You might wonder whether the world needs another version of the Jazz Messengers' favourite, "Moanin'": but the band assembled for this session - including master pianist Cedar Walton and inventive horn players Bobby Watson and Lester Bowie - give it and other well-known numbers, such as Lee Morgan's "Sidewinder" and Horace Silver's "Senor Blues", more oomph than is usually the case with such projects.Meanwhile, Manu Dibango, the African saxophonist who was a pioneer in fusing the continent's traditional sounds with jazz influences, is at Ronnie Scott's, Frith Street W1 from Monday (9 Feb) until next Saturday, with Israeli-born pianist Jonathan Gee in support.On Tuesday (10 Feb), another saxophonist, Tommy Smith, begins a run at the Pizza Express jazz club, Dean Street, W1. Indeed, Bay Area-based Hightone seems to be in a rich seam at the moment, with both contemporary releases and, through the Testament and HMG imprints, important reissues from the likes of Jessie Mae Hemphill and Otis Spann. Frankie Lee's The Ladies and the Babies, originally put out more than a decade ago by Hightone, itself is a minor soul-blues classic that deserves a much wider audience. Much more restrained is Hello Friend, an album produced by stellar entertainer Bill Cosby as a tribute to his late son, Ennis. Still only in his early thirties, the Scottish-raised performer has an impressive track record, and with a band featuring Julian Joseph, has great capacity to surprise.Roger Trapp. Now, after a long break, the star of that record is back with an album on the Hightone label simply called 13 Featuring Lester Butler. Though the album features the same kind of no-nonsense approach, vocalist and harpist Butler is on even better form, with a driving band helping him power his way through such classics as "Smoke Stack Lightning" and "Baby Please Don't Go" as well as his own compositions in the same vein. The films have high visual standards, but they remain pretty rather than explicit and HMV say they are steady but unspectacular sellers so far.It is hardly likely, however, that a generation of women in Agent Provocateur underwear, fired up by reading Mr Goss's books, empowered by visits to Erotica, informed by the Erotic Print Society's drawings, angered by the prudishness of authority figures, can long be denied.

What was once the territory of sad, lonely men is about to be taken over by successful women who fancy that shared eroticism may help them build stable relationships. Very New Labour, reallyDelectus, 0181-963 0979; Nostalgia Publications, 01904 624901; Erotic Print Society, 0171-351 6955.. Back in 1992, a band called the Red Devils burst out of Los Angeles with a record produced by Def American boss Rick Rubin that had the likes of Mick Jagger hailing the return of the spirit of Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Billy Boy Arnold and other uncompromising blues greats. But Edwards remarks that the sales are not what they were - probably because they simply weren't very strong in visual or fantasy terms, and that sexual acts require variation in art as in reality if they are not to become monotonous. The answer to that, according to Henry Cobbold, is series such as the Red Shoe Diaries, rated 18, and starring the likes of David Duchovny of The X Files and imported by Cobbold from the US. It is the new respectability of erotic material and some of its purveyors that demands a less restrictive approach to its regulation. And the respectability is likely to be driven by the new willingness of women to buy pornography, or to allow it in the bedroom, if it's of the right sort."The fastest-growing part of my market is women," says Michael Goss.

"They're something like 35 per cent of my business, and they are far more frank and fussy about what they want than men." About one in 10 purchasers of the Erotic Print Society catalogue is a woman. But the Society's Rowan Pelling, just turned 30, says: "About half the buyers of our Illustrated Book of Bottoms are women. It's funny and jolly, and it's very rude, with quite a lot of screwing from behind." She adds: "Judging from the phone, they're respectable middle-aged women."Women's new assertiveness extends to demanding material that is rather more glamorous. Rob Edwards, HMV's video buyer, makes the point that the gentle but explicit charms of the Lovers' Guides series brought women customers to the stores' adult sections for the first time. The BBFC brought itself to classify these rather unimaginative tapes as suitable for people over 18 (and shopping in places not licensed as sex shops) because they were "educational". He was at great pains to make sure that the police and the licensing authorities understood that he had no intention of, as he says, "breaking or changing the law".

Even in this spoofy canvas, the composition is controlled perfectly.Sollars peered out of his studio window. "I can paint when I like and I don't mind having no money," he mused. He's even picky about accepting commissions unless he feels he can do them justice. "I just resign myself to the fact that I have low cash and that's fine As long as I can eat and play my music, I'm happy.