A Lark Ascending

Gilad was great at Bath last year. Does he still do pre-concert discussions? I'd imagine with the Gaza situation he'll be frothing!

No sign of James Newton's 'Romance and Revolution' there...though 'African Flower' is. I seem to recall the boss saying there was no chance of a CD reissue several years back. Would be ideal for something like this. Does seem an 'interim' solution - given much of their main catalogue is downloadable it can't be because of fear of pirating. Blue Note could still authorise it for digital distribution, perhaps at a bit more than the popular albums.

No, don't want to set daft rules about genres. I'm going to try and do 12 that have a jazz relationship; I suspect I'll be sucked into a few outside - just noticed a great Irish folk band at one of the local venues I've not seen for ten years or so (apart from a bit of an informal session in a pub in Sligo),

'Tribute' orchestras can as a rule be a bit bland. But it's always good to hear these Ellington charts in the flesh. I recall a particular good performance of 'Such Sweet Thunder' by the Scottish National Orchestra under Tommy Smith about ten years ago. Though I prefer it when the musicians take liberties - saw a great concert of Ellingtonia by a largish David Murray band with James Newton about ten years ago. I don't think that project ever got to disc (possibly the only project he never put on disc!!!!). I've got my eye on this one for Feb: Gary Crosby always puts good bands of young musicians together. This is the one I'm really looking forward to: Iles, Lockheart, Winstone and Walker are four of my favourite musicians. Given the date, I suspect this might happen at Cheltenham and/or Bath too so I'll have to wait a bit before booking.

Ah, but those Grant Greens &c were very unusual for you, because they're not unusual MG My odd musical path! Green passed me by for many years - I think partly because of the single line soloing, partly the rather spare support (I think I have a predisposition towards richer harmony). I just learnt to lie back and enjoy the music. This sort of music was in the background when I was first listening...I think I got put off by some very weak English attempts at it. Bands in university student's union halls urging us to 'Get down, old chaps, wot?' and the like. Yet it was always lurking there - I could hear a lot of where Steely Dan, for example, were building from in what I was listening to today.

Thanks Michel. Some of the music from 'Alive' is on the Green compilations so that works for me - might end up downloading the missing tracks an reassembling the original album. 'Sunburst' is one I've had in mind.

Many thanks, MG, for such a comprehensive reply. I only know a couple there. 'Black Talk' is already earmarked when my e-music refresh happens in ten days. As It happens I picked up John Patton - Got a good thing goin' and Idris Muhammad - House of the rising sun today off Amazons mp3 site. Will be exploring! As for playing unusual material...well next week it'll probably be Swedish nyckelharpa music...and the following week kora music! But I always find my way back!

This has probably been covered on long buried threads - direct me please, if you know of any! I've lived under the version of jazz history that has Blue Note and jazz in general selling out in the late-60s to commercialism; coupled with my own difficulties with 'funk'. But in recent weeks I've really been enjoying a few things in that area - especially the three Grant Green compilations put out a while back. Also some John Patton and Idris Muhammad and the Lonnie Smith Mozambique disc (Roland Kirk's 'Volunteered Slavery' would be another reference point). I especially like the stretched out tracks with lots of soloing. I know there are lots of people here for whom this is meat and drink. So what are the really strong records in this area in the late 60s/early 70s (pre- Mahavishnu/RTF era fusion)? (I'm familiar with the Miles/Herbie stuff of this era).

Many here regret not going to enough live jazz. So here's a challenge. One gig each month through 2009. I can identify ones I definately want to go to - the challenge is making the effort in months when there is nothing obvious and hitting an unknown band. My January concert is the Julian Arguelles Trio (with Michael Formanek and Tom Rainey) next Saturday. Anyone up for trying to maintain this through 2009? (I know for some living close to frequent live jazz this is no challenge...but to those of us away from the big centres...)

Sure - but I'm sure you recollect the speed with which CDs took over from LPs. That didn't rely on a new generation coming up, which takes a long time. It relied on people generally - of all age groups - wanting to change over; and a good part of the reason was the appearance on CD of material that wasn't available on LP. And I reckon that, to do the same, with similar rapidity, companies will have to release in download format material - oceans of material - that isn't out on CD (or LP, for that matter). It looks, from the WSJ article we've both read just now, like the industry is slowly coming round to the view that they need a new way of making money. I think they need to hurry up and get a lot more unavailable stuff out on downloads - not reissue as downloads stuff you can get on CD. MG I think it's just because we have not hit the tipping point yet. Established buyers of recordings are still largely suspicious of downloading (and in some cases don't have the computer skills or think they don't). But I think we're almost at the point when things will change. It'll be down to push and pull factors - in the UK the push will be the disappearance of most non-pop material from what stores are left. I'm typically cautious with these things - there was no way I was going to be persuaded that SACD was a necessary upgrade. And I was very slow to start downloading and have taken 2 years to get confident that what I'm getting is as good as CD. I think it's a journey many will soon take. You are right about the need to make what is OOP available. Clearly there will be all sort of legal issues involved there but once those are past it just takes the record companies to think differently. Instead of witholding assets until the demand rises, putting it all out there. There really is no reason for the Blue Note or ECM catalogues not to be permanently available (again, apart from any legal considerations). Then focus on creative ways to PULL people in wanting to hear them. I keep mentioning Chandos but what first convinced me of the viability of downloading was discovering that they had their entire deleted catalogue available. As for much of the world not having any immediate prospect of access to PCs to download...well, I suspect the same will happen as in the 1980s. The change will be pushed in the west whilst older technologies will be sustained in the rest of the world until the market dries up there (which it probably won't for our lifetime at least!). I don't think the CD will disappear for some time yet - it takes a bit of effort to download. Someone just wanting a recording of a current popular tune they've heard may well still buy on impulse in the supermarket. I think that market will be catered for. But specialised music that sells over a long timescale? - I'm sure the companies will see the download option as a solution to having it hanging around in warehouses or store shelves. Which, of course, won't stop some smaller labels continuing to follow the CD path out of preference.

Booklets are provided as a matter of course by some of the smaller classical companies - Chandos, Gimmel etc. I recently bought the recent Patty Loveless album via iTunes and the full booklet was part of the download package. We're thinking about reproducing the packaging of the past. It's not something that I care too much about (though I like a distinctive 'cover' that identifies the recording at a glance). But I wonder if this new way of distributing music might generate some highly novel ways to 'packaging' - doesn't have to come shaped like a CD booklet! I imagine a sort of 'goody bag' being attached to pop recordings (plus plenty of advertising!).

Seconded - that's the band with Hilton Ruiz on piano. Saw them play pretty well everything on the album at Ronnie Scott's during the tour this was recorded. They were smokin' ! Thirded.

Anyone remember 'Your CDs will self-destruct in 15 years' around the late 80s? A few of mine went brown but that got traced to a particular factory (hyperion discs mainly).

Wise words.

Ah, but they're growing and we're vanishing.

Good to read that. All the best.

I'd go for Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot - pre-synthesisers with lots of twelve string in evidence. Both have a Lewis Carroll/Edward Lear type feel in the story-songs (I think their public school English and Classics lessons were being mined). Very strong melodies and the wide palette of sounds that I always enjoy. 'Selling England' disappointed me at the time - the noodling synth and one long track that doesn't really go very far ('The Battle of Epping Forest'). But I've come round to it over the years. 'The Lamb' is wonderful but not typical - still has the great, melodious songwriting but it's much edgier; the recorded sound itself is harsher. More New York than Charterhouse gardens!

A very nice Night Lights programme from early 2007 based around Bobby Hutcherson's mid-70s recordings.

Had the same thing happen last night. I was listening to Late Junction and a very cool world music track came on -- something off of Issa Bagayogo's new CD Mali Koura. Well, I am a real sucker for music out of Mali (and kora music more generally), and I thought to see if eMusic had it. They did, and I even had some credits left so I didn't have wait at all. I'm listening to the rest of the album now, and if I really like it, I will probably get the other CDs by this artist (eMusic has 5 total), though that would mean a booster pack or waiting nearly a month! Yes, I fall for the booster track option. 'Ah well, £15 for 4-5 albums...I used to pay that for one' is my justification to my id!!!! I'm not due to reload until the end of the month - but I've just seen the arrival of Apti by Rudresh Mahanthappa's Indo-Pak Coalition. I was trying to locate an online source for that at the weekend...not sure my self-discipline will hold!

What you are missing is a generation that is growing up for whom downloading is second nature. Those of us who grew up with earlier formats might take some persuading to change; but I'd imagine a young student in college just getting a taste for, say, Blue Note will default to downloads. What I like about downloading is the instant gratification! I can hear a track on Jazz Record Requests and be listening to it in context 20 minutes later. Probably an indication of the bread and circuses decadence of contemporary life but it works for me. It's taken me a couple of years to make the change but I'm happy with it now.

I'd...controversially!...throw in 'Tales from Topographic Oceans'. I really like the first two albums too - hard to recall that at the time Yes were an 'underground' band with an unsual sensibility for pop tunefulness. What attracted me to them was their way with a nice melody and gorgeous key changes; listening to some Motown at the weekend I suspect it may have stemmed from there (and their unfashionable love of American musicals!). 'Magnification' from a few years back is good on memorable melodies too. Don't much care for what happened in between.

I've dreamt twice in recent months that the sun is shining and all the plants in the garden have flowered. Makes waking up to dreary January a real disappointment. Could be Freudian, of course.

The most recent of the Aurelio Zen series. Like his earlier 'Cosi Fan Tutti' this is more like a comic opera than a chilling thriller. Completely implausible and enormous fun - I'd not be at all surprised to find the plot is taken from an opera somewhere. Then a detective from Norway - got through 300 pages of this at the weekend, it gripped me so: Anyone know any detective series from Finland or Denmark?

Only know the Spartacus ballet music - some great tunes. One is very well known in the UK - it was used as the theme music for a TV costume drama series in the 70s about the clipper ships. Always sounds like the wind filling the sails of a ship setting out on the ocean - though I believe it is love music in the ballet!

That will be good to know. Many thanks, Jaffa.