The problem jazz media face at the moment – actually it has been like this for years – is that magazines and their sister publications online are not necessarily where the stories are: ergo, often you go to look at all the regular sites eg trawl away here and you come away actually not always that au fait with what is going on because jazz media cannot really keep up with the real time nature of the Internet unless they are blogging in real time and that is often not possible or realistic and live video-led; and as far as playgrounds go the internet is where all the play is happening and probably will do as long as there is an energy supply. Clubs streaming live gigs are probably breaking the sound of surprise most, to use the Whitney Balliett phrase and yes still the best description of jazz.

So where to go instead? Well, it is a fairly mixed picture. These days I follow artists, labels, cultural commentators, other arts and try to gain a snapshot by cutting out the guys in the middle who are the PRs. I hope spin recedes and the PR industry shrinks because it actually does fewer favours than artists might think and costs far too much given the meagre returns often in terms of press clippings achieved. It also distorts the picture. Some bands might get good reviews only because the reviewers have received the record and because specialist reviewers are often very kind.

When trends happen (eg the current cosmic and Afrofuturist constructs) they are more of a collage just as trends dubbed Parky jazz, MBASE, acid jazz etc were although some mean more than others. A generation or sub-genre may have seized the momentum for a while and great: make hay while the sun shines you all.

It is not at all cynical to say that there is, oh it chimes, a cyclical nature to these things but it helps keep things in perspective and not get too carried away with the hype.

The cardinal error of newcomers to jazz and even the old gits who have thankfully discovered yoga, given up reading manuals, and the fact that yes life does not simply revolve around Muggsy Spanier – namaste to you too – is to think that because it is new it is good. Half the time the promotional push is what you are actually believing in as you buy into the spun ideas, banter, and the image. The sounds may ring hollow after a while. “You mean there are sounds?” I thought I heard DJ BowledOver say.  

On Frith Street, above approaching from Soho Square. Ronnie Scott’s will be, gasp, 59 years old in October. In other words young for jazz. Often even to be found putting on jazz that you may not hear, curses, over the hi-fi disguised as a cactus in your favourite vegan dinette slash juice bar.