A Lark Ascending

As long as it suits the sneering-from-Olympus brigade.

Why stick to Shostakovich? If there are going to be these endless cycles then he's as worthy as anyone. The wider question is do we need these endless cycles? Well I don't but I can only assume that their existence suggests there is a market - new listeners, people who enjoy comparing different versions. I'm more amused by all the 'historic' releases pouring out in boxes, cycles, single discs etc. Buy a box of Furtwangler and become a connoisseur. 'Tis all marketing.

I went to uni at Reading - don't recall the mill. Good thread idea, Shawn. Uffington white horse near Oxford - one of my favourite places. Someone must have used Cerne Abbas as a record sleeve!

This is nice:

I'm starting to get nostalgic about my first download site.

I grew up on RAF (Royal Air Force, not Red Army Faction) bases - there was usually a Spitfire or Hurricane on a pedestal at the entrance gate. The sight of a Spitfire or Hurricane can still make me go all gooey.

Ho! Ho! Ho!.........

Would make a great cover for one of ECM's more excitable releases. Such as? Arve Henriksen and Christian Wallumrod have a new one coming out called 'Swirlin': A Tribute to the Hard Bop Masters'. That cover would work.

Alan Barnes is a good egg I hate Eric Alexander [To avoid confusion, I like Eric Alexander]

I, for one, think Fox and Clayton were worth remembering. And I like having my birthday remembered - so there! Oh, I'm not complaining! I love the Fox/Clayton reminiscences even though I suspect we've done them 3 or 4 times. Roll on the 5th! I think it's perfectly natural to repeat conversations endlessly. Even if we won't tolerate that in our musicians!

Anyone remember Charles Fox/Peter Clayton etc Happy Birthday Why don't you use the search function to find the earlier thread on...

Would make a great cover for one of ECM's more excitable releases.

The BBC have moved Jazz Record Requests for bloody opera again! (actually it's back in the right spot today for the first time in ages)

Why do people keep buying all these reissues instead of investing in the future? Why do people keep buying these empty new things when there is such a treasure chest in the past? I've never bought a crappy mp3 (inevitably followed by 'I gave up buying CDs years ago and only stream from the nearest cloud'). It rained today.

Just finished 'White Heat' which got better and better as it went on. A very moving ending.

They could get Stevie Winwood - 'Keep on Running'.

Yes, we all have our signature rants. Any chance and we're off. I know mine is my lower middle class irritation with upper class arty-fartydom. So what are the others? In recent days I notice the return of: How did you first get into jazz... Fresh sounds/evil Europeans/Andorrans Isn't it about time jazz reflected popular music again? Other favourites: Keith's grunting Manfred's dastardly plan to destroy our recorded heritage Though 'X is not really jazz' and '10 favourite crumhorn players' seem to have lost their popularity as topics. Not complaining. We repeat the same conversations in pubs too. But can you own up to it?

Given that the Black Death was in full flow I wouldn't have thought gatherings of excited Bebop fans would have been approved by the authorities. This was most likely the venue: Burning witches was more the thing to do on a Saturday night round there.

They had jazz clubs in 1369?

Rumour has it a live recording of the Peterloo Massacre is due from this venue. Liner notes by Richard Cobden and John Bright.

Fresh Sound are about to release the missing Miles 'First Great Quintet' album 'Trollin''

Not for me. Some I like, some I don't. And I try to keep in mind that others might like what I don't. Or that I might not be in tune with what the performers/composers were doing. Not sure who decrees what is and is not legitimate. I see your point here from the 'industry' end. But not all listeners/consumers pay that much heed. I'll rewrite that for you: "And as for jazz being boring - well, for my taste a lot of it is. It just is for me. Next time you find yourself bored by music, hold that thought. Don't get me wrong - I think a lot of music is boring, not just jazz. But I find that for me jazz is somewhat staid. I find that Really new things are fun." I find music boring sometimes but that can be as much my state of attentiveness as anything else. If a piece of music doesn't engage me I stop listening to it. Or leave it until I've been given another incentive to try it again. But overall, I am rarely bored by music. If I was, I'd do something else. I'm all for new music - but I've never felt that precludes enjoying old music or new music in an old style. Some cultural arbiters decree that we must constantly hurl ourselves into the shock of the new; others demand we adhere to the eternal values of tradition. I can't see why you can't do both; or why different people might not choose one way or another without being hectored by the guardians of the portals of culture. [Now there's good, old-fashioned, English woolly-minded liberalism for you! (though that sounds Welsh) Ain't going to make any Iskra-like manifestos!] I live nearly 200 miles from London. Visual arts are only of peripheral interest to me. I'm sure it was wonderful.

Not doubting the work involved in any way at all. But I'm rather confused as to why you are taking the moral high ground in protecting all who work so hard in the industry whilst at the same time being so dismissive of a lot of the jazz produced by those same hard working people (a regular beef of yours) - "lots of the records become quickly boring, they are so easy to take in, the tunes get boring *really* quickly, too few of the solos actaully catch fire, etc." Hardly respectful of those musicians or the people who help the music along the chain; not to mention the 'cd collector' you have such contempt for.

I see. Academic stuff. Angels dancing on heads of pins.