Daily Log

Ok, but not great, sleep. Woke up around 8:30, and never really made it back to sleep. Came down shortly after 10. Thinking more about Sunday dinner than the poll. I do have a lot of writing left today, as well as putting together a shopping list, shopping, and this evening doing my prep, which will mostly involve marinades and dessert. Matt requested the Mediterranean grill option, and preferred ground lamb to chunks. I wish I had some of those wide, flat skewers. I may stop by Ace and check out their BBQ gear, before hitting the grocery store(s). Aside from the lamb, we'll do chicken wings, swordfish (if I have it; I have some), not sure what else. Thought of shrimp, and I see a Greek grilled shrimp that looks good. Also thought of wrapping fish filets in grape leaves. I'm thinking I'll do the Ottolenghi roasted sweet potatoes. We'll also have the horiatiki, and mast va khiar. Not sure how much more we need. Maybe grill eggplant, and top it with something. Maybe some greens? For dessert, they opted for the tiramisu. Not my first choice, but doable. Maybe I'll also do some gluten-free brownies. I doubt if I'll have a definitive shopping list, so to some extent I'll probably wind up winging it.

Music Week (7:3) went out last night. Regular Music Week should go up today. Fair amount of writing left, but at this stage it's mostly tuning up. I'm reconciled to not turning the essays in until guests leave on Monday.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, July archive (in progress).

Tweet: Music Week: 50 albums, 10 A-list

Music: Current count 46299 [46249] rated (+50), 10 [15] unrated (-5).

New records reviewed this week:

• Ricky Alexander: Ragology (2025 [2026], Turtle Bay): [sp]: B+(***)
• Zoh Amba: Eyes Full (2026, Matador): [sp]: A-
• Florian Arbenz Feat. Bill Frisell/Greg Osby: Quiet Lights (2025 [2026], Hammer/Conversation Lab): [sp]: B+(***)
• Ran Blake & Dominique Eade: Roots & Byways (2023 [2026], Sunnyside): [cd]: B+(***)
• Cheer-Accident: Your Smile/The Song Is Over (2026, Cuneiform): [dl]: B
• Cheer-Accident: CheerAx Basement, Chicago 4/2/22 // Reggie's Chicago 9/26/23 (2022-23 [2026], Cuneiform): [dl]: B+(*)
• Alexander Claffy: Alive in Philadelphia Vol. 1: At Chris' Jazz Cafe (2025 [2026], Cellar): [sp]: B+(**)
• Mike Clark: Kuon Ganjo (Time Without Beginning) (2025 [2026], Wide Hive): [cd]: B+(**) [08-07]
• Paul Cosentino's Boilermaker Jazz Band: Everything Is Jumpin' (2025, self-released): [sp]: B+(**)
• Dominique Cravic Et Les Primitifs Du Futur: Les Crimes Du Musette (2026, Buda Musique): [sp]: B+(***)
• Marilyn Crispell/Anders Jormin: Memento (2025 [2026], ECM): [sp]: B+(*)
• Caroline Davis: Fallows (2025 [2026], Ropeadope): [bc]: A-
• Adam De Lucia: The Man Who Would Be King (2025 [2026], self-released): [cd]: B [08-07]
• E'DU & Judgitzu: Nuku (2026, Nyege Nyege Tapes): [bc]: B+(**)
• Maria Grand: Both Sides (2026, Lilaila): [bc]: B+(***)
• Miho Hazama: Frames (2025 [2026], Edition): [sp]: B+(**)
• Gerry Hemingway: Live at Bau 4 (2025 [2026], Hat Hut): [cd]: A-
• House of the Black Gardenia: Mazurka in Jazz (2026, HOTGB): [sp]: A-
• I Compani: Basta! 7-Tet [The Last Concerts 2025] (2025 [2026], I Compani): [sp]: B+(**)
• I Compani: Basta! Extended [The Last Concerts 2025] (2025 [2026], I Compani): [sp]: B+(***)
• Randy Ingram: Sound Within: A Celebration of Bill Evans (2025 [2026], Chill Tone): [cd]: B+(***)
• Mike Khoury: For Hind Rajab (2025 [2026], Relative Pitch): [sp]: A-
• Andrew Kim: Lineage (2025 [2026], Origin) [07-24]
• Kiri Ra!: Nen (2026, We Jazz): [sp]: B+(**)
• Knats: A Great Day in Newcastle (2026, Gearbox): [sp]: B
• Elan Mehler: Renee Said (2025 [2026], Newvelle): [sp]: B+(**)
• Sei Miguel: Viva! (O Carro De Fogo De Sei Miguel) (2023 [2026], Clean Feed): [sp]: B+(***)
• Nils Petter Molvær: Be Quiet (2026, Edition): [sp]: B
• Nolatet: Somethin' to Relax With (2025 [2026], Royal Potato Family): [sp]: B+(*)
• Onilu: Jakuta's Dance (2025 [2026], 577): [dl]: B+(***)
• Ivo Perelman/Matthew Shipp/William Parker/Bobby Kapp: Synesthesia (2024 [2026], Defkaz): [sp]: B+(***)
• Brooks Prumo Orchestra: Good Bait (2025 [2026], self-released): [sp]: B+(*)
• Olivia Rodrigo: You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love (2026, Geffen): [sp]: A-
• Armand Sangalang: Waypoints (2025 [2026], Calligram): [sp]: B+(***) [08-07]
• Helen Sung Big Band: Oracles (2024 [2026], Sunnyside): [sp]: B+(*)
• Tyler "Twerk" Thomson: Plays in Bands (2026, self-released): [bc]: A-
• Tierra Whack: Whack's Museum (2026, Interscope): [sp]: B+(***)
• Håvard Wiik/Antonio Borghini/Tim Daisy: One Brief Cure (2025 [2026], Relay): [bc]: B+(***)
• Wrens: Live @ Nublu (2025 [2026], Out of Your Head): [os]: B+(***)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers: Jazz Messengers '70 (1970 [2026], Good Time): [sp]: B+(**)
• Art Blakey & the New Jazz Messengers: Buttercorn Lady (1966 [2026], Elemental Music): [sp]: B+(*)
• Dollar Brand/Don Cherry/Carlos Ward: The Third World-Underground (1972 [2026], Wewantsounds): [sp]: B+(**)
• Mick Goodrick/Fred Hersch: Feebles, Fables and Ferns (1988 [2026], ECM): [sp]: B+(**)
• Thelonious Monk: Live in Paris, 1967: Volume One (1967 [2026], Rhythm-a-Ning): [sp]: B+(**)
• Jimmy Scott: Falling in Love Is Wonderful (1963 [2026], Tangerine): [sp]: B+(*)
• Sun Ra: East Two + 7 (1972-73 [2026], Cosmic Myth): [sp]: B+(**)
• McCoy Tyner: Extensions (1970 [2026], Blue Note): [sp]: A-
• McCoy Tyner: Asante (1970 [2026], Blue Note): [sp]: B+(**)
• McCoy Tyner: The Seeker: Live at Umbria Jazz Festival (1993 [2026, Red): [sp]: A-

Old music:

• House of the Black Gardenia: The New Lowdown (2020, HOTGB): [bc]: B+(***)
• L'Afrique Danse No. 1 (1965-68 [1969], African): [sp]: A-
• Twerk Thomson: Plays Unpopular Songs (2017, Twerk-O-Phonic): [bc]: B+(**)
• McCoy Tyner: Expansions (1968 [1969], Blue Note): [sp]: B+(**)

Limited Sampling: Records I played parts of, but not enough to grade: -- means no interest, - not bad but not a prospect, + some chance, ++ likely prospect.

• Art Ensemble of Chicago: People in Sorrow (1969 [2026], Play Loud!): [bc] (4 snippets: 8:14): ++
• Art Ensemble of Chicago: Les Stances à Sophie (1970 [2023], Play Loud!): [bc] (8 snippets: 5:01): ++
• Jason Moran: Plays Duke Ellington (2026, Yes): [bc]: +

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Gerry Hemingway: Live at Bau 4 (Hat Hut) [04-24]

Daily Log

Difficult night sleeping. At one point I thought I heard Laura saying, "your mask is off." The mask wasn't, but the tube had been disconnected, and the machine was turned off. I got up at 6, and read some. Hopefully I'll be done with AI Snake Oil today or tomorrow, and can move on to the next AI book in the stack of four. I did get quite a bit of writing done yesterday. In my New Jazz piece, I advanced the notes down through the top 20. Next up is Jason Moran (21, 42). Outline has 10 more names, of which Virginia MacDonald is already written (about debut albums). There may be a couple more when I review. But I expect to get through that list today, leaving me tomorrow to clean up, before Matt & Carrie arrive on Sunday. I wrote Matt a letter about food. We should talk today, so I can start to make plans. I'm looking for him to run the grill, while I do the sides. Options are: American, Middle Eastern, Hawaiian. We've done a lot of Middle Eastern in the past. I also did a birthday dinner of hamburgers, although American can extend somewhat beyond that. I haven't done anything Hawaiian, but I have a cookbook from the library that is mostly grilled dishes, so that's an option if we want to do something totally new. Also need to decide on dessert. I'm looking for something simple, with kid appeal (they have two, although one's a teen now). Looking forward to this much more than I am writing, but hopefully this weekend will be one coup after another. Playing Adam O'Farrill to start the day. Sounding really good.

I ran the cutoff for Music Week last night. I should try to get it out, at least on Substack, tonight.

Email (40 messages, doesn't appear to be anything on the poll):

• Cadence Magazine Newsletter
• Substack: +1 subscriber

Daily Log

Woke up after 10, clocking 6 hours sleep for the first time in nearly a week. Essays are coming along, but still lots more to do. I posted an update last night. Doesn't look like I'm getting any reaction. I'm also thinking about the Matt & Carrie visit on Sunday. Need to plan food. I'm assuming I'll be done with the essays by then, although they won't be published until early next week. I don't expect any distractions today. I'll hold off on Music Week a bit longer. Playing Meg Okura to start. Played Sorey and Reid yesterday. It's quite possible that I'm not so very impressed with jazz this year.

Email (25 messages):

• My jpadmin update post. No reaction.
• Tom Engelhardt: America's Imperial Wars, Then and Now.
• All About Jazz: They've released their "All-Star Break" roundup of "Best Jazz Albums 2026." No time right now, but eventually I will check this out, and (like Santa Claus) make notes of who's been naughty and who's been nice (those we invited who voted in our poll, vs. those invited who didn't; the third group are those we didn't invite, mostly for lack of email addresses).
• William Shatner debuts new metal band at Riot Fest 2026. The band is called the "*uckers." Shatner quote: "I've always believed that music, like space, is about exploration."
• Whitewashed History: TGreading on the myth of the Gadsden Flag.
• Tom Carson: Frankenride 8. TL;DR, but strategy seems to be to expose a few sections to non-paying subscribers. Perhaps when I have nothing more pressing.
• Recommendations from your Substacks: From Cadence, actually. May be worth checking out.
• Michael Steinman: The Four Leaf Clover Jazz Band.
• Cadence interview with Lotte Lenker, have to do something to "claim free article."
• DownBeat: 2026 Critics Poll Edition: Mary Halvorson is artist of the year, Patricia Brennan album of the year, Adam O'Farrill as rising star artist/trumpeter/arranger, Sheila Jordan to Hall of Fame, also Jaki Byard. 226 critics ("second highest in poll (and jazz) history!").

Daily Log

Slept just under six hours. Came down at 10:40. Thought I should play some of my poll records. Couldn't find Tyshawn Sorey in the bin, but it was on the desk. Also pulled out Tomeka Reid, Adam O'Farrill, Meg Okura, and Melford/Fujii. Laura has a lunch date with a Blue Cedar Press author at 12:30, so I'll probably tag along. Other than that, I just need to keep writing. I got into the notes section of the rara avis essay yesterday, and piled up quite a few words. I still need to do something like that for new jazz albums. Then add the critics list to that piece, along with any further thoughts.

Back from lunch. Went to Larkspur. Good calimari appetizer. Fair gyro sandwich, with so-so pasta salad (but others got the fries, which were good). They were meeting with a prospective author, first name Miguel, don't recall the surname, is writing a book on Mexican immigrant experience. Lives in DC, but has family in Wichita, and knows Anita. Gretchen likes the book. Laura hasn't read it yet. But he's keen for Blue Cedar Press to publish it, so the meeting was productive. I didn't get anything done before lunch, so I'm starting all over again.

Email (45 messages at 3:00 PM):

• OR Books says Mike Wallace has died (1942-2026). I think of him (not the broadcaster) as a historian of Mexico, but evidently his Gotham series is a bigger deal. OR Books is pushing a book he co-wrote with his wife, Mexican novelist Carmen Boullosa: A Narco History: How the United States and Mexico Jointly Created the "Mexican Drug War".
• Whitewashed History: We Don't Dip the Stars & Stripes: and other lessons from a Great American named Ralph Rose.
• Your Weekly Stack: I Wanted to be Anthony Bourdain — until I met him (Cailey Rizzo); The Morning Leonard Cohen Explained Antisemitism (Steven Karras); Paul Krugman is Wrong about Socialism and Social Democracy (John B Judis); On Tricia Rose, Greg Tate, and Black Cultural Genius (Robin DG Kelley); Have You Ever Been in a Room Full of Zionists Attacking Jason Stanley? I Have. (Jon Reynolds).

Daily Log

Woke up around 7:30. Read some. Went back to bed. Woke up again, and came down around 9:00. Only 85 on the sleep machine. Bright outside, with that weird light I recall from occasionally getting up way too early. I need to write a lot today. I wrote a chunk of intro to the old jazz piece, and added the chart. While the piece intros can use some polish, they are basically done (old still needs another paragraph or two that parallels the chart intro in the new piece, but basically), with the charts in place. This will be followed by running down the lists and picking out whatever catches my interest. Undecided is whether I'll talk about my own ballot.

We never got the IP address whitelist code working for Bill Marx. I suspect that the ipv6 addresses aren't stable enough, but checking that via someone else's account is hard and messy. So I thought I'd try setting a cookie. All he would have to do is to access a page that would set the cookie. Then all subsequent page accesses would provide the cookie, which my lockout code could inspect and allow. I've never worked with cookies, so there was some learning curve (something I need to know one of these days, anyway). But I wondered if I could just ask google to write the cookie-test-and-set code. I jotted down four lines, something like: write a PHP program to test whether a cookie is set; if set, print a message; if not set, set it and print a different message. Within a couple seconds, it came back with code to do that, with comments. I stuck that in a file, and changed the cookie name, and fiddled a bit with the messages. It would only work with https, which I don't have set up locally, so I had to stick the page on the server to test it. It worked, or seemed to. I wrote a second PHP page for a separate test, and it worked. (I wanted to make sure that the cookie would appear in a page in a subordinate directory. I thought it should, and it does.) I then tried adapting the test code to my include file to be used when deciding whether to lock pages. It didn't work, and I thrashed for an hour or more before I found a couple of dumb typos. Would have gone much faster had I been able to test locally, but having to shuttle code to the server complicated things, including giving me more opportunities for screwing up. I don't have confirmation from Marx that it's working for him. I also don't have a way to unset the cookie (except through my browser). But I learned a few things, including a different way to go about programming.

New jigsaw puzzle last night. I'll work a bit on it before breakfast, then get to work. Email (17 messages at 9:30):

• OR Books is publishing Tehran Diaries: Dispatches From Iran Under Siege, by a pseudonymous Raha Nik-Andish.
• RiotRiot published an interview with 98° from 2014. I don't remember them.
• Tom Engelhardt: Six Things I Would (Not) Do as President of the United States

Daily Log

I woke up a bit after 9:30, and came down around 10:15. Reading AI Snake Oil, specifically the chapter on "Is Advanced AI an Existential Threat?" The answer, which Doctorow agrees with, is no, but they (or I) haven't gotten that far yet. Doctorow goes to far as to argue that the "threat" is self-inflating hype: by falling for it, our alarms inflate the idea of its power, which makes it look more important than it really is. Granted, it may eventually backfire and provoke a revolt against the AI masters, but in the meantime it makes some of them look and feel like heroes (and in the longtime, we're all dead anyway). One thing I'm struck by is how much of what passes as success in AI is actually backstopped by human intelligence: often directly, as humans behind the screens take over from stumped chatbots; more often indirectly, as mobs of people are hired to correct training data. Snake Oil suggests the possibility that the current vogue for trying to fix everything with more data may be a dead end, and ultimately have to be replaced with something else completely. I suspect we're heading toward a new analogue to Gödel's Theorem, which proved that no system of mathematics can be both complete and consistent.

I wonder if I shouldn't excerpt some notebook ruminations like the above paragraph for Notes on Everyday Life. But no time to do that today. I have to get back to the poll essay grindstone. Last night, I moved my long personal intro from New to Critics, and started a new intro for New. It, too, started to grow excessively, but this time the culprit was a rabbit hole, as I looked into the vote concentration data. While that's worth bringing up, I can move that to the Notes section following the Table. (The outline for the essays is: Introduction; Table; Notes.) Then get back to my point, which hopefully I can wrap up in a quote and two paras, before the table. The sooner I have the intros written, the sooner I will be able to see the end of the tunnel. So while I feel like I'm nowhere close now, and am almost certain to blow Wednesday as a deadline, Friday is still possible.

Email (13 messages at noon, so I just did a website update sent a letter to jpadmin):

• Robert Wright: The coming US-China rapprochement; also The non-zero-sum logic of AI is taking root.
• Substack: +1 subscriber.

Daily Log

Woke up around 6:30, which seemed ridiculous, so I went back to sleep, until 9:30 or so. Came down just before 10. I didn't get any writing done until early evening last night, then ran out of gas by TV time. Just have bland intro matter. Thought I'd move my first (rather personal) draft to the critics piece, to get a fresh start on the new table piece, but when I started again for it, I wrote more that fits better with the previous intro. Hopefully I'll get going earlier today, although at the moment I'm still in getting up ritual. I have my Coleman Hawkins playing, and will work a bit on the jigsaw (but not too much, as we'll finish it today). I updated software, so have to reboot, which means restarting all of my panels, windows, and tabs. That's a fairly big production, even with some session info and startup files. I did update the jazzpoll website.

Very light email (7 messages):

• Project Syndicate: Mamdani's American Dream (Slavoj Zizek); Ruling Class Clowns (James Livingston: "unlike the US elite that emerged from the Gilden Age, today's tech bros have money but no purpose"; I'd say Jay Gould was pretty short of purpose; I'd also say that others who had more purpose, like Carnegie and Morgan, weren't nearly the blessings they're cracked up to be — Gates and Buffett are similar, for better and worse; then there are the Musk and Bezos types, who are off the scale, and mostly for the worse); Inside Ukraine's Game-Changing Drone Industry (Yuriy Gorodnichenko & Viktor Koziuk: aren't these the first steps toward the AI nightmare scenario where the machines turn on us? one more reason to end this war as soon as possible).
• Day in History: something else I didn't sign up for, a class of information that has no intrinsic value, but may occasionally remind you of something (not so much the day it occurred, as that it occurred at all).
• Tom Carson: In Memory of Lady G, 1955-2026: There is no truth to the rumor Lindsey Graham's last words were "Mitch McConnell still lives."
• Substack: Music Week (6:4) +1 like.

Daily Log

Woke up at 8:28, when the machine switched off. Decided to just turn over and try it again. Slept some more. Read some. Came down at 11. Wrote four paragraphs on my essay last night. Still one or two paragraphs away from getting to the substance of the poll. As I recall, last year I started writing a personal introduction, then realizing it was too long, moved it into a separate essay. Perhaps I should do that again this year. Last EOY I broke every table out into its own essay. I was thinking I'd do that again this year, but with just two tables, and maybe a separate file for the critics list. But I hadn't really thought about moving the personal history into its own file, which I sort of did last year, when I dedicated the main intro file to Francis Davis.

I should go back and look at that arrangement, especially to see how quickly I moved into the tables in their files. Thus far, I've only looked at the previous Mid-Year essays, which were single shots, with personal intro, new table (intro/table/notes), old table (same), and critics list. What I could do now is to take the intro I wrote last night, and move it ahead of the critics list. I could develop it further to talk about the critics, but that's less urgent now than framing the old and new music tables. No plans today other than writing.

Email (9 messages):

• Substack: +1 like for Music Week (7:2). +2 subscribers.
• Bounced email: I tried contacting Turtle Bay Records, but inadvertently sent email to example@email.com, which is sloppy, unedited boilerplate on their web page. They also offered a form, so I should try that.
• OR Books: Wealth is wated on the wealthy. Pushing a 30% off sale.
• Shock Hosting closed my ticket. Now they want a rating. Second time recently I've filed tickets. Both were for transient problems, which went away almost instantly. No complaints about handling them.
• Welcome to Gemini: whether you like it or not, evidently.

Daily Log

Woke up at 8:30, in a foul mood, 80 on the machine. Read some, and came down by 9:30. I need to get serious and write today. I've kicked most of the angles around, and don't really like any of them. Way too easy to talk about why I did this. Who cares? No clear answer to that, other than that some people do, and some people don't. The question is am I among the former? Sometimes I have doubts. I don't want to oversell this. I don't want to undersell it either. But I do want to get it essentially done over the weekend. That probably means getting my first words down on paper today. One disruption is that Laura has a medical appointment at 1. Seems like she wants me to tag along, so I'll do that. Maybe get some lunch after. Meanwhile, I'll work on the puzzle a bit. Play Coleman Hawkins. Eat breakfast. Go through my mail (39 messages).

• Electronic alarm noise from my office area. APC Back-UPS 1350 is on the blink, with a failing battery. I haven't been using the computer that's on it, so I shut it down. Then ordered a replcaement battery. $115 seems like a lot (although I was relieved to see that it was down from the $119 I paid last time). The alternative of buying a new UPS seems to be $299, which is way up from what I remember.
• "Whitewashed History" liked my Music Week (7:2). I think that's my nephew's new Substack project ("launched 16 days ago"): "Whitewashed History is a show about the stories we're told, who's telling them, and why." I can't imagine listening to the long podcasts, but I did get through the 3:34 "Cui bono?" introduction. I also subscribed (free tier). I clicked on recommend. I didn't click on share, or pick an app.
• Substack stats: 3 likes, 102 views from email, 12 from other sources, duckduckgo.com got listed with 0.
• Cadence Weekly Newsletter.
• Dave from Edition enquiry about the Dave Holland box. I wrote him back, suggesting he send CDs. It's 3+ hours, which would be a pain to stream. I see though that Edition has new albums by Nils Petter Molvaer and Miho Hazama that I should check out.
• Tom Engelhardt: Going, Going, Gone! The President of Decline May Take the Planet Down with Him. My reaction: or we could crash and burn all on our own.
• Poll matters: I accepted a change from Goncalo Falcao; Yoshi Kato wrote in and explained why he was unable to vote.

Daily Log

Real tired last night, so I went to bed early. Woke up after 9, with 7 hours sleep logged. Dentist yesterday was uneventful. Picked up a gyro on the way home. I didn't do much on the poll yesterday. I ran the cutoff for Music Week, set up my draft blog file, and pulled 8 reviews out to send off to NOEL. I'll probably post the blog Music Week today, as all it needs is an introduction, and I can test some thoughts out there. I did go ahead and set up dummy files for my essays (new and old; I also set up one for critics, which may get folded into new, and notes, which is a place to put research until I decide whether to use it or not). No writing yet, but ideas are coming.

Woke up a bit after 9. Finished reading Doctorow. Very good book. I started with AI Snake Oil, which will probably get into more technical detail, and less into the business/politics (topics that nonetheless will be unavoidable).

Email (41 messages):

• Substack: Music Week (7:2): shareable assets; 3 likes.
• OR Books: Office space like this doesn't come cheap. I wrote them a note, reprinted below.
• Mike Konczal: How I Use AI as a Policy Researcher: HTML Dives, Git Diffs, and Elaborate Rehearsals: Learning git to escape the permanent underclass, and showing up late to the vibe-coded app party with a writer's IDE. I need to go back and study this file. But note that it starts with two general tips for writers, which is to use GitHub for version control, and Markdown for formatting notation.
• Project Syndicate: Worse than War: The Global Costs of Violence (Anke Hoeffler/James D. Fearon); Europe's AI Dolce Vita? (Kenneth Rogoff); 250 Yeares of American State Capitalism (Shang-Jin Wei); How Safe Are Today's Blockbuster Stocks? (Barry Eichengreen).
• TomDispatch: Nick Turse editing now, publishing Tom Engelhardt: A Government of Trump, by Trump, and for Trump.
• Robert Christgau: Consumer Guide, July, 2026.

Here's the note I wrote to OR Books:

Well, as the late Sylvia Kleinman liked to say, "nothing's too good for the working class."

I've bought several of your books direct, but when I can find them, Amazon is just easier, and that matters at my age, and in this age.

Still, occasionally I wonder if you might be interested in publishing some of my writing. You can find a big pile of it here.

Of course, it would be a big job to edit it down, and clean it up. Someone once asked me who our Antonio Gramsci might be, and I volunteered myself. I thought "Prison Notebooks" might work as a title, even if my own prison is just obscurity (and Kansas). Or pick 15-20 nuggets, polish them up as essays, and borrow a Paul Goodman title (maybe just as the subtitle): "Utopian Essays & Practical Proposals"?

Music Week

Expanded blog post, July archive (in progress).

Tweet: Music Week: 30 albums, 5 A-list

Music: Current count 46249 [46219] rated (+30), 15 [16] unrated (-1).

New records reviewed this week:

• Josh Berman Trio: Everybody Else's Life Too (2025 [2026], Corbett vs. Dempsey): [bc]: B+(***)
• Seamus Blake: The Electrifying Seamus Blake Plays the Music of Eddie Harris: EH! (2025 [2026], Cellar): [sp]: B+(*)
• Henriette Eilertsen Trio: Moder (2024 [2026], Motvind): [sp]: B+(***)
• Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (Exit) Knarr: Fly (2025 [2026], Sauajazz): [bc]: B+(***)
• Hayeminol: Ingen Vår I År (2026, Tarmkyllig): [sp]: B
• Colin Heshmat: Elastic Groove (2026, HMC): [cd]: B+(*) [07-23]
• Jana Horn: Jana Horn (2026, No Quarter): [sp]: B+(**)
• It Was Her Idea: Daughter of War (2025 [2026], PNL): [sp]: B+(*)
• Kirk Knuffke: Brother (2026, SteepleChase): [sp]: B+(***)
• Nicolas Leirtrø's Action Now!: Entrance (2025 [2026], Sauajazz): [bc]: B+(***)
• Camila Nebbia & Chris Corsano: Six or Seven Ways Towards Becoming Undone (2025 [2026], Relative Pitch): [sp]: B+(***)
• Bob Nell & Michael Bisio Trios: We Are Here (2025 [2026], Origin): [cd]: B+(**) [07-24]
• OM: Südpol (2024 [2026], Intakt): [sp]: B+(**)
• Rebecca Rafla: Fundamentally Unfinished (2024-25 [2026], Rebecca Raffla Music): [cd]: B
• Catherine Russell: Live at Jazz at Lincoln Center (2024 [2026], Dot Time): [sp]: B+(***)
• Cécile McLorin Salvant: With Every Breath I Take (2025 [2026], Nonesuch): [sp]: B+(*)
• Sweet Megg: Massive Negroni (2026, self-released): [sp]: B+(**)
• Kalia Vandever: Mana (2026, International Anthem): [sp]: B+(*)
• April Varner: Ella (2025 [2026] Cellar): [sp]: B+(***)
• Karsten Vogel: Late Night Ballads (2026, Storyville): [sp]: B+(*)
• Hein Westgaard & Matt Maneri: Chamber (2024 [2025], Gotta Let It Out): [cd]: A-
• Jack Wright and Ben Bennett: Tourne (2026, self-released): [bc]: A-
• Your Brother's Keeper & Gary Bartz: Where Rivers Meet (2023 [2026], Brownswood): [sp]: B+(***)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Carla Bley: Joyful Noise (Live in Hamburg 1984) (1984 [2026], Moosicus): [sp]: A-
• Marion Brown: Awofofora (1976 [2026], Aguirre): [bc]: B+(***)
• Satoko Fujii: Satoko Fujii's Bunker Ulmenwall Orchestra (2014 [2026], Libra, 2CD): [cd]: A- [07-10]
• Wynton Marsalis & Vince Giordano: The Wonderful Word of Louis Armstrong (2012 [2026], Blue Engine): [sp]: B+(**)
• Mal Waldron & Sam Rivers: Live in Mestre Venezia 1984 (1984 [2025], Caligola): [bc]: A-
• The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong All Stars: A Gift to Pops (2021 [2026], Verve): [sp]: B+(*)

Old music:

• Northwest Improvisers: Fanfares (2022 [2023], Entropy Stereo): [bc]: B+(***)
• April Varner: April (2023 [2024], Cellar): [sp]: B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Randy Ingram: Sound Within: A Celebration of Bill Evans (Chill Tone) [07-10]
• Owen Lake and the Tragic Loves: Bury Deep My Heart (Carrier) [07-27]
• Bill Scorzari: Sidereal Days (Day 2) (self-released) [09-25]
• WDR Big Band: Jagged Edges & Elegant Lines: The Music of Ayn Inserto (Summit) [08-07]

Daily Log

Got up after 9. Read more from Doctorow, leaving one short chapter on after the inevitable bubble collapse of AI. I'll move on to AI Snake Oil next, which may provide more technical detail on what AI can/cannot do, as Doctorow mostly focused on the business policy, or perhaps the better word is proposition? After that, I'll move on to some more upbeat books. I expect the critiques to mostly confirm my expectations. What's harder to figure out is what good AI might be to my particular work. I spent a good deal of time yesterday hacking out an awk script to pull some data out of my jazz poll tables. In the past I've compiled this data by hand, but now I can find out (instantly, and automatically updated every time new data is added):

• The split between current year (2026) and previous year (2025) releases.
• The split between ranked and unranked ballots.
• How many ballots had empty categories (about 25% of rara avis), and the distribution of short ballots.
• Which albums got votes both as new and rara avis.
• Compare this year's voters against previous years, to generate lists of new voters, returning voters (missed last year, but have voted in last three years), and missing voters (voted last year but not this).

Although I had been thinking I'd learn python for tools like this, I went back to my old standby, awk. However, I had forgotten lots of details, and made tons of coding errors. But I could ask google not just to find manuals but to answer specific questions (like how to check the first letter of a string, or how to get my command line variable recognized in the BEGIN block?). Most of what I do to write a program is to look things up. I'm used to searching through manuals to find bits of information, but this is much easier. I haven't got to the stage of asking AI to write code snippets (which supposedly it excels at, especially for python), but I'm moving towards that. At some point in the next 2-3 months, I figure I'll sign up for some AI package. I'm trying to get my head straight before I do. I don't need AI to write for me, but I could use it for ancillary tasks, and it might be a big help with some of those.

Dentist appointment today at 2, so that will disrupt the day. Weighed myself at 229.8, so that's up and bad. I've been staying within general guidelines (except for big dinners and leftovers; only the slaw remains of the latest latter), but haven't been using the app. I probably should restart that.

Email (25 messages):

• Poll stuff: Ron Wynn and Piotr Orlov promised ballots, but didn't deliver. I wrote them back saying we're done.
• Adam Shatz: tells me his music book, In Search of a Sound, will be published by Farrar Straus and Giroux next year. Offers me "an advance readers copy" in the fall.
• Meet Gemini, your new AI assistant. This is an ominous value proposition. Hopefully one I don't have to think about soon.
• William Marx: "sounds good to me . . . what will be the lengths of the pieces?" I wrote a fairly detailed reply, summarizing my plans, and asking for direction on a couple of points.

Daily Log

Updated the jazz poll website last night, with 125 ballots. I took down the "temporary notice," and moved the reference links to the "Notes" section. Also took a look at the top level index, and fixed a couple of gross typos. I need to do a major redesign of that page, but don't have any good ideas, and I realize that working on website runs the risk of slowing down work on the essay(s). That should be the priority. I did send out a last-gasp round of nag letters, to 8 critics who had voted in last year's mid-year but hadn't acknowledged this year's poll. I got a couple of responses, so the vote total may inch up a bit today, but this is definitely the last day.

Slept badly, getting up multiple times, the last at 9:15. Read Doctorow's chapter about "actually existing AI," which was pretty depressing.

Email (18 messages at 10:00):

• Poll matters: Ballots: Adam Shatz;
• Wichita Public Library: 3 books renewed. I've read Agha & Malley, but still want to quote it for a NOEL post. I've barely scratched the Python and Hawaiian cookbooks, but could still do some things with them. The Hawaiian isn't due until Aug. 7. It has a bunch of grilled dishes, so that might be good for July 19, when Matt & Carrie are coming through.
• Explain It Daily: Hanlon's Razor? I wasn't familiar, so I clicked: It is usually expressed as: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." "Never" sounds too strong for what is basically a statistical argument. While stupidity and its relatives (like ignorance and indifference) is certainly more common, malice (especially as resentment and/or revenge) is not so rare as to be dismissed entirely.
• Google Play: "we're making some changes to our Google Play Terms of Service." All of these points put you even more on the hook for costs and/or liabilities, while allowing Google to extract even more data.

Daily Log

Woke up way too early, but went back to bed, and fell back asleep, which I can tell by waking up from a dream involving Rudy Giuliani (I've never really looked at the back of his head before, and found myself trying to figure out which of the Three Stooges it resembled most), Tony Soprano, shooting wild boar in the suburbs, and falling off a roof, as I was trying to sneak away from those other elements. Read some, and came down just before noon. Took a brief glance at the mail, then decided to work on the jigsaw. I ended up with 122 ballots last night. I had four names who had promised to vote, but hadn't, so I looked up their letters and sent nag replies. As I noted in my jpadmin letter, main thing today will be to take down the voter training wheels from the website, and prepare for presenting the results. I also need to figure out the all of the scoring adjustments and total page footnotes. Then start writing, or at least thinking about writing. I figure I'll do two essays: one with the top-50 new albums, the other on rara avis. I have a vague idea of doing something on critics, but the only real need is to publish the voter list, and I don't want to slow publication down.

Email (38 messages):

• My jpadmin mail.
• Vox memberships: I signed up for their July 4 deal at $30. Renews at $60, but I had little problem quitting last time that happened. Hopefully I can write these expenses off.
• Poll matters: Michael Coyle offered to respond later today; Bridget Arnwine: forgot, so probably not; Nathan Van Wyck offered to look at the voter log file; Ballots: Mark Lomanno.
• Substack matters: +1 subscriber.
• Tom Engelhardt: Donald Trump, Arsonist in Chief: The President From Hell
• Tom Carson: Weekend at Mitch's and Garth's: McConnell and Platner's life support is ebbing

Daily Log

Got up at 9:15. Read some, came down an hour later. Gretchen and Mike came over for leftovers last night, which was lovely until the dog disappeared. Laura had let him into the backyard, then forgot about him, and by the time she looked, he had vanished. This had happened once before, with Sadie, who we found severely overheated, and rushed to the animal hospital. I spent a couple of hours, first walking then driving around the neighborhood. The last 30 minutes Laura joined me in the car. The fireworks were horrible. Perhaps they spooked Hank. They certainly were unnerving for me walking around in still-oppressive heat. When we eventually came back home, Hank was waiting, trying to figure out how to get back into the backyard. He seems ok. Wish I could say the same for us. I cleaned up the kitchen, but didn't do any more poll work. Today is deadline day. Having passed 100 ballots, I'm not feeling too bad. We'll see what today's email brings in.

Email (22 messages):

• Poll matters: Robert Christgau submitted a possible but rather iffy ballot, which he may not want me to use (I'll return to that later); ballots: Britt Robson, Phillip Lutz, Jason Bivins, Fotis Nikolakopoulos, C. Andrew Hovan; changes: John Langhoff; nacks: Tom Staudter.
• Substack matters: Stats for Music Week (7:1): 1 likes, 1 comment (mine), 1 restack, 112 email views + 23 from 4 other sources; later: +1 like. 1 new subscriber (Britt Robson).
• Project Syndicate: The US as the World's Robber Baron (Dani Rodrik); From the American Revolution to Universal Suffrage (Danielle Allen); NATO Needs a Defense Market (Fiona E Murray & Robert Murray "argue that members need more than higher spending to build the industrial capacity they need for deterrence"; this, of course, is bullshit on many levels).

Daily Log

Real tired last night. Woke up real early today, sometime after 7. Tried going back to sleep, but couldn't. Barely logged 4 hours, scoring 80. Came down at 8:15. Dog hasn't even gotten up yet. I expect a long day today with poll stuff, but only 9 emails so far, including a couple left over from last night. Not sure what I'll do if I have nothing to do today. I'm going to start by working on the jigsaw puzzle.

Email (10 messages at 8:22 AM; up to 19 at 10:49):

• Gretchen and Mike are coming over for leftovers tonight.
• Poll stuff: Ballots: Lawrence Donohue-Greene, Ludovico Granvassu, Brad Cohan, Sanford Josephson; Changes: Mimmo Stolfi;
• Substack stuff: Music Week (7:1): +1 like.
• Cadence: 800 words for the 250th annivesary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, by Patrick Hinley: "Today ought to be an occasion for national celebration, but I feel more like I am participating in a nationwide vigil for a seriously ill loved one. The USA has been hijacked by a cult of greasebag grifters, and they are trying to steal far more than just this holiday."
• Tom Carson: The Great American Shark Jumper: Is Freedom 250 our real Independence Day?

Daily Log

Yesterday, we took Rachel to the Wichita Art Museum, where they had a special exhibit of the De La Torre brothers: Mexican glassworks, some in cases behind lenticular screens. I can't say as it particularly appealed to me, but there is a distinctive genius to it, and it seems to me to be quintessentially Mexican. As it happens, we had a friend come over to pick up some jigsaw puzzles. She is Mexican-American, and had just been to the Art Museum. She particularly latched on to the Frida Kahlo puzzles. She's also interested in baseball history, so I gave her my 1985 copy of the Reichler Baseball Encyclopedia.

When we got home, Rachel and Laura watched a couple Steve Martin movies. I caught up a bit on the poll, then warmed up leftovers, also making the missing salad. Rachel went back to Kendra's, and will begin the long drive back to Portland on Friday. We still have a lot of leftovers. I posted a plate pic on Facebook. Not much reaction. Hoping to round some folks up for another leftovers dinner. While I'm too busy to contemplate cooking for a while, unpacking the refrigerator won't take long.

Woke up around 9. Went back to bed, but not to sleep, so I got up and came down at 10:30. I should have a lot of work today, but email is off to a slow start (at least for a Friday: 24 messages):

• Poll stuff: Ballots: Richard Williams, Dan Buskirk, Russell Perry, George Varga; Changes: Bill Milkowski, John Ephland; Nacks: Maciej Nowotny, Troy Dostert. Added jazzpoll subscribers: Russell Perry, Marcello Lorrai.
• Chuck Eddy: Semiquincentennial Minute
• Substack matters: June 2026 stats: 118 subscribers (+12), 629 post reads (+265).
• Tom Engelhardt: Crooked Donald and the Strait of Hormuz
• Walgreens: Rx ready for pickup.
• Phil Overeem: Making His Mark at Maker's
• I posted Music Week (7:1) to Substack: shareable assets; 1 like.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, July archive (in progress).

Tweet: Music Week: 28 albums, 5 A-list

Music: Current count 46219 [46191] rated (+28), 16 [14] unrated (+2).

New records reviewed this week:

• Julian Argüelles: Echo Fields (2026, Escapade): [bc]: B+(**)
• Barcelona Art Orchestra & Miguel Zenón: Expressions: Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra (2025 [2026], Miel Music): [sp]: B+(*)
• Patricia Brennan/Sylvie Courvoisier: Talamanti (Antlia): [sp]: B+(***)
• Ron Carter & Yotam Silberstein: Duets (2026, Jojo): [cd]: A-
• Maya De Vitry: All My Faith (2026, Mad Maker Studios): [cd]: A- [07-24]
• Duchess: A Marvelous Party (Anzic) **
• Emperor X: Unified Field (2026, Bar/None): [sp]: B+(**)
• Nick Fraser: Areas (2026, Elastsic): [bc]: B+(*)
• Hannah Gill: I Like the Sunrise (2026, Turtle Bay): [sp]: B+(**)
• Devin Gray/Andrea Parkins/Frank Gratkowski: Hz of Gold (2021 [2026], Rataplan): [bc]: B+(*)
• Alden Hellmuth: Tether (2026, Leiter): [sp]: B+(***)
• The Joymakers: A Texas-Sized Band (2026, Turtle Bay): [sp]: B+(**)
• Goran Kajfeš Subtropic Arkestra: & Avin Omar (2026, We Jazz, EP): [bc]: B+(***)
• La La Lars: Lilla Lars (2026, Gothborgen, EP): [sp]: B+(*)
• James Brandon Lewis Quartet: Omni (2025 [2026], Intakt): [sp]: A-
• Virginia MacDonald: In Search Of . . . (2024 [2026], Cellar): [cd]: B+(***)
• Nduduzo Makhathini: The Myth We Choose (2026, Blue Note): [sp]: B+(*)
• Michael Marcus Quartet: Next Stop Down (2024 [2026], ESP-Disk'): [cd]: B+(***)
• Tal Mashiach: Who's Around? (2026, Anzic): [cd]: B
• Chris Potter: Alive With Ghosts Today (2025 [2026], Edition): [sp]: B+(*)
• Sad Daddy: Ozark Shine (2026, Catfish Music/Free Dirt): [sp]: B+(**)
• Harry Skoler: Echoes (2026, Red Brick Hill): [sp]: B+(**)
• SML: Spontaneous Music Live (2025 [2026], International Anthem): [sp]: A-
• Matthew Stevens: Matthew Stevens (2026, Candid): [sp]: B+(*)
• Soojin Suh: Prism of Existence (2026, Endectomorph Music): [sp]: B+(**)
• Martin Wind: Stars (2025 [2026], Newvelle): [sp]: A-

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Either/Orchestra: Nalbandian L'Ethipien/The Ethiopian [Éthiopiques 32] (2011 [2025], Buda Musique): [sp]: B+(***)
• Evan Parker/Paul Rogers/Louis Moholo: Tebugo (1992 [2025], Jazz in Britain): [bc]: B+(***)

Old music:

• None.

Grade (or other) changes:

• The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis: Deface the Currency (2026, Impulse!): [sp]: [was: B] B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Colin Heshmat: Elastic Groove (HMC) [07-23]
• Andrew Kim: Lineage (Origin) [07-24]
• Bob Nell & Michael Bisio Trios: We Are Here (Origin) [07-24]
• Rebecca Rafla: Fundamentally Unfinished (Rebecca Raffla Music) [06-22]
• Armand Sangalang: Waypoints (Calligram) [08-07]
• Claudio Scolari Project: Lines of Now (Principal) [04-24]
• Clark Sommers: WaBaSH (Calligram) [08-07]

Daily Log

Woke up before 10. Came down 10:20. I crashed so hard after TV last night that I left a ballot only partly counted. I noted it, saved what I had to the website, but didn't write to jpadmin. I figured I'd start today by catching up. We went to Mark Shepherd's funeral yesterday. It was billed as a car show, and the lot was packed when we got there. So was the mortuary chapel, so they set up an overflow room. Mike and Rachel made it into the main arena, but I retreated to the overflow. I ran into Mac and Brenda on the way there, so we sat together. Saw a couple more people I knew, but not many. Main problem with the overflow was that only the podium had a mic, so the testimonies/stories from the crowd were unintelligible. (Mike gave one, which I could identify by occasionally catching the word "grandpa," referring to Mark's father, Art Shepherd.) Mike decided he wanted to go to the cemetery afterwards. Steve arranged for Mark to get the last plot left in the bloc where Art and Margaret are buried. My mother and father were also buried there, and the tent was set up right over their graves. It's been a good 20 years since I last tried to find them, so I took mental notes of how to do so again — not that I'm likely to return any time soon. I saw Greg Seidel there, and we chatted a bit. During the drive back, Mike and Rachel vented on how much they hated Greg. I've seen him a couple times since moving back to Wichita. Relationship has been testy since he had a big bust-up with Steve & Josi, over what I was never quite certain, but Mike certainly hated him. I've long regarded him as potential trouble, although we got along ok, and were fairly close for a while. He came by after Dad died. I also saw him when I visited Mark in the hospital, after his heart attack and bypass surgery. He looked to be in pretty good shape. Hair was white, rather long, sort of a founding fathers look. Mark had aged more severely, as has Steve, though a bit less than Mark.

We went to Hog Wild after that, then took Mike to the airport, and came home. Rachel was going to watch the World Cup match, but it started later than expected, so she left. I rewarmed some chicken and dumplings, and go to work on the accumulated email. Like I said, I didn't get done. Rachel is coming over around 1 today. Laura wants to take her to the Art Museum. Not sure what else they'll be doing, but I hope to get some time to talk. No plans for dinner. We could go out, or just heat up leftovers. Rachel is driving back tomorrow, so this is the end of the visit. I'll try to work a bit as I can. I'm feeling like putting minimal work into the poll from here on out. I still need to do Music Week this week. Probably do that on Friday.

Email (38 messages):

• Poll stuff: new ballots: John Chacona, Steve Dollar, Bill Milkowski, James Koblin. I updated website and sent mail to jpadmin.
• Substack stuff: 2 new subscribers (Philip Watson, Steve Smith).
• Riot Riot: The 40 Best Albums of 2026 So Far.

Daily Log

Mike and Rachel arrived around 9:30. We went ahead and started eating around 8, with Ram over. We were ready to break into the dessert when they arrived. Two of Mike's friends came over (Mike Carmody and Brian Haney?), but didn't eat much. I didn't do the Native American salad, which wasn't missed. Huge amount of food left over, but everything was very good. I snapped a place pic, but haven't posted it yet. Mike stayed up and talked till 3AM. I got up about 10:30. Mike and Rachel are going to the Beacon for breakfast, then to Mark's house, to secure some furniture that Mark had kept from his and Josi's parents, that Josi wanted. After that, they'll swing by, and I'll go to funeral with them.

Significantly behind on email (49 unread as of 11:43, but 6-10 more opened but still needing attention.

• Poll stuff: new ballots: Will Layman, Bret Saunders, Ralph A. Miriello, Mike Greenblatt, Gene Seymour, John Ephland, Richard Blute, Matthieu Jouan; acks:; nacks: David Adler, Ysi Ortega.
• Substack stuff: After Iran: +1 like; Music Week (6:4): +1 like; new subscriber: RH News (looks like a bot).
• Amazon: four books delivered.
• Project Syndicate Deep Dives: Matt Simonton on Oligarchy's Ancient Origins

Jun 2026