A Lark Ascending

That was my initial reaction - but when I looked more closely I found more than enough to satisfy my curiosity. The Jerry Dammers one could either be thrilling or a non-starter. I've no Two-Tone past and hardly know the chap but with people like Denys Baptiste, Jason Yarde, Larry Stabbins, Zoe Rahman and Finn Peters on board it has potential. I'm really interested in contemporary UK jazz so there are a number there of both new kids and established names, all performing music I'll not have heard. I've never heard of Roberto Fonesca but that one will provide a nice contrast with its Cuban focus. Cheltenham clearly has ambitions to draw in from beyond the hard core audience - this might explain it's less concentrated programming this year. Bath does look interesting - I was a little disappointed with last year's. Much as I applaud their to-the-border-and-beyond programming of European artists, I found myself craving more straight blowing. Rather too much Scandinavian mysticism - it was the relatively mainstream Mingus Big Band which gave me the biggest buzz.

Except... in the "dance underground"/Gilles Peterson/etc. camps, all of whom are primarily "young" by any reasonable standard (although none of them would be considered "mass movements" by any stretch of the imagination), there is a considerable amount of interest in "contemporary" music with a jazz "flavor". The nature of this flavor ranges from a superficial stylistic affectation to a deeper adoption of the jazz, for lack of a better term, "state of mind", although it is of course coming through a "young" POV and only partially related to what we know as the "jazz state of mind". The former has been with us forever, but the latter has me thinking/wondering if this is not how jazz will best "survive" into the 21st century, not as a "style", but as a "spirit", a motivator. Bury the body and let the spirit go where it will go & be had by whom it will be had in whatever form it will assume. Me, at this point, I'm ok with that. YMMV. Very true - every year the Cheltenham Festival organisers put on a more dance/techno/drum'n bass (apologies if that terminology is yesterday!) aspect to it, with people associated with 'core' jazz involved, and it packs the Town Hall. There's definately a big market amongst many young people for music that side-steps the commercial and does things differently, whilst linking to the music they know (as jazz-rock once did). What will not attract nearly such a large audience is selling it to them as a passage to something more authentic from the past. Get them thrilled about something that is part of the current culture and some might just want to find out where that sax playing or strange drumming came from, some might wonder about the strange names being dropped and seek them out - as those of us who came from 70s rock once sought out Miles, Coltrane, Messiaen because they were name-checked by the bands we loved. But it should never be about 'progressing' in your listening to jazz or classical or whatever. Exploring music should be about adding to the richness of your listening, not trading up!

I agree 100%. Look at the evolution of most things and you begin with an 'heroic age' where innovators stand like gods (or the history is simplified to give them greater prominence); but as things broaden it becomes harder to isolate the heroes as things develop in a thousand different directions at once. No-one is sitting around waiting for the next Shakespeare or the next Tolstoy, yet thrilling new literature gets written. But instead of having heroic 'must reads' we all carve out our own paths from amongst the multitude of possibilities. Waiting for a jazz Messiah is a bit like waiting for.....a Messiah! He's much more likely to be a very naughty boy (or girl)! *********** It almost seems to me as if there is a craving for a more united world with common values - governments claim to want this, commerce would love it (much easier to sell the work of commonly accepted heroes in bulk [how they must crave a Miles Davis!] than small units of a multitude of performers with more local audiences). Yet I doubt if that is where the future lies - I suspect we're in an era of increasing localisation where we're all carving out our own areas of interest from a massive amount on offer. What's interesting is that the localisation is not geographical - it's now possible to get a fascination with, say, Australian or Italian jazz from the other side of the world and follow it, without it being part of some overall trend or fashion. I very much like this.

It may have been that band (Saft was in it) who played this festival a couple of years back - all a bit heavy-metalish for me. I think I left early, which is rare for me. I know Previte has a huge range of contexts, but that one wasn't up my street. So I skipped this time.

There's always more than you can fit in. As it is I'll be doing a couple of 'Cheltenham Sprints' in the 15 mins between the end of one gig in one venue and the start of the next a couple of streets away. No relation to Dave Stapleton at all (we might share a Norman ancestor!) - saw him at Cheltenham 2 or 3 years back and his band were great. His record of last year is marvellous - with a fabulous Julie Tippetts vocal on one track.

Nice line-up again - 29th April to 5th May. I'm doing the highlighted ones: Eartha Kitt Carol Brewster Van Morrison Sara Colman Courtney Pine Maceo Parker with his band, featuring Dennis Rollins TG Collective Gwyneth Herbert BBC Radio 2: Tribute to Billie Holiday Colin Salmon Jerry Dammers' Spatial AKA Orchestra Han Bennink Gilles Peterson with Jose James, Elan Mehler and Tawiah Enrico Rava and Stefano Bollani Jazz on 3 Zoe Rahman Piano Masterclass Phil Robson's Six Strings and The Beat Outhouse Ruhabi Making Sense of Sound The Jerwood Interview with Soweto Kinch and Iain Ballamy Tim Berne's Science Friction BBC Big Band with Nicola Conte Dave Stapleton Quintet Imelda May Alias / The Jerwood Commission Gloucestershire Jazz Live Big Band Heritage Orchestra with Bonobo Soweto Kinch's Basement Fables The Breakfast Show / The Destroyers Family Fun Day Dan Nicholls Band Jack DeJohnette Bobby Previte's New Bump Ralph Alessi with This Against That featuring Ravi Coltrane BBC Radio 3 Jazz Library Pete Wareham: The Final Terror Ruby Turner Bill Frisell Mr Scruff Roberto Fonseca Jack DeJohnette Drum Masterclass Dave Holland Prize Competition Winners Andy Sheppard and The Lunatics featuring James Morton Blink Cleo Lane and John Dankworth

There was an article in one of the weekend papers asking 'Why do people no longer read Milton?' Would seem to come from the same way of thinking as this thread title. Could be summarised as 'Why aren't people exposed to/interested in/enjoying the things I like?' *********** I have no fears for the 18-28 age group. Many of the people I work with fall into the higher end of that category and they are better trained, more serious about their work than I recall my peers being in the late-70s. Only one has an interest in jazz - they all have informed and passionate interests in other things. In a recent report, the UK school inspectorate saw the real inhibitor to progress as not being young teachers but middle aged teachers who had lost their drive, weren't keeping up-to-date or suffering from burn out. That could be many of us!

There was definitely an attraction to Ralph Towner then, among listeners coming over from rock. Certain ECM artists seemed to be appealing for rockers coming over to jazz, and he was one of them. The Genesis idea is very interesting. Around the time I bought 'Solstice' I also bought Terje Rypdal's 'Whenever I seem to be far away' - didn't connect with it at all. I wonder if it was because it sounded too similar to what I'd been hearing in rock. Or even too similar yet not nearly as interesting as someone like Robert Fripp who seemed much less safe. The 12-string was one of the defining sounds of 'Nursery Cryme', less so the later records as the keyboard technology got more up front. I suspect the dazzling acoustic guitar of some of the folk music players - English and American - also paved the ground. But Towner's records sounded quite, quite distinct. One of those moments when you notice a door in the garden wall and open it into a further garden you never knew was there!

It's worth remembering why Towner was such a breath of fresh air in the 70s. To those of us who slid from rock to jazz we were used to mainly electric guitars, with the odd oasis of acoustic calm (McLaughlin knew how that worked!). Entire albums of beautifully recorded acoustic on pristine vinyl - a completely different world. Though, I wonder if the attraction of his 12-string - still the sound of his I love best - was founded on listening to early Genesis albums!!!!!

That's the way pop culture has tended to work but I genuinely think, for the reasons I've outlined, than anything 'new' will not 'kick in', at least not in the way that rock 'n' roll, punk, disco or hip hop kicked in. I wonder how many people expected bebop when listening in 1940 - the choice seemed to be between an increasingly settled swing or '20s revivalism.

Surprised no-one has mentioned '(When I'm Cleaning) Windows' - his all-ukelele tribute to George Formby (with guest appearance by Chick Corea on the title track). (This was recorded during a period when he was not making much money and so Bill Gates gave him a part-time job).

Gismonti is much more interesting than that disc would suggest. A nice enough record but I don't feel it even begins to touch the breadth of his music. Played this one tonight, one of his more 'classical' recordings: Something of a potpourri of 20thC classical styles - I'm not sure it hangs together but I enjoyed it. Everything from Stravinsky to Copland to Ives in there somewhere.

I hear what you're saying, but some of my friends who have kids would strongly disagree with your assessment. I remember my dad being worried about me in the late 60s - stuck in my bedroom in my own world. He thought I should be out doing things, mixing with other kids. One of the effects of being relatively inward in mid-adolescence - something which has always been quite common, as not all kids find it easy to relate to other kids, especially at an age when children of the same age are maturing physically and mentally at very different rates - is that you easily find yourself burrowing into your own private world. Books, music, stamp collecting, train spotting. With me it was the fringes of popular music which eventually led me to jazz. Not a respone to something that was popular and in the teenage eye but a quite deliberate seeking for something different. And yet...I'd have given it all for the confidence to get out and engage directly with my peers (something I thankfully learnt in later adolescence - but by that time my taste for the odd was set). If I had, I'd probably have developed more mainstream musical tastes. I have a feeling this might be tied in with commercial conservatism - the general zeitgeist of the centre that is obsessed with remaking the past. You see it not just in the endless recycling of old songs in new dress, 'classic' songs in movies and adds but in the remakes of old movies (most of which don't need remaking). I suspect it's a phase - a bit like the dead period in pop music after rock'n roll and before the rock revolution. At some point there will be a collective weariness about nostalgia and something new will kick in. And the chances are that we'll all grumble about it!

Several of Louis Stewart's albums have just appeared on e-music. A chance for lovers of traditional jazz guitar who don't know this wonderful player to dip in.

The kids I teach very much have a common cultural experience (and, often, quite independent passions too, enjoyed separately). They still talk about, sing fragments from current popular items, get worked up about last night's soap, reality TV show etc. That extends as far as their parents' record collections - I'm always amazed at how knowing they are about people like Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin and the music of Queen seems to have become a canon to replace the English Hymnal. Kids seek the excitement of being with other kids as much as they ever did. Computers and mobiles just provide another means of such communication. The idea that they are all locked in their bedrooms, disconnected from a common popular culture strikes me as one of those ideas thought up by Sunday supplement writers. The reality is that adults never really understand young people. There's always something up with them!

Fantastic player, though you have to tread carefully. I particularly like his folksier/Brazilian music - but he also performs music that veers towards contemporary classical (which I also like) and there are some older records that are rather prog-rocky (which I'm not so keen on). I was drawn to him by his guitar playing; but he often records on just piano, which took me longer to enjoy. This band record is a thrill from start to finish, lots of humour: Rather more serious but giving two sides of the player is this double: And along with seeline's suggestions I'd also suggest:

If jazz is an insiders' music that can only be understood by the brains' trust or those who play it then it deserves to die. Pass me the hatchet.

More evidence. Want to buy some dirty pictures?

Absolutely. I listen to jazz because by some set of accidents I found myself/got directed towards it and found I enjoyed it. There was once a time when I probably thought it was 'doing me good', 'improving' me - perhaps listening to it appealed to my vanity, encouraging a belief that I was somewhat superior because I listened to this esoteric music. I don't see it like that now (at least I hope I don't). I can't think of any reason why anyone ought to listen to jazz. I can find plenty of reasons why someone who stumbles on it might gain great pleasure from it (which is reason enough to make young people aware of it). But in the end, there are lots of other ways, musical and otherwise, of gaining satisfaction, engagement, excitement in your free time!!!!! And, as MG says, there are other musics which probably do that better for 21st C young audiences.

Here's one to look forward to: Norma Winstone - (voice), Glauco Venier - (piano), Klaus Gesing - (saxophone, clarinet) ECM 24th March in the UK 1. Distances 2. Every Time We Say Goodbye 3. Drifter 4. Giant's Gentle Stride 5. Gorizia 6. Ciant 7. The Mermaid 8. Here Comes The Flood 9. Remembering the Start of a Never Ending Story 10. A Song for England I've seen this band a couple of times in recent years - marvellous, small scale, chamber jazz. The version of Peter Gabriel's 'Here Comes the Flood' was a show-stopper live. Norma has been putting out great discs recently - an earlier one by this band, one with Colin Towns and last year's with Stan Tracey and Bobby Wellins. I love her commitment to exploring songs way outside the jazz canon.

I don't think I was 'exposed' to jazz when I was young (let's say 1965-75 between the age of 10 and 20) - I received no education about it, heard it only in passing. What I did hear is a great deal of jazz-rock as part of a typical early 70s teenager diet of rock music. And then I got curious and started digging for myself. Which is - to my mind - exactly what is happening with some young people today. I can't speak for the States but in the UK (and mainland Europe, I suspect) there are scores of bands on the margin of jazz and indie-rock who have a young, cult audience (just like Henry Cow or Soft Machine drew people like me in during the 70s). When groups like Polar Bear or Fraud play a festival like Bath or Cheltenham, some of the audience stay on for other gigs. Someone who has been intrigued by the experimental music of Tom Arthurs gets the chance to hear him with John Taylor and starts to get a sense that there is something rich lying behind this 'now' music. Go to some gigs, festivals and you'll see a sea of grey hair (including mine!). But go to others - ones that connect with music young people know - and you'll see plenty of young faces lapping it up. In some cases it's just a case of performing it in a venue young people feel comfortable in. The UK is awash with talented young players - there are several youth orchestras (one of which plays annually in a workshop in the school where I teach). It's also worth asking just how deep exposure to jazz went when young people were exposed to lots of jazz - and I suspect that we're really talking the 30s/40s here. I get the impression that most went to hear the big bands for other reasons than to listen to jazz - and only some came away with a lifetimes interest in the jazz content. Why aren't more people exposed to jazz? Why should they be. They'll find their own way there if it's what interests them. O.K. Can we do 'Why aren't more young people exposed to crochet?' or 'Why do young people insist on slouching?' now. And a thread on how to cope with arthritis is long overdue.

The first Metheny I bought and, alongside the very different '80/81', still my favourite. Pastel, mellow, impressionistic - probably not jazz at all to those who worry about such things. But I greatly prefer it to the rockier records he went for a bit later with the PMG. Weber is wonderful on it.

I must transfer that one from LP. Here's another hidden Towner, only available now as part of a 3CD Azimuth box - Winstone, Taylor, Wheeler + Towner:

He toured in the UK about ten years back with Norma Winstone, John Taylor and Steve Swallow. A pity that collaboration never got to disc. I recall a Winstone/Towner ECM being slated on the old Jazzmatazz site. Never materialised. These two are also overlooked but favourites of mine:

Nice 34 min discussion about Rex Stewart between Alyn Shipton and Guy Barker here - up for the next few days: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/jazzlibrary/pip/d5lon/