A Lark Ascending

Where I don't hear anything remotely 'cold' in Surman. What I do hear is a change of path that draws from a very different tradition - that of his own country rather than that of American jazz - and produces a very different music. I can see why that might sound 'cold' to ears not aligned to that different tradition. I find Surman just as engaging as in his early days, just less prone to 'boil over'. Which is what happens to most of us as we age. He's not as fiery but I find him just as intense.

No Hatfield and the North? No Stackridge?

Pity about the endorsement on the cover! I assumed you were talking proportionately but looking it up was staggered to see 28 000 killed. That is horrendous. I've never spent long enough on the Wars of the Roses to get it straight in my head - read a good overview a couple of summer's back as a result of walking over what little is left of Tewkesbury. But it's now got jumbled again.

It's not being any kind of understood by me; misunderstood might help... Yes, perhaps we should include a glossary for: granny tax chav Astra fagging at Eton tax windfall seems to be clearly understood on both sides of the Pond. - particularly when the wealthiest are on the receiving end! Ah, well wasn't the windfall in the apple orchard reserved for the pigs because of the need of the farm to benefit from their brains. Anyway, the rich and wealthy need this extra money. How else will they be able to afford the required fee to bring their concerns to the notice of the government? Sorry - weather's gone political! It's gorgeous out there. I'm going to buy some new border thingys to replace the ones that have rotted away making the garden look like a succession of minor landslides.

Peter Maxwell Davies has been catching my attention of late. I think he was the first contemporary composer I tried out in the early 80s - connected with a trip I made to Orkney where he has long lived. The couple of LPs I bought never seemed to produce the promise of a place so steeped in geographical and historical distinctiveness and I lost interest. But what I've heard recently has got me curious again. He seems to have taken a path from enfant-terrible to born again monarchist and appears to pour music out, much of it currently lost due to the collapse of Collins and Unicorn Kanchana. The symphonies on Collins have just started to reappear on Naxos; hopefully they'll pick up the other Collins things. They seem to have a commitment, having commissioned a string quartet cycle.

It's not being any kind of understood by me; misunderstood might help... Yes, perhaps we should include a glossary for: granny tax chav Astra fagging at Eton tax windfall seems to be clearly understood on both sides of the Pond.

Have they digitised Barbara Wojirsch now? They've clearly not digitalised the question mark!

Here's a cheeky one from a cheapo label called Sinetone. A 1962 recording, but...

Spooky for March: students out in shorts and T-shirts. I KNEW you two and Sidewinder would be posting on this thread today! We Brits are so predictable! Bloody lovely here anyway. Can't believe the number of idiots out there in shorts and flip-flops and driving covertible soft-tops today. Where do they think they are - Ibiza? I suspect they bought the convertible soft-tops today on a whim to celebrate their tax windfall. Alas, poor granny! Quite! But granny never fagged for us at Eton.

Spooky for March: students out in shorts and T-shirts. I KNEW you two and Sidewinder would be posting on this thread today! We Brits are so predictable! Bloody lovely here anyway. Can't believe the number of idiots out there in shorts and flip-flops and driving covertible soft-tops today. Where do they think they are - Ibiza? I suspect they bought the convertible soft-tops today on a whim to celebrate their tax windfall.

I think there may be two albums with that lineup, as well as two with Evan Parker, Barre Phillips and Tony Oxley, and both of those Eicher-assembled groups leave me cold. I just don't think they gel. I hear the Bley, Parker, Phillips trio as very successful, an update and development of a giuffre trio in an oblique way. They are both trios, no Oxley. Oxley appears with Bley only on two ECM releases. under Surman's name on "Adventure playground" and the collective attribution "In the evenings out there" - both from the same session, I believe - Surman, Bley, Oxley, Phillips. Again, works for me, fine playing by all I like them too. Though it's 'Not Two, Not One' that I particularly like of those later ECMs. I don't think it's a matter of what works. Just different musicians going at it different ways. Though given that it's now known that Manfred has taken the the next step in his conspiracy and bought the whole Blue Note and Fantasy catalogues with the intention of deleting them and remastering them in Munich, who knows what dastardly designs he had here.

Well, I'm not listening to Jazz Record Requests on Radio Schubert.

Spooky for March: students out in shorts and T-shirts. I KNEW you two and Sidewinder would be posting on this thread today! We Brits are so predictable! Bloody lovely here anyway. Fog didn't properly lift until after 2.00. Very nice now - be even nicer tomorrow with an extra hour in the evening.

Fog at present but we are promised a fine day once it burns off.

Yes, I camped in Rock a couple of years back. Lovely countryside, pity about the yachts! I know Doom Bar from down there.

Always good when this one is on 'Special'. Too bad that they don't bring back the Bath Fest jazz weekend that usually goes with it. Quite - that's where I got my taste. They do Gem and Golden Hare too in Sainsburys. Tend to go for these and 'Tribute' from Cornwall. I'm no connoisseur but I like the geographical associations (I base my rare wine purchases on names of places that changed hands in one of the treaties at the end of Louis XIV's wars).

I love that LP!

Just had a bottle of: Now followed by: The local Sainsbury suddenly expanded its nice beers section a few weeks back. Though I suspect the specials deals might fall foul of David Camerons recently announced attack on cheap alcohol (though I doubt that his Eton buddies will worry as they will be able to pickle themselves on fine wine with their handsome tax reduction).

I'm intrigued as to what sort of songs you would sing if you found yourself in an alder thicket.

yes indeed. Suspect it's another in the series of solos. Seems a while since the last, Absalom Dawe? or has there been naother (too lazy to check the ECM site) He crossed most of Cornwall in 'The Road to St. Ives'. Now he's made his way back up to Saltash. What's next? "By Train to Exeter"? "A Cycle Ride to Glastonbury". I'll enjoy the views.

Looks interesting. Does Rattle play entire pieces or just segments? Only segments - the programmes are 50 minutes. I suspect at the time of broadcast - if it was BBC, I can't recall - there would have been full broadcasts on the radio. They tend to do that now. I'll try to check this out. You might be interested in this disc Rattle-Bream that is a bit more guitar-focused but includes Takemitsu's To the End of Dream. Rattle is conducting with Julian Bream soloing. I'm going to have to admit that I ordered this disc but simply haven't had a chance to listen to it properly. Maybe I can dig it out and listen tonight. Don't think I have that anywhere. Sounds my sort of thing. I love Takemitsu on a rainy day (I'll never make a classical buff with reactions like that!).

Saltash Bells - John Surman Sounds like Surman in ultra-folksy mode; which suits me.

So what were the Spanish, Portuguese, English, Dutch, French etc doing in the 16th and 17thC?

I've had some odd ones recently - a link to Gillian Weir organ CDs and places that sell organs. Yesterday a gay dating site (I'm too old and boringly straight!) But I am glad to have got this one in time: http://the-end.com/2008GodsFinalWitness/?gclid=CN_fxtOT8K4CFYwMtAodlwHfJw Hopefully there will be a link to a site for cheap canned food soon.

I like his 'Home in the Highlands' and 'Tribute to Bill Evans at the Village Vanguard' albums. Due for a two-fer reissue in a couple of weeks. (That Darth Vadar clip is brilliant!)