A Lark Ascending

I'm much the same. Had the same experience with Pink Floyd, arriving with Atom Heart Mother. Never suffered Syditosis (though maybe developed the angst around DSotM).

Porcupine Tree are well worth exploring, AfricaBrass - take it from someone who rarely goes near contemporary rock music of any sort. They really captured my imagination. Shawn seems to know the music inside out so his advice is sound.

Now seen 4 of the Inspector Montalbano series. I was slow to warm to these - the plots creak a bit and there's an opera buffa element in the police station that is a bit silly. But the scenery is amazing. And the soundtrack has had me digging out my Mediterranean jazz albums.

Don't know about "British". I'd say that picture is by the French artist, Eugène Boudin. Of course, I could be wrong. Well, the music is British - English even. Though British arty types have always had a thing for France.

We had an early spring last year too. The heatwave in Britain took place the week before Easter. It was all downhill after that! Autumn in May!

Try this for a more British view of spring: 'Enter Spring' ebbs and flows between blustery abstraction (Bridge was very much taken with European modernism), sunlit twitterings and a full on 'big tune' processional. One of my ritual spring pieces, though I've yet to play it as we seem to have jumped from winter to full, warm sunshine. March should be ambiguous with lots of wind and rain and the occasionally sunny spell. Not that I'm complaining! (the two other pieces are marvellous too - grandiloquent Edwardian melody in 'The Sea' and a wonderful impressionistic shimmer in 'Summer'.

This has been a problem for a couple of years now. Dredging through the new release section is a real chore. The trouble is there is so much gold hidden in all the mud on the site. I agree that there's a lot to mine in them thar hills, especially if you're relatively new to jazz. But I've been "prospecting" for nearly 40 years now, and there's very little "gold" left there for me, certainly not enough to justify a hefty annual subscription. Oh, I still find myself wandering off on previously unthought of paths and e-music can often provide a fair few recordings - especially good for classical music where tracks are often longer. In the UK they still price by the track, leading to some ridiculous anomalies - 4 CD early jazz sets that cost £15 in the shops going for £40 on e-music while a 4CD classic set rolls in at £10! I'm also a bit locked in as I took out a large monthly plan on an earlier version which they've honoured; it means I get twice as much music for the money I pay. So a £4 album is actually costing me £2.

This has been a problem for a couple of years now. Dredging through the new release section is a real chore. The trouble is there is so much gold hidden in all the mud on the site.

One of those smiley things. Not suffering from such an allergy I can't begin to appreciate how difficult this can be.

I'd never heard this until last year...it came out just as I was going into my 'I'm too discerning for pop music' phase. Good lord, I never heard 'Wish You Were Here' as an entire album until about ten years ago! Very much enjoyed 'Animals'. Though it doesn't have the impact on me that the records I bought at the time did - the run from 'Atom Heart Mother' to 'DSoftheM' (including 'Relics'). But that says more about the power of nostalgia than the qualities of the record.

'Stupidly Happy' by XTC off Wasp Star. Ended the week on a big high, heard a fragment on a UK TV advert and it just fitted my mood.

Well, daffs came out here this week. And:

A couple of posters mentioned seeing him with the Overtone Quartet very recently (see the what live music are you seeing thread). He was missing from that band at Cheltenham last May; 'family illness' was given as the reason. Hopefully things worked out. Recent review here.

I try to stay away from the 'Wasn't Ken Burns 'Jazz' rubbish?', 'I hate Wynton', 'Manfred was a stormtrooper', and 'Does anyone else get bothered by KJ's grunting' forums...but it's hard to resist. I assume, by their frequency, they have forums...as a 'View New Content' chap it's hard to tell.

This reminds me of the story about how on his first British tour, audiences were shocked to hear Muddy Waters playing with an electric guitar and a pounding beat. (Didn't he go acoustic-only for his second tour as a result?) Hell, most folks here expect their jazz to be acoustic and dread the electric bass. And anything involving electronics or amplification is generally avoided by traditional symphony orchestras or requires copious program notes to explain it to a reluctant audience. Acoustic instruments, eh - who needs them? Clearly what is needed is for a member of the inner sanctum of the cognoscenti to get up on stage at concerts and tick off our wretched audiences for their conservatism. That should encourage them to be more adventurous.

Monk for me too (though I also have the problem deciding which one!) and Ellington too. I also find Kenny Wheeler very distinctive.

Linda Ronstadt Rod Stewart Kiri Te Kanawa

This is a very beautiful disc. 5 pieces at between 10-16 minutes framed by two short brass chorales. Debussy and Messiaen are all over the music - in Debussy's case very directly with fragments of 'La Mer' drifting in and out of 'Quotation of Dream'. All pieces from between 1985-93. Played today, partly as a result of hearing part of 'Dream/Window' in the Rattle DVD, partly because it's pouring with rain. Always makes me think of Takemitsu for pretty literal reasons.

Four years on. I declare it spring. The frogs are back enjoying their hanky panky in the pond. Someone on the radio said they already had daffodils!!!!

I take it you don't include popular hymns, anthems and ballads. Well, there you have a key difference. Music as a participatory rather than a spectator sport. I'm thinking of the reason given for the repeat of the main themes of a classical/early Romantic symphony; it was the one chance most people got to hear (often most composers got to have performed) a piece so the audience needed a chance to embed the thematic material before the development. No chance to play the piece again later. I believe some of the more doctrinaire free improv aims at something similar - music created in the moment that can never be relived again.

Indeed - very taken by Frank Vignola on the Peplowski. In fact it's got me playing a KP disc at present. Loved the Etta James too which should be showing up soon on the CD player. 8.30 next week - US clock changes and opera rule the world!

Think of it another way. I suspect most of us only ever watch a film or TV programme once. Why not a recording? (Doesn't address our desire to own it, sometimes several times and with lots of fluffy packaging too) Before 1900 most people only heard any piece of music once anyway (apart from those who learnt the piano and could replay from a score). So maybe the aberration is repeatedly listening to the same records (an aberration I'm more than happy to indulge in).

One day I will get round to spinning my 70s disco records again. Or maybe not. Very brave of you to admit to those!

It all began here:

A bit outside the period but heading the right way, I'm really enjoying this series. Seem to have had them sent from the DVD hire warehouse out of sequence but doesn't really matter. Episode was on 'Colours'. DEBUSSY: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune; STRAVINSKY: L'oiseau de feu; SCHÖNBERG: Fünf Orchesterstücke Op. 16; DEBUSSY: Jeux; BOULEZ: Notations for piano; MESSIAEN: Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum; TAKEMITSU: Dream / Window; RAVEL: Daphnis et Chloé.