What do we understand to be a big band? Nick and Simon discuss the ingredients that might go into to making a big band in terms of instruments style and techniques. Then put the template to the test by considering a few examples

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In this episode Nick and Simon talk about Mole Jazz a shop that closed 20 years ago now but is fondly remembered by Jazz aficionados of a certain age. They also had a small catalogue of releases on the Mole Jazz label.

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The connection between jazz and cooking is investigated through this book review of Jazz Cooks: Portraits and Recipes of the Greats by Rob Young and Al Stances with photographs by Deborah Feingold.

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In this Episode Mink Coal Tin and This is Wine mode discuss the mercurial art of creating a Pseudonym to get around a contractual issue with ones record company, so to find out who Kunst Bauer is and if he ever recorded with Sir Osbert Haberdasher listen to this episode of 2-5-1

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One of our under the radar pianist episodes, we look at the piano stylings of Sir Charles Thompson.

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Nick and Simon present one of their jazz book reviews.

Kind of Blue : Miles Davis and the making of a masterpiece.

Ashley Kahn Granta 2001 is an in-depth look at the legendary album its creation and its legacy. Ashley Kahn has written much about jazz and his books on A Love Supreme and Impulse Records : the house that Trane built [ Simon got that title slightly wrong in the podcast]

in December 1999 Kahn got to hear the master tapes of the sessions including the false starts etc and the 50th anniversary release contains those so you can hear them too. the Cd release also included a DVD including a documentary

Miles Davis-Kind of Blue-Celebrating a masterpiece

The Legacy edition is on Apple Music
and other streaming platforms.

Simon has written a blog post on the book and 2 other related books on the podcast website.

The book is available in Print and E-Book format but not as an audio book.

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Sven Klang’s Kvintet

2-5-1- field trip notes

We went to the Barbican during the London Jazz Festival in November 2023 and watched a screening of this film. There was an introductory talk and the Black and white movie was projected on a good sized screen. In brief the plot is a function band lead by Sven Klang is joined by a really good Sax Player and his addition causes big changes in the band. It is about the human interactions within the group and both of us were very impressed with the way the playing is captured really well.

" Sven Klang's Combo (Swedish: Sven Klangs kvintett) is a 1976 Swedish musical drama film directed by Stellan Olsson. The film was based on a 1974 play by Musikteatergruppen Oktober, and was shot in Ängelholm and Höganäs. At the 13th Guldbagge Awards it won the Special Achievement award. In 2012 it was voted one of the 25 best Swedish films of all time"

from wikipedia

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Didn't you used to be Tom Scott?

In this episode we talk about the relationship of fame/commercial success and Jazz. During May 2024 several Jazz musicians have died

David Sanborn, Bill Holman and Palle Danielsson. We start from the newsworthyness of these deaths. We chose the title “ Didn’t you used to be Tom Scott” based on a shared reminiscence of a comedian saying someone came up to them and Said “ Didn’t you used to be…” illustrating the point that “ if a tree falls in the forest…” or if you have been in the public eye and are no longer in the public eye do you exist. How do Jazz musicians fit into this? Is it jazz if it’s popular.

To be clear Ton Scott is [ at time of writing] very much alive. he was very well known in the 70’s and arguably less so today and seemed like the type of musician some might not know if he is still about. He actually has a brilliant podcast himself

So Tom we hope we haven’t offended you

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