A Lark Ascending

If you can track it down, well worth watching the 50th anniversary TV series 'Windrush', This book from it is superb:

60 here at the moment - and raining! Another mud-bath at Glastonbury... YES ! :party: Jumping Jack Splash.

99 years ago today:

I always put mine in the freezer for 30 mins prior to playing a side. The only problem is that you have to wait another 30 mins to play side 2 so the mat is again at the right temperature. The only way to get optimum performance from your system.

Sibelius' 8th Mahler 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th

absolutely with you on this one. I've never understood the need to clap at the end of a solo and why it's become such a reflex for so many. Not least it always obscures the following contribution. I find it interesting that this doesn't happen at the more improv end of the spectrum where audiences seem to remain quieter throughout. It's the 'jazz' crowd that seem to want to do it more Notice how it's the drum solo that always gets the biggest response. The main clapping is largely reflex. But there's something (seemingly) athletic and physical about a drum solo that seems to elicit real enthusiasm. I thought that was just relief Very good! I think at my next classical concert I'm going to greet the end of the main piece by shouting 'Toad!'

absolutely with you on this one. I've never understood the need to clap at the end of a solo and why it's become such a reflex for so many. Not least it always obscures the following contribution. I find it interesting that this doesn't happen at the more improv end of the spectrum where audiences seem to remain quieter throughout. It's the 'jazz' crowd that seem to want to do it more Notice how it's the drum solo that always gets the biggest response. The main clapping is largely reflex. But there's something (seemingly) athletic and physical about a drum solo that seems to elicit real enthusiasm.

Yup. "The Voyage" is classic. His experimentation definitely lifted the band's albums beyond the routine, though I'd also add that he wasn't the band's best songwriter and perhaps a more Pinder-dominated band would have been more boring. Yes, you are right. Though I rather liked his very gloomy 'My Song' on one of the later albums he was on which went to strange places. And he was the only member of the band to have a song covered by the Four Tops! The only consistent songwriter, to my mind, was Justin Hayward. I think the others were having babies from around 1970 and so couldn't resist couchy-coo songs. Talking about The Moody Blues on a jazz board - I think I might have broken several house rules. Edit: This made me smile from the Wikipaedia page on Pinder: And I'd like to know if this was indeed so:

They did in the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford a month back! The woman next to me did it the end of each half. At least she didn't shout 'Bravo maestro'.

There's some really inventive mellotron on the 2nd and 3rd (post blues band) Moody Blues albums. If you can get past the tweeness of the band (I can because they were my first musical love and conjure up so many memories). You can almost hear Mike Pinder going 'well what will happen if I do this?' If he'd been given more scope instead of their rather democratic approach to song (and poem!!!!!) inclusion their later albums might have been less patchy. Never realised until seeing that clip above that the sound on depressing a key would only last 8 seconds.

I rarely clap solos in jazz concerts - always seems like a ritual that perfectly illustrates the premise above. But I'm afraid I do conform at the end of the tune or concert. The one that annoys me is the audience member who has to be the first to clap at the end of a piece (they tend to shout out things like 'Yeah' at inopportune moments too...in Sheffield, for goodness sake!). Quiet pieces of music in particular benefit from a short space of silence after they end. But too often 'Mr. Hey Everyone-I-Know-When-This-Piece-Ends' jumps in while the last note is fading. And don't even start me on the berk who shouts 'Bravo!' in a classical concert....

What? Clap?

Thanks for that clip - so that's what goes on inside! Would love to see that film! There's a mellotron obsessives website here: http://www.mellotron.com/ Has a nice list of albums that used the mellotron: http://www.mellotron.com/mellolis.htm (Has one of the Herbie Hancock discs mentioned above listed).

Let's hope Soft Machine 'Third' is high on his list. That one still needs some serious work done on it. He's mentioned it as a possibility.

Coming soon for those with large lofts or cellars: http://www.dgmlive.com/news.htm

I saw them in Nov '72, April '73 and Oct '73. I was a bit besotted. This is what I remember: http://www.dgmlive.com/vision.htm?show=293&id=490 Though Bruford liked his white dungarees with no shirt!

They had two at that time, One for Fripp and one for David Cross. I recall them looking very elegant in pure white. I'd love one in my living room! Yes, they had a reputation for going out of tune easily and even catching fire! The thing with King Crimson was that they used them in a rather bizarre way. Most bands used them as surrogate orchestras but by 73/74 KC were seeing them as instruments to do odd things with.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/19/in-praise-of-clapping-swedish-researchers-editorial I can relate to this. I hate the ritual in classical concerts where the performers leave the stage, come back, leave the stage, come back, leave the stage, come back... Yet I keep clapping for fear of seeming ungrateful.

Bugger all to do with jazz, but I love the sound of the mellotron. It was there in the heart of non-mainstream rock as I started listening in 1970. Largely wiped out by the much blander polyphonic synth in the late 70s, except as a bit of exotica. Recall hearing Andy Partridge (I think) extolling its virtues on a radio programme as the only instrument that faded in and then stopped as opposed to starting and fading out. Mellotron fans, this is your corner. Wish Keith Jarrett had taken to one!

Old troopers never die, they don't even fade away. Happening 2 miles up the road from me in August: http://www.ukeventsandproduction.com/rockin-the-park.html

Presumably 'Pirates of Penzance' is outlawed?.. Well, I don't think it was mentioned. But Radio 3 is quite open-eared these days. They even had a Cornish folk band! More to the point, no mention of Veryan Weston, Jim Hart or Rory Simmons.

Nice radio programme about music in or inspired by Cornwall - Arnold, Bax, Lloyd, Fitkin etc http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b02yj9gx

Could be an Ozzy Osborne LP cover! That one's more Black Adder than Black Sabbath.

That's how it felt at the time. The buzz had gone. I always rationalised it as having been killed off by Punk but thinking back I was already looking elsewhere for musical interest by early '75. For me the last creative blast came from the 'second division' [in terms of popularity] with National Health who produced two completely fresh albums c. 78/9. But they couldn't have picked a worse moment to debut albums of long, twiddly instrumentals! I'd put in a thumbs up for a much later Genesis album - 'We Can't Dance'. I'd long given up on them when that came out but I was taking a school trip and one of the kids kept putting the album in the minibus stereo all weekend. I came to really like it.

And if it's like that for one listener, imagine the multiple variations of impression that are generated by all the different people listening from different contexts. Makes it all the more strange why some people are desperate to nail the bloodied butterfly in one place and insist that that is where it should reside. Over the last year one of the ways I've gained greatest pleasure is using my iPod(s) with a pair of noise-cancelling headphones. Gets me into the music much more immediately. I especially enjoy listening to classical music that way - I find it easier to hear the different groups of instruments than on my main system where I've never really been able to get a proper stereo image (mainly, I think, because my living room is very small). I too like the car for listening. I get a good 90 minutes done on workdays - get quite excited as it comes to the time to drive to work/home.