A Lark Ascending

It also explains why quite a few of us rock fans of the early-70s became jazz fans in the later 70s. [i'm always amused by the way that the punks who reacted against early 70s rock but got successful enough to fill stadiums ended up playing 70s rock...without the guitar solos! U2, REM etc!)

Why when Coltrane plays 'My Favourite Things' for an hour is it a artistic and spiritual high; but when a white guitarist plays a 13 minute guitar solo it becomes a 'wankfest'? No particular axe to grind...I've never really listened to Johnny Winters and was never one for the blues-rock of the 70s. But one thing I do agree with Allen Lowe on is his frequent references to the 'received wisdom' that gets stated as fact. I like long solos in all sorts of situations - blues, rock, jazz, folk-rock (thank you Mr. Thompson..and not a blues-lick in sight!); by black, white, Asian or Saturnalian players. Yet I'm forever seeing them written off as as 'self-indulgent'. It's always struck me as a perfectly legitimate way of making music. Sometimes it can be dull; sometimes mesmerising. The inability or unwillingness of contemporary rock musicians to take off like Thompson or Hendrix or Emerson or McLaughlin is one of the reasons I'm not that interested in post-76 rock music.

Things were looking good a while back but Dutton/Vocalion seem to have slowed down. Seems sad the following are stil MIA: Frequently mentioned candidates: Dankworth/Wheeler - Windmill Tilter Ronnie Ross - Cleopatra's Needle Amancio D'Silva - Hum Domo Ronnie Scott - Serious Gold Things I have on LP that should be much better known: Stan Sulzmann - On Loan With Gratitude Ray Warleigh - Reverie The first two Loose Tubes albums Things I've never heard but would like to: Tony Coe - Zeitgeist Keith Tippett/Marc Charig - Pipedream Will think of more and add. Please add your own. Apologies to Peoria...this matters in Leamington Spa!

Thanks Jeff and Rooser. Both seem well out-of-print. I'd be interested to hear reactions to these 'new' releases.

I'm really surprised at this. I can understand record companies still pitching 'boutique' sets of Miles Davis, given his cache beyond jazz. But this music is insider stuff. It's available as CD and as download. Surely it would make sense to just get some good quality discographical information/notes together and have it available for download? I'd have thought all this fancy packaging was a thing of the pre-download age. Good lord, even the reactionaries on the Gramophone hi-fi pages are backing away from their anti-download stance.

And here are five recent UK releases that have kept a smile on my face: A mixture of jazz trio and solo with some almost Third Stream-ish duets with cello. A band I expected to be besuited beboppers but turned out much more interesting. Ornettish contemporay band linked up with drummers from Ghana. Utterly brilliant reconfiguring of the quartet - got me listening much more sympathetically to the original band. Yarde is one of the UK's best kept secrets. So good to hear him in full flow on this superb duo disc.

The US has been producing better 'middlebrow' drama for some time now. UK TV has become swamped with 'reality' TV, fly-on-the-wall docs, cooking and make-over programmes and 'talent' shows (where people pretend to be someone else). Most of the money left for drama goes into rather fey costume dramas. What I find really irritating is the habit of taking excellent books and reducing them to a 90 minutes zip through (Ian Ranking, Henning Mankell etc). I've loved things like 'The West Wing' (yes, I know it's not really like that) where stories evolve, characters develop or disappear over long time spans. I don't care for the Lost type things or sci-fi. But I've just started the first series of 'Mad Men' and it has me gripped.

I don't have any recordings of the 'Lost Quintet' but am intrigued. I understand we are in 'dubious provenance' territory here. What would you say is a good, reasonably well recorded (I find flutter and wow distracting, whatever the quality of the performance), reasonably representative recording?

Marty Feldman and Barry Took were of my time!

Very positive review of Roger's Ian Carr discography in this month's Jazzwise. Well done Roger!

Before my time, Daddy-os!

Sounds like a great night, sidewinder. Pity it wasn't on a Saturday! Nikki Yeoh is a very impressive player. Like Jason Yarde, someone who is sadly underrepresented on disc. I first saw her at Cheltenham about ten years ago and felt sure we had a new star; yet her profile has remained rather low. And that 'Northumbrian Sketches' piece is marvellous - I have the original CD and have always felt it made a really interesting, spiky use of an orchestra. Do you have the Gil Evans 'British Orchestra' record? Ray Russell plays a marvellous solo on the version of 'Little Wing' there.

This aforementioned combination of three early albums now has a late-March release date (in the UK):

Coming soon: Django Bates in rare piano trio format playing Charlie Parker tunes: 1. Scrapple From the Apple 2. Hot House 3. Puntuat-i'on 4. Star Eyes 5. My Little Suede Shoes 6. Laura 7. Chi Chi 8. Now's the Time 9. Plasticity 10. Moose the Mooche 11. Billie's Bounce 12. Ah-Leu-Cha Won't sound remotely like any other 'Bird' tribute, I would imagine!

Yes, despite more snow this week and gloomy mist this morning, it looks encouraging. My heating packed in again - just had British gas sort it out. But stirrings in the garden make it look as if this might soon be a thing of the past. I hacked at all the surplus foliage back in October. Pure guesswork. I'm curious to see what pops up. I've a nice patch of some sort of grass that grows tall and acts as a sort of divide half way down the garden. It's already bursting forth.

Listened to programme 1 and the first 20 mins of 2 on the work run today. Very well done! Donald Macleod...who you normally hear talking about Haydn or Berlioz...is there asking questions as the inexperienced but interested novice. What really impresses is the explanations of Geoffrey Smith. I've only heard him doing his amiable but rather scripted Jazz Record Requests. But here he positively bubbles with enthusiasm and shows a great knowledge of the music - not just the who/what/where but he talks authoritatively about what is happening musically. I always think it sad that programmes like these only survive for a broadcast or two and then vanish (I know - contractual, licence etc). Should be linked up for constant reference - perfect for a music student or someone coming new to jazz and wanting a primer.

Hi Manfred! Nice to see you!

Wonderful film and fabulous music. Love the dance sequences. And was fascinated this time by some of the orchestration in 'Cool'. Bernstein knew a thing or two!

Played the 'Blueprint' record - much less scary than I thought! really liked the strange guitar coloured second track. My vinyl is positively awful. Given how quiet the album is the first few minutes of each side are a real popcorn-fest. Might have to use some e-music credits to get a cleaner copy. Talking about e-music, anyone with an account might want to download 'Friday the Thirteenth'. A single 50 minute track of solo Keith - just one credit! I don't think I mentioned it elsewhere on this thread (though I know I've refered to it in the 'What are you listening to...' thread at some point) but look out for a copy of this great disc. I think it's the first to carry the 'Ovary Lodge' name. Even though it was a region way beyond my ken I enjoyed this one right from first purchase in the early 70s: I'm always amazed at just how far Keith came in such a short time. The early polydor and RCA records are pretty inside. Septober Energy has sections that are very free. But with Blueprint and Ovary Lodge anything remotely conventional has just vanished. Special kudos for Roy Babbington on these records too. He also served with a huge sound in Stan Tracey's band in the late 70s/early 80s. Last time I saw him he was in the BBC Big Band! And Frank Perry's percussion is spellbinding.

in the good old days of cassettes it was easy but now? possibly naive of me but how does one save such a session now(IT dinosaur alert!) ? I'd dearly love to be able to revisit this session many times I've sent a PM with a suggestion, mjazzg.

Just listened and enjoyed the programme thoroughly. Will be saving the session (for personal use only!). Very interesting opening discussion...especially the Ellington. I have this on the RCA Centennial box and have hardly noticed it. Will be heading back that way again today!

Do beware a frightening block chord from KT on one of the tracks that comes amidst a very quiet passage - it'll make you spill those rice krispies! Gosh! I remember that momnt! Will play and CD-R today!

I must play my vinyl 'Blueprint' that I bought in 1973 on the back of my King Crimson obsession. Foxed me completely at the time. There are long passages of near silence. One I've always been scared to return to. I suspect it would make much more sense now. If I can tolerate the rice krispies during the quiet bits!

'I Want You (She's So Heavy)' Maybe they're brilliantly minimalist.... Or what about 'Here Comes the Sun'. Not exactly T.S. Elliot. But the track in total seems to achieve what I assume its intention was...to evoke that feeling of well-being on a bright sunny morning (not the normal provenance of 'art', bright sunny mornings!). Edit: Thinking about it, that was quite a clever sequence. End side 1 with angst, longing and pain; start side 2 with a bright sunny morning. A good example of where having to pause and turn the LP over has an impact that the continuous CD can't match.

Well, that's intellectualising it - 'what makes a great song?' Which is fine as it goes. But I imagine most people react to music - especially popular music - without worrying too much about its greatness (in the sense of whether all of its constituent parts are of equal quality, leading to a perfectly balanced whole). The record gives them a rush and if the lyrics are pretty weak, well so what? 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' - marvellous, evocative record. But what twaddle in the lyrics. I suspect we all have different tolerances on this. I've never been one for paying much attention to lyrics when first listening to songs (though I suspect that without noticing it I'm probably affected by the sound they make [rather than the sense] as part of the overall musical soundscape). At a later date I might pay them more attention - Joni Mitchell comes to mind as someone whose mid-70s lyrics come centre stage.