A Lark Ascending

Jim Callaghan's Ruskin College speech!

Gigwise, not much. The very first National Health concert (with Bill Bruford on drums) early in the year which was marvellous (but did a band ever have less luck with its timing to start a career!); in the autumn Steve Hillage in Exeter which I found dull. Went to four Proms in the summer (had never been before) with some friends - had a Janacek conversion experience with the Glagolitic Mass. And in Exeter again, Stan Tracey Quartet doing 'Under Milk Wood' with Donald Houston reading extracts, my first jazz gig (as opposed to jazz rock). A few folk things too though I can't remember if they were in the autumn of '76 or the summer of '77 (I was banished to Cornwall in the spring doing my teaching practice).

Excellent (lengthy) article here about acting in Britain (and more besides): Why working-class actors are a disappearing breed And utterly depressing forewarnings: BBC may have to share licence fee with rivals Interesting sentence here: "Although Whittingdale has led the white paper process, the prime minister, David Cameron, and the chancellor,George Osborne, are understood to have played a key part in the decision-making process." They seem to omitted the names of an antipodean media zillionaire and editor of the Daily Mail. Enjoy the BBC while you can - in a few years it'll have been asset-stripped with nothing left but Celebrity Dominatrix.

Disc 2 of the fourth - pick'n mix symphonic poems and overtures; just the Dvorak on the latter. All on headphones on a brilliant summer's day whilst pottering in the garden. They say it's warmer here than Ibiza. Music's better here, too. ******************* And the following morning....

Remember that being popular - I was doing my final university exams that summer and I recall that oddly treated vocal sound coming out of the radio when revising. I can still remember the moment it rained in late summer - I was about to go down to Exeter to start my teacher training and the news was that Devon was about to go onto standpipes. Saved at the last moment. [today's weather is just like 1976 - a sign of this summer?] I went on a four month album buying freeze whilst I revised for my exams. Despite having a well paid summer job I can't recall buying many new records - I was starting to catch up with previous releases in non-rock areas. Remember buying Ralph Towner's 'Solstice' on spec and being smitten - turned the ECM tap on (I already had a few Jarretts). Vaughan Williams started kicking in then; and a recording of 'The Dream of Gerontius' after hearing a live performance at the Royal Festival Hall (first time I'd been to a classical concert on my own and I remember being worried that I might not be let in for breaking some dress code rule [of course, there was no such thing but this was all very new to me]). This novel conjures up that summer brilliantly:

Interesting article here: From Steve Reich to rock: why 1976 was a big year for minimal music And yet I remember 1976 completely differently. It was the year I more or less gave up on rock music. Not so much because of the rise of punk (which didn't really have it's full impact until the following year) - just a feeling that the music I'd enjoyed earlier in the decade was running out of steam; a disappointment with a lot of newly emerging rock which seemed to suffer from glitzy production and a greater simplicity of style using the new multi-track technologies; it was also the year I first noticed independent radio in Britain with its very carefully controlled formats. 1976 was the year I started looking elsewhere - dipping my toes into jazz, going to half a dozen classical concerts to see what that was all about. I'm always suspicious of grand pronouncements of 'greatness' and 'significance' because they tend to assume that there is a single narrative that needs to be asserted; they don't take into account the multiple different contexts of listeners that can make 1976, for example, seem quite different to the writer of this piece and myself (I was 4 years older than him). Some interesting revisionism going on there too - most people who considered themselves 'serious' (word deliberately loaded with sarcasm) listeners would never have touched Abba with a barge pole - their status as musical icons was written considerably later. I'd also be intrigued to know how much of the 'classical' music of the year he uses to decide 1976 was an iconic year he actually knew at the time. (I don't remember many great rock albums from that year - two he mentioned I was very fond of (Trick of the Tail and Hejira); the other one that got played to death was Neil Young's 'Zuma'. I certainly remember the long, hot summer!). How was 1976 for you? (Apologies to those not born then...but you might have a liking/horror for the year; 1959 seems to be held in great affection by jazz fans not around at the time (or still in nappies).)

No 5 off first; 6 off second.

Disc 4. Absolutely cracking box, is this. A very different Byrd to the devotional choral music you usually hear. Almost folky in places.

You'd have found it difficult to get to from the station. There are buses that way and there seemed to be a vibrant shopping/eating suburb nearby so it's hardly out in the sticks (I suspect it might be a digs area for Sheffield University nearby) - but needs a bit of local knowledge to get there. Not an ideal location for pulling in the chance attender. They seem a bit nervous - thrusting flyers for the autumn programme at us, starting off with a £5 gig in September etc. The unfortunate casualty of the current troubles was the Allison Neale gig due in a fortnight which has had to be deferred to next spring - I was looking forward to that. Good line-up for the autumn: Benn Clatworthy Quartet - Crookes Social Club Tim Garland Electric Quartet - Crookes Social Club Glow Quartet (Trish Clowes etc) - Crucible Studio Gilad Atzmon and Alan Barnes’ Lowest Common Denominator - Crookes Social Club Pavillon - Crookes Social Club Clark Tracey Quintet - Crookes Social Club Stan Sulzmann & Nikki Iles Duo - Crucible Studio Some favourites there.

Just the Gurney off the first.

Greg Osby and the Vein Trio (Crookes Social Club. Sheffield) Very good concert linking up Osby with this marvellous group of Swiss musicians (apparently they've worked together since the start of the century after the band had the audacity to e-mail Osby and suggest they play together!). All originals in the main set from the players, a nice Jitterbug Waltz for encore. I do like Osby's tart alto; nice sense of logical progression to his solos building to a fiery climax. The trio showed they had been playing together for ages (two brothers in the band) - perfect in ensembles, all excellent soloists. Bit of a trauma for Sheffield Jazz. They've had to stop using their regular venue at sudden notice; secured this working men's social club (I know, should be 'persons') which has a good concert hall but that was in use. So we ended up in a small room that looked like a living room and smelt like a stable (this gig only....in the proper hall in September). The good thing was there was no need for amplification - amazing the difference that makes to the sound. So this was no 'Arts' venue - we had cabaret in the main hall, jazz in the stable lounge and bingo in the bar in between! THe band kept referring to the room in terms of wry astonishment. Finding it was a bugger - tucked in a dense rabbit warren of streets in one of the hillier parts of Sheffield - with the main road through closed for road repairs. A real adventure.

Glad you got a decent copy. I really like start of side 2 - the lamenting trombone (Rutherford?) sliding into 'Creole Love Call' (first heard that tune on this record...one of the things that made me want to explore Ellington). A nice Latin thing with electric piano at the end of Side 1; and a well paced climax at the end of 2...your groovy bit?. Was the other Transatlantic 'For the Record'? That one has eluded me too.

Love that one, the trombones especially...my first Westbrook album back in late '76. Due a CD release - my vinyl suffers badly from distortion as each side progresses (post-oil crisis thin vinyl!). Might have been out in Japan at some point (most things have).

Absolute beauty of a disc. The piano quintet especially - some lovely 'orientalisms' like in Debussy and Ravel. 130 and the Grosse Fuge

Peaky Blinders - Series 3 A bit slow to start to episode 1 but then exploded into life. The music is a huge factor in the feel of this series - even when a 20s jazz band is playing the music is rough, strained alternative rock, adding to the sense of menace. Brilliant bit of audience manipulation tonight. The Shelby's are a bunch of murderous crooks; yet put them up against a bunch of stereotypical aristocrats and you can't help but root for them.

Tynemouth, England - A seagull pictured against a sunrise at Tynemouth Priory, North Shields (Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA) http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2016/may/05/photo-highlights-of-the-day-elections-and-bubblegum

Some of my favourite Stravinsky. Never heard these on piano before. Very nice. Disc 3

A supercell thunderstorm rises over the town of Blackhawk, South Dakota. - Photograph: James Smart/2016 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest Cherry blossom in Minobu, Yamanashi, Japan. Photograph: Katsuyoshi Nakahara/2016 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2016/may/05/2016-national-geographic-travel-photographer-of-the-year Some other spectacular photos at above link

Little known early 20thC French composer (and admiral!) - orchestral music here with more than a hint of Debussy (though not quite as luminous). Some lovely chamber music also on record.

Moulettes (@ The Greystones, Sheffield) Enjoyed this lot so much in Halifax last year that I couldn't miss their new album run through at what seems to be my local (not in picture). How can you not love a pop/rock band fronted by electric guitar, cello and bassoon playing songs inspired by marine biology? Think Porcupine Tree with the Boswell Sisters on vocals. Great night - we even got a three minute rant from the bassoon player who is also a junior doctor about the current dispute (got one of the loudest cheers of the night). Only issue was that some hipster got in and took away all the chairs. Standing up for three hour is clearly 'cool' but it's a pain in the neck if you are ancient - and over half the audience fell into that category. Apart from anything else it makes it harder to see. Chairs rule, man! (there, I made them 'cool').

Would love to hear this live - the suites are common but the full ballet score rare. In fact with ballet would be wonderful. Sumptuous music. Different, but equally enthralling Ravel. Fascinating example of jazz/blues influence in the main violin sonata - you often hear his piano concerto that displays those influences but this is less common. Also includes a sonata by someone called Lekeu who I've no idea about. Disc 2 of Satie; disc 2 also of the Delius - The Walk to the Paradise Garden; A Song of Summer; Irmelin Prelude; Late Swallows (arr. Fenby); Appalachia All nigh on perfect for blue, cloudless day suggesting summer has arrived.

Nice to know the spirit of '67 is still with us: The man who sings with nightingales But what about the larks, Sam?

That's where I first heard the tune....in fact I first got to know Coleman's music via this group (and, stylistically, by some of Jarrett's American Quartet recordings) a couple of years before I dared to try the real thing. 'Lonely Woman' is a gorgeous tune (or harmony!).