A Lark Ascending

Hated 'Red' when I bought it the week it came out (Autumn '74) - it seemed rough, hurried, full of heavy metal power chords and not that well recorded. My musical tastes were heading away from rock where 'Red' seemed to be taking KC back into rock. Time has mellowed me towards it and I enjoy it now. Odd that 'Lizard' is getting another makeover given how Fripp has frequently disowned it (and 'Islands'). As it happens 'Lizard/Islands' are my favourite KC albums - very much studio confections but marvellous nonetheless. I could not make head nor tail of the first side of Lizard when I first heard it...but in the end it opened my ears to the contemporary UK jazz of the time and was my pathway to Soft Machine, Centipede, Keith Tippett and so on...

A thread that I've mined...be interested in any new discoveries.

Any new leads? A few interesting things a-coming: http://www.biscoitofino.com.br/en/cat_prod...cada.php?id=482 http://www.biscoitofino.com.br/en/cat_prod...cada.php?id=481 Looks like a live album. And a live Joyce record with the WDR big band: http://www.dustygroove.com/item.php?id=bdhnkhr9p9 There also seems to be a disc called 'Aquarius - Joyce with Joao Donato' coming from Japan in August.

From: http://www.spincds.com/ There's also another Richard Thompson retrospective on the way: http://www.spincds.com/product.asp?id=9020971 My charitable side tells me that every few years a new audience exists, unfamiliar with this music, that will benefit from this repackaging. The cynic in me tells me that as album sales vanish into downloads the record companies are desparately trying to create marvels of packaging that might boost sales. I've nothing against this sort of thing...I've been introduced to many a performer through such boxes. But both Mitchell and Thompson have original albums in need of better remastering. I do wish the effort had gone there!

Remastered editions of the two Hatfield and the North albums are about to appear. I love these two records - bought them as the came out on LP in '74 and '75. The first CD edition of'The Rotters Club' has always been fine to my ears but the first album was remastered in a very muddy and flat way. So I'm hoping this version will do the job - I don't normally chase upgrades beyond a certain point but these records are magical to me. http://www.cherryred.co.uk/esoteric/artist...andthenorth.htm

What I'm finding out is that a lot of what "we" find "dated" is what a few generations on are often finding to be "substance". Very true. Bach was considered 'dated' for decades. What happens with time is that the 'hipness' that Papsrus talks about slips into the background. If the music has the power to engage, move, enthrall then it's that which comes to the front; the packaging is still there but it doesn't have the distracting effect it has at the time and in the immediate aftermath (especially in the immediate aftermath, when new packaging makes the old look out-dated). I can enjoy Charlie Parker or Lester Young completely undistracted by the hipness that swirled around them at the time. What matters has endured regardless of changing fashions on the surface.

I love having a big collection accumulated over 37 years to enjoy and re-explore. But the biggest thrill for me is still discovering something new...I'm forever in search of the buzz I got at 16 when it was all new. The thrill dosen't come so often but it's still regular enough. I don't get jaded with what I've got because I just change genre regularly. A month or so of electric Miles might mutate into a rediscovery of Irish folk or turn of the century Germanic orchestral music. There's so much out there still unexplored...new music as yet unplayed (and originating from places that are not usually associated with the standard jazz historical canon), and old music that I've not heard and is equally foreign. Can't see me losing the love of music for a long time yet.

'Human Nature' was a great live vehicle for the later Miles bands. Listen to Kenny Garrett on the version on 'Live Around the World'. I really like the shorter version (along with 'Time After Time') on 'You're Under Arrest'.

UK members get ECM?? I'm jealous! I thought UK was the same as eMusic Europe, which doesn't have ECM. Huh. Since late last summer they've been building up. Things like Jarrett's 'Yesterdays' is already up. Some careless transfers though - Imust admit I download with trepidation.

Much missed - one of the wisest souls I've come across on an internet board.

I don't do t-shirts with words on. But I'm in need of a beret.

I buy most of my music on MP3 now - I'll only buy a CD if I can't download it.

I take Seeline's point about lack of communication - I'd know nothing about these changes if it was not for this board. The Home page of the UK site is full of recommendations for my listening and what exciting indie-rock album has just appeared - but no mention of what is changing on the site. If they are going to compete with iTunes they are also going to need to be quicker in getting things up - the new ECMs have been appearing at iTunes over the last couple of weeks - very slow to appear at e-music. The new Adam Rogers on Criss Cross is out this week in Europe - at present e-music have no download competition for this so maybe there's an agreement to wait a while to encourage physical sales first. But in time I'd have thought as in any other area of marketing the trick will be to at least have things available at the same time as your competitors. I suspect e-music doesn't have the manpower of iTunes and so finds it hard to keep up...especially with all those 'Hits of the Big Bands' discs to upload! Another irritation I have is the situation with faulty tracks. Given how much I've downloaded over the last three years I've not had much trouble. But of late I've had a number of issues. E-music always credit you for the faulty track but you are left with an incomplete album. When I enquired recently about their replacing a track they promised it would be possible but it might take time as the fault might lie in the materials sent from the record company. Disappointingly, one of the worst offenders is ECM - normally just a single loud click or dropout but still unacceptable, especially on a label once renowned for its pristine pressings. I downloaded a particularly mauled Dino Saluzzi a few weeks back. I don't think this is an e-music problem...I've had a couple of similar experiences with ECMs downloaded elsewhere. I get the impression the transferring of ECM to downloads was hurried, without proper listen throughs. Disappointing, as I said before. All blips of a new technology finding its way, I'm sure, but irritating nonetheless.

There is so much music out there that disappointments don't figure too highly with me as they are always greatly outweighed by the excitement of hearing new things I can engage with. But I do have one huge disappointment that has been with me since the late-70s. New classical music from the mid-20th C onwards. I'm musically illiterate (in the sense that I've had no training in 'flyshit') but have always been open minded and keen to hear what's next in my preferred musical genres (I'm completely closed-minded in rock music!). Two things have disappointed me in 'new' classical music of this time (I'm excluding the likes of Britten, Messiaen etc whose music was already formed by mid-century): a) The complete impenetrability of so much 'new' music. Though I can often find surface details to latch on to - nice textures, sonorities etc - I rarely get swept along by the music, frequently find my mind drifting. Now I imagine defenders of the music would say that is the point - leaving behind the Romantic emotionalism that got us all into trouble in the first place. But without the training to read scores and unpick the architecture I'm usually lost as to how this music is supposed to be engaging me. When you then throw in the elitist Adornoisms and Babbitry that surround this music, with its dismissal of music that tries to engage the public, I'm left with something very unattractive. b) The wishy-washy nature of the reaction to Darmstadtry - all the Baltic monks and sweet-toothed new populism. There are contemporary composers I've come to enjoy - a few Scandinavians, some of the minimalists, MacMillan etc. But even there there is nothing to sweep me along like Mahler or Sibelius or Stravinsky or Bartok or Britten. Deficiencies in my ability to process music, no doubt. But a genuine disappointment - I don't like the idea of sitting contentedly with my past masters.

The UK e-music has a new button which tells you how many credits the album costs. At present this is exactly the same as the tracks. I suspect this will change. One thing I did notice was the recent Jarrett had one track (the longest) unavailable for separate download, encouaging the full album acquisition - something common on the main sites. E-music has often had 'this track is currently unavailable for download' before, but it seemed a bit random. This new approach seems a bit more systematic - maybe the bigger companies are requiring this to avoid cherry picking. As I generally download full albums not a big issue - except if it happens in the classical area where I'm often trying to avoid duplicating works. For me with the overall changes it will be a case of seeing what is cost effective. If it's cheaper off e-music, I'll go there. If it can be had cheaper elsewhere (as the 'Classics' albums can be had from Amazon_mp3), then I'll go there.

My goodness, concerts in the back yard. This is my backyard at high summer: A couple of hours back I just started playing the second disc of the Miles Cellar door box and two blackbirds landed in the garden and proceeded to screech at one another through the entire disc! Clearly Miles fans. Here's one:

Well, Save.... Disc 1: a long orchestral suite. On first listen didn't make much of an impression. But it's early days... Disc 2: as you'd expect, some lovely guitar duets. Enjoyed this very much, though the tunes are ones he's recorded many times before. Vitous would have been better calling it 'Remember the Weather Report I'd have liked to have been...' No funky rhythms or cartoon world musicisms - which was to be expected. What is stranger is that the album doesn't sound much like the Weather Report albums Vitous was on. No shimmering electronics or intense jams (I'm thinking the live side of ' Sing...'). All credit to the man for doing a tribute album and completely defying expectations (though I wonder how far the title is but a marketing hook). I liked it on first listen - the trademark singing bass of Vitous, an almost deliberate avoidance of groove, mere wisps of melody - almost an 'outside' record. In fact what it reminds me of most is those single tracks that turned up on nearly every 70s ECM from Towner to Gateway where the musicians played free - only here there's a whole album of them (kiss of death to some, I know). Reminds me also of those discs John Surman did with Paul Bley. There's a distant musing on Nefertiti, a version of Lonely Woman (the Ornette one) where the melody is allowed to sing out, a tune connecting Miles and Dvorak and sounding like neither and, the closest the album gets to a groove, a blues at the end that appears to be a variant on 'All Blues' - but even that stops and starts. Time will tell if this one makes repeat journeys to the CD player but my first impression is of relief that he didn't do the obvious. There's an interview with him in this month's Jazzwise. He clearly was not happy with the direction Zawinul took WR. I suppose that this is his alternative universe Weather Report record. In some respects it reverses back to the Miles Second Quintet or the Corea/Holland band as it might have been had it followed up its freer leanings instead of going down the rock route.

How many groups changed direction or significantly altered their sound after hearing 'Music from Big Pink'? I've heard Fairport Convention's 'Full House' and Clapton's early 70s solo work were thus influenced towards a more earthy sound after the everything + the kitchen sink vibe of the late 60s.

The discovery of new performers - be they current or just new to me - continues to be a source of major excitement. I think I'm always looking for that rush I recall from my mid to late teens when everything sounded new. Doesn't happen so often (more to do with having so much more context than any lack of current freshness, imo) but still creates a great buzz.

'The Band' were wonderful. I was only vaguely aware of them when they were functioning but began buying their albums in the early 80s.

That Andersen is a great record - the best thing I've heard Tommy Smith do.

I still enjoy Jarrett but I can understand why you feel this way. If I had to put my finger on 'what's wrong' with Jarrett I would have to say that his trio format is stale. He needs to play with different musicians in a different setting. I'm not sure I'd use the word stale...there are still great beauties to be heard. It's just that you more or less know what to expect. Listening to the recent Jarrett catalogue is a bit like walking through a museum with gallery after gallery of wonderful porcelain. It eventually becomes 'Oh, another lovely vase!' I agree - it would be great to hear him with other musicians. Preferably some unknowns rather than a superstar session.

RFH Conservatory, 'Jazz Britannia'. Yeah, I was there too ! A couple of blackbirds singing away before bedding down for the night. Awesome. That's the one...though it was The Barbican. Apologies for the pedantry!

Arrived this week and enjoyed the first play through. No, it's nothing new and probably suffers from too many musicians - would have been interesting to hear just the Indian musicians!

Just acquired the Surman, Gismonti and Vitous off iTunes. An interesting weekend's listening ahead.