If you have nice cymbals, you should take the time to watch this short video. A few simple tweaks to your cymbal setup could save you an absolute fortune in damaged cymbals. Watch it!

Following on from my previous post on the history of jazz:

I haven’t properly listened to old school jazz records in a long time (only the modern stuff), so I’m making amends.

Here are my favourites so far:

• The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions - Miles Davis Quintet

• Oscar Peterson & Ben Webster Hannover 1972 (Live Restauración 2023) - Oscar Peterson Trio

• Thelonious Monk Live At the It Club - Thelonious Monk

• Triple Best of Wayne Shorter - Wayne Shorter

If you have any recommendations, please send them my way!

I’ve been on a bit of a jazz binge recently, inspired by JP Bouvet’s Jazz Foundations course.

I stumbled upon this 1989 radio documentary on the History of Jazz. So far, I’ve only listened to the first episode (out of 32!), but I’m really enjoying Mel Lewis and Loren Schoenberg’s insights.

“Loren Schoenberg, senior scholar of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, and Mel Lewis (1929-1990) discuss and analyze the histories, techniques, equipment, and ensembles of jazz drummers in an epic 32 part presentation from 1989.”

The whole series is available on Youtube.

If you haven’t seen Peter Jackson’s Beatles documentary, Get Back, watch it! It’s really great. Even if you aren’t a huge Fan of The Beatles. There is a lot to be learned from The Beatles and Get Back. Tom Whitwell highlights some of those lessons here. It’s a good read.

This is fun… Type a song with just your keyboard

Ipswich, October 2021

This is going to be the last Five Things for now. I can’t quite believe I have done 265 of these, but it feels like the right time for a break. If you’ve enjoyed these posts keep an eye on my blog. Anything that’s worth sharing will be posted there in future!

Here are this week’s Five Things…

1. I’ve rediscovered my love of the game Mini Motorways. It’s available on Apple Arcade and Steam. I recommend it!

2. Richard Osman’s new Thursday Murder Club book, The Man Who Died Twice, is great. If you haven’t read the first one, you should!

3. Amazing photos: The Vatican Under Red Lights

4. An amusing collection of posters.

5. Really enjoying this new podcast series on Fat Leonard. He’s quite a “character”! “It’s the most shocking unknown tale of our era: A defence contractor who bribed navy officers with cash, prostitutes and luxury items in return for multi-million-dollar deals.”

Thanks for reading!