A Lark Ascending

Thanks, Shawn. That looks exactly what I need!

My pond is positivel pornographic in late-Feb/early March for a week or so. Scores of the things! Hope the winter massacre has not put an end to that.

No imperative at all to listen to contemporary (in my view)...or the history, for that matter. What was contemporary for me? Well it wasn't just jazz rock. In the 70s and early 80s in the UK alone it was the likes of Kenny Wheeler, Keith Tippett, Mike Osborne, John Surman, Mike Westbrook, John Taylor, Stan Sulzmann, Stan Tracey etc (neither 'Trad' nor 'fusion', making feshly minted music). By the mid-80s there was the Loose Tubes thing which was very exciting and the Jazz Warriors side of things (which I followed less). In the last ten years a whole new generation has matured - I automatically snap up releases by Phil Robson, Julian Siegel, Ingrid Laubrock, Liam Noble (not to mention slightly older musicians like Mark Lockheart or Julian Arguelles). And then there are the bands that have flowed out of Polar Bear, Acoustic Ladyland and the F-IRE collective. I'll admit to having misgivings about some of this - I don't warm to too much electronica or the punkish 'noise' approaches of some of these bands. But I like to listen and normally get a recharge of enthusiasm at the early summer festivals. These all seem to me to be logical developments from what preceded rather than new forms that have detached themselves from the source. And I could multiply examples from listening to music from Scandinavia, Italy or Australia. I can see why it might be hard to hear this sort of thing or the equivalent in your own area; or even just not care for it when there is such a wealth of treasure in the past. But I'd hazzard a guess that bulk of new interest in jazz in this country (and there really does seem to be an endless flow of new young players in every style imaginable) starts with the contemporary. It can be fickle...The Portico Quartet/Bojan Z concert I attended last year where the place was packed with a young audience for the Porticos, but left with the greyhairs for the unknown-outside-the-jazz-world Bojan Z (who, ironically, produced a far motre edgy set than the rather mild Porticos). I suspect it was ever thus - wonder how many people in the Filmore stayed for the Miles set after (or before) the hippy bands? Some clearly did and became the jazz fans of the next few years (much like I went to rock gigs at Uni but also turned up for Nucleus and Lol Coxhill!). A funny little example of how this still works for me. I've been playing a lot of West Coast-ish 50s jazz over the last couple of weeks. Why? By becoming absorbed by a very contemporary disc by Liam Noble, refashioning Brubeck tunes. Very 'now' music but made me want to hear the source material. And it has ever been thus for me. I got into Ellington, not by hearing the man himself but by hearing the likes of Stan Tracey, Mike Westbrook, Steely Dan play versions of Ellington. I wanted to know where it came from. Thanks for all the responses. It really has been interesting - and instructive - to see how differently we react. As Steve points out, jazz is a very fragmented world today, so that's only to be expected).

Yes, last two days have been lovely (and impressive full moon in a clear sky at night). I've spotted the first snowdrop too. Sadly, also spotted five dead frogs floating atop the pond - clearly killed in the bad weather. Had to bury them with full honours accompanied by a Ravel adaptation - "Pavane Pour Les Grenouilles Defunte". And a bugle playing "The Last Croak".

I'm not making any judgments on what is the 'right' way to listen, BBS. I'm very much in the 'laissez-faire' "follow your own nose and don't worry about those who tell you what you ought to be listening to" camp. Maybe it's different where you are, Steve, but in Britain, even with the limited airtime jazz gets, there is (and always has been) a lot of contemporary jazz broadcast (either 'cutting edge' or 'in the tradition'). When I started listening I heard the history via Jazz Record Requests and Jazz on 2; the contemporary via Jazz Today and also Jazz on 2. Today JRR and Jazz Library cover the former, Jazz on 3 the latter (with Jazz Line-up working in both camps, favouring the less extreme end of things). I hardly went to a jazz concert for the first four or five years of my jazz listening (I lived in a jazz-free north Midlands town and I did not have a car!) yet I was still very aware of the new music appearing at the time. There's a vibrant young scene here surrounding the varied likes of Polar Bear, Empirical, Led Bib, Portico Quartet and many others which are picking up an audience of younger listeners (I don't want to overstate that - I doubt if the kids I teach have heard of any of them, but when I've been to their gigs the student age crowd usually outnumber we old crusties...which is not the norm at a jazz event). The other thing that sticks in my memory is just how foreign anything from before the 50s sounded to me until 20 years into my jazz listening (and I still don't completely 'get' a lot of the 50s/early 60s UK jazz that people who were young when it happened dearly love). The idea of an 18 year old hearing Louis Armstrong and experiencing a Damascus moment in 2010 seems hard to believe...but maybe I'm just extrapolating from my own difficulty in getting back to those early years 35 or so years ago (when, it has to be said, the sound quality of the transfers I had often left a lot to be desired). I'd expected some posters who grew up in houses full of jazz or who had studied it via school to make their entrance that way. I suppose I just expected more to have clicked in to their own time and then worked backwards (perhaps deciding that what went before had more meaning for them and more or less giving up on the contemporary). You live and learn.

Although I've been won over totally by downloading, this is the one issue that continues to irritate me. I think that in their hurry to get things up there is no quality control checking. E-music and iTunes will both credit you with one track for a defect. But what's the point of one track if you want the whole album? They also seem to do little to correct the source (or the people with the source do little). I downloaded a Dino Saluzzi album from e-music last June and it had serious issues on several tracks. I was compensated for the album but as far as I know the album has not been repaired. You'd have thought they'd leave a note on the standard page - 'Previous Defect Repaired'. ECM are actually one of the worst offenders - I've had a few with tiny dropouts. My other beef is where a track that goes continuously into the next has a couple of seconds of silence at the end, breaking up the flow. 'I set everything to 'gapless' but the silence is part of the track. 'Chandos' classical records suffer from this a lot. I can remedy it by putting the tracks into Total Recorder and shaving off the silence. Solves the problem perfectly but is irritating, especially as you only notice it after you've burnt the CD. I think this a bit like the early days of CD - a mad rush to get things out with little quality control. In time, when most of the back catalogue is out there and they are only dealing with new releases they will go back to correct all of this. Probably get trumpeted as 'Definitive Remastered Editions' and cost more! Having said that, the bulk of my downloading from Amazon, iTunes, eMusic and a number of classical sites has been painless.

I suspect, MG, that like many of us you really won't need most of the 'automatic' features. Best to check 'Manually manage music and videos'. When I import or download into iTunes I always re-label prior to putting on the iPod. Not sure if you can see this but it's how I work it: If you click a track and click 'Get Info' you will see a window like this where you can change anything you want. If you select all the tracks from the album (clicking the 'Info' tab as it automatically brings up 'Summary' with a multiple selection) then you can change the album information all at once, but individual track titles stay the same - obviously helps to change them one at a time if you need to. Once I have it uploaded (and, for downloads, burnt on a disc...I still can't cope without a disc!)I move the file to an external hard disc and every now and then purge iTunes. If I want to reload it to the iPod I just move it back from the external disc (File>Add Folder (or File) to Library). Seems to have worked so far. I think a lot of the automatic stuff is useful for people with small collections; but not very helpful to those of us who know what we want and want to organise it ourselves. There are probably much more obvious ways of achieving the same result. This is the route I worked out and it seems to work. A question of my own. I have a few vast compilation folders that I like to put on 'shuffle' when travelling. The trouble is that if I then go to something else and come back to the compilation it goes for total random again, repeating things. Is there an easy way to exclude recently played from a compilation (either in the main file or by making a playlist) so I can work through the entire compilation without repeats. Or am I asking too much from the technology?

The second of Steinhauer's Cold War thrillers set in an imaginary East European communist state. Set in 1956 around the time of the mid-50s Thaw and the Hungarian Uprising. A complex murder mystery set in a bleak landscape of surveillance, political arrests, brutal work camps and sudden rehabilitation. Very impressive. Will work my way through his other books.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm really surprised. I expected most people to say they started at a) and then either shifted to b) or kept a) and b) in balance. But it seems a lot of you were listening historically from the off. I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised. That's how most (though not all) gain access to classical music.

I've been really enjoying Gerry Mulligan of late. Did a search and the threads there seem specialised to particular recordings. Here's what I have at present: Gerry Mulligan Quartet - w/Chet Baker(Blue Note comp 1952-3) Konitz Meets Mulligan (1953) The Original Sextet (Lonehill comp 1955-6) Mulligan Meets Monk (1957) Mosaic Select (1957-8) What is there to say ? (1959) Concert Jazz Band Live - Olympia (1960) At Village Vanguard (1960) Complete studio Recordings - w/Bob Brookmeyer (Lonehill comp 1962) Complete Sextet Studio Recordings (Lonehill comp 1963-4) Night Lights (also on the above) Obviously gets a bit difficult dealing with overlaps with the Lonehills. What would you recommend as marvellous other discs? I have my eyes on things like the discs with Ben Webster and Stan Getz. Also interested in things from the later years like 'Walk on the Water' and 'Idol Gossip' (which are easy to nab off e-music). Many thanks in anticipation.

About pirate radio in the UK in the mid-60s. Froth, I'm afraid. Lots of film cliches stiched together and backed with snippets of great pop songs from the time. Passed the time but it was time that could have been better passed.

Me too...'Lady Chatterley's Mother' (Gerry Mulligan) at this point.

First programme was very enjoyable, if a bit of a mad rush. From the '20s to Santana in an hour! Nice 1977 concert from Santana preceeding it, too.

Good for you. I didn't mean to imply that there was anything wrong with formal study (it probably read like that). Just that you don't have to start with the history to enjoy the music as a whole. Though as with everything, you eventually have to explore the history if you want to 'understand' it. 'Kind of Blue' will never lose its magic, you'll be pleased to know. One thing you might try is working out from the musicians on that album. Try 'In a Silent Way' or 'ESP' for a different Miles Davis (or one of his orchestral collaborations with Gil Evans - you might find 'Stetches of Spain' interesting). Bill Evans' Village Vanguard records from around the same time are pearls too.

Interesting. I thought there would be more a)s but that would appear not to be the case. With me I slid towards jazz from the jazz rock of the time, initially (c1975-6) going for contemporary things on Ogun, ECM and by contemporary UK players like Westbrook and Tracey. At that stage jazz was still something I bought on the edge of my rock interests (as was also the case with classical and folk). But during 1977 and, especially from '78 when I was earning a wage, I started picking up earlier music. A Brubeck record, an MJQ, 'My Favourite Things' etc and things grew from there. Bebop took me a while to come to terms with and pre-1945 jazz evoked no reaction at all until I suddenly clicked in during the 90s. Yet, for some reason - mainly due to hearing his compositions played by others, I suspect - Ellington grabbed me very early on ('78, I think). But, like others have said, the delving backward went hand in hand with exploring what was currently being released. I also retained that interest in what jazz musicians were doing here in the UK. I continues to listen like that.

A bit of a different take on 'how did you get in to jazz?' I was interested in the thread last weekend when a new listener asked for recommendations. Lots of 'classics' came out. Yet my recollection of being at that point was of connecting to the current and then delving backwards. So I'd be interested: a) Did you come into jazz via music that was being made around the time you were listening? b) Or did you immediately click into music ten or more years prior to your listening time (e.g. via parents' collections)? No right answer. Just interested. I'm an a).

Very true. I spent six months unemployed in Norwich at the end of '77 and relied on the library there first heard Mingus Ah-Um, Eberhard Weber's 'Yellow Fields' and an Eric Dolphy Prestige twofer there. Even more important for classical music for me - allowed me to follow my curiosity about the lesser known British 20thC composers at a time (late 70s/early 80s) when they were hard to track down.

The solution involves boiling neckbones, mixing them with mandrake root and the umbilical chord of a new born lamb and then sprinkling the mixture all over the house. I'd have thought you'd know this, MG!

Things like this between 1970-75: led me to things like this in 1975-6:

Excellent German film about the way that the Stasi took lives apart in East Germany.

Whereas I'd say listen to what is around now and if it really catches fire for you, then start digging back. Enjoying jazz should not be about study. Though later on you might find that worth doing.

One of the most frequent excuses...sorry arguments...for the excessive imbalance towards opera is that if it was not supported it would collapse; this would be a disaster as no civilised country can hold its head high without an opera house of international repute.

Doesn't cut much ice in 2010! I suspect it's the cover story for the vast amount poured into Covent Garden, even today.

The Reithians would have argued that it was democratic to give classical music a dominant slice of the cake as the aim was to cultivate the public towards finer tastes!!!

Here are a couple of excellent contemporary UK records that will also get you curious about where this music all came from: Freeish in places but essentially structured and often quite lyrical. They draw their inspiration from Eric Dolphy, a reed player who had a short but intense career in the late 50s/early 60s. If it takes your fancy you've got a route into some very interesting early 60s jazz - Dolphy, Ornette Coleman, Andrew Hill. One of the best albums of the last ten years, to my mind. Very good compositions balancing energy with lyricism. It has a rocky edge but never gets arthritic (like rock-based jazz can do!). Both those bands tour widely and should be easy to see in London. I think Partisans and their various members are virtually residents at the Vortex! ************ Worth keeping an eye on the 'What are you listening to?' thread here: Especially valuable when people comment on what they particularly like about a record. I'm forever being sent off exploring by people's enthusiasm there.