A Lark Ascending

Geez, Bev... You're in the UK. Isn't it "Wodehouse"? (Like Home is Hume?)(Or is it Hume is Home?) You are, of course, right! I was clearly confusing him with the dog trainer! Not read him in many a year. Actually thinking of giving him another go - I recall laughing myself daft when I was about 15.

Nothing like a good dousing to bring out the colour of a garden: The only thing edible in my garden are a few herbs and, eventually, some tomatoes. Though I might try some aubergines this year. (oh, and the plum tree and wild cherry tree - though I cut that back so far last autumn very little in the way of shoots have reappeared). Looks a bit forlorn. The first rose is just coming out - for some reason roses grow really well here, some of them continuing to flower as late as November.

You didn't need to be a buff - this chap was a major celebrity over here, appearing on chat shows and the like. Much like cooks, gardeners and fashion gurus become media TV stars. Made star-gazing quite mainstream for a time!

Don't know if Patrick Moore has any currency in the States - but he was an institution on UK TV for decades from the 60s doing a late night popular astronomy programme called 'The Sky at Night'. He also regularly appeared in specials surrounding the Apollo missions and the like; a sort of first call dial-a-popular astronomer. A grade 1 English eccentric, like something out of P.G. Woodhouse. Can't imagine him on an MJQ record - he would simply fill the frame (in more ways than one!).

He's on tonight at the Chapel Arts Centre in a low-key gig with the ex-drummer from King Crimson ! Which one? Bill Bruford has retired (supposedly). Ian Wallace is dead. Michael Giles I've not heard of for yonks. Not Jamie Muir...he was only there for a few months and went off to become a monk (though as a free player, might be more attuned to KT?). Can't imagine it would be the more recent Americans. I'm curious. (Edit: Just checked...it's Michael Giles!)

Does 'Space' really have Patrick Moore on it? I know he composes and plays the xylophone. A duet with Milt Jackson? 'Extermination Blues'? 'You and the Sky at Night and the Music?'?

Thanks for the review, sidewinder. Glad the Pavillion is back. That cinema turned God-house where Branford Marsalis played last year was strange! And Komedia was horrible. I skipped this year as nothing on Saturday caught my interest - I'm a bit tired of punky, noise-jazz a la Led Bib/AL (agree that Seb Rochford is wonderful but I can't follow him into the indie-rock areas he clearly cares about so passionately. He was amazing with Bojan Z last year). Last year I managed to deal with some holes by going to a folk event and a string quartet! Nothing really of that sort this year. Would have liked Sunday and the Bates but it was too far to travel for just that. I am also a bit wary with Kenny these days. The last few times I've seen him he's been a bit unsteady (unsurprisingly given his age...I'm unsteady in my profession and I'm quarter of a century younger!). Hopefully I'll be back next year. Maria Schneider over from the States? Tiziano Tononi from Italy? A return for Keith Tippett? And Barry Guy with something like the New Orchestra and a solo or duo performance in the Guildhall? Now that would get me there!

I don't think the lute caught on in jazz because the costumes you have to wear don't fit the image of the jazz hipster! Must be a devil to keep tuned in a sweaty jazz club too.

Yes, I think I had some form of cactus to begin with! You have given me an idea for my own garden! I'm very fond of the grasses that I put in a couple of years back behind the small pond. I also have three hop plants. Originally I had them in pots - they'd grow so far, then shrivel, grow again,then shrivel. But put in the garden proper they have gone bonkers. Beautiful lime green leaves: Not nearly as tidy as yours (though we seem to have the same bird table)! Must move that bin.

Nice garden, MG. Like the colour contrasts, especially with that reddy-brown one - japanese acer? I'm useless at plant identification. I moved into my house in 1991 and did nothing for about 13 years - it alternated between The Somme and weed city. Then suddenly I got interested and just made it up as I went along. I'd never have believed how much pleasure that little patch out back could bring.

Vibes had a towering figure, and thus a role model, pretty early on - Lionel Hampton. I can't think of any of the flautists (as in primary instrument) mentioned so far who come close to his popularity.

Maybe a fair few saxophonists started out on flute at school. It might bring back bad memories! Or clarinet! (also quite rare these days, compared with the main front line instruments)

My supposition would be that the flute has been fairly low in the jazz hierarchy because: a) Jazz has usually been a fairly muscular, masculine-dominated music - very hard to compete with a flute against an earthy tenor or trumpet pyrotechnics. b) The whole amplification problem - must have been very hard to hear in the live venues most jazz was played. Today, however, modern amplification solves b) (and it is a non-issue in the studio) and hope we're past a). Interesting British flautist - Finn Peters - who has made some nice recordings and appeared ion a variety of contexts. The World Music influence on jazz should also change things. The flute is far more prevalent in folk musics - the recordings that Hariprasad Chaurasia has made with the likes of McLaughin are pretty breathtaking!

Having been steered to classical music via, what the cognoscenti would view as, prog-rock cannibalising of core repertoire, this suits me fine. Yes, it is but a shadow of the original, but it's been turned into an interesting separate piece. And as a lover of 70s electric piano, this hits another button. I actually prefer it to Sketches - a record I've never great warmed to (apart from the fabulous last two tracks) because it seems to take its source material and just play it straight.

Thanks, Jim. Looking around earlier 'In the Beginning' and the double set you mention came out as places to look. Yes, the thread did start out more about why the flute is so rare as a primary instrument. But it's always good to get recommendations, especially where the poster can communicate why they think the recordings are worth your time.

Hubert Laws is not someone I'ver ever investigated. What would you recommend from his jazzy side, Jim?

Yes...there are some first-instrument flautists. Not many. James Newton from the more left-of-centre area. Given the great affection there is for Kirk and Dolphy you might have expected it to be more prevalent (not to mention some of the more spectral performances in 70s Miles). Does it struggle to be heard in a normal ensemble? Is it considered a bit light-weight? I can understand why the oboe has little presence in jazz; but the flute has that ability to skim across the music and contribute to the airborne feel that I like in jazz.

Just curious. I often read/hear jazz fans saying they don't care for the flute. And there are not that many players who have it as their first instrument. It's often a colouristic instrument in a larger group; or might be used on one track for contrast. But not that many flute-first players. Yet in Latin music - especially Cuban - it seems to have a long heritage. As I say, just curious. I've been hypnotised by flutes since hearing Jimmy Hastings skittering across those Caravan records of the 70s.

When reading (or writing!) I don't think you can pretend to be listening attentively - I find that my mind flips between following the text and suddenly remembering I have music on to listening to the music and realising I've run my eyes over two paragraphs and taken nothing in. But that does not prevent the ambient pleasure that I still get from it. I find it a very useful way to aclimatise to music I'm unfamiliar with. At some point (not necessarily on initial plays) it starts to demand I pay it attention. I can't watch TV (with the sound on!) and listen to music! When giving full attention to music I always have the issue of what to do with my hands (no coarse comments, thank you!). Solitaire seems to solve that problem (again, no coarse comments!).

You mean, an alternate thread? Only if the originator of this thread is properly compensated.

Somebody start an 'Alternate takes you should really listen to' thread. With a few lines as to what captivates the proposer it could be really interesting and send us back to those tracks with fresh ears. The examples mentioned here are likely to get lost as this thread dies.

Yes, I've known a good few of these. The guy I buy organic nuts and stuff from - who turned me on to New Orleans jazz a few years ago, listens to nothing but that and swing bands; in his shop, which is nice. He has a little untidy pile of CDs and K7s there - perhaps 50-100, I never counted. I have NEVER known anyone like this. And I DON'T need to get out more MG Many of the people I knew at college in the mid to late 1970s were like that. They listened to a lot of Yes, Jethro Tull, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Frank Zappa, Allman Brothers Band, and other popular rock groups of the time. They had hundreds of rock albums, and about 20--30 jazz albums, and that was the way they liked it. They also had about five reggae albums, ten classical albums, maybe 20 blues albums--they didn't mind dabbling just a little bit in other styles, but the rock music of the time was definitely what they were mostly interested in. They enjoyed the 1970s fusion groups like Mahavishnu Orchestra, Larry Coryell and the Eleventh House, Weather Report, because these fusion groups reminded them of the most instrumentally oriented rock groups. They did not want to venture into any acoustic mainstream jazz--except that they also thought that ECM was "all right to admit liking"--they had a few Keith Jarrett, Ralph Towner, Gary Burton and Chick Corea albums on ECM. A lot of it was cultural and generational with them--the fusion and ECM were "young people's music" in their minds. They could not identify with older mainstream jazz artists, and the avant garde did not interest them. To them, buying a Dexter Gordon album would have been like buying a Dean Martin album, just a hopelessly square, old fogey thing to do. They could not bring themselves to do it. I have made contact with some of them online in recent years, and they seem to have the same musical collections and tastes as they did back then, or else they don't really care anymore about music at all. You are describing me up to a point there. Except I began to tire of the limitations of the rock format (and above all, the rock rhythmic approach) c. 1975. The appeal of ECM (one of the routes elsewhere; Ogun, curiously was another) was not that it sounded like rock but took you somewhere that did not have the earthbound nature of most rock (Towners 'Solstice' just floated). I never cared for the American version of fusion which seemed to take the worst aspects of rock (rhythmic arthritis) and attach it to the most tedious aspects of jazz (the tendency to go on and on on just a few chords!). I actually found 'proper' jazz very foreign for quite some time and, having decided that there was something there I thought I could like, had to force-feed myself for a while. Exposure to Westbrook, Tracey, Surman, the Ogun-ites, Weber, Towner et al, and following up with Miles (acoustic rather than electric, I was very down on electric for a time), Coltrane, Rollins etc began to aclimatise me. But we should not underestimate how different jazz sounds (or sounded then) to a rock-trained ear. I had the same problem with classical music a little bit earlier and just had to have faith that it was worth persevering. It was. Don't oversimplify the rock audience of the 70s. There might have been plenty who were happy with the somewhat flashy and grandiose names you mention; but there were plenty of others who heard a very rich and different world from the standard blues-rock of the time and sought out the stranger corners. It was also a time rich in exploration of other genres, drawing me into classical, jazz and folk simultaneously. Of course, to old foggies like MG it would have all sounded like greasy kids stuff (I can visualise his disdain selling me a Yes album in the record shop he mentions working in!). But old folks always see it that way.

Oh I will. Interesting to see the Buddhist burning in Saigon in last night's episode. Expecting JFK to be shot any moment; and then Vietnam to enter stage left. They constantly reference genuine companies (or once companies) - Lucky Strike, Playtex etc - as opposed to the usual trick of making them up. Wonder how much that cost them.

An album cover depicting an earlier 'president' of 'the colonies', prior to the usurpation.

No. 9 Funerals = 5:21 Guider = 2.24 + 6.12 + 1.24 (it's presented as a suite of 3 pieces). Maybe the BBC piece is a version of the middle section.