A Lark Ascending

I bet he loved that photo shot! Probably taken in early August!

Two that sound amazing if you can find a moment of peace in the still of late night/early morning: If you like British slanted folky stuff (though there's some unusual Americana in here) the 4CD will keep you happy: And I love these three (though someone on this board or another once bought them on my recommendation and hated them!):

I really fall into the 'reactionary old codger' camp when it comes to sticking guitars through synths. I like the clean guitar sound Pat had in the late 70s; shoved through all those electronics he always sounds like a bloody mouth-organ (see other thread) to me. All credit to Pat for constantly trying to do something different from what he did before - it just doesn't work for me when it's about synths. John McLaughlin is another - I really have no sense of him as a player on his albums of the last ten or so years. I actually enjoyed 'Industrial Zen' but would be hard pressed to pick out where John is playing in places. Even in the Remembering Shakti groups he seems more a colouristic presence than a distinctive voice.

But didn't you notice, Bill, how all the classical evening concerts were cancelled in order to broadcast from the London Jazz Festival a while back? In another world, perhaps. One not run by Oxbridge types.

Maybe Manfred and e-music decided that, with all the grumbling over the years about ECMs being not-jazz, soulless etc etc, there's no real market in the US for these! One of those smileys spelling out the fact that this is not meant to be taken as a serious comment!

They actually quote a review you wrote on one of the Wellins' CDs (When the Sun Comes Out). I think it has swayed me to buy the CD. What is the other one - Snapshot - or something else? 'Snapshot' - came out a few months back. Like the previous one it comes from live performance. I've never felt that the studio discs Bobby Wellins has done have really captured him. But these two are perfect. Nice, long tracks with all four musicians playing their part to the full. I'd liken them in feel to the Miles 'My Funny Valentine/Four and More' recordings or George Coleman's own live recordings. Wellins, of course, sounds nothing like Coleman.

The one with Tracey and Wellins, "Amoroso ... Only More So," mostly standards, is the best vocal album I've heard in a good while. ... I was going to post elsewhere, but this is as good a place as any. Trio Records, which put out Amoroso Only More So has a website with a fair number of Tracey and Wellins CDs: http://www.triorecords.toucansurf.com/ Not a bad price as UK pricing goes (generally 11 pounds and more for this one as it is a double CD). However, I wanted to find out the price to ship to the US, and they said that it was included in the price, so maybe a better deal for US (and European) residents than for UK residents. I'll probably hold off on this one, but am eyeing two other CDs of interest. Trio is run by Andy Cleyndert, bassist to Stan amonst others. Great player and versatile chap - in the last few years of Appleby he seemed to be playing one in three sets...and recording a fair few of them. The two most recent Bobby Wellins records on Trio are fantastic.

Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals. Love them! Love the songs!

Same here. There's some harmonica stuff on the Art Ensemble box Chuck put out and I didn't like it at all. You must be thinking of Roscoe's "sound" on Delmark. I did produce that session but think the harmonica sound last less than 20 seconds. U R a tuff crowd. I like many "mouth-organ"/harmonica performances. Both "Sonny Boys" are high on my list. I like it in other contexts - like those you mention. But not in jazz - gets all a bit Larry Adler.

You've just given me a million dollar idea. It'll be an attachment for the iPod with a loop of surface noise and some random crackles that mixes in with your mp3s. Maybe I could make it skip every now and again and I'll have to add a little bit of distortion every 20 minutes or so to simulate innergroove mistracking. Even better, I could use the motion sensor in the iPhone so you have to physically flip it over every 20 minutes. Any chance of an off-centre spindle hole option. I love that feeling like being at sea when the music shifts a fraction of an interval at every revolution of the turntable. Could set the iPod to 'Wow!'.

The bloody mouth-organ played in jazz - Toots is prime suspect! Not keen on the sound of Stefan Grappelli. In fact, with a few exceptions, violins in jazz don't work for me.

Some of the classical sites I mentioned are offering an option of what they call 'lossless' files. I don't really understand where 'loseless' fits in the grand spectrum of audiophilia but have seen this regularly mentioned in the classical magazines as 'near-CD quality' or even 'better than CD quality'. Here are Gimmel's claims. They record mainly Renaissance church music. Their target audience will be at least as fussy as the most sound conscious jazz listener: These companies know their main market requires the security of a high quality sounding product and are responding. I don't suppose the big companies, for whom the classical/jazz wings have only ever been to do with prestige, will be going out of their way to aim higher. But if the smaller companies want to make a going business then they will need to respond to the needs of their more 'sophisticated' customer base. The classical companies seem well ahead of the game in this regard. Though Artistshare (who seem to be showing the way in the jazz world) claim 'a downloadable CD-quality (320 kbps) recording of their collaboration' for the Hall/Frisell set (doesn't quite square with Gimmel's reservations on 320 kbps). I've tried MP3 and lossless from Chandos. The only difference I've noticed is that losless cost more and take longer to download. Clearly the aged ears Jazzjet warned us about.

Music Matters in Bath - a small jazz shop. Limited back catalogue but good on new releases with some imports. Sounds Good in Cheltenham - a classical shop with a fair jazz selection. It closed a while back but reopened in a less central part of town under new management - I thought it had got better with an impressive array of new releases. I got the impression that it was not finding it easy. Wouldn't be surprised to see it gone when I'm in Cheltenham in May. Bath Compact Discs and Banks in York are good for classical. When I was last in London Rays was fun and HMV/Zavvi on Oxford Street still had large jazz sections.

I recall getting 'A History of Prussia' out of the school library at age 13 - I liked the name Prussia and had only just found out what it was. The teacher warned me with a wry smile that I might find it heavy going. Of course it was incompehensible - a dry academic tome put there in the hope 6th Form students would read it. When I brought it back the teacher asked me (same wry smile) if I'd read it. 'The bits I was interested in,' I lied. I do recall reading T.H. White's 'The Sword in the Stone' whilst ill in bed around 11. Loved it. Though it would be another ten years before I read the full 'Once and Future King'. My father left school at 14 and was never a reader; my mother reads historical romances. My dad knew how important books were but had no idea what to buy so we had some pretty random things in the house. A few copies of 'the classics' but it was more of a Reader's Digest household. Until I went to university most things I read came from the library.

All manner of Brit-kiddy things like 'The Famous Five' and 'Jennings and Derbyshire'. I recall going through a series by someone like Geoffrey Trease (Not the more famous Henry) who followed a family through various periods of history. I still remember the volume on the Russian Revolution. Growing up on RAF camps (Royal Air Force, nor Red Army Faction) with a Spitfire at the gate, I gobbled up WWII air stories - fighter pilot memoirs etc. Still like to read those now - nothing like a Spitfire to get the tear ducts welling. I think my shift to 'grown up' fiction began with John Wyndham's 'The Day of the Triffids' (I read all the rest straight afterwards) at about 14, then the Ian Fleming Bond novels. I can recall the shock when I went into Newquay library one day and was told I was banned from the children's section because I was 14!!!!! The arty-farty literature didn't start until I got hooked on Orwell when doing my 'O' Levels. I then spent a few years reading what teachers and professors told me I was supposed to like before having the confidence to read what took my fancy in my early 20s. Prefer to read contemporary fiction with a good story (rather than contemporary fiction that 'pushes the boundaries of literature'), thoughtful thrillers, musical biographies/histories and oodles of history books these days.

I'm sure it will come your way soon! E-music must solve many of the distribution issues ECM (and other European labels) have had in getting their product out in the USA. Edit: looks like the entire catalogue currently on CD is going up - another wave today pushing to 325 albums.

Yes, I've worked that out! Beyond the covers and side lengths, I've no nostalgia for vinyl. All I recall was the heart in mouth moment of playing a new LP, waiting for the first clicks, the wow and flutter, the inner groove distortion etc. Probably not an issue for those with expensive turntables but it always bothered me greatly. I embraced CD with open arms. I know others don't have my sensitivity to those imperfections (as I don't have much sensitivity to variations in bit rate or whatever influences digital sound quality).

But the reason train travel changed was because the competition - air and car - overtook it. CD overtook LP because, on balance, it had more advantages than disadvantages for most people. What was lost in artwork, the two sides was more than compensated to most listeners by its portability, flexibility, greater resiliance and, above all, lack of any form of surface noise. The same will determine the future of CD/downloads - if the advantages outweigh the disadvantages the switch will be made. It didn't happen from CD to SACD because the promised outstanding sound quality was not significantly important to most listeners, quite content with the very good sound quality of CD. I think downloading is offering a whole host of advantages that will ultimately see CD swept away. Which won't stop us looking back with longing at the things we will lose and won't stop some listeners continuing to hunt down CDs as they now hunt down used vinyl. I'm sure there are people who still use typewriters in the developed world, prefering them over a word processor. But for the world at large the idea of buying a typewriter does not enter their thoughts. I think the same will happen with CD. (Incidentally, I'm still locked enough in the old world to burn my downloads to disc and make a cover for them! The idea of playing them off a computer or a squeezebox doesn't calculate in my head yet (though I use an ipod!) I'm sure that makes me rather old fashioned).

I suspect most can't...I know I can't. I can tell a poor MP3 from a good one as I can tell a poor CD transfer from a good one. But as a rule I hear no difference - maybe if I had an expensive system I could. Mine, like most people's is quite modest. I can't see industry hanging onto CD for long just to please a small group of audiophiles. I can see someone somewhere licensing some recordings and making CDs as they now make vinyl for a small market or as they once made direct metal master discs to serve a small customer base for whom 'the best possible sound' mattered. I think most people are happy with very good quality sound. Most of the downloads I've heard recently fall into that bracket. The maths and graphs may say that this or that is lost but that is of no consequence if you don't hear it.

??? Good point!

I think you might be right - though the difference lies not so much in what we'd like as in what is there. There is no shortage of new shopping 'malls' springing up in the UK. But every one has the same stores and dedicated music shops are not part of the equation. If there is a record store it tends to be one of the big chains - HMV, Zavvi - who can afford the rents. Two years ago I would not have believed anyone if they'd told me I would be buying almost exclusively online and increasingly by download. Record shopping was a major recreational activity for me! The fact that I have completely changed my pattern is a result of two things: a) Sheer disappointment when visiting record shops in Nottingham. Sheffield and beyond. b) Trying to find copies of the 3 Chandos CDs of John Ireland's piano music, long OOP, a couple of years back. I stumbled on the Chandos download site where they had their entire deleted catalogue available. Now if there is anything going to test my patience its a dodgy recording of classical piano music, but these three came through effortlessly. My fear of downloading was overcome. And joining E-music got rid of the final doubts. I had a few disappointments in the early days. But I only have two gripes now. Every now and then I'll download something where tracks flow from one to the next and, despite using the gapless function there's a tiny pause. Doesn't happen much but when it does it's maddening. The other is having the libretto for an opera recording. I can live without most packaging but I do like to follow the storyline of an opera - impossible without a libretto even if (especially if?) it's in English. Actually there's a third factor which is more a consequence of the first two - I'm relishing the time I've regained on a Saturday to do things instead of shopping! Listening to music is one thing that has benefitted.

When I was in Truro in the summer I was disappointed to see the one up from the Cathedral (beyond Smiths)...I think it was called Solo or Opus...had gone. It was there two years previously! However, in Exeter a few days earlier I'd noticed the shop in the same chain was on its last legs (a whole floor cleared, just a scattering of CDs in the upstairs part). The Classical shop opposite was still going. Nottingham had a fabulous classical shop until about two years ago - I believe it was a front for a mail order company, Europadisc. The mail order firm still advertises in Gramophone but the costs of keeping a shop open were clearly prohibitive. Interesting that the places classical shops seem to survive are the more quaint, university type towns - Cambridge, Oxford, Bath, York. Sheffield had a couple that really struggled, moved premises and then vanished all together. Not enough old fashioned dons in Sheffield! I imagine 'Record Collector' in the Broomhill suburb of Sheffield still survives - it balanced new with used discs and had a substantial jazz and classical section, though there didn't seem to be much of a system to what they had. It was in the heart of student bedsit land so did well from that market - are students still buying CDs? *********** My own town - Worksop - is a small market town. When I moved here in 1991 you could buy CDs in Woolworths and Smiths; there was a chain store called Our Price which, although not wonderful, was no worse than the HMVs in the big cities now. There were a couple of rock/pop independents. And, best of all, a music shop that majored in musical instruments and sheet music but also had a good classical CD collection. All that survives is Woollies and Smiths stocking the top 20 albums and TV advertised things; and the out of town supermarkets stocking much the same.

Well...to add to the Black Saint/Soul Note feast, a vast swathe of ECMs just landed on e-music UK. They put some up in Aug but then removed most of them. Some more appeared in September but since then nothing. Today the number of albums jumped to 162!!!!!! Though I'd love to know how they are labelling them - rather than attributing them to the leader they seem to be randomly named after one player on the disc. Jack de Johnettes New Directions is by Eddie Gomez it would seem! Not a major issue but makes finding them a bit harder. How about Jarrett's 'Sun Bear' concerts in 13 downloads!!!!!! I recall when this was an unattainable luxury because of cost in the late 70s!

I don't subscribe to any 'deserve to die' thesis. I loved record shops in their heyday. I do feel the are economically unviable. The market for physical product will be twofold: a) Roughly the 25+ age range who are avid music enthusiasts, a small proportion of that total population. b) Those in the 25+ age range who have only a little interest in music and tend to buy the big sellers; buying a CD out of a rack remains an easier way of acquiring the odd recording if the mysteries of downloading or online purchasing are too much. CDs will continue to be made as long as group b) are demanding them - but they can be distributed from supermarkets. In much the same way as you can still buy film for cameras because people like my mum can't understand how you can take a picture any other way. Given the business practices of the majors in recent years I cannot see any effort being expended to satisfy group a) (that's us!). ***************** As for condemning, any criticism of physical stores here is as nothing compared with the regular assertions levelled at download quality (in the last few days I saw 'crappy MP3s' stated as a fact). This, ignoring the rapid strides being made technologically in creating downloads. It reminds me of those who continue to deny the quality of CD next to vinyl because they heard some lazy transfers in the 80s. Things have moved on. I suspect any difference between a CD and a lossless download falls into the world of sticking your CDs in the fridge or colouring the edges with marker and convincing yourself they sound better (whatever happened to reversing polarity, by the way?). It's one thing to say you like the feel, packaging of a CD and the experience of buying it in a store. But there is often a subtext that this is a better way of acquiring music that will consequently survive once the current fad passes. In my view, it's sad to see a much enjoyed way of acquiring music pass; but I look to the new opportunities opened by the new ways. Travelling by car clearly misses out on many of the experiences of travelling by stage coach; but it also offers new possibilities. It means the staging inns must adapt or close; but that is the nature of change. ***************** I wonder if fighting for the survival of record shops and physical product will actually help musicians. It forces them not only to pay to record and process those recordings but then create the physical product, store it and then somehow distribute it. The download route eliminates much of the latter, allowing musicians to get music out more easily, more cheaply and closer to original recording date (think of the Dave Douglas live recordings of two years back). It means a vast sea of recordings, not filtered in the way they were when a recording contract was required with a label. But that might have interesting repercussions. Instead of being obsessed by the idea of getting the 'best of' current music, we'll all filter for ourselves, finding our own personal areas (be they local or in someone elses locality). Ten years ago many of my new jazz recordings were from the standard Verve/Blue Note etc stable and mainly American. Today I'm more likely to follow up on local musicians, Italian musicians, Australian musicians. Not because they are better but because I have discovered a world I like there - and I discovered that world via the new technology.

Also worth remembering that with each passing minute a few more people will arrive in the world who will only ever know downloads and a few more who recall the older way of doing things will depart. The 'good old days' of the record shop will have as much meaning as the days when everyone sat round the box watching two channels and therefore the nation had a shared experience at work the next day. In other words, in the minds of the new generation, the ramblings of the aging, sentimentally romanticising their past. We all have our memories of the old way of doing things and understandably mourn the way an ever faster world is sweeping them away. But that will be an irrelevance to all but a handful of the generation growing up now (there will always be a few who are attracted by the older way of doing things). What matters to me is being able to hear the music - be it the legacy of the past or new things currently appearing. If it isn't cursed with skips, jumps, flutter, wow, rice krispie noises, muffled sound etc then I'll take it in any way it comes. The record store are ceasing to provide that where I live - the online stores and, increasingly, the download stores and musician sites are. I'll retain my fond memories of going record hunting on a Saturday; but am happy to adapt to the more flexible new model.