The final contenders!

Just before I choose the Top 10 choice of albums for 2023 here are a few more (six to be exact) that are likely to be in contention for the (un)coveted slot in the Edge of Jazz end of year awards.

Alfredo Rodriguez: Coral Way 

A listener suggested that I might like this, and I do. It's vaguely based around music from the Caribbean, especially the Dominican Republic. Played with gusto by a basic unit of 6 players it's a mixture of vocal and instrumental outings, mainly in native tongues that somehow defies further description. Rodriguez is a piano player, and feature prominently, but it's a real group effort, and almost family like in its intensity. It's on Mack Avenue Records whose rleases this year have been consistently good.

Jonathan Suazo: Ricano

Same sort of provenance as the above, but different! A much wider sweep of musicians, with a lot of Costa Rican perccussion and a not-easy-to categorise set of tunes. Suazo is a sax player and from the Dominican U.S. diaspora. However, the album features a wide range of styles, including not only instrumental tracks, bit chants and incantations as well as vocals. It's a wonderful pot-pourri of styles, cleverly put together, and hopefully the precursor of another album in the same styles.

Bebel Gilberto: Joao

Some self written material and some familiar (Antonio Carlos Jobim, Gilberto Gil Newton Mendoga) sungs to simple accompanyment of mainly guitar based backing. Uncluttered, well produced with vocals mixed well forward this is the antidote to some of the heavily orchestrated album that have been released this year. Her singing is (sorry!) ethereal and it's the sort of album you can sit down and play through and then play again.

Joey Alexander: Continuance

An Indonesian wonder kid. He's only 20 and this is (at least) his seventh album. I played the previous one 'Origin' for most of last year, and this, with the same trio and the added trumpet of Theo Croker is, as the name sggestes, more of the same, though it has two 'cover versions - the first 'Great is thy faithfulness' is a traditional one, but there's a wonderful trio version of 'I can't make you love me' which I alwys associate with Bonnie Raitt, but this is an equal. It leads me to wonder 'what next?'.

Rob Luft: Dahab days

Luft has appeared on several albums during the course of this year, but few have the simplicity of this one. With a basic  quartet behind him , and with added contributions from people like Byron Wallen , Alice Zawadski and Steve Buckley, it reflects a time and a place. It suggests isolation, together with reflection and a sense of place. So far I've made it sound like a hippy dream, but it's far from that and seems like another direction from which he can launch the next project.

Veronica Swift: Veronica Swift

Looking at what I wrote above about the Bebel Gilberto album this could so easily have fallen into the 'heavily orchestrated'  that I mention - but it doesn't. It's almost as if, after two previous albums for Mack Avenue she told them " I have abuch of songs that I want ro record my way". The repetoire is wide, at times suprising and throughout utterly joyous (almost despite the content of some of the songs).

Listen to her version of 'Do nothing 'til you hear from me' and she makes it her own. My other two favourites are 'Closer' and'Severed heads' but you ought to check out what she does to Antonio Carlos Jobim, and brian May. Highly recommended.

So all I have to do now is consider which I choose for the final list. It'll appear before mid December!

The erratic blog has become even more erratic over the last few months.  Here's why!

Firstly we had a hiatus around late May/early June whilst we updated studio 1. So major did the refit become that instead of two or three days of work it took longer, and even after extra time it didn't get finished. We were due for another set of 'finishing off' days when the engineer cracked two ribs and was unable to continue working on it - and it wasn't until October that he was fit enough to return - and even now it isn't finished, and we're waitng for him to return . To be fair to Tim (for it was he!) he was replacing wiring and a system that not only had been in place since 2008, but was created with no helpful wiring diagrams to aid anyone who worked on it subsequently. We have, however, bought a similar desk to update our laughingly named Studio 2. However, there's a lot of woodwork to be undertaken before that can be done, and we have to rely on our usual build up of funds before that gets done, and Studio 1 is finished.

Secondly: The Board were asked, by our partners in Exedab, whether we were interested in becoming a partner in the Plymouth DAB+ application. We were. The application went forward and it was awarded earlier this year - so now we're shareholders in Plymdab. At the same time some of our partners joined with South Devon Radio to apply for the Torbay licence, which they subsequently won. At that time, we couldn't afford to get involved, but subsequently have been asked if we'd like to broadcast on the new multiplex. We would!

So the last couple of weeks have seem frantic preparations to get ready to launch. This also required us to get a DSP licence to allow us to broadcast in other areas. Filling in forms for Ofcom (the regulator) is always a challenge, and this proved to be as challenging as any other, but was finally granted at the start of October.

Today, as I write this we've just gone on air in Plymouth with the Torbay sevice due to start on Monday. The estimated size of the two areas considerably improved our 'reach' with Torbay at about 280,000 15+  and Plymouth a whopping 400,000. There will have to be some adjustments, but the members meeting in October confirmed that we will continue to be 'Exeter's Sound Alternative', rather than changing nomenclature.

I'll update my Jazz picks next week ahead of the annual challenge of picking my Top Ten releases of 2023.

Bear with me!