I've been trying to work out the last time I bought a song that was at number one. I think it was Rock Me Amadeus by Falco in 1986.

Today, I bought the JCB song by nizlopi - it's beautiful, and I tear up every time I hear it. If you haven't heard it yet, head over to their myspace page and have a listen before firing up iTunes or whatever your media player of choice is and BUYING the song.

See, this is important. The alternative for the christmas number 1 is some goon from X-Factor, some psuedo-talented no-mark…

Sometimes there are CDs that change your life, and then for some mad reason slip out of your consciousness for a while.

I was grabbing random cassettes for the car the other day, and picked up Book Of Kells by Iona - for a time, Iona were beyond a musical indulgence for me and were something of an obsession.

My knowledge of the band goes back to me inadvertently sleeping through their first ever gig at Greenbelt 1990 - I woke up, looked at the stage, and thought 'isn't that Nick Beggs?' Even in my bleary eyed first-sleep-for-three-days state,…

Many of you visiting this will already know all about what I do as a musician, so unless you just want some easy links to where it all is on this site, you can skip this…

For those of you who don't, allow me to introduce myself - I'm Steve Lawson, as the link over there on the left says, and I'm a solo bassist, as the 'about me' handily tells you.

I've got lots of tunes uploaded here at last.fm, 7 albums worth, to be precise (or is it 8? Er, I'll check).

Anyway, if you go to the…

never let it be said that Britain doesn't have a vibrant and burgeoning jazz scene.

Mark Lockheart is one of the busiest and most respected sax players in the country, and for his current tour he's assembled a fantastic group featuring four marvellous saxophonists with a killer rhythm section. It's pretty rare to see four sax players in a contemporary jazz setting in the UK - it's not often that anyone can afford to take that kind of project on the road, but Mark has managed it.

Due to my having a gig on the same night, I wasn't able…

Only a handful of artists have thus far reached 200 plays on my list, and it's quite a select gathering. As of just now, the list is -

Jonatha Brooke - 312
Michael Manring - 261
Kris Delmhorst - 243
Julie Lee - 206
Bill Frisell - 205
Eric Roche - 205
Rise Kagona - 202

Rise's entry is slightly misleading in that, while wonderful, I only played those tunes that much cos I was learning them for a gig…!

The others are all perennial favourites - whatever else is going on in my music listening patterns at a time,…

…or at least, the bass world. The Duke Ellington big band of the early 1940s was an amazing band for many reasons - the arrangements, Duke's own piano playing, Ben Webster on tenor sax and Cootie Williams on trumpet - amazing musicians playing amazing music.

But it was Bassist Jimmy Blanton whose influence would change the way his instrument was perceived for ever. His playing on tracks like Jack The Bear and Bojangles took the bass into a role that was previous inconceivable - playing melody lines up there with the soloists, fluid swinging melodies that, at a time when…

It's happened to me a few times - I buy one album by an artist which doesn't grab me, but the body of evidence that suggests that they are someone I really ought to like pursuades me to get another and then it clicks. One band that happened with was King's X. Another artist was Bruce Cockburn.

With Bruce, I'd heard mention of him for years in articles about the Greenbelt Festival, so when I eventually bought Dancing In The Dragon's Jaws, I had very high expectations. I also had very specific expectations, though I can't remember…

Everyone's got them - albums they found sort of accidentally, that no-one recommended, they just fell into your lap.

Our Price, Southgate High Street (now sadly long gone). Almost 10 years ago. Killing time, browsing the jazz section, hoping to find something other than nina simone and wynton marsalis. Turn round, glance at the 'new releases' on the wall. Start to read the blurbs. Hmmm, singer/songwriter, sounds a bit like Carol King and Edie Brickell. Worthy of an investigation. Odd name, like a bloke who can't spell his own name. Time to geek out on the credits - Ah, Abe…

Does it get any better than Hejira? Not only is it Joni Mitchell at her finest, it is, IMHO, recorded music at its very finest.

It's been my desert island disc for god knows how long - ever since I was first slipped a clandestine cassette copy while playing bass in a New Orleans jazz band (anything written after 1930 was heavily frowned on by the band leader, but the trombonist saw that the teenage bassist (me) desperately needed an introduction to the wonder that is Jaco Pastorius - so he did me a tape with Hejira on one…