A Lark Ascending

There have been some marvellous cross-Atlantic collaborations in recent years, but this one just left me cold. I bought it because of John Taylor but he seems to have little presence on what sounds like the jazz equivalent of a mid-Atlantic accent. I suspect a large number of 'summit' albums that throw together wonderful musicians for one-off projects might end up here!

Dagmar is out of the Lotte Lenya school of singing. She did two albums of Weill/Eisler songs in the 80s/90s. It's not a jazz voice (or even a rock voice) but owes more to German theatre music. The vocal sounds and lyrics of 'In Praise of Learning' sound dated now but evoke the era of 70s student protest, Baader-Meinhof etc when building a song around a Mao text seemed quite normal! 'Pierrot Lunaire' might be a better reference point than jazz or rock singing. 'Unrest' was recorded before she joined. There are actually long stretches without vocals on 'In Praise of Learning'. Steer clear of the 'Art Bears', however, if her voice bothers you!

Curiouser and curiouser! After putting up a bunch of discs in August and then deleting all but 7 (why that 7?) in September, ECM have just added another dozen of the Touchstones to e-music (UK). I can't understand their logic at all! Quickly swallowed AEC's 'Full Force' and 'the first 'Gateway' before they vanish!

And do not forget John Greaves... Some excellent song-based records with a Gallic feel. These are especially good: Interesting Wikipedia article on Georgie Born's later career: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgie_Born Cousin of Olivia Newton John! Wonder what a joint album there would sound like!

There's a marvellous account of Henry Cow by Chris Cutler here: http://www.ccutler.com/ccutler/

'Exposure' is a wonderful record. I bought it when it came out and it was something of an oasis in a musical world that the bottom had dropped out of. All was three cord punk and new wave and along came this record that still dared to be ambitious. There are tracks on the record that reflect the punk atmosphere of the times but also some gorgeous songs and haunting soundscapes. The use of voices predicting imminent cataclysm give it a real edge and set the performance of Peter Gabriel's 'Here Comes the Flood' in a perfect setting.

Troops have been deployed to protect Lindisfarne and Jarrow.

Oh, if only. But I fear Oxbridge still has its grip on the BBC. They understand 'high culture'; they understand 'market forces'. It's the world in between they are clueless about.

I've followed a fair bit of F-IRE and really enjoyed what they've done - great big band a couple of years back (which is doing a short tour soon). I'm especially fond of Oriole who do a beautiful melange of Brazil, Mediterranean and cinematic music. I've not taken to the punkish direction of Acoustic Ladyland of late - very well played and quite fun live but I've never returned to their last CD. Hope its getting interest in the 'indie' world but it's all too quick and condensed for my ears. I've not heard the new Polar Bear - when I last saw them live the electronics irritated me. Again, may be for a different audience. I've seen some of the bands from some of the other collectives live - Fraud, Outhouse - and enjoyed them but not enough to want to buy a CD. Outhouse did a great gig with a group of African drummers earlier this year; I wasn't captured enough by the band itself to want to hear more. But the percussion was fantastic. Ingrid Laubrock who plays with F-IRE but is more wide ranging is the one who interests me most. Her new album has taken her into completely free regions. Still absorbing that one.

Didn't Tori Amos run aground off Land's End in the sixties, coating the Cornish seagulls with tar?

I don't think a pure jazz station will ever succeed in the UK. After tuning in to a couple of programmes regularly at first I lost touch with The Jazz after a month or so. Far better would be for the BBC to use its public service remit to operate a station for non-classical, noncommercial music. Jazz could share with blues, folk, world, reggae etc. Each would get a greater range than is eked out over Radio 2/3 at present; and the dons could stop whinging that jazz gets in the way of the Haydn string quartets on Radio 3 as the existing programmes are transferred. I'm not bothered about 24 hour jazz streaming (which always tends to reduce to a limited number of genres). What I do like is hearing someone who cares playing music that enthuses them. Peter Clayton, Charles Fox, Humph in the olden days...Alyn Shipton at present. Just a few programmes like that would do me. I'd really like a jazz equivalent of Radio 3's 'CD Review' - Shipton does the 'Building a Library' element but the only new release programme is the occasional episode of Jazz on 3.

An excellent disc - quite short with mainly short songs. I got to know it through a friend's copy when it first came out ('74?, '75?), bought my own a few years later. It was originally pressed as a 45 rpm 12 inch! I'll look into the Frith Quartet disc - if he is playing guitar I'm interested. I'm not sure I want pure string quartet.

Thanks, bigtiny. I've noticed that disc with Glennie (yes, she is Scottish - amazing how she has become a top musician without being able to hear). Might be one to experiment with.

A parrot ('Bird lives, Bird lives, Bird lives....'). 38% will be above me.

Any recommendations for Fred's own records, 7/4? I have a few (Speechless, Gravity, Aliens, Traffic Continues + the Art Bears box). I don't care for the more 'noise' related things. Especially interested in hearing a disc of more recent music.

No, the 5X claim seemed unbelievable to me, even if he meant relative to population size. *************** I wonder what contitutes 'literacy'. A government can introduce a successful 'functional' literacy campaign that raises the percentage; but many (if not most) of those who acquire the functional skills may not have the interest, confidence or access to books to go any further into reading books. That's certainly my experience with a lot of UK kids and adults. Literacy is used as a tool to acquire information and communicate. but the idea of reading at length for pleasure not so common.

That all makes sense.

hmm...Hatfield and the North had an album called The Rotters' Club Yes, the book is named after that. Jonathan Coe is a big Canterbury fan. He wrote some lyrics for a Theo Travis album a few years back which were sung by Richard Sinclair from Hatfield/Caravan. I strongly recommend the book - at times I felt it was mirroring my youth. There's a marvellous moment half way through where the experimentalism of early 70s rock is swept aside by punk; used as a metaphor for the end of benign Labour Party welfare state socialism, swept aside by predatory free-market Thatcherism.

When I went to Fez (Aug 2001)...my second night in NYC...it was Frank Lacy's birthday. They brought him a cake. Just a thrilling event - great music, great musicians in the city most associated with jazz. I'd have stayed for a second set but I wasn't sure how you did that.

Those socks fascinated my younger sister, even though she cared not a jot for the music. There's a great passage in Jonathan Coe's 70s set novel 'The Rotters' Club' about two teenagers pondering Henry Cow and trying to appear intellectual about them.

Does the UK have a higher literacy rate than the US? Government statistics would have us believe that we (the UK) are trailing much of the rest of the world; thus the endless demands to raise standards. Some stats here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_count...y_literacy_rate UK and US are equal 18th (along with a batch of others)!

Can work the other way - my only reason for going to Borders is for US books. The history and music sections have titles otherwise unavailable.

I did not know that. I suspect I've been under the impression that Spanish is more widespread by the way it has caught up with French as the first choice second language in UK schools. Thanks.

Yes, I thought about the widespread speaking of English. But I thought Spanish was more widespread. What about Chinese - do the different dialects reduce the numbers? I was surprised that the USA was not way out in front, given its population size. I'm not sure if Waterstone was talking up his own industry but he asserted that book sales were doing well in the current economic climate - people cutting back on other luxeries and returning to a relatively inexpensive item they can stay at home with, perhaps (there's a similar success story in interior decoration here - people can't move house so they are decorating/maintaining).

I've seen them three times - once in Wales (Brecon), once at Fez and last year at the Bath Jazz Festival. Absolutely thrilling every time. Not just the notes but the spirit of Mingus music.