A Lark Ascending

Sounds like a job for Manfred. "We got back yards and back roads and...fjords."

This chap regularly misses gigs: Most Disappointing No-Show Though when he does turn up he's brilliant at the catering.

On work days I always have a bowl of All Bran with water and a dusting of sugar. If I cut out the sugar I'd have the perfect breakfast for a music critic.

The big bands may still be a way off but apparently kippers are back: KIPPERS Causing so much excitement that the presenter of the BBC Radio 3 (the highbrow station) breakfast show just asked us to phone in if we were having kippers for breakfast. Sadly I'm on hot crossed buns with honey.

I would say that's most likely true of the vast majority. Americans get so much flag-waving superiority shoved down their throats from such an early age it's hard to take a "global view" of anything. Add to that the INSANE proliferation of Christianity at the expense of all reason here and you have a perfect little petrie dish of narrow-minded morons happily thinking the U.S. IS the fucking world. It's not unique to the States. There are plenty of Brits who would happily fill in the Channel Tunnel, whip us out of the EC and restart the Home Guard. Lunacy here. We're only a hop, skip and a jump from the continent yet our non-native language skills are dreadful (and I'm just as bad on that count. Once travelled around Sweden for a fortnight with only 'Tak' to my vocabulary!).

Just finished: No. 8 of the series that I've been working through since Xmas. Now: and:

There's an album project there! 'Re-building Bridges'. Probably a legal minefield.

Don't bother with the Andorran version. Get the original! I'm not so sure about that, Bev. Before watching the Canadian version I would have dismissed it out of hand as being unable to match the Danish original. In all fairness, I think it stands up well although I'm sure almost everyone will disagree. Just my opinion. I'm jesting. I understand the commercial pressures to a) make it without subtitles and b) put it into a familiar location (less sure there - it's the unfamiliarity of the locations of these Scandinavian/French/Italian thrillers that I think has made them successful here (to say nothing of the books that spawned some of them). That's also what makes US series so intriguing over here - the unfamiliarity of location and cultural mores). Given the excellence of so much US TV (far more ambitious than most UK TV which finds it hard to get beyond rather sentimental period drama) I'm sure the US version of 'The Killing' has been well done. It just that the need to remake the original plays into the common view outside of the USA that mainstream America is not interested in the rest of the world.

And, yes, it does appear to be that Kenny Clarke. The contents have bugger all to do with Xmas or Easter!

Yes. There aren't many tunes I dislike in themselves - 'Misty', 'Feelings' etc aside. But there are some I could do with a break from due to their constantly being played - not necessarily a problem in the tunes themselves. But that weariness can be overcome by an inspiring performance. Groove Holmes has done super versons of those two. MG There's a live Bill Frisell CD where he starts to play one of them and stops. Someone in the audience sniggers and Frisell barks something to the effect of 'What?' I don't much like 'My Ship'....but I like the version on 'Miles Ahead', mainly because of the Evans arrangement of the orchestra.

I find it astounding that young people today don't have the patience to turn one of these over regularly. Though, thinking about it, I have no patience when one appears on my computer screen.

Yes. There aren't many tunes I dislike in themselves - 'Misty', 'Feelings' etc aside. But there are some I could do with a break from due to their constantly being played - not necessarily a problem in the tunes themselves. But that weariness can be overcome by an inspiring performance.

'Satin Doll'

Don't bother with the Andorran version. Get the original!

The good old English (and the French and Spanish and Dutch and Portugese) set the wheels in motion for a lot of 'historical determinism'. It goes much earlier than that. The inevitable arrival of the Messiah is deeply ingrained in Jewish and Christian culture and the sense of a world headed towards a predetermined end point. Not to mention Manifest Destiny!

It's happened before. 'Classical' music grew out of popular music and was fed by it again and again. But it then became something else. I'm not sure that is necessarily unhealthy. Was Bebop unhealthy? That was the point jazz (or some jazz musicians) chose the intellectual path. I've no problem with any music charging off down a non-populist path (or paths) just as long as the people making it and those that follow it don't use its relative obscurity as a means of lording it over everyone else.

Oh, I'm all in favour of jazz people who are so inclined relating directly to the popular mainstream - perfectly healthy and legitimate direction. Jazz vocalists have been doing it for yonks (and getting panned by the elite). I just don't see it as 'the' road ahead that is long overdue. It's an option, one of many. When you first leave the village there are just a few paths, the direction is clear. But as you get further away the paths fork and multiply and cross lots of other villages. In the end you choose those that fit your own needs. For all I know Robert Glasper is making vital, engaging, popular jazz that can connect to a jazz-unaware audience. More power to him. It's just the record company 'Messiah' stuff that I don't buy. He's an option, not 'the future'. But that's not how stack 'em high and sell 'em cheap promotion works. Now I could be wrong. But having been told about the future before (M-Base, turntables, laptops [and I'm not knocking any of those as an approach]) you'll have to excuse me if I'm a bit sceptical. One strand of the future, quite probably, but 'the future'? Hmm! What you see there is what I choose to listen to (often incredibly random), nothing more. I've no stake in crystal ball gazing or asserting what is or isn't significant.

Lots of that around world wide if you want to hear it. If you want 'the true path (incorporated)', well...

Glad to see historical determinism is alive and well in the 21st century!

Hyperbole seems to be the general currency of selling jazz records, like other areas of popular music. At one end you get 'messiah', 'incredible new talent' etc; at the other 'icon', 'master' etc. The iTunes Jazz page has been overwhelmed by this chap for a few weeks - big banner, his choice of records, his choice of Blue Notes, his choice of underwear.... Which is no comment on his music (which I've not heard and doesn't seem to be my cup of tea [i much prefer a good fjord)). But it puts me off. But then, I'm not part of the target demographic, I'd imagine.

I want a 10 TB iPod. I am not a Buddhist.

I have 5 iPods (4 at 160, the oldest at 80)! My pockets bulge! I just love being able to indulge a sudden whim when I'm not at home. I'm not keen on a total shuffle. But I like setting up playlists to work on random. You can also set them not to repeat, specifying the time limit. Magic.

If I lived a bit further south-west... http://www.westbrookjazz.co.uk/mikewestbrook/diary.shtml TWO FOR THE DUKE a weekend of Duke Ellington inspired music in the Devon countryside

Yes, I camped in Rock a couple of years back. Lovely countryside, pity about the yachts! I know Doom Bar from down there. If you don't mind my asking....what is the alcohol content of most bottled British beer? Varies. The stuff I've mentioned ranges from 4% to about 5.5%. Standard beer is lower; and you can buy the 6%+ stuff but I always find that like drinking syrup. I recall going to Sweden ten years back and you could get nothing above about 3% in the regular shops. You had to go to the state alcohol shop to purchase anything higher - all a bit Soviet.