Paint it Black

Having moved the office to posh Henley almost exactly a year ago I felt a slight change was needed to the surroundings, so out came 12 tins of spray paint and the record wall turned black. It stank the place out for days, but I think the look is worth it. Here are a couple of shots, not all is showing but I squeezed a lot in so you get the gist of it:

Jazzman Radio on NTS

In case you didn't know already Orsi and I present a monthly show on NTS radio. Expect early listening of our new releases, as well as some bits dug out of my collection and some current sounds. Here's a link to the latest show, enjoy!

DJ Jazzman Gerald @ Hawaiian Bop

Join me here for music & dancing on 18 May - more details at http://www.clfartcafe.org/

Diggin' Deeper on the Jazzman Records USA Road Trip

Last week Liam and I went on a last-minute trip  to Florida to buy a record collection. For various reasons the deal fell through so we had a week to kill before our return flights. So we got in the car and headed west to Alabama and Louisiana where we had a few leads to find some records. 

As you can see, we stumbled across some battered 45s, victims of Hurricane Katrina; some interesting sights by the side of the road and a new used record shop in Mobile, Alabama that opened just last year. We ended up with about 80-100 records each including a clean copy of Eunice Davis on DeLuxe, rescued from the Katrina stash, quantity of Mac Rebbenack on Ace and the scarce Earl Coleman LP on Worthy.

Spiritual Jazz - A Mix

I was invited to make a mix for the excellent 'Sound Awareness' blog and they wanted one full of weird stuff.  So I sent them one, but it wasn't weird enough, so they asked for a spiritual jazz one. I think they liked this one because they posted it, you can listen here. It has got some good stuff on it, all sorts from all over, but I'm sorry I didn't think to write the tracks down as it was assembled. So you'll have to figure them out for yourself, but I'll be happy to help if you get stuck, just mail me here.

Gilles Peterson Worldwide Awards

Of course I would never expect to win anything at such a prestigious international event, but for the second year running our little Jazzman label was up for a 'Best Label' award at the Gilles Peterson Worldwide Awards. Needless to say, we didn't win it, BUT we did come 4th, as voted for by YOU, and in doing so we beat some pretty hefty competition.

Obviously, I'm delighted :) as it puts into perspective our 15 years hard work since the label began. We don't have the backing of a large company, we don't have any outside investors, and we don't have a huge staff of music biz hot shots. What we do have is a small and dedicated team of music enthusiasts with great taste, driven by the desire to make the world a better place through releasing old and forgotten titles, in-demand rarities, and stuff other labels wouldn't touch with a barge pole. Thank you Fryer, Orsi, Liam, Dom, Malachi, Ben & Gavin.