #MusicReviews #JazzSky
Finally acquired a copy of this...
A huge thanks to all who attended the UK GHOST STORY FESTIVAL ONLINE over the last few days - and the in-person event will be here before you know it, running in Derby from the 27th Feb to the 1st March! www.derbyquad.co.uk/ukgsf/ #derby #derbyshire #eastmids #eastmidlands
A bit of Belgian jazz for a Friday afternoon? Why the hell not?
10 yrs ago we were up to Loy-related activity at the Bluecoat in Liverpool: robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2016/01/mina...
Recent reading....Finally finished the last of the Czech books I planned to read before going to Prague four months ago...
Tomorrow in Birmingham...
tinyurl.com/5x5uzksr
Haven't seen Paul Dunmall since January last year. As a tribute to Tony Bianco they'll be performing Coltrane's Ascension live (so I've been told). Mystery guest on this session...I wonder who it might be...
Tickets www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoir...
TONIGHT (Tues 27 Jan) @ Artefact, Liverpool - first outing for a new duo with Adam Fairhall on harmonium and electronics, playing late-period John Coltrane tunes. Also on the bill is a duo of Nick Branton and Jonathan Raisin #electroacoustic #improvisedmusic #jazz #saxophone #harmonium
I remember John Gilmore selling merch after the gig. There was a book of Sun Ra's poetry for £25. "That's a lot of money!" (in 1991) Gilmore laughed and replied "It's a lot of book!"
I've gone for the most influential gigs on me:
Sun Ra Arkestra (1990 or 1991)
Max Roach Quartet (1989)
ICP Orchestra (1989 & 2019)
Henri Texier Strada Sextet (c2004-5)
Olie Brice Quartet (January 2026) @oliebrice.bsky.social
"Reading is a hobby that never grows stale - and an unpunished vice." - Edmund White
Some recent reads...
The first weekend was too close to New Year's Day so it was shifted back a week.
|It's a shame you can't come, I always look forward to catching up with you.
Working on the Bath Jazz Weekend from Fri - Sun. Great line up www.bathjazzweekend.com/programme
Looking forward to catching up with @oliebrice.bsky.social & @alexanderhawkins.bsky.social and many others who aren't on BlueSky
It was wonderful!
Top 5 gigs of the year:
Ferg's Imaginary Big Band - Peggy's Skylight, Nottingham
James Brandon Lewis & the Messthetics - Boat Club, Nottingham
Led Bib - Peggy's Skylight, Nottingham
Freetown Quartet - Jazz Dock, Prague
Ahmed - Chapel Street Arts Centre, Derby
Doubt I'll be going to any more gigs in the next two days so here are my top 5 gigs of the year. I've seen around 60 bands this year and it was easy to narrow it down to 10 but getting to 5 was much tougher. Some were chosen for setting, some were totally new to me, sometimes I was really drunk 1/2
Pianist Michel Petrucciani was born on this day December 28, 1962 in Orange, France. After performing with Charles Lloyd's quartet in the mid-1980s, Michel recorded a series of stellar Blue Note albums as a leader thru the early-1990s beginning with “Pianism”: bluenote.lnk.to/MichelPetruc...
robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2025/11/elle..., But please don't buy my new book for someone at Christmas: buy it for yourself!
Never been cursed or never cursed anyone....Or never cursed in public?
At an old friend's memorial service, his son spoke of his father never cursing....Apart from that time on the autobahn when a huge pothole approached...."By the centaur!"...the only time.
A photo of Bob Dylan in Nottingham from 1966, overlayed on to a photo from today
Bob Dylan, Nottingham - 1966
Is that in The Park?
