I want to try to introduce you to Jazz. Of course, I don’t have a good definition of what I'm trying to introduce. Even Wikipedia largely throws its hands up and shrugs. Let’s just say: Jazz is as Jazz Does.

I could labour on about my feelings on Jazz; my history with it, and how I see the genre; but I really don’t feel like that’s a valuable service. If you ever want me to talk about jazz and my feelings about it though, definitely ask me. It’s something I find fascinating, despite being a neophyte.

A brief note before I start just dumping music on you: First and foremost, let me encourage you: When it comes to Jazz, feel absolutely free to ride the skip button. Jazz can be a pretty strong flavour at times, and while you might end up loving it after years of working towards it, it’s totally OK if you don’t get or love a piece of jazz the first time you listen to it. Myself, I have strong feelings about certain types of jazz, and I’ve discovered that some things work best live. All I really want out of you for this post dear reader is: Please, give this a try.

Since I have to start somewhere, let me start with the United Kingdom. For reasons I don’t fully understand, the UK has an incredible jazz scene, full of incredible performers making really fascinating music that bends genre often.

I've included an Apple Music playlist below; please, if you're not a subscriber, try to find the songs on Youtube or Spotify (also: I'd accept tranliterations of this podcast to Spotify if anyone wanted to provide that!). Edit: Here's a Tidal Playlist if you subscribe there. Thanks so much to Gloria for that!

I can't guarantee I won't update the playlist after posting, but hopefully that's a good fill for now.

Literally today, I also found this track, which is worth sharing, and is sufficiently new, that as near as I can tell it’s not up on streaming just yet: Emanative & Tamar Collocutor - Energy