Tomeka Reid Quartet - dance! hop! Skip! (Out Of Your Head) #Music #MusicSky #MusicReviews #JazzSky

Finally acquired a copy of this...

A huge thanks to all who attended the UK GHOST STORY FESTIVAL ONLINE over the last few days - and the in-person event will be here before you know it, running in Derby from the 27th Feb to the 1st March! www.derbyquad.co.uk/ukgsf/ #derby #derbyshire #eastmids #eastmidlands

A bit of Belgian jazz for a Friday afternoon? Why the hell not?

10 yrs ago we were up to Loy-related activity at the Bluecoat in Liverpool: robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2016/01/mina...

Recent reading....Finally finished the last of the Czech books I planned to read before going to Prague four months ago...

Tomorrow in Birmingham... tinyurl.com/5x5uzksr Haven't seen Paul Dunmall since January last year. As a tribute to Tony Bianco they'll be performing Coltrane's Ascension live (so I've been told). Mystery guest on this session...I wonder who it might be... Tickets www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoir...

TONIGHT (Tues 27 Jan) @ Artefact, Liverpool - first outing for a new duo with Adam Fairhall on harmonium and electronics, playing late-period John Coltrane tunes. Also on the bill is a duo of Nick Branton and Jonathan Raisin #electroacoustic #improvisedmusic #jazz #saxophone #harmonium

"Reading is a hobby that never grows stale - and an unpunished vice." - Edmund White

Some recent reads...

Working on the Bath Jazz Weekend from Fri - Sun. Great line up www.bathjazzweekend.com/programme Looking forward to catching up with @oliebrice.bsky.social & @alexanderhawkins.bsky.social and many others who aren't on BlueSky

Top 5 gigs of the year: Ferg's Imaginary Big Band - Peggy's Skylight, Nottingham James Brandon Lewis & the Messthetics - Boat Club, Nottingham Led Bib - Peggy's Skylight, Nottingham Freetown Quartet - Jazz Dock, Prague Ahmed - Chapel Street Arts Centre, Derby

Doubt I'll be going to any more gigs in the next two days so here are my top 5 gigs of the year. I've seen around 60 bands this year and it was easy to narrow it down to 10 but getting to 5 was much tougher. Some were chosen for setting, some were totally new to me, sometimes I was really drunk 1/2

Pianist Michel Petrucciani was born on this day December 28, 1962 in Orange, France. After performing with Charles Lloyd's quartet in the mid-1980s, Michel recorded a series of stellar Blue Note albums as a leader thru the early-1990s beginning with “Pianism”: bluenote.lnk.to/MichelPetruc...

robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2025/11/elle..., But please don't buy my new book for someone at Christmas: buy it for yourself!

Bob Dylan, Nottingham - 1966

Two months after visiting Prague, I finally got round to reading this, which I bought while I was there....Read it in about twenty minutes. Might have another read over a pint sometime soon.

I was listening to this yesterday but didn't check the dates...

"Would that I knew the chicken-livered poltroon, the milksop thou hast brought to my door, good Master Cuckoo. I would give much for my eyes to behold this whining cur precede me through thy flaming gate to Heaven - but that doesn't mean I will clutch any turd of a quacksalver to my bosom like thee"

ELLE is officially published today. So here's an updated post with a little video or verse one, and links to the publisher and to previous posts about the 'project': robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2025/11/elle...

Excellent gig by the #FergusMcCreadieTrio tonight @lakesidearts.bsky.social Yes, I know I say it every time I hear him live, "he just gets better and better"...but he does... Have a listen: fergusmccreadie.bandcamp.com/album/the-sh...

Look what just arrived!

Just when you want to leave the Lincolnshire Poacher, Damian turns up...sober....Been In London selling Picassos....Beer and whiskeys! "Bushmills is a Protestant whiskey!" Don't tell my folks...

Incredible gig by @Ahmed this afternoon in Derby. I've always been into avant garde jazz but this was special. Relentless. Tantric. No solos. Everyone improvising for an an hour. www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8eg... Never met Seymour Wright before. I know his dad. He looks like a fucking tramp.

Quiet in the Lincolnshire Poacher earlier. I persuaded them to play Jelly Roll Morton off of their phone. My work is done. www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFhm... This was calling card when I used to be a DJ!

Ahmed tomorrow in Derby. Only a handful of tickets left. mjazz.co.uk/whats-on/8F-...

Today’s reprints:

Having recently been made redundant by Nottingham University I'm disgusted to see 48 courses being closed down, especially when they spent c£95m on a new 'campus' which isn't fit for purpose. How many more lives will the destroy.

NYC this Friday -- A rare trio concert by Henry Threadgill, Dafnis Prieto, and me! www.92ny.org/event/henry-...

Watch 10 Great German Expressionist Films: Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari & More

Recovering from the Jazz Promotion Network Conference in Cardiff. Great to catch up with people I only see once a year. 14 bands in two days and a lot of beer. Favourite gig was by Charlotte Keeffe.

Little box (right) inside big box. Should have ordered 20,000 business cards to make full use of the box and help save the environment...

Honoured to have a series of poems by Robert Sheppard dedicated to me.

Recent reads.

Forgot to post the link... www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q30...

I first came across Jack DeJohnette in my teens with the Charles Lloyd Quartet in the 1980s with the film One Night With Blue Note. Lucky to have seen him live a few times with the Keith Jarrett Trio and his own Spring Quartet in Birmingham. When people refer to Jacko I don't think of Michael.

Redundancies by the University of Nottingham have forced me out of Lakeside Arts after nearly 24 years. Here I am commiserating with some bearded ladies.

Don't know anything about Judah Daniels but will go and check him out tonight at #PeggysSkylight peggysskylight.co.uk/events/judah... Seen the drummer before a few times...

A transphobic pressure group is trying to ban trans women from Hampstead women’s pond – we’re fighting back goodlawproject.org/s/4860b3

“The fact is that the Roulette Player was presently the winner in this race, which he ran against one other competitor only: death.” Dive into this archive piece by Mircea Cărtărescu, tr. Julian Semilian here: wordswithoutborders.org/read/article...

Read lots of Czech literature before I went to Prague and read but 3 more there. I read Nezval's A Prague Flâneur while sat under a photo of Nezval at Cafe Slavia. I went to the Smichov district to read Brabcova's Aviaries and then spent a couple of days in Žižkov reading Hodrova's City of Torment.

Final week for the Haunted Paper exhibition at Dorothy, Jamaica Street Liverpool. It’s been a great few weeks with visitors from near and far. Come and have a look! Mon-Fri 9-5.

THE BURIED MUSEUMS by Jeff Young @wildtwin.bsky.social Poetry for BURNING HOUSE PRESS @thearsonista.bsky.social LANDSCAPE // LABYRINTH burninghousepress.com/2025/09/16/t...

#gonggong225088 returns this Saturday! It’s been far too long since Yorgos, Camila and I have hit the stage together. I deeply appreciate the imaginative flow, and the joyous, perpetual-motion energy of this trio—I look forward to the new things that each artist brings to the group on Saturday.

Looking forward to #LedBib to blow my mind tonight at #Peggysskylight Tickets still available. You don't have to sit next to me... peggysskylight.co.uk/events/led-b...

#gonggong225088 returns! Later this month (20.09.2025): dream a little noisy, sweetly disquieting dream with Han-earl Park, Yorgos Dimitriadis and Camila Nebbia at Sowieso, Berlin. ℹ️ busterandfriends.com/performances 🎸🎷🥁

The Haunted Paper exhibition has a special Saturday opening and book signing. This Saturday at Dorothy on Jamaica Street from 11 - 4. Ghost Town and Wild Twin book signing from 12 - 2. We hope to see you there!

Wish I could get down for Ackerley/Wallace/Musson/Sanders on the 9th!