LONG RUN, OLD SHOES AND SECOND HAND JAZZ

Today me and my old "slightly-less-worn-than-my-new-shoes" shoes went out for what I plan to be my last long run before the Loch Ness mara'.
Felt quite good. Just kept the pace down a bit and manageable. In fact, today as I got closer to home and noticed that I had only done about 18 or so, I did throw in another wee loop and bring it up to 21 miles.

So the "master plan" of having two long runs this weekend has worked! And I've still found time for my other hobby - sitting staring blankly into the middle distance while listening to jazz.

And this weekend has been pretty much dominated by a sort of 90's, British, calypso influenced, pop, jazz type sound. Courtesy of one of Leiths many fine charity shops and Mr Jean Toussaint.

Not a Brit himself, he grew up in the US Virgin Islands, Toussaint "passed through" and "graduated" from Art Blakey Jazz Messengers in the early 80's about the same time as Wynton Marsallis. However, he moved to London and hooked up with most of the late 80's early 90's jazz musicians who were around at that time. And that's what drew me to the first CD I bought from the shop - "What Goes Around" with the likes of Alec Dankworth, Julian Joseph, Jason Robello and Mark Mondesir all appearing on it I thought it would be worth a punt. Very similar, to a lot of what Courtney Pine was doing at the time. Pop influenced Jazz as opposed to Jazz influenced Pop.

Went back into the same shop a few days later and got another of Toussaint's albums. This time the more recent "The Street Above The Underground". Another great disc and perhaps my favourite. More use of soprano sax rather than tenor (again - Courtney Pine appears to have made this move as well) and a bit more energy to the tracks.

Anyway. Thought I'd exhausted that wee supply in the charity shop. But then on Friday I popped back in on my way up to meet Anne at lunchtime. They had a third! "Life I Want" from '95. Again the list of musicians reads like a who's who of 90's Brit jazz. This one has a really nice version of Red Cross by Charlie Parker. Given that the sleeve notes state that the title "Life I want" is a quote from a musician Toussaint was talking too about his desire to live "drug free"; and as issues about the jazz "scene" and drugs makes up the theme of the album it's no surprise that there is at least one Parker reference.

I shall go back to the charity shop for another look, but I think its a bit unlikely that I'll be lucky a fourth time!