Instead of Jazz Prospecting, I'm posting my Jazz Consumer Guide: number 27 in a mostly quarterly series since 2004. The previous one appeared in the Village Voice on May 10. This was was finished and handed in about August 1. The column was started after Gary Giddins was fired by the Voice in 2004. Chuck Eddy was music section editor, but Robert Christgau was the one directly handling the jazz pieces -- a legacy of having edited Giddins for thirty-some years. Those were big shoes -- ones which had long established the Village Voice as one of the world's foremost review of all things jazz -- so Christgau decided on a team approach: Francis Davis would write a monthly feature piece, I would crank out a quarterly Jazz Consumer Guide, and Nate Chinen would write occasional pieces on live performances. After Eddy and Christgau were fired, Rob Harvilla took over and continued the basic idea -- although Davis took leave to work on a book, and Chinen moved on to the New York Times.

Harvilla was replaced by Maura Johnston this spring. My May column came out a few weeks into her regime, and I submitted this column on August 1, expecting the same. Instead, she sat on it, and after much prodding decided it was too dated. Indeed, lateness and lack of space have been chronic problems from the beginning: after the first year it was clear that there would be enough quality material to run every two (as opposed to three) months, but I never pushed it hard enough, and they never found the space. Instead, I found myself writing more cryptically to squeeze more records into less space. Meanwhile, the Voice keeps losing space, tightening money, and shedding its legacy: the days when a business could provide something useful and hope to make some profit along the way have given way to the predatory ideal of sucking every value dry in the name of profit, and the Voice has given up on even trying to be an exception.

When my column was killed, Johnston proposed that I write a weekly blog entry for the Voice, covering 8-12 records. I accepted and asked some questions, but never heard from her again, so it's not clear whether this will or will not happen. Jazz Consumer Guide winds up covering about 200 records per year, so that works out to about four per week. Jazz Prospecting, on the other hand, averages 10-15 per week, so most likely what I would do would be to try to raise Jazz Prospecting to Jazz CG standards, which would entail not writing on everything that comes my way, and hopefully writing better about what I do try to cover. At first glance, I would be able to broaden my HMs down to B+(**), although I could also start writing about reissues and maybe even some non-jazz that strikes my fancy. Such a blog would be more timely -- this column, even had it come out on schedule, has a fairly large number of 2010 releases -- and I'd have space to write more expansively.

Whether it would be worth the effort is hard to say. Seven years of writing this column has been fun, interesting, and ultimately a huge amount of miserably compensated work. My house has been overrun by CDs I'm unlikely to ever play again -- good ones I'm proud to own and would be happy to play, and less good ones I haven't figured out how to get rid of. But I also wind up spending so much time working on them that I have precious little time for doing other things, including writing about things I feel a good deal more competent at than music. I don't know how I'm going to sort this out -- although I must admit that the most likely course is inertia.

I have a lot to do in the next week or two: a year-end jazz piece for Rhapsody, a system to present the individual ballots in Francis Davis's Jazz Critics Poll, a Pazz & Jop ballot, a framework for a couple of websites. Plus more personal stuff, likely to trump everything else. So I'm unsure how to wrap this up. My initial plan was to hold back Jazz Prospecting this week and run it next, as a capstone on the Jazz CG (28) cycle. Then I'll suspend Jazz Prospecting until making a decision sometime in January. In the meantime, I may (or may not) post a Jazz Consumer Guide (28). I never bothered to try wrapping it up because there was never a chance of getting it published, but I have approximately enough written to fill one out. Depends on how much I want to save for use in a blog, although we could do both, or I could wind up not doing the blog.

The Jazz Prospecting for this Jazz Consumer Guide ran from April 11 to August 1, 2011. The collected Jazz Prospecting notes are here. During this time, I made a number of decisions to not cover various records. Those were listed in my surplus file. This file includes fourteen short "consolation prize" reviews, which I've (almost certainly) posted on the blog here some time ago. The A- records extend down into the Honorable Mentions through Conference Call -- one of my space-saving tricks.

I'm very sorry, especially to the kind publicists who gave me the opportunity to hear so much wonderful music, that the exposure here is likely to be far short of what the Village Voice promised. I worked very hard to make this happen, and I'm deeply disappointd that it's come to this. On the other hand, if you're fortunate enough to find this page, you're in for some real treats -- all the way down to the tiptoes of the Honorable Mentions.

Pick Hits

Dan Raphael/Rich Halley/Carson Halley: Children of the Blue Supermarket (Pine Eagle)
The setup is simple enough: Raphael declaims his postbeat poetry, Rich Halley chases every stanza with his garrulous postbop tenor sax, and his son the drummer accents. Not sure how the poetry flows on paper, but the mad rush of images is so vibrant you hang on every word, and the sax drives every point home. A

David S. Ware: Onecept (AUM Fidelity)
His life saved by a kidney transplant, the avant saxophonist's rehab continues: first the solo Saturnian improv with stritch and manzello for variety, now he adds bass and drums -- old hands William Parker and Warren Smith, who can follow him anywhere. He works up subtle schemata, but the main thing you hear is his towering sound. A MINUS

Muhal Richard Abrams: SoundDance (Pi)
Two discs with the AACM guru-pianist, each a duo: an easy one comping behind Fred Anderson's warmest, gentlest free sax, and a difficult one with George Lewis running interference on laptop and trombone, the distilled essence of forty years of breaking all the rules. A MINUS

Rodrigo Amado: Searching for Adam (Not Two)
An imposing tenor saxophonist for more than a decade in groups like the Lisbon Improvisation Players and the Humanization 4Tet, Amado fronts a group that frames him as smartly as his photography. With John Hébert on bass, Gerald Cleaver on drums, and Taylor Ho Bynum on contrasting brass, cornet, and flugelhorn. The group can freewheel, but the focus sticks to Amado, especially when he slows down and dips into the baritone sax. A MINUS

Mathias Eick: Skala (ECM)
Like so many Norwegian jazz players, has a rock background which he still indulges in Jaga Jazzist and Motorpsycho, but ECM focuses him more narrowly: the rhythms shift free, the piano rumbles, sax and harp slip in and out, while the trumpet is warm and bright enough to dispell any thoughts of Nordic chill. A MINUS

Ellery Eskelin/Gerry Hemingway: Inbetween Spaces (Auricle)
Terrence McManus/Gerry Hemingway: Below the Surface Of (Auricle)
A pair of drummer duos: whereas Paal Nilssen-Love is all muscle circling his opponents, Hemingway is finesse, patiently drawing his partners out. Eskelin's tenor sax is fractal, each excursion revealing more detail as Hemingway picks it apart. McManus's electric guitar is louder, more dissonant, the fractures less by design than by stress. Both: A MINUS

Avram Fefer/Eric Revis/Chad Taylor: Eliyahu (Not Two)
Sax-bass-drums trio, more soulful than you expect from free jazz, tightly focused with a humane tone. Named for Fefer's late father, a thoughtful reckoning. A MINUS

Free Fall: Gray Scale (Smalltown Superjazz)
Ken Vandermark's fourth take on the Jimmy Giuffre trio, where Håvard Wiik's piano finaly rivals Paul Bley's for fluid invention, and centers the bass and clarinet abstractions. A MINUS

Humanization 4tet: Electricity (Ayler)
Guitarist Luis Lopes provides the juice, welding the bass and drums of Dennis González's sons into a taut, metallic undercarriage -- just the platform for Rodrigo Amado's sax bombs. Heavy metal but jazz. A MINUS

Abdullah Ibrahim & Ekaya: Sotho Blue (Sunnyside)
A septet with three saxes and a trombone, just enough tones to let the leader play the band the way Ellington used to, although the piano is more thematic, stitching together the glorious panorama of colors. A MINUS

Inzinzac: Inzinzac (High Two)
A guitar-sax-drums trio playing "rock music in odd time signatures" -- by "rock" they mean loud, and by "odd" they mean odd. Guitarist Alban Bailly, who named the group for his home town in Brittany, drives his pieces, but more often than not Dan Scofield's soprano sax provides the sharp, shiny, metallic edges. A MINUS

Jon Irabagon: Foxy (Hot Cup)
The Sonny Rollins cover takeoff is just as goof, as are the "Foxy"-"Proxy"-"Chicken Poxy" titles. Not cowtunes; more like A Night at the Village Vanguard. And if Barry Altschul wants to play louder than Elvin Jones, the saxophonist cranks it up that much more. A MINUS

Steve Swell's Slammin' the Infinite: 5000 Poems (Not Two)
The dependable, long-struggling avant trombonist drops his best album ever and the main things you notice are how Sabir Mateen has a tour de force on everything from flute to tenor sax, and how new pianist John Blum crashes the rhythm to shards. But the trombone does keep up, and holds the chaos together. A MINUS

Tarbaby: The End of Fear (Posi-Tone)
Looks like a piano trio juggling guest horns on 8 of 12 tracks but Orrin Evans, Eric Revis, and Nasheet Waits pick up energy on their own, just not as much as Nicholas Payton, J.D. Allen, and especially Oliver Lake. Covers from Fats Waller to Bad Brains, originals by all three including a Monkish one by Revis. Everything holds together. A MINUS

Honorable Mention

Eero Koivistoinen & Co.: 3rd Version (1973, Porter)
Avant fusion from Finland, McLaughlin-influenced guitar/keybs with a saxophonist who steps boldly forth.

David S. Ware/Cooper-Moore/William Parker/Muhammad Ali: Planetary Unknown (AUM Fidelity)
More progress: a new quartet with older players than the old quartet, the old fire too.

Honey Ear Trio: Steampunk Serenade (Foxhaven)
Tough young tenor sax trio can still wax sentimental on "Over the Rainbow."

Jerry Bergonzi: Convergence (Savant)
His basic tenor sax tour de force even when he tries something different, like overdubbing his with soprano.

Conference Call: What About . . . . ? (Not Two)
Prodigious avant sax/clarinetist Gebhard Ullman roars and roils over Memphis-based pianist Michael Jefry Stevens.

Mostly Other People Do the Killing: The Coimbra Concert (Clean Feed)
As rough and tumble as you'd expect, beating up not the bebop classics but their own bent deconstructions thereof.

Matthew Shipp: Art of the Improviser (Thirsty Ear)
The craft of the jazz pianist -- a solo disc you have to chew on, leavened by a trio that carries you along.

Harriet Tubman: Ascension (Sunnyside)
Fusion band aims high, adding trumpet and turntables to Coltrane's rafter raiser.

I Compani: Mangiare! (Icdisc)
Bo van der Graaf's soundtrack serenaders take spaghetti westerns and load on the sauce and cheese.

Terrence McManus: Transcendental Numbers (NoBusiness)
With Mark Helias and Gerry Hemingway, so call this BassDrumGuitar, a little more abstract given the higher math.

E.J. Antonio: Rituals in the Marrow (Blue Zygo)
Scratchy raw poetry laced with Joe Giardullo free sax, with a gospel whoop when her blood gets riled up.

Rakalam Bob Moses/Greg Burk: Ecstatic Weanderings (Jazzwerkstatt)
Improv with African allusions, abstract piano in a jungle of worldly drums.

Jaruzelski's Dream: Jazz Gawronski (Clean Feed)
Politically tinged Polish jokes in the Italian group's titles, freebop sax in their grooves.

Sonic Liberation Front: Meets Sunny Murray (High Two) Bata beats and avant-sax, joined by Kevin Diehl's mentor but a bit out of sorts.

Mike Reed's People, Places & Things: Stories and Negotiations (482 Music)
New freebop from Chicago, tapping old-timers from Sun Ra's 1950s for fresh stories.

Ken Filiano & Quantum Entanglements: Dreams From a Clown Car (Clean Feed)
Michaël Attias and Tony Malaby as quirky saxophonists, indeterminacy a fundamental law of their universe.

Stephen Gauci/Kris Davis/Michael Bisio: Three (Clean Feed)
Subtle avant sax riffing around abstract piano and mischievous bass.

Trygve Seim/Andreas Utnem: Purcor (ECM)
Nordic sax-piano duets, some folkloric, some improvised, served chilled.

Júlio Resende: Assim Falava Jazzatustra (Clean Feed)
Beatwise piano, Perico Sambeat's tasty sax, rumbling rhythm, Pink Floyd cover.

The Ullmann/Swell 4: News? No News! (Jazzwerkstatt)
Avant shuck and jive, freewheeling tenor sax or bass clarinet brought down to earth by gritty trombone.

Decoy & Joe McPhee: Oto (Bo Weavil)
World's freest saxophonist combusts caustically with Hammond B3 trio.

Jason Stein's Locksmith Isidore: Three Kinds of Happiness (Not Two)
Bass clarinet-led free jazz trio, kind of like a big buck with velvet horns.

Andrew Lamb Trio: New Orleans Suite (Engine)
More post-Katrina fallout -- sax and bass, flute and didgeridoo -- with Warren Smith declaiming and hitting things.

Scenes: Rinnova (Origin)
John Stowell's guitar trio -- subtle craftsmanship for postbop ambience.

Brian Landrus: Foward (Cadence Jazz)
A postbop smorgasbord, shifting horns anchored by the leader's baritone sax/bass clarinet.

The Dynamic Les DeMerle Band: Gypsy Rendezvous, Vol. One (Origin)
Drummer-singer and better half Bonnie Eisele trade surreal standards in a hot club in Hawaii.

Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord: Accomplish Jazz (Hot Cup)
Sax-toting gunslingers take a break to attend church with the Louvin Brothers.

Correction: Two Nights in April (Ayler)
Sebastian Bergström's hard-edged piano trio, leans free on a rock solid base.

Barb Jungr: The Men I Love (Naim)
Standardizing Neal Diamond, Todd Rundgren, Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Webb.

François Carrier/Alexey Lapin/Michel Lambert: Inner Spire (Leo)
The pianist prefers dense, dark clusters; the saxophonist searches for the light.

Todd DelGiudice: Pencil Sketches (OA2)
Highly improbable sax hero, bright, lush, and never sketchy.

William Hooker: Crossing Points (1992, NoBusiness)
In a duo with altoist Thomas Chapin, the drummer jumps out front and dares the saxophonist to keep up.

The Jazz Passengers: Reunited (Justin Time)
The Peaches & Herb hit, bent and laced with avant-skronk, padded with two Debbie Harry leads from the good old days.

Jamaaladeen Tacuma: For the Love of Ornette (Jazzwerkstatt)
Prime Time bassist sneaks Coleman into the studio and teases him with new turns on old times.

Premier Roeles: Ka Da Ver (Vindu)
Dutch free jazz bash -- the sort of thing that will be touted thirty years from now in some critic's Unheard Music Series.