Daily Log

Woke up early. Pushed my Substack piece out late last night. I was disappointed to find a large chunk of my "Warming Up a Riff" article excised at Arts Fuse. Not sure whether I should complain. I probably need to compare all of the articles to figure out what exactly happened. I didn't really wind up the Substack post as neatly as I had hoped, but at least it does the job of alerting my subscribers to the poll's existence. Library books are due today, so returning them will be an errand. I ordered the Agha/Malley book from Amazon. I had wanted to post more quotes from the book, but was running out of time. Very good book. Worth owning.

I also ordered Cook Real Hawai'i, which isn't due yet, but looks like a pretty definitive guide to Hawaiian cuisine. I still hope to make a big dinner out of it, but no time soon. Among other things, note many grilled dishes. I need a new gas regulator on the grill. The old one is not only aggravating with its safety trips, it's actually developed a leak. Matt said he had cleaned it up well after cooking, but I have my doubts. I could very well decide I'm done with grilling.

I also ordered a Python automation book: not the For Dummies book I have checked out (due today), but a similar one from No Starch Press, which for some reason I find more trustworthy. I'm hoping that I can get AI to write some programs to scan through website data, which I can further tweak. At the end of the AI reading, I expect to sign up for one or more LLMs, and start using it for research and organization.

Weighed myself, at 229.0. Several mega-cooking projects have taken a toll. I need to get that done. I also need to set up an appointment with Boxberger. I have appointments with Eldika and Tibbe in August.

First thing today is Music Week, with the Substack version coming out first, and the blog version later. I also would like to lay out one of the Agha/Malley Substack posts, but that could wait.

Email (58 messages at 1:12 PM):

• My Substack piece: Warming Up a Riff: Shareable assets; 6 likes; 3 new subscribers (Martin Johnson).
• Pete Butchers: "An interesting (but not novel) observation is how the listing is dominated by US musicians and bands. Needless to say the same applies to many other US polls (eg Downbeat)." He's asking why. I could write something about that.
• William Marx mentioned me in 3 Substack notes.
• Matthieu Jouan wrote a notice about the poll in Citizen Jazz.
• How writers are reacting to Substack's AI transparency tools
• GoDaddy: Hullworks.net set to auto-renew on 8/23, 2 years, $49.98. Prices keep going up, even for nothing.

I'm not going to try to catch all the references to the poll I'm seeing. But I ran across Meta AI offering to answer a question, "What sparked this jazz poll?" Its answer:

Tom Hull was inspired to start the mid-year jazz poll after noticing how few jazz releases were mentioned in other mid-year best-of lists. He decided to create his own poll to highlight the wealth of great jazz music being produced. This initiative was also a tribute to Francis Davis, who had run the Annual Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll for 19 years before his passing.

That's not wrong, but isn't really structured right, so it leaves several false impressions. This is, for instance, the 3rd Mid-Year poll. The initiative wasn't a tribute. This was Francis's poll. It is only continuing as a tribute to him.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, July archive (in progress).

Tweet: Music Week: 33 albums, 5 A-list

Music: Current count 46332 [46299] rated (+33), 14 [10] unrated (+4).

New records reviewed this week:

• Yazz Ahmed: Shinrin-Yoku (2026, Night Time Stories, EP): [sp]: B+(**)
• Bob Bert: Beach Bongo Bloodbath (2026, Bar/None): [sp]: A-
• Dave Burrell & David Liebman: Reservoir (2026, Bespoke Jazz): [sp]: B+(**)
• Jonas Cambien/Magnus Skavhaug Nergaard/Dag Erik Knedal Andersen: The Ear Behind the Airport (2025 [2026], Motvind): [bc]: B+(***)
• The Paul Carlon Trio: Between Us Three (2024-25 [2026], TRRcollective): [sp]: A-
• John Clayton: The Two-o Duo Project (2026, ArtistShare): [sp]: B+(**)
• Fathers: Fathers (2026, Blue Note): [sp]: B
• Flöjter: Brest Blow (2025 [2026], Utech/Gigantonium): [bc]: B+(**)
• Flöjter: Paris Blow (2025 [2026], Utech/Gigantonium): [bc]: B+(***)
• Carlos Henríquez: Monk Con Clave (2026, self-released): [sp]: B+(**)
• Marquis Hill: (Beautifulism) Sweet Surrender (2026, Black Unlimited): [sp]: B
• Julia Hülsmann Octet: While I Was Away (2023 [2026], ECM): [sp]: B+(**)
• Hannah Marks: Feed the Fire (2025 [2026], Endectomorph Music): [sp]: B+(***)
• Pedrito Martínez/Antonio Sánchez/Michael League: Elipsis (2026, GroundUP Music): [sp]: B+(**)
• Orchestre National De Jazz: With Carla (2025 [2026], ONJ): [bc]: B+(**)
• Ivo Perelman/Elliot Sharp/Cyro Baptista: Triacontagon (2024 [2026], Defkaz): [bc]: A-
• Susana Santos Silva/Vasco Trilla: Mushin (2024 [2026], Defkaz): [bc]: B+(*)
• Elias Stemeseder/Thomas Morgan: Io Pur Respiro (2024 [2026], Squama): [sp]: B+(***)
• Steve Swallow: Winter Songs (2024 [2026], ECM): [sp]: B+(***)
• Micah Thomas: Lucid (2026, Birdwatcher): [sp]: B+(**)
• Ben Wolfe: Any Time After Now (2025 [2026], Resident Arts): [sp]: B+(*)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• John Butcher: Anyway, I Was (2008-25 [2026], Relative Pitch): [sp]: B+(**)
• Miles Davis: Miles '56: The Prestige Recordings (1956 [2026], Craft): [sp]: A-
• Miles Davis: Miles '55: The Prestige Recordings (1955 [2025], Craft): [sp]: B+(**)
• Ellery Eskelin: Setting the Standard (1988 [2026], Prime Source): [bc]: B+(***)
• Medeski Martin & Wood: Tonic (1999 [2026], Blue Note): [sp]: B+(**)
• Big John Patton: Got a Good Thing Goin' (1966 [2026], Blue Note): [sp]: B+(**)
• Hans Reichel: Dalbergia Retusa (1973-88 [2026], Black Truffle): [bc]: A-
• Mal Waldron/Steve Lacy: Play Monk, Ellington & Strayhorn: Live at Yoshi's 1994 (1994 [2026], Elemental Music): [sp]: B+(***)

Old music:

• Ellery Eskelin/Sylvie Courvoisier: Every So Often (2008 [2020], Prime Source): [bc]: B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Nicki Adams and Michael Eaton Featuring Francisco Mela: Arrival (J-man) [09-10]
• Barcelona Art Orchestra & Miguel Zenón: Expressions: Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra (Miel Music) [06-26]
• Satoko Fujii Orchestra Kobe: After the Storm (Libra) [08-07]
• Oliver-Smith Incomparables: Stomp Your Stuff (Turtle Bay) [08-28]
• Sarah Pillow: Wanderer (Buckyball) [10-05]
• Terry Waldo & the Gotham City Band: Treasury Volume 3 (Turtle Bay) [06-05]
• Miguel Zenón & Luis Perdomo: El Arte Del Bolero Vol. 3 (Miel Music) [08-28]

Daily Log

Slept OK. Came down at 10:45. I'm expecting mail with the links to the poll articles. I did get to the end of the charts for the jazz reviews pieces. I didn't add the uncharted records. I made most of the necessary changes to the 26my website pages, including turning the lock off and taking down the "temporary" messages. All that leaves is adding links to the Arts Fuse URLs.

I spoke too soon there. The articles were ready. Marx changed one title, which was fine. He also changed subtitles and replaced my opening cross-references notes with his "Editor's Notes." I adopted them. I further rearranged the index page. Then I updated the website. We're live now. I need to chill a bit, work on the jigsaw, eat breakfast, then get going again. I'll send out notices when I restart the day.

Email (39 messages at 12:43 PM):

• Substack matters: +1 like (old piece).
• Amazon accepted my review of a Keywing Phone Camera Lens Set. I gave it 1 star, noting: "I couldn't use this. The clip is too short to fit on a camera that has a case. I'm only able to see a partial, rounded image, with the corners blacked out. I'm not seeing as much lens effect as I had hoped for, but that may be because the fit is . . ."
• Earthquake: M4.4 Texas Panhandle region. I set up this alert some years ago, when Oklahoma was producing a lot of small earthquakes, some felt here in Wichita. It's been quite a while since I've seen any reports here, although my other alert, for 7.0+ earthquakes worldwide, produces mail almost daily. This one is for 197 miles west of Oklahoma City, so pretty far from here. Got a second one, M5.1, same area.
• Tom Engelhardt: SockHer for Donald Trump: Living in a Trumpublican World
• A new collection of John Prine "alternate versions, acoustic performances & five previously unreleased John Prine songs," coming out Oct. 9, on 30th anniversary of Lost Dogs & Mixed Blessings.
• Project Syndicate
• Cezary L Lerski tells me that Not Two Records will be revived by him, now based in California.

Poll matters (I shouldn't bury this under email, but it involves some email):

• I made some revisions to the website index page, to better feature the Arts Fuse links, and move my own crap (including the essay drafts) down near the notes section. I unlocked the website, and updated it. I notified Arts Fuse this was done, so let the publicity begin.
• I wrote to jpadmin, asking them to check the website for any errors, etc.
• I wrote to jazzpoll, letting the critics know that the poll has been published. I asked them to review their ballots. I can update the note lines without wrecking anything. I asked them to publicize the poll.
• I wrote to jpmedia, telling them that the poll is up, and asking for their help in promoting it.
• I posted to Bluesky, X, and Facebook, linking to the intro article on Arts Fuse.
• Matt Fripp asked about an interview for Jazzfuel. I said ok, but asked how it would work.
• Larry Hollis asked where his ballot was. I've asked him the same thing, several times.
• I replied to a 7/17 mail from Paul Medrano about the poll future, advising him that I'll get back to him in 1-2 weeks.
• I got complimentary poll email from: George Varga, Brooks Geiken, Russell Perry, Steve Erickson. Also a complaint from Larry Hollis (where's my ballot?, where, indeed?).

By the way, Matt Merewitz wrote this on Facebook:

I spent over an hour on the phone last weekend with Tom Hull, who selflessly continues to carry on the legacy of Francis Davis. Davis, who was a friend of mine from my Philly/Ars Nova Workshop days advocated for the place of the critic in society. I think the jazz critic is possibly the most maligned figure in the jazz ecosystem, aside from the musician themselves, who writes for the least amount of money or appreciation and is constantly subject to vicious attacks by everyone in the jazz firmament. And yet they overwhelmingly do it for the love of the art form. Yet, I feel like we need critics now more than ever to wade through all the slop and give us some context. Today The Arts Fuse (a Boston-based culture website) published the results of The Annual Francis Davis Jazz Critics at Mid-Year; the ballots of a whopping 127 critics worldwide. There, Tom wrote three essays there: an introduction, one on New Jazz Albums chart, and one on archival discoveries, which Francis called "Rara Avis." I am proud of my clients but I am more proud of this community which sticks together and continues to do something to spread the good word on new jazz / BAM / improvised / creative music recordings.

When I saw that, 24m after posting, that had 10 likes and 6 comments (2 were links from Matt). One negative comment, by James Rozzi:

Critics should leave be that which they don't care for and emphasize only that which they deem worthy of ears. There's more than enough music out there. And polls are bullshit.

I replied:

Working backwards: I judge a poll by how much new music I discover by reading it, often way down in the fine print. For this poll, for me, that number is already close to 100. If you never note the music you hear and don't like, readers will have little basis to understand what you do like. You're asking reviewers to be publicists. Don't we already have more hype than we can handle? As for real criticism, which I only very rarely do, it shouldn't matter whether you like or dislike what you're writing about. It should only matter what insights you gain.

Richard Baker wrote:

I guess I've gotten old and crusty, but I just don't hear enough new stuff that excites me. I also feel like it gives the readers of false impression when they want you to vote for 10 new records but only three that are previously unissued older recordings or re-issues. There are years when there are five great releases of previously unissued material that are better than almost any new record. I'm supposed to ignore a really great Sonny Rollins record from the 1960s when there might not be any new records that are anything like as good?

Crusty, as I said. That being the case, I just decided not to vote in the polls anymore.

I replied:

We're asking for up to 5 reissue/archival votes, not 3 (as Francis Davis originally designed). I'm also not enforcing a strict division between the categories, so if you want to slip an extra Sonny Rollins album off as new, I'll probably allow it (and may even total the vote as old -- I explain this stuff in great detail on the site). Part of the reason I increased the limit from 3 to 5 was due to complaints like yours. But many voters don't use the extra slots, or indeed any slots for old music. The ratio of new to old albums is over 3-to-1, even though the ratio of vote slots is just 2-to-1. I'm pretty sure that nobody who voted for less than 10 new music albums used all 5 slots for old music. (The closest was 6-4.) The other fallacy here is that we're comparing old and new music. Both categories are comparing records, which include music, packaging, and for rara avis especially, other intangibles (like surprise, or nostalgia). Keeping them in separate categories tries to avoid old vs. new squabbles.

Started working on a Substack post, about the poll. Kind of a rush job, but I sent it out at 2:15 AM. I felt like it was just something I should try to do.

Daily Log

Woke up with less than 4 hours sleep. Read some, about robots. Tried again. Made the machine happy with 6+ hours. Came down at 11:15. I sent all three essays in last night, so Marx is working on them. I expect they will go up today, but no email as yet. I need to finish compiling my reviews, then fix up some website issues to unlock the results. Then I need to take a stab at redesigning the top level. After that I want to write up a Substack post based on the Agha/Malley book, which is due back at the library on Friday. Forecast is for a hot week. Will be nice to get a break from thinking about the poll.

Email (12 messages at 11:28):

• OR Books: Paul Prescod, Against Black Nationalism: Garvey, Randolph, and the Makings of a Black Movement.

Daily Log

Woke up around 8:30. Read some, but still tired, so I went back to sleep, and didn't make up until almost noon. I finally remembered that I didn't put the garbage dumpster out to the curb, so we probably missed a week. They usually pick it up shortly before noon, so just on the off chance, I put it out. Hot today. Should top 100F. I updated website with near-finished essays last night. I figured I should wait until I got up to start sending them in (although in theory Marx should be able to see them on the website). I expected to get an earlier start, but here we are, 12:17 PM. Still have breakfast before I start. Scanning ahead in email, I don't see anything, other than Van Wyck's latest proofreading. So (I guess) no rush. I woke up thinking I should have written more about the music, but too late for that. Look it up.

Email (30 messages):

• Laura and Nathan Van Wyck sent in edits to the critics piece. I've made corrections. It is the first one I will deliver this afternoon. Rob Shepherd also sent in a correction to New Notes.
• Wichita Public Library: Two books not renewed, due July 24. I still meant to do another post (maybe two) based on Hussein Agha & Robert Malley, so I need to get cracking on that. Python Automation for Dummies remains a future project. The Hawaiian cookbook is not due yet. I don't know when I'll get around to using it. I may just buy a copy for future reference.
• Substack: +2 new subscribers (Dylan Hicks); comment from Mike Poage.
• Tom Engelhardt: It's Getting Hot, Hot, Hot! Donald Trump Is the Human Equivalent of an Atomic Bomb

Daily Log

Woke up at 6:38 AM. I had a little more than 5 hours of sleep, and doubted I'd be able to go back to sleep, so I came downstairs. Carrie was already up, having breakfast. They're planning on leaving by 10, so was good to get a chance to talk. Going to be a long day.

Email (18 messages at 8:30, some left over from yesterday):

• Project Syndicate: Letting Russia Burn (Nina L Krushcheva argues that Putin would sooner accept widespread pain at home than admit defeat in Ukraine); What Inequality Does to Electoral Democracy (Harold James); Oil Shocks Are No Longer Shocking (Nouriel Roubini); Governments Should Govern AI, Not Own it (actually, nobody should own it); How Tech Lords Hacked the Firm (Quinn Slobodian); Subsidies Do Not Explain China's Competetiveness (Kai Guo).
• Semipop Life: starts with B+, then A- for Courtney Barnett (no surprise), A for Mara Calder (surprise, but I probably got that ball rolling), and A+ for Emperor X (huh?).
• Substack stuff: +3 new subscriber (incl. Robert Nagle, "idiotprogrammer"); +2 likes (various pieces, some old).
• My dinner plate pic. I posted it on Facebook.

I took a nap about 3PM. Machine registered 56 minutes. Woke up from a dream that obviously couldn't have been anything else. Up to 75 pages in I Am Not a Robot. Earlier today I corrected the Old Jazz piece, and I read and edited what I'll call the first half of the Critics piece. Now to write the second half. Then I need to go back and split the Notes out of the Old and New pieces, so I can mail them in.

Daily Log

Worked to 2AM last night. Laura wanted to finish the jigsaw, so she skipped TV, so I could work. I baked the ribs: 2.5 hours at 250F, still wrapped in foil, in the refrigerator. I made the tiramisu (except no chocolate garnish yet), and the gluten-free brownies, so dessert is set. I marinated the chicken wings. I didn't have any lime, and used up the rest of my bottled juice. I should have more limes today for basting, so I asked Matt to pick up some. (Just heard that he did.) Made the cucumber-yogurt. First thing I need to do today is to pop the sweet potatoes into the oven. Then I need to do the other marinades (swordfish, shrimp), and whatever the ground lamb needs. After that, I'm just planning two salads: horiatiki, and an Ottolenghi based on baby spinach. Those are just throwing things into bowls, then mixing up a dressing. Oh, we're also doing Turkish eggplant, so I'll cut two eggplants into rounds, which Matt can grill, probably before he gets into the meats. I'll top them with a tomato sauce and yogurt, so I'll need to prep all that. Aside from the sweet potatoes, the only real cooking for me today is the tomato sauce. Seems manageable, but I'm feeling quite a bit of pain right now.

No writing today. Email (7 messages at 11:45, nothing I need to look at). I didn't get back to the computer until 10:40 PM. Carrie helped with dinner prep, so we got everything done on our end pretty efficiently. My main glitch was that I couldn't find any tahini, so I had to scratch the yogurt-tahini sauce (meant for the kofte). I did make a yogurt-dill sauce for the shrimp which worked nicely. Big problem was with the grill. I had warned Matt that the gas valve had to be opened slowly, but he evidently tripped the safety valve in the regulator, so the gas flow was limited to the extent of being useless. First thing was for him to grill the eggplant. He had gotten it to the point where it looked cooked, but it had taken an alarmingly long time, and he had a lot of meat left to go. I shut the gas down, then restarted it, opening it slowly. That worked, but it also leaked gas out the side of the regulator valve. (We could hear the leak, and also feel it, but it seemed to be providing adequate gas to the burners.) I tried wrapping tape around the regulator, hoping to slow the leak. The grill heated up, and Matt was able to grill everything. (There was a lot, and it took a long time.) Clearly I need to replace the regulator. Notes on dinner below.

• HP Print Service Plugin: Important Notice: Our Terms and Conditions have changed: Help us improve your Print Service Plugin experience by sharing your app usage data with us through Google Analytics. For more information, view . . . Two check boxes: Send usage data vis Google Analytics (optional); Accept the HP End User License Agreement, which evidently isn't optional, as the only thing I can do after that is click on "Start," which is something I don't want to do. When I click on Start without checking the box, it does nothing.

Plan for the dinner was to do a mixed Mediterranean grill, with a range of dishes from the grill. I don't particularly like grilling, so when I get a chance to assign someone else to the grill, I'd like to take advantage. Today's menu was:

• Grilled chicken wings: Iranian recipe, marinated overnight in saffron, onions, lime juice, some yogurt; while grilling, baste them with a lime-butter mix)
• Grilled swordfish: Turkish recipe, marinated in lemon, onion, paprika; goes with a lemon sauce, which I added to bowl after grilling.
• Baby back pork ribs: Tuscan recipe, rubbed and baked 2.5 hours at 250F, then finished on grill, with a balsamic-honey glaze.
• Grilled shrimp: Greek recipe, marinated with a lot of paprika; served with a yogurt-dill sauce.
• Grilled kofte: From the ATK Mediterrean cookbook, using ground lamb, pine nuts, onion, and spices. Should have a yogurt-tahini sauce, but I couldn't find my tahini, so didn't make the sauce (the yogurt-dill worked nice).
• Grilled eggplant with tomato sauce and garlic-yogurt: Turkish recipe. Eggplant turned out to be very tough due to the low temp grill. Looked terrific, but very disappointing.
• Roasted sweet potatoes with dates, scallions, and balsamic glaze: Ottolenghi recipe.
• Horiatiki: Greek chopped salad.
• Baby spinach salad: Ottolengthi recipe, with toasted pita and almonds, dates, onion.
• Mast Va Khiar: Iranian cucumber-yogurt variation, with scallions, mint, golden raisins, and black walnuts.
• Tiramisu: Recipe uses a jelly roll cake instead of ladyfingers.
• Brownies: Gluten-free recipe uses almond flour.

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. Matt Merewitz called, and we talked for an hour. He has lots of ideas about the possible future of the poll. As I've been thinking about future direction, I need to follow up with him. I also have a letter from Paul Medrano that I don't think I logged, but is basically a business plan for moving forward.

Email (11 messages at 4:30):

• I processed Nathan Van Wyck's notes on the New Jazz piece. Laura also sent me something, catching the first two.
• Music Week (7:3): 1 like.
• TomDispatch: Nick Turse: The United States of Betrayal: Turning on our allies has always been the American way.
• Bill Marx wrote: thinks the New Jazz essay is "solid," but too long, so wants to cut the notes out. I offered to move them to a separate file on my server. I sent him Rara Avis and the "Warming Up a Riff" fragment. I asked whether the "My Ballot" section should also be cut. I told him I'm done for the weekend, but will get back to work after my guests leave on Monday, and send him copy in later that day or Tuesday.

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).

Mar 2001