A Lark Ascending

There seems to be something of the preparing gourmet meals in the kitchens of the Titanic about all of this vanity box set lunacy.

Summer came back over the last two days - two very nice sunny days to end the holidays on.

The major record labels seem to have laid off all their engineers, A&R people etc but retained the packaging designers. There could be a TV series in this - a 21st century spin on 'Mad Men'.

I'm sure you're right, but I do prefer his piano playing to his bandleading. Possibly this is because I'm not sufficiently well educated musically to get what's really happening with the band. MG Don't the soloists stick out for you, MG? I'm probably less musically educated than you, but that got me from the start. Though I found the 50s to 70s Ellington orchestras rather harder to take to for a long time. I think it's that post-40s 'big band' sound that I've always had to suspend my disbelief towards. To my ears the 20s-40s band was less prone to fill in all the spaces. I'm probably quite wrong but just sounds more fleet-footed to me. There is something special about hearing the piano in the more scaled down situations.

Many thanks; noticed that on e-music. Will put on hold.

Thanks all. Was looking at the Whitney today. Will put it into my 'saved for later' box. The Pablo and Storyville too. I have the two you mention MG - know the Trane one very well but haven't listended to the Hodges enough - will rectify. ***************** There are two sides to Ellington's piano I really like: 1. That very hard style where he bangs out sparse notes on the piano (C Jam Blues, Great Times [which seems like a variation of C Jam)). Stan Tracey seems to have really taken to that. 2. His ballad style - sometimes this gets a bit schmaltzy with all those florid runs; but at other times it's almost like Debussy or Ravel (I seem to recall early critics comparing him to Delius!).

Been enjoying Ellington as piano player over the last few days. MG made a comment that he preferred him as a piano player to his orchestral persona (or something to that effect...sorry, MG, if I've misunderstood you). I know 'Money Jungle', 'In the Foreground', the Pablo 'Big 4' and finished off this month's e-music downloads with the Strayhorn duets and 'Piano Reflections'. And, obviously, there are lots of isolated things in smaller forms across the catalogue (I dearly love 'New World a-Comin''). Favourites? Recommendations? Observations? Reactions? (sorry if there is already a Ellington piano thread - couldn't find one) Bev

MG Just as well they never put out a 'Best of Brahms and Liszt'!

Gosh! There's a throwback. Remember reading that in the summer of '73, between 'A' Levels (last lot of school exams) and going to university.

Finished this yesterday (had a two week gap half-way whilst on holiday). Excellent account. Can't wait for the flurry of Battle of Britain docs due on TV in September. Also finished: Heard bits on 'A Book at Bedtime' earlier this year so I wanted to fill in the gaps. One of those dissolute lives amongst the well-heeled at Oxford books. Now gripped by: Wonderfully written - gets exactly the right balance between historical overview of what was happening and vignettes from the testimony of people who were there. My god, we are so lucky to have been born after all of that!

There was some wind yesterday - blew my garden parasol right out of the garden table! At least there were large stretches of sun; as of lunchtime we are back to grey again! Any political party that promises to organise sun in the daytime and rain/cloud at night gets my vote. More efficient too - less evaporation, less outside man-hours lost to bad weather.

Though they might pass the incident on to the Jazz Police.

Sounds like a great bill. But did you ever see his dad, Bill? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Skidmore

Thank the lord for that dot!

I imagine it's mixed. Lots going for the fun, many going because they are 'seriously' bitten by the music bug (though not 'our' music bug). Like jazz and classical really. Plenty in those audiences who are there as a lifestyle accessory. The being seen to be 'serious' about 'serious' music is part of it. Most of the young colleagues I know who go to see bands at festivals or gigs do so because they find music exciting; and they have substantial collections of recordings to boot. What is rarer is an historical sense of the music or a desire to burrow outside the world of contemporay rock/pop (or 'classic' pop/rock). Though when I read interviews with younger jazz or folk or classical musians they seem just as searching as I was at that age. [and I know one young colleague who plays in an amateur metal band, loves the music of a band called Rancid (!) but who has become 'seriously' interest in classical music (including Prom visits) and was getting my recommendations for an Ellington album a while back). I imagine the balance between the obsessives and those who just wanna have fun is perhaps less weighted in favour of the obsessive simply because there are more alternatives today. Anyway, the vast majority who don't obsess on music obsess about other things. I can't believe how many shoes some people have!

Or like Keith Emerson...with your feet. And knives!

This is excellent: As is: Both from the 70s. A lot of what he did in the 90s was in 'Homage to 'Trane' territory. Very enjoyable (especially live) but not music I often return to. More recently he's been recording with South African musicians (more World music than Blue Notes). I must go back and give those a listen.

A different perspective from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/aug/27/music-festivals-record-industry May not apply to the States but I know a whole bunch of young adults who are off at festivals this weekend; it may not be the music I like but their enthusiasm is genuine. Maybe the way of experiencing music is changing and we're just not keeping up?

Weird England! Cornwall's answer to Mardi Gras...though a few weeks later: And here's the same thing from 1932: Most of the year Padstow is an overcrowded tourist honeypot, increasingly dominated by the commercial concerns of a celebrity chef. But on May Day it's overcrowded lunacy. Bev

I use the middle finger for the wheel. Having said that, I've been a one finger typist since I got a cheap typewriter for my birthday in 1966! Sure I'm storing up future hell.

Have to admire your dedication to the wireless, Bill! JRR was good tonight - the Don Byas/Slam Stewart track was great - never heard that. Ornette's Rambin' which is wonderful. And the Duke track at the end (Kinda Dukish/Rockin' in Rhythm) sent me straight to 'The Great Paris Concert'.

And there are lots of listeners who feel uncomfortable, embarrassed gyrating on a dance floor (I'm one!). I'm always envious of those who can do it unselfconsciously, wish I could take part in all the pleasures it clearly holds! So we demand another type of music, where we can feel a bit superior, to paper over our social inadequacies.

As so often, the promise of a warm, dry June never materialised into a gorgeous summer. Odd days of sunshine but rarely lasting a whole day. Last Thursday was the most miserable weather day in history - poured with rain until the early morning and then grey clouds just glowered all day! I can cope with rain - there's music for rain. But nothing that enhances steel-grey skies. Sunnier today but cold, windy with lengthy periods of cloud blotting out the sun. I feel autumn a-coming. Bev

I think that puts it perfectly. He's far from consistent. But there's plenty to enjoy if you're attuned. I really like his voice, strange to say. Old slippers music, perhaps, rather than brand new fashionable dancing shoes! That's what I like about it. Well, as I'm forever saying, we all come at music from different contexts, so inevitably we react differently. Thank goodness. Be a boring old world if we all responded to the same elements. And Porcupine Tree are softening my resistance to loud riffing!

For marketing purposes, that's how it works now. A sixty-something rocker is unlikely to appeal to a youth audience - a more 'sophisticated' handle is needed to reach his contemporaries. The word 'jazz' has a cache well beyond the sacred way the jazz-insider uses the word. To be fair I've not seen the word 'jazz' used to promote this (yet!). Just working off previous attempts at rebranding the older rock star. *************** Don't miss out on the special edition: http://www.ericclapton.com/claptondtc/ They could have charged ten times as much if they'd included a limited edition gold plectrum.