A Lark Ascending

Came out late last year with Fripp on some tracks. I think this new release is a development of those sessions. A really nice proggy/jazz-rock album - the guitarist in the band, Mike Outram, is especially good. Although Travis has mainly played in a jazz context, he wears his prog influences on his sleeve. He's worked with Gong quite a bit and has replaced Elton Dean in the Soft Machine Legacy band (not sure how permanently).

Just so that the boys from 'Trainspotting' can trash it a bit? Yep, the DHL option sucks in my opinion too. I've always been 'dinged' heftily with that option so tend to stick with the US Air Mail (where you get dinged also but slightly less)> I had the Hodges sent by airmail and it took 3 weeks whereas DHL is normally a few days. Is the 3 weeks the norm? You've got me being cautious about DHL!

True of Britain as a whole!

Is Big Pit still open for visitors, MG (I think that's what it's called)? I recall going down 20 odd years back - amazing because the drop was very long! I take students down the pit near Wakefield that has been turned into the National Coal Mining Museum. Fantastic place - really good museum (and I don't really like museums) and brilliant underground as it's all ex-miners with broad Yorkshire accents who show us round. I'm always a bitt scared that when they hear we're from Notts they'll call us scabs and beat us up!!!! The drop there is quite shallow by comparison with the Welsh one I remember. +++++++++ Going back to the legacy of the strike, there was a murder a few years back not 2 miles from the headstocks I pictured. The investigation had the roots of that in a working/striking miner feud!

I'm from Workshop after a few pints! Here are some excellent discs featuring Stan strongly from recent years: Don't expect the 'Saviour of the Saxophone' - but you'll find an engaging, individual voice. He's not released much under his own name but is on many British discs from the late 60s onwards. There's a fuller list on his website: http://www.stansulzmann.co.uk/recordings.htm

My experience too - I have a number of people under 30 working in my Faculty who would do my job better - more energy, on the ball with new developments etc. But, to protect my pension, I'll be sat in the post for a few years yet, doing my best but finding it harder and harder to adjust.

I think you are right - I can point to examples of both self-centred and highly altruistic young people. I'm just not convinced balance has tipped towards the former in a major way. We probably notice young people more - up to the 1950s in the UK they were being sucked into 'adult' life by 15; today they can stay 'young' and exist as a distinct subculture for much longer. Maybe that makes them appear more threatening.

I work in a faculty of just over 20 Humanities teachers, 2/3rds of whom are under 35. The under-35s are committed, professional, exceptionally hard working, immensely creative, humble and a delight to work with (as are the over 35s!). But oldies will insist on believing that young people cannot possibly be as good as they were when they were young. 'Twas ever so.

I recall you suggesting these two discs earlier and I'd forgotten about them. Thank you. Crispell plays beautifully. Her earlier stuff is very much out of the Cecil Taylor school, I think. But as you describe, her later music is lyrical and more introspective. Adventurous, to be sure, but lovely. Aside from her energetic playing with the Braxton quartet, the much more subdued 'Storyteller' is the album that really opened my eyes (ears) to her playing. And thanks for reminding me of 'Storyteller' - just playing it after a very piano-y day and it sounds glowing. I look forward to 'Vignettes' - unusually it appears in the UK a week after the US; ECMs usually go the other way. Probably to do with the tour.

http://jazz.net/pub/index.jsp So now you know.

The word 'jazz' long ago detached itself to lead an independent life from the music we associate it with. Most people may not enjoy the music but the word continues to be very powerful with its images of cool, sophistication: So, I'm never surprised to see it used as a marketing tool for all sorts of things with only marginal connection with mainly improvised music - or, as in this case, no connection at all!

I noticed a classical CD chart the other day that had CDs by Mike Oldfield, Karl Jenkins and John Lord in the top ten. Classical buffs are even more likely to give themselves a seizure over these crossover discs than jazz buffs over smooth recordings dominating a jazz chart. It's always happened. Anyone remember the 'Classics with a Beat' fad of the mid-70s? A recording of the opening of Mozart's 40th Symphony with a disco beat glued on made the singles charts at that time.

Her ECM discs are glorious - impressionistic, very much in the mood of the label, a little abstract when compared with some of the bigger selling names there. Those who know her earlier work often find them less challenging. Being of a lyrical disposition, the ECMs work for me. There are also two superb discs with Barry Guy and Paul Lytton on Intakt - 'Ithaca' and 'Odyssey'.

Good to see you, boyo.

One I've mean to read - there's been a spate of them on cod, nutmeg, coffee etc. I really enjoyed this one by Kurlansky:

Well if that's what salt did to someone's mummy I'm quitting as of now. I've been in the Halstadt one - you had to dress up like one of the Smurfs in order to go on the slide. Lovely place with fabulous mountains and lakes. The place where Celtic civilisation began, they say.

Salt can be fun.... http://www.austria-hiking.eu/regenbogenprogramm/salzwelten/ And culturally rewarding: http://www.saltmuseum.org.uk/ Those who have grown tired of jazz can take up a new hobby: http://www.saltmuseum.org.uk/more-friends.htm

Not over here. They roll into the Proms or the Barbican once a year and that's it. Minimal influence. Smooth jazz also has very little influence. I don't think I've ever heard Kenny G! Some would have it we're under a mind control from Munich, however.

I wasn't aware I threw anything out. I said there was a place for academic analysis - clearly it has benefits for society as a whole. And I'd fully expect academics to engage with real life. I've no quibble with academics - just academics who look down on those who lack their higher sensibilities. If a listener is really moved by music then they can add to the pleasure gained by reading what people who have studied have to say. But as with anything else, they should be read sceptically, particularly with regard to their ultimate judgements. Even the most cursory exploration of historiography reveals an endless run of scholars who, despite the most meticulous research and analysis, remain prisoners of their own time period, social class, political persuasion or personal prejudice. Which is what is happening in the more catty posts in this thread. I don't see much academic rigour - plenty of unsupported assertion.

The vast majority of listeners pay no attention whatsoever to where a performance or performer or recording sits in the grand hierarchy of things. The go out, usually after a hard day/week of work to enjoy themselves. Their response to Brad Mehldau, Joshua Redman, Chris Potter or whoever has nothing to do with where they sit in the tradition - it depends on if they are excited or moved by them. The analysing of music - be it musicological or historical analysis - is something quite separate. There's a rightful place for it, it matters, it's interesting. But I think the two get confused. We read about music in reviews where critics believe they are expected to do the latter when most readers are seeking guidance on the former. It's then all too easy for the ordinary listener to feel as if responding to music requires this sort of analysis. I can drop into a pub and hear a local North Nottinghamshire blues band playing a Muddy Waters tune they probably learnt off a John Mayall record. Should I sit with my notebook in hand tut-tutting at how derivative it all is? Or should I let go and just enjoy? The tenor of some of the posts earlier in this thread suggest the former. I'm afraid I do the latter. I come out of most concerts I attend completely duped by the forces of commerce; but I have a big smile on my face. Rather that than having the sharpest critical faculties in the universe and being perpetually miserable and judgmental.

I loved mellotron's...and there is a Mk VI in production. They don't catch fire on stage these days, so I'm told (I'm not sure if thats a + or -). http://www.mellotron.com/ I think the time is right for 'A Mellotron Tribute to Art Tatum'

Mine was much slower than usual. Nearly 3 weeks.

If Stalin had known this he could have just fed his enemies TV dinners instead of having to devise all those camps in Siberia.

I teach 17 year olds with a greater understanding of the difference between interpretation and truth, subjective opinion and objective fact, than some of the self-anointed 'intellectuals' on this thread. How does anyone get beyond 25 still believing that their view of the world is how it is?

A favourite of mine for many years. His 'On Loan With Gratitude' is one of the great lost discs of the 70s. The opening track used to be the theme tune of 'Jazz Today' at one stage. His surname is also impossible to spell - I have to check every time! Sulzmann....I want to insert a 't' or dock an 'n'.