Newcastle-upon-Tyne label New Jazz and Improvised Music Recordings are to release Shoes for Losers on 24 February 2021. Hefty slice of gritty free improvisation 'Golf with Sausages' – that title took a certain inspired genius to dream up, no fog on the Tyne at all required – is already streaming. The work of double bassist Andy Champion and tenor saxophonist Graeme Wilson Shoes for Losers was recorded in a Gateshead studio back in February. Both players are from the band ACV. Double bass & saxophone pairings are pretty rare over an entire album so it is quite a novel project in store. Wilson's take-no-prisoners insistence matched by Champion's feisty Henry Grimes-like responses are certainly a much needed antidote to offset all the dismal slush of a lot of Christmas jazz at the moment. Andy Champion, top.