A Lark Ascending

A toss up between: 'Spitfires' by Chris Wood - a perfect piece of restrained political song making. or: The slow movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21. Back in the 70s this was colonised by the Easy Listening bands - people like James Last. Hearing it this afternoon, distanced from the schmaltz, it sounded gorgeous.

Good to see they are getting noticed in the States - I believe they recently did a successful tour there. What's better, they are part of a much wider resurgence of English folk music that is looking every bit as interesting as they one that swept through in the 60s and 70s. Here's a nice picture:

'Bitches Brew' reissued in 2011. Limited edition. Each vinyl pressing contains some of the master's ashes... I bet they are working on the possibilities at this very moment!

Mjazzg, I'm envious you can get to that! I saw The Unthanks a couple of times when they were just a quartet, between their first and second album. They played here in Worksop in an old dilapidated cinema to an audience of about 40 and they were superb; the other time was in Oxford Town Hall backing Bellowhead, a much higher status affair but just as enjoyable. I just love them - they seem to take very strong roots in a very particular regional tradition and then spin out in the most unexpected directions. I think they have the integrity not to get forced into an industry decided direction and really look forward to how they develop. Robert Wyatt is the perfect person for them to cover - they share that tendency to jump off the highway and into the ditch with him!

I'd say that is generally true of England...and I don't just mean the weather! Though I might change south to south-west. I will now be attacked by men with cloth caps and whippets!

Ha! Many years ago I made my first attempt to use garlic in cooking. I assumed a clove was what I now know is a bulb. Tea bag stewing in a cup, no milk or sugar. Don't remove - gives you something to chew at the end.

He did both Nottingham and Sheffield recently but I was too tied up in the new term to go. Does he still insist that he be allowed to host a political discussion 30 minutes before the gig? He and Wyatt seem very much on the same political wave length. The gig I would most like to see this autumn is a one off by the amazing young Northumbrian folk band, The Unthanks. They did Robert's 'Sea Song' on their second album and are doing a concert in London in Dec devoted to his music and that of a current rock band (Anthony and the Johnsons). Sadly a Thursday counts it out for me. Wyatt has been fulsome in his praise for The Unthanks. They are really special.

And here is the cover:

Looks like a goody: http://www.jazzwisemagazine.com/component/content/article/67-2010/11578-jazz-breaking-news-robert-wyatt-collaborates-with-gilad-atzmon-on-new-album-to-be-launched-at-pro-palestine-jazza-festival- Robert did 'Midnight' and 'At Last I Am Free' way back in the early 80s. Could be accused of being another rock star does standards affair....but he has a long record of making these things his own. I can just hear him doing the final track.

I demand a recount!

The vast bulk of music made 50 years ago is of little or no interest to the vast majority of people, certainly not to a paying public. So extending the copyright in the EU would only benefit a select group of people (or more likely their estates or those who now own the rights). Dave Brubeck might get things regularly reissued but would Sonny Stitt's recordings appear? Most music would languish as unprofitable to put out unless, by chance, it was used in a movie. The idea of public domain gives lesser known things from the past some chance to make a showing against more recent music, helping develop a potential historical interest in the music. 50 years has always seemed time enough to me for people to reap their rewards. There's nothing to stop them (or those who represent them) putting out 'official' versions that add things that are not present on the PD issues. It might make better use of those minds who are currently brainstorming how to repackage 'Kind of Blue' or Bitches Brew' in five years time. Had the Beatles catalogue gone PD in 2009 I somehow doubt it would have dented the sales of those boxed sets. Maybe the individual albums. If the EU does buckle to the industry pressure (and it is industry pressure, nothing to do with concern for artists) I hope they invoke the 'use it or lose it' idea that was being mooted some time past. 'You've got your monopoly for the next 25 years, now do something with it for the general good.' Or does that fly in the face of the natural law of the market?

That's really interesting, Bill. Love the bit about your dad kicking the incendiary down the garden. My Dad was a schoolboy-turned-farm labourer in Cornwall during the war. He recalls seeing the planes and all the activity leading up to D-Day (Falmouth was one of the active ports). His elder brothers were involved - one was evacuated from France in 1940 and was never fit enough to fight again; the other served in the navy on various ships - family legend has him there at the Japanese surrender though I'd want that verrified! My Mum came over from Ireland and joined the WAAF and ended up working on teleprinters in Bletchley Park. She had nothing directly to do with the code-breaking - just a clerical job - but she distinctly recalls being told about the intention of Churchill to announce the end of the war in Europe the day before and then reminded of the Official Secrets Act! She said it was very hard to contain her excitement. I don't think she ever experienced any bombing. Two other uncles (husbands of my Mum's sisters) served in North Africa/Italy and in France following D-Day respectively. I'm just grateful I was born at the time I was!

I've always been a bit wary of making too much of it - a sense that it is so entrenched in our national mythology that we might just be over-emphasising its importance. But I thought Bungay and Holland made a very good case, pointing out that had we done a deal with Hitler in 1940 then he would have had a free hand in the east (which is what he wanted all along). Keeping Britain in the war meant Hitler had to continue looking in two directions, especially once activity began to pick up in North Africa and the Med. It definitely seemed like something long ago; and yet it was all around me. Growing up on RAF bases I suppose I came into contact with is more regularly - most seemed to have a Spitfire on display at the camp entrance. I know as 10 year old I haid Airfix Spitfires and Hurricanes, those minature airfix soldiers from various theatres of the war, 'spotter' books on WWII planes and tanks. And there was a never ending stream of war movies keeping it all very much alive - given how we were sinking into post-Imperial angst and economic uncertainty it's not surprising our 'Finest Hour' was milked for all it was worth.

BBC4 had an evening about the Battle of Britain last night. Amazing in that 2 hours of it was made up of veterans (Tom Neil and Geoffrey Wellum), historians and a current RAF boss discussing the event in armchairs. At 8.00 in the evening - didn't think that was allowed in modern TV'! Two points that struck me: a) The modesty and self-deprecation of the veterans (that mjazzg alludes to above). The historian Stephen Bungay in his book and in this programme stressed the culture of team work and 'just doing my job' outlook of the RAF pilots compared with the Luftwaffe where pilots were expected to assist the aces to up their scores. Bungay suggested, in a light way, that we might want to reflect on that in this age of celebrity worship. b) The respect the two pilots had for the young men and women in the RAF today, both insisting they are 'just the same as us'. There was also a clip of Douglas Bader in the 60s who was asked what he thought of the anti-war movement of that time; he commented that back in the '30s there had been an equally strong pacifist movement (the famous Oxford Union 'King and Country' debate) yet they were the first people to enlist in 1939. Given how often you hear grumpy old men grumbling about how young people today are intellectually/socially/morally inferior, this was a joy to hear. Nice programme about the women who flew the planes from the factories to the airfields too.

I'd throw in the third Chicago album as a great record too. I've recently acquired the live Carnegie box and that is great fun too. What I've heard from thereafter doesn't impress. I only knew BS&T at a distance from a couple of singles. I have a reissue LP of the second album which I like, even though I find Clayton Thomas' vocals somewhat chest-wiggy. Agree very much with point 3. Throw in the left-field jazzers who turned up on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th King Crimson albums and you've one of the main reasons I drifted into jazz.

Magnificent - you get so used to seeing photos of this era in b+w that it's hard to imagine the people as real - here they could be people you know today. Photos like this (1909) always have me wondering where they were ten years later. Or 25 years later after the first phase of collectivisation and the Great Famine.

“How do black artists write about the history, character, and problems connected with race and create great art and understanding without it devolving into polemic? And how do such minority artists develop a large enough audience to support their art, while staying true to their ideals?… Ellington accomplished this feat over his long career by creatively celebrating the black American experience without standing on a soapbox.” That's an interesting observation from the book, David. I've always been impressed by the subtle way Ellington handled politics. You don't feel as if you are being beaten over the head with a particular political idea. But the issues he addresses linger. There's a fair few musicians with a political slant of their own who could learn from that approach. I've been toying with getting this book. You've convinced me.

Even scarier when you read the odds of survival for a pilot in his first few operational weeks. Once a bit of combat experience was acquired chances improved dramatically.

Those Soft Machine albums are wonderful. Though I wonder what they are using for Third. I've been through three versions on CD - the first two were atrocious soundwise, the most recent was acceptable but still not brilliant. But it was a double CD with a live broadcast too. Hope they are using the most recent remastering if they've gone back to a single disc. I'm tempted to ask which mix of the Miles albums is being used. But that would be mischief making.

Yes, the 'significance' issue is controversial. I was pretty convinced by a recent book I read that suggested that Hitler's heart was not really in an invasion of Britain; it was partly a case of being on a roll from the early summer and partly an attempt to intimidate so that a frightened Parliament would ditch Churchill in favour of Lord Halifax and those who would have accepted a ceasefire, leaving a free hand for Russia. It probably meant more to Goering - a triumph over Britain would have improved his standing in the internal Nazi Party power struggles. Even though most of the pilots were British many came from overseas (including AVM Park, the 11 Group commander). I loved the story of a Polish squadron who were denied the right to fly because of a fear of misunderstandings in radio contact due to the language issue. One day they were sent out by mistake and performermed superbly. The chap who authorised their scrambling wwas given a right royal bollocking...and then told they were fully operational! There's no doubt the brunt of the war was felt by the Russians; but this was one of the first chinks of light. And clearly, to we Brits, holds a special place. The pilots were no braver or skilled than those who fought in the other theatres (or the German pilots for that matter); but the stories of what it was like to be flying 3 or four sorties a day make my hair stand on end.

I'm an historian, not a mathematician! Thanks! Will change! (explanation - I initially put 60! Must be the tears!)

Amazing people!

Following a long read of a book on the Desert War, I hired this which somehow I'd never seen before. Very enjoyable. I only know Sylvia Sims as a battleaxe on UK TV in later years - she was rather striking in 1958. Amazing eyes!

Nice sunsets! I'm also addicted to them. And the nice thing about digital photography is that you can just keep snapping in the knowledge that the ones that don't work, get blurred etc can just be deleted at no extra cost. I especially like the cloud patterns you get in the sky at the time - you've caught that nicely.

I've been a Wallander fan since around 2003 - my favourite set of detective novels. This is very strange and quite wonderful. Not a murder mystery but a strange story about ageing and dying, love and lies, aloofness and the need for human connection set against a beautifully desolate Sweden (both deep in the forest and on isolated Baltic islands), starting to fray at the edges through environmental carelessness. A whole series of unlikely twists keep you wondering where the story is going next. Brilliant!