THINK I'LL KEEP THIS ONE.

Some you win and some you don't...
Rummaging through countless charity and second hand shops doesn't always throw up winners. Take the other week for example. I found a CD (sans cover) by a band I'd never heard of called "Corduroy" on the AcidJazz label. Now, Alan Barnes and Steve White's band The Jazz Renegades were on AcidJazz and their albums were good. Perhaps for the princely sum of £1.99 this would be more of the same...
Utter crap. Upbeat cheesy "pop" from a bunch of watered down soul boys that made Haircut 100 sound "cutting edge". It now resides in some wheelie bin in Leith.

Still. The determined collector can not let such horrible experiences deter them. The hunt goes on...

And so it was yesterday in Perth that I stumbled across a CD by the Michal Gera Band from the Prague Castle Jazz fest of 2007.

I decided that for £1.99 I'd take another leap of faith. Though to be honest at least this CD had the cover and despite the "English" translation of the sleeve notes being firmly of the Pigeon variety at least I knew this would be "Jazz".

And very fine jazz it is too. A tone and style not unlikely Enrico Rava. The quartet is made up of Gera on Trumpet, Vitek Svec on double bass, Pavel Razim on drums and Petr Zeman on electric guitar who on occasion gives the whole thing a sort of jazz/rock/"prog" rock edge to it, though never straying too far from the jazz side to lose my interest.

I'd never heard of any of these musicians until yesterday ... but I'm more than happy that I've heard them now. This one is NOT going into the bin... it's a keeper.