A Lark Ascending

It's working fine here: eMusic US. On the whole, though, it is a buggy site. Strange. I get the same error message linking there. (Just tried the 'Help' button - got to that page but every link took me back to 'Oops'. It did allow me log into my account with correct details there. But links, search etc just came back to Oops. Maybe they are doing some work on the UK version.) Edit: Seems to be a Google Chrome issue. Just tried via IE and it opens fine.

God, the endless possibilities. Don't just shuffle the albums into different boxes; shuffle the tracks onto different albums. 'The Ultimate Miles Davis Album With The Word 'I' In It'

I assume this will be followed up in the new year with a cube of all the other albums - 'The Imperfect Miles Davis Collection'. Do record companies now have dedicated departments working out all the different ways they can 'realise their assets' to the maximum?

E-music seems to have vanished! I've been getting 'Oops! Page Not Found' for 24 hours now. Hope its just a temporary blip!

Thanks, Bill. If you point and shoot 1800 times over a couple of weeks you're eventually going to get something nice!

Finished this today. Very good general survey of the 1792-1815 period. Could have done with some proof-reading on the dates - just errors that get events out of sequence in places rather than historical inaccuracies. About to start:

Shame that they filled in some of the steep incline below the Saxon front line with soil when the B'tard built the Abbey to atone his sins ! Still a very atmospheric spot - in particular that boggy bit on the RHS where they butchered the over-eager lot who went chasing the Bretons. Still a bit boggy to this day ! If only Harold had taken his mum's advice and held off for a day. The consequences would have been huge (probably no USA for starters..) Having taught the BoH to kids for over 30 years it was fascinating to see where it happened. Much more compact than I imagined. I've drawn diagrams of Senlac Hill many times over the year - a bit weird finding myself staying at Senlac Wood campsite! Cornwall:

Sussex and a bit of Hampshire: First one shows what you might have seen if you'd been a Norman on 14th October, 1066 (give or take a few trees, an landscaped hillside and a bloody great abbey built subsequently to make amends for the slaughter).

Humphrey Lyttelton had the advantage of being a 'personality' - a well known name from a time when a certain approach to jazz was briefly mainstream popular in the UK, one who was known for his broadcasting in other areas ('I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue'). It was lucky he was also a devoted jazz fan (and player) and one with very open ears. Jez Nelson and Alyn Shipton don't have that celebrity clout. 4 Radio 3 jazz programmes, 3 condemned to the graveyard slot from this September (even the very mild Jazz Line-up got pushed there). Somehow JRR has survived in its current slot for as long as I can remember (I started listening in 1977) - tea time Saturday (give or take the occasional shunting round the schedule to accommodate the Valkyries). Edit: From a Blog in 2009: http://shirazsocialist.wordpress.com/2009/04/11/in-defence-ofjazz-record-requests/ The last 'reply' made me smile.

According to Jazzwise 'Jazz Library' is shifting to a midnight slot from 17th September. More evidence of the BBC's lack of interest in jazz? Or its conviction that jazzers are nightbirds by nature?

For a long time In a Silent Way appealed to me far more than Bitches Brew. The rock/funk element is very understated and there's an open spaceiness (!) there that appeals to someone who was coming to jazz via ECM (as one route). I love the way it shimmers. Over time, however, I've come round to Bitches Brew and couldn't choose between them now. I do think from BB onwards the funk side was increasingly played up and that was what what was mainly picked up on by jazz-rock/fusion musicians. The possibilities of the cooler IASW approach have been less explored (though bands like Eberhard Weber's 'Colours' on ECM always strike me as owing a lot to that record). Interesting that some of the re-explorations of electric jazz in recent years have stepped back to IASW. Dave Douglas' marvellous 'The Infinite' always sounds to me as if it is referencing that world.

Decided Oliver Nelson wasn't really for me - love 'Stolen Moments' but most of the rest had too much of that brassy, post-40s big band sound for my taste. However, I really enjoyed the Basie track towards the end - 'Afrique'. Didn't sound like Basie at all!

Ken 'Snakehips' Johnson Not a combatant but a casualty.

I notice the Django Bates biggish-band concert (or part of it) from this year's Cheltenham is being broadcast on Jazz on 3. The highlight of this year's festival for me, so will be interesting to se how it comes across at home. Think it was broadcast a while back but I missed it. 'Another chance to listen to...' (BBC-speak for 'Repeats') is not always a bad thing. There's also a Food concert from 2010 which I also attended. Recall not being too engaged by that, despite being an admirer or Iain Ballamy. Will be interesting to see how that sounds in retrospect. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013m2mh

Oliver Nelson this afternoon. Guy Barker is doing the enthusing.

I had a feeling it might have been something like that. We live in an age when everything can be sorted with a pat formula.

It does say the plan is to cut back on drama to focus on 'arts'. So it might not be as bad as it first sounds - we might even see more music (a permanent webcam in the Royal Albert Hall!). Though, the slippery slope situation is more likely! Hope they maintain their recent habit of importing continental detective series - I'm addicted top the Saturday night slot. DEnmark, Sweden, France and, this weekend, Italy. With the second series of 'The Killing' just a few weeks away. In some ways I'd prefer to see them importing high quality drama from Europe (or elsewhere). Keep the original BBC commissioned drama to BBC1 and BBC2 at the expense of the strictly-come-be-a-millionaire-with-the-soap-stars-while-watching-police-cars-chase-chavs type programmes (my Guardian reading, woolly-minded, luke-warm lefty credentials fully on display there). [Two other things that have me incandescent with rage, while we're here: 1. Who thought it was a good idea for newsreaders to stand up in pairs while reading the news? I find myself turning into my father and screaming at the TV 'Sit Down, for god's sake'. 2. Why, on documentaries, have they started repeating things. They do this a lot on those 'Secrets of the Pyramids' type programmes just after the breaks in case you've been so mesmerised by the adds that you need a recap. But I noticed on a 'Who do you think you are?' the other night they did a recap at the end of every 3-4 minute segment - 'And so Jo has learnt that her grandma was the illegitimate daughter of a travelling trombone player...' Yes, I know. I saw her finding this out two minutes ago! Worries me a bit, that last one. I do something similar in a lesson!]

I don't know how I exist without it! Get started with: http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDSA6805&cat=396 or http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDSA6810&cat=396

Lots of these were my entry point to earlier jazz from around '77 onwards - lots of the Miles and Evans ones, several Verves (including the Ella songbooks), Monk, Rollins etc. Gil Evans, Lee Konitz and Mingus via the Blue Note series. The extensive liners could be very helpful when written historically to contextualise the music - when you knew virtually nothing about jazz that helped you find your way a bit.

As mentioned on a classical thread, Dutton Vocalion are just starting to put their recording out as downloads on iTunes. Only a handful so far and mainly classical and nostalgia. But in the long run it should make the jazz recordings not just more available but keep them in circulation. Of no use to downloadaphobes but I'd imagine it would make acquiring the music easier from outside the UK.

As I recall they were primarily known for their music which was distinctive and different from other bands of the time (and, to my ears at least, music that still repays listening to whether for pure enjoyment or nostalgic reasons). They also had distinctive sleeves. I'm not sure all the extra gimmicks began until around '73. Well, doesn't the cover count as packaging? I'd go for some vintage live releases, from the Meddle/Atom Heart Mother/Obscured by Clouds era. I'm not going for any of these rereleases unless they come down in price, but I don't object to them. Of course the cover counts as packaging. And can often be a major part of the experience - the cover of Atom Heart Mother is etched on my brain. I'm just a bit cynical about the reissue business that invents all manner of brick-a-brack as a way of appealing to the collector mentality that we all possess in one form or another. I just think it's a pity that the energy that goes into a project like this (reassembling what is essentially a relatively small body of music) into a new format is not used elsewhere - either bringing back other music that is lying languishing or in supporting new music. But as I said before, I'm sure they've done the sums. From a supply and demand point of view this obviously makes sense - and the sort of prices being quoted must be sustainable. A small box of live material, without having to get the studio albums again, would have interested me. Especially pre-album release when the music was morphing into shape. A couple of the reissues seem to have an 'Experience' edition with a live other disc. But the DSotM one is a '76 concert. I'd imagine that would be a run through the album rather than the reaching towards the finished article you might get from a 72 recording.

My usual summer detective binge: Very much enjoyed the last two - one based on the Norfolk coast, the other in Cambridge (though not the posh college side). Also another Kate Atkinson whose books I really love. Quirky sense of humour: And my big history book of the summer, a very good overview of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: The naval bits of which (alongside a trip to the 'Victory' in Portsmouth) made me read: A series I first read as a 14 year old, 40 years ago. Enjoyed it thoroughly - will try and read through the series again.

My thoughts, too. Though I've no wish to deprive the airwaves of what I believe is a non-mainstream station. Maybe a BBC 7, 8 or whatever (I'm sure no-one would miss one of the local phone in/classic pop stations that make Radio 1 sound innovative!). Apart from anything else it would allow the BBC to boast of its wider commitment to serving a broad spectrum of taste, without having to interfere with the stations its heart is in. No chance, of course, in the current climate.

Jazz does have a certain cache in the UK as a sign of 'sophistication' - think of how the word alone or the image of the smoky jazz club is used in marketing. I just think the BBC traditionally saw its role as upholding 'culture' but had a very narrow view of what that meant (yet within classical music it has always been prepared to support new music and the avant garde, often at the expense of more conservative music). Until the 70s it almost seemed as if it was doing 'popular' music against its will, maybe hoping that it could ultimately ween the audience off pop and onto the 'serious' stuff. Sometime in the 70s it became or was forced to become much more commercially aware and it has responded to a market driven musical agenda with equal enthusiasm. I don't think it 'hates' jazz (or folk, country, blues etc). It's just that there have never been enough enthusiasts/advocates at the higher executive levels to treat it as music with as much validity as classical music. I love the idea of the BBC as a public service broadcasting service with a duty to serve a broad range of taste and to help to keep the wider musical world well fed by constantly bringing to the forefront music that would not get noticed if the market alone was at work. The BBC does the latter for classical magnificently; I just think the sort of person who makes it to the upper echelons of the BBC assumes they are doing their bit for jazz if they commission something from Richard Rodney Bennett. All the more reason to celebrate the work of people like Alyn Shipton, Jez Nelson, Geoffrey Smith (who is much underused - seems like a typical chirpy presenter on JRR but if you hear him talking freely about jazz he's fascinating) today - and, as we've said many times before here, the likes of Humph, Peter Clayton, Brian Morton and Charles Fox in the past. The other mistake the BBC (and UK broadcasting more generally) makes is requiring a 'personality' to hang programmes on. Think of how we've had jazz programmes presented by Clare Martin, Jamie Cullum, Courtney Pine (though, thankfully, not Alan Titchmarsh yet!). It's that strange idea that people will not listen unless its a celebrity. Maybe they are right (I'm sure they've done the market research). But my model for a good presenter is someone who is an enthusiast for the music first and foremost - the John Peel approach. Side thought. The most recent Jazz Library on NHOP that Bill mentioned earlier is well worth a listen. I heard bits of it in a carpart in the pouring rain gazing at the Atlantic last week. Listened again yesterday and was very taken by both the man and the music played. Made me download three NHOP albums!