A Lark Ascending

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.

Well, that's a relief. Instead of Greggs we'll have a nice Laura Ashley tea shoppe. With an attached plant shoppe ! I'm not sure they'd be allowed to sell the sort of plants the Beatles got their inspiration from in the mid 60s!

Well, that's a relief. Instead of Greggs we'll have a nice Laura Ashley tea shoppe.

Baker's shop. According to the news today Abbey Road is up for sale because of EMI's plunging profits. Couldn't they have sold Robbie Williams instead? He got a lifetime achievement award at some industry love-in yesterday. Lifetime? He must be all of 15.

I shouldn't lose too much sleep over the quality of lyrics. Quite a few opera libretti have toe curling lyrics. And those that know about these things proclaim them 'high art' and ensure that the state or private enterprise lavishes vast amounts on getting them out there. If the music works the lyrics generally (though not always) fade into the background. 'Ticket to Ride' or 'Help' (not to mention 'I am the Walrus') bear endless replaying despite the trite lyrics. And then there's Jon Anderson and Yes...

Try the Apple-Soyuz docking system from 1975. Or am I getting confused?

Glad you mentioned that. I checked yesterday and the programmes were not yet available on the iPlayer. Thought I'd missed it. But it's there now. Am recording it to listen to in the car next week on the work run.

Just finished Season 3. So this is why you Americans are so strange? Worksop ain't like this! Really strange series - generally pushing all sorts of boundaries; and then suddenly it will hint at the price to pay.

Bound to become a Starbucks!

God knows, Seeline. "WMA Lossless" it says, warning that they are larger than MP3. Which might explain why Winamp had a dickey-fit! My brain mists over with the details. Here's their explanation: http://www.theclassicalshop.net/wmasearch07.asp And their solution to my problem: http://www.theclassicalshop.net/HelpiTunes.asp Anyway, the Debussy disc played perfectly so I'm happy.

Well, three months on and I may finally have sorted this. I noticed a few weeks back the crashes occurred when I was trying to burn Chandos tracks that I'd downloaded in their higher quality lossless format. So I've used iTunes for those. Then on Saturday I played a recent Debussy piano disc with lots of tracks segueing together and got the dreaded tiny gap (despite the 'no gap' setting). Tried shaving of the gap with Total Recorder - usually works seamlessly, but couldn't get it without a lurch. Tried Foobar; couldn't get it to show any burning software and when I tried to upload a separate file couldn't get it to speak to Foobar. Tried Burrrn but it couldn't see the tracks. Tried Media Monkey but the 'free' version wanted me to buy something else; wasn't prepared to pay for something that still might not work. However, going back to the Chandos site I found a help page that suggested altering the import settings in iTunes to 'Apple Lossless Encoder' (this took some finding as it was in a different place from the screenprint on the Chandos help!!!!). But it worked! Khamma, Jeux, La Boite a Joujoux sans les gaps! So it looks like Winamp for most burning, iTunes for those higher files if the music runs together from track to track. Hope this might help someone else out!

The thing that made me laugh about the last one was the way it was being advertised using the same techniques employed to sell Lego or a cosmetics gift pack.

Thanks, Dave. That is good news. Let's hope they don't get further snarled in copyright issues and restrict it to US release.

Our gang is better than...

Reminder that this goes out tomorrow: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qn3wd I'm on half-term so will have the time to give it a good listen.

Great idea but I suspect that Bath may be constrained by current economic considerations. At least they could get him back in the Guildhall with his assorted bricks and wind chimes ! Yes, you are right. But... I'm all for the international slant of things like Bath (though it seems to increasingly favour the margins of what we might think of as jazz) and its commitment to up and coming players. Just seems such a pity that we have this enormous talent here in Britain who is still getting so little exposure. The same could be said for Westbrook. The last time I saw him with a big band/orchestra was in the mid-90s. Keith's performance with Mujician at Bath many years back was one of the most exciting concerts I've ever attended. But I'll settle for solo (with or without wind chimes and musical boxes!).

I can't even remember this song. Probably proves I was really there in the 80s.

That must have been fun, Alex. Keith Tippett is very important to me...opened my ears to very different of approaching and hearing music. I was transfixed by his playing on three King Crimson albums which led me to Centipede. Although 'Septober Energy' had a couple of very jazz-rocky sections, elsewhere it was much, much freer than anything I'd heard before. I still think his short solo passage opening side 4 (that seems to shift from Romanticism to abstraction and back before ushering in a mighty orchestral chorale) is one of my favourite musical moments of all time. I wish somewhere like Bath would commission him to do one of his larger pieces. Has to be cheaper than paying for a US big band to cross the Atlantic for one concert. Probably couldn't get the sponsorship.

Five programmes, one each day at UK lunchtime and repeated at 10 pm. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qn3s3 When the slot was given to Duke Ellington in the late 70s there were riots in the Home Counties. I expect David Cameron will make a statement about how it illustrates the cultural decline of the nation under the stewardship of Labour.