Right—the holidays are over, the Christmas tree is fuel for the fire, and the worst of the NYE champagne bottle shards have been swept up; it's time to get serious. As in, resolutions.

Over the past few months I've been trying to listen to more jazz. I can't quite remember what started this whole project, but now I won't rest until I've achieved my own transcendental jazz trance.

As it so happens, while checking out the local flea market recently I chanced upon some very relevant box sets, comprising some fifty classic jazz albums.

So here's the plan: at one album per week, that gives me about a year of autodidactic jazz education, plus a buffer at the end for some self-reflection. I don't have a textbook or any other proper guide; I'm just going to listen to the albums, binge some Wikipedia pages, and see where that gets me in a year.

Fair warning: this post is just going to be me brain-dumping my uneducated, undiscerning thoughts on these albums. I don't imagine it will be entertaining or useful in any way for literally anybody else, but hey, you're the one reading it. If, for some misguided reason you do want to follow along, there's a dedicated feed for just this project in addition to the overall blog feed.