A Lark Ascending

I've enjoyed the books they are based on - but in every publicity photo I've seen Stephen Tomlinson looks like he's just witnessed a terrible car crash. So I skipped it - sounds like I was wise.

I just couldn't get any buzz from "New adventures in Hi Fi". That's where I stopped. 'Monster' was OK but seemed like too calculated a move to reconnect with punk roots. 'Automatic' just seemed a step too over produced.

Before they hit big time they played the UK regularly where there was a sort of underground following for what would be later branded 'Americana'. Never saw them. But at a time where I'd almost given up on rock, they touched something. 'Fables of the Reconstruction' remains my favourite - at the time it seemed like a return to a Byrds/Fairporty loose, jangly guitar rock (this was a world of punk-turned-stadium-rock - aircraft-hanger production, boomy drums, synth washes everywhere). Followed and enjoyed them up to Out of Time (which I thought was great), a little less enamoured of 'Automatic for the People' and then lost track of them.

My view too. Agree if you dislike something you sometimes need to say so. But sometimes the 'venom towards some artists' takes on a rather adolescent 'I'm too cool to like..' aspect. The Clapton/Marsalis project might well deserve criticism - either in its seemingly commercial intent or its execution - but the thread pretty soon strayed off into rehearsed attacks on the musicians in general. ******* I miss MG's contributions greatly. His musical interests only overlap in places with mine but his enthusiasm for what he likes constantly drew me towards music I might not otherwise listen to. I hope any current difficulties are overcome.

Good to see Ingrid Laubrock getting mentioned here. I've watched her mature from near smooth jazz to her current explorations over ten years at the Cheltenham Festival. She also fits into Brazilian music to perfection in another guise. Just sad she's been pinched by New York (though we pinched her from Germany!). I'm really taken by Mary Halvorson too - a couple of very good Ingrid records of late with Mary on board. I'm not sure I can hear a signature sound in Evan Christopher ( - not criticising at all, it's my ears that are not tuned enough). There are so few clarinet players around all I hear (as with Ken Peplowski) is glorious clarinet. Certainly a player whose records I look out for (thanks to Jeff's championing).

I'm enjoying the responses, all. A nice, wide range.

No age limits really. I just felt that the sounds of people like Sonny Rollins or Wayne Shorter are so proven that there's no real need to go there. Less well known 90 year olds fit my 'youngish' weasel-word. And yes, if you hear something that acts as an aural fingerprint when you hear it, that's enough. Two who stand out for me are Iain Ballamy and Julian Siegel. Regardless of what they are playing or the context (and both play in varied contexts) there's a very specific sound - both post-Shorter but with a distinct accent. (Brits mentioned only because they are people I've been able to hear live quite frequently as well as on record)

One of the things that jazz listeners seem to value most in musicians is a distinctive, signature sound. We all hear it in the Hawkins and Hodges and Giillespies of the past. An argument that is frequently rehearsed here and elsewhere is that young musicians today tumbling out of college all sound the same. So... Who do you find has something recognisable that attracts you? No need to articulate why though if you've got the musical or literacy skills to do so, great. But there are RULES!!!! 1. Let's leave aside the established and proven - Sonny Rollins etc. 2. Tell us who you do hear something distinct in, not who you don't. 3. Please don't start up the 'colleges turn them to robots today' argument - there are other threads that explore that one. 4. Let's all bear in mind that 'having a signature sound' is not objectively verifiable - I might glow at the sound of a player who someone else finds cold. Over to you.

I suspect that's the plan. 'Well, we put jazz on but no-one listens. So we have to pull it.' Nice JRR again. Simple concept but always has at least one surprise. I really liked the Benny Carter 'My One and Only Love'.

I'm being silly, fasstrack, because the thread is silly.

Looks like he rammed the spike in his toe again.

So where's 'The Rapture'?

Sometimes their management do them after the end of their lives...expect volume 2 sometime mid century. Can we throw in Xmas discs and 8 disc box sets where 7 discs are different mixes of disc 1?

I took a school trip to a small town outside of Lodz about ten years back (between Poznan and Warsaw). Marvellous people, beautiful rolling countryside. The trip to visit Auschwitz/Birkenau was a bit of a long haul but well worth it - had a huge impact on the kids I was with. Sadly we only had 45 minutes in Krakow after we'd eaten. Really disappointing as the city looked beautiful from what we saw of the market place.

I can't wait for: 14. Psycodelic Sounds: Brian Falls Into A Microphone (11/4/66) 1:10 (Hidden Track)

I had a month where it would not open with Chrome but would in IE. Tried Chrome tonight and it opened fine!

Five pages on a record nobody here is going to buy. Not bad.

I hope you are being tongue-in-cheek! Otherwise we can have another rule that only politicians can post about other politicians. I have no problem with your amateur speculations because they come across as reactions, stated with humility. You're talking about how the music reaches you and how it affects you, not standing on Olympus and declaiming how it is.

Phil Minton has a great conventional voice too. Hear him on some Mike Westbrook's discs - he does the 'funny voices' and frequently takes character roles but can floor you with a straight vocal. If you can find a copy of 'Goose Sauce'...

Alternatively, you could try Phil Minton (if you don't mind Wurzel scat). Or try this alternative to Wizzard and Jingle-Bell Rock (it's from the Vortex Xmas Party!):

I use this: http://www.candysoft.com/copytoy/ I regularly save what I have on my 4 iPods. If there's a disaster it's saved on a hard drive. Just leave it to upload rather than spending weeks uploading all your CDs again. Useful if I change my mind about what type of music I want on each iPod. Not much help at this point as you'd need to have saved the music from your old iPod. But worth thinking about in future. I don't trust clouds or other storage solutions beyond my control.

'The Hour' - last two episodes. The final one was brilliant. One of those ordinary-folks-getting-one-up-on-those-who-take-it-as-read-that-they-have-a-right-to-power-and-influence moments. And a genuinely surprising twist in the tail. I believe a second series has got the green light.

Good thing Kurt Rosenwinkel didn't say that.