A Lark Ascending

Wonder what impact Watney's Red Barrel had on the Jazz Couriers?

Bugger all. There's no vocalist. Two enigmatic questions. I don't know the answer to the first; but the answer to the second seems to be 'Steady path for two more albums and then a rapid loss of direction.'

I'm off to London again next Saturday for a 'total immersion' in Villa-Lobos: http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/r2xzp6 There was an item on BBC Radio 3's 'Music Matters' yesterday where John Williams (the guitar one) was not very complimentary about his guitar pieces. Said that from a guitarist point of view they were a bit obvious*. And he was downright scathing about the concerto. Never mind. I like them. Where I find Villa-Lobos hard going is in the piano concerto-concertante area. He seems to go all 19thC. Need to listen more. Maybe next week will help. (* A bit rich from a chap responsible for my No. 1 Room 101 record - his version of the Deer Hunter tune with Cleo Laine singing 'He was Beautiful' in that arch way she adopts when she's doing 'culture'. I'd rather be locked in a circle of hell with 'Feelings' for eternity than hear that again.)

Yes, I had exactly the same reaction in an Ethiopian restaurant in Nottingham. I think I was partly spooked by the fingers only communal tuck in. But the flat bread reminded me of a wet flannel.

Yes, I got the 'malt' treatment too for a while. For some reason my parents gave up - the tears and tantrums administering the horror must have proved so unsettling that they decided risking our contracting plague or whatever it was meant to counteract. Sheep's head also had me thinking of Arnaldur Indridason's thrillers. I suspect the Viking descendents lost to the world in the Yorkshire Dales still tuck into one on a Friday night before going 'clubbing' in Leeds.

Gosh! I doubt you need a record player in Vienna, let alone a TV! Loved my two visits to that city. I'm on the look out for a baroque opera from one of our regional companies that work this way. In my case it it has to coincide with a Saturday or holidays - I'm hopeless on a work night. My next (not baroque) live one is King Priam (Tippett) at Easter.

Another... Can then join the Hi-Fi system I use 50% of the time... Now if they'd just invent a 5 TB ipod....

Nice little piece about the friendship between Ravel and RVW here and the importance of Ravel in helping develop RVW's style: http://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2014/feb/28/ravel-vaughan-williams-friendship-radio3-ravel-day

Not an album but still puzzling. (and where did that question mark go?)

Butter! Yuch! Just the trace of it on a sandwich... Give me gun sandwiches any day.

I remember being bought durian flavoured ice lollies in Singapore when we moved there in '65. My mum tried to take the back, assuming they'd gone off.

Reminds me of the early 70s and ELP!

Don't know if you listen to/watch music on DVD/Bluray, A.A., but I can recommend this set (well, what I've watched): Can be found at a very reasonable price - think I paid less than £30 for 6 operas. Doesn't have Platee. So far I've only watched 'Les Indes Galantes' - one of the most entertaining couple of hours I've spent in recent times. Listening to Rameau over the last 2 or 3 months has completely opened up my enjoyment of baroque music. It's been a bit like discovering another light filled room which has also illuminated the rooms I'd wandered through many times before. Or something like that.

I love those 70s Burton ECMs. 'Ring' is my favourite. But just like with Carla Bley, find little to hold my attention after the 80s got going. Though I do like the Piazzolla Libertango disc I have of his from a few years' back.

Don't know much about Hilary Hahn - I just have her recording of the Jennifer Higdon concerto (think I'll play that next) - but have to admire a celebrity golden goose putting out a double CD like this. Most (if not all) are her own commissions: Franghiz Ali-Zadeh (1947) – Impulse Somei Satoh (1947) – Bifū Du Yun (1978) – When a Tiger Meets a Rosa Rugosa David Lang (1957) – Light Moving Bun-Ching Lam (1954) – Solitude d’automne Paul Moravec (1957) – Blue Fiddle Antón García Abril (1933) – Third Sigh Avner Dorman (1975) - Memory Games David del Tredici (1937) – Farewell Mason Bates (1977) – Ford’s Farm Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928) – Whispering Gillian Whitehead (1941) – Tōrua Richard Barrett (1959) – Shade Jennifer Higdon (1962) – Echo Dash Christos Hatzis (1953) – Coming To Jeff Myers (1977) – The Angry Birds of Kauai Mark-Anthony Turnage (1960) – Hilary’s Hoedown Valentin Silvestrov (1937) – Two Pieces Kala Ramnath (1967) – Aalap and Tarana Lera Auerbach (1973) – Speak, Memory Tina Davidson (1952) – Blue Curve of the Earth Elliott Sharp (1951) - Storm of the Eye Michiru Oshima (1961) – Memories James Newton Howard (1951) – 133… At Least Nico Muhly (1981) – Two Voices Søren Nils Eichberg (1973) – Levitation Max Richter (1966) – Mercy

Love Little Feat. There's a certain sound to rock music from the American South (yes, I know they were from the West Coast but spiritually...) that always sounds to me like the ground's about to give way; the Stones locked into that for a short time at the end of the 60s and Little Feet brought it to perfection. The Last Record Album was my entry point and it's still my favourite - infectious rhythms that seem to constantly land on unexpected accents, getting that woozy feel. Lowell George's lazy voice sliding over the top and again landing in odd places adds to whole effect of a world about to turn on its side. You can't beat 'Mercenary Territory'. Won't be buying the box - I've got what I need and never cared for what I heard after the George years. But this is a band that certainly deserve the royal treatment.

My favorite dramatic show of the past couple years. Season 2 is excellent as well. Glad to hear that. Like The West Wing the dialogue is so fast paced that if you drop your concentration for a sentence or two it takes two minutes to work out what's happening. Maybe I've been listening to too much opera where everything gets repeated twelve times! I was mesmerised by Emily Mortimer - she'd drive me nuts in real life, those hands flying everywhere and lurching from despair to nirvana in a millisecond. But whenever she comes on screen she grabs my attention - I read she's John Mortimer (Rumpole of the Bailey)'s daughter.

As always I catch on to these things centuries after they first go out. Really enjoyed episode 1 + 2 from my rent-a-DVD postal service.

Not a CD but an app: http://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2014/feb/20/john-cage-4minutes33-seconds-silence-app Think I'll wait for the Japanese XGFT bluchip version.

Evan Parker must be up there with me too - in various Nottingham dives in the 80s, at Appleby over several years, at the RFH in one long day of various improvised music in the early noughties, at Cheltenham (the last time I saw him a few years back) and sat in the Kenny Wheeler Big Band a couple of times.

Probably Kenny Wheeler and John Taylor in the jazz world. Though I imagine the record would go for a bass player like Andy Cleyndert or a drummer like Seb Rochford who seem to turn up backing all manner of people. Richard Thompson, Martin Carthy, John Kirpatrick - more times than I can imagine.

I know people who go out on a Friday night and blow £200 on cocktails, nightclubs, taxis and kebabs. I feel quite austere with my £50 Quid Man recordings lifestyle.

Looks like the start of a 'Carry On' film before the clothes (and wigs!) start to be shed.

Apolitical weather.

'hagiolatry' Seems to conflate hagiography and idolatry. Never heard it before but John Eliot Gardener uses it in his Bach book to describe responses to the composer over the years. I've always used hagiography but I suspect that might be specific to written accounts that promote people to sainthood.