A Lark Ascending

Sorry! Didn't mean to touch a nerve!

Track down a copy of Soweto Kinch's recent jazz single, 'Jazz Planet' - a funny, tongue-in-cheek, completely pro-jazz yet unsnobby approach to this issue. Great fun.

Absolutely - the existing CD is OK but a bit flat. It could well do with opening out.

At least they've got a rousing song. "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooklahoma....! All you've got is a spelling song.

In general I prefer studio recordings. Live recordings are not the same as being at a live performance; and I suspect alot of the excitement of a live performance comes not just from the musical quality but the sense of occasion. But there are times when things I've heard done live on the radio sound overcooked in a studio recording. Fortunately we don't have to choose. We get plenty of both.

Why did you let one of your kids scribble on the sleeve? Take more care with your possessions! I know what you mean. His regular interviews with the UK music press were pretty wild too. He always came across as some sort of guru with an insatiable sex drive. As a 17 year old I lived in constant envy of what he claimed to be getting up to.

Ah! I see. It's the bit of Texas that really belongs to Oklahoma. I'd always assumed it was by the sea. Many thanks.

Hi Bev, When you use "panhandle" as a geographic term, it refers to any long land protrusion of a US state. Texas isn't the only state to have a "panhandle" - about 8 states do - including two in West Virginia. The name comes from the long handle that is on a pan that you use to cook with on a stove. The term "panhandle" can be used as a verb, too. In this case, it refers to the method of approaching strangers and begging for money. Thanks rotsasi, Is it the bit south of San Antonio?

Took 50 kids to Wales this weekend. Result? The return of winter - Freezing temperatures, light snow, sleet, rain. Snowdonia looked spectacular, however, when the sun chose to pop its head out!

Thanks, Jim.

Tried to PM you re: this Jim but your mailbox is full! Time for a spring clean!

They certainly wern't for my shaving skills!

My new look, courtesy of a Comic Relief stunt... Subsequently I have been invited to join EST on tamborine.

Almost certainly ! Are you going to the 'Ornette' at Cheltenham or at the Bath Fest this year? If so, I'll say 'hi'. B-) PS - The lineup for Bath looks quite intriguing, with the F-IRE Collective, Human Chain and Misha Mengelberg solo recital in the Guildhall. Yes, I'm doing my annual pilgrimage to both festivals, for the weekend in both cases. I'll be at the Ornette - it would be nice to say hello. At Bath I'm easier to spot - I'm the bloke who keeps going to that amazing CD stand by the bar! (A few years back I was the bloke who set the book he was reading alight with one of the candles on the cafe tables!!! I have a strange way of attention-seeking.)

I suspect I've been in the same room as sidewinder a few times, in Bath and Cheltenham.

This is a lovely record - described as Persian and Indian Improvisation: Kayhan Kalhor kamancheh Shujaat Husain Khan sitar, vocals Sandeep Das tabla

Yes, this one:

Many thanks, VILLADAWG. I shall hunt one or two of these down. No sign as yet on any of the online stores I normally check.

When 'Che' first arrived I did not recognise him for the first couple of weeks. I seem to recall sticking up for him indirectly in one of my tiresome tirades against group hugs. I assumed he was actually some hapless teenager who needed to be treated gently. Then the parallels began to appear - the Finland obsession, rugby etc. He seemed to go out of his way to avoid provoking on the issue that got him removed from AAJ; and I was happy to respond to some of his posts which dealt with European/UK jazz. I'd assumed he'd learned his lesson. However, I began to get a bit freaked by his over-familiarity - the above mentioned occasion when he started welcoming people to the board a few weeks in did strike me as a bit strange. You only saw part of him here - to be honest his musical posts were rather more thoughtful at AAJ. Here that never seemed to amount to more than namechecking the latest person he'd read about in Jazzwise. I don't think he's a bad guy. But he does seem very, very thick skinned. We all say daft things, get into rows we later regret; and then either apologise or lie low for a while. 'Che's' response was always to fight back harder. I tried once at AAJ to suggest going a bit easier in the US election dispute; I was categorically told that I was trying to censor him! Anyway, I wouldn't worry too much about an invasion from Nova Scotia. Seems unlikely. I'm the one who really has to worry. He claimed to have booked into some of the Cheltenham Jazz Festival shows I'm also at. A false beard and moustache will be needed, I think. Goatee, of course. So I can blend in well.

The frightening thing is that he claimed to be a child psychiatrist! Teachers tend to be pretty cynical about child psychiatrists (as child psychiatrists are of teachers!). I'd not like to think about the state one of my more difficult children would come back in after a few sessions. "Of course I'm not doing any bloody homework. Chomsky says..." Or maybe he'd just hand the homework in in Finnish! He set the wheels in motion for his expulsion from AAJ just after the US elections. Most comments were of disappointment/despair from the mainly liberal minded posters. 'Che' proceeded to tell them that they were part of the problem. Some very mild-mannered, easy-going posters got very upset. He did seem to learn from that; his anti-Americanism was largely kept in check here...but I was just waiting for it to break out. In the event he put his foot in it elsewhere.

He always made me feel so damned inadequate. Learning Finnish, coaching a rugby team, leading the revolution, doing a Phd, running marathons, travelling the world.... In the same period of time I've mowed the lawn and done the washing!

He was banned at AAJ a few weeks back as a result of a series of anti-American tirades in the political forum. Believe me, he was being polite here!

There are increasing numbers of Asian musicians breaking into various musical genres in the UK at present. I really enjoyed this one a few years back: Whereas Nitin Sawhney, who appeared at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival a few years back, struck me as much more ordinary. I've also enjoyed the vocal recordings of Sheila Chandra. ******** Trilok Gurtu is an interesting case. I love this one from 1997: But everything I've heard since has been so concerned wth crossing-cultures and breaking boundaries that it has come out rather high-production bland. ********* Going off at a further tangent there are some intriguing crossovers with Asian music in the guitar playing of Davy Graham and John Renbourne. I was listening to this the other day and some of the arrangements of English folk songs mixed with Asian inspired guitar are quite extraordinary:

I'm not a great fan of the Harriott/Mayer records. There's something very foursquare in the rhythm - like a beat that runs through the music. I like these crossovers when there is room for the music to breath. This is Jazz/Indian mix that works for me: I look forward to hearing the Speake. I have a couple of his earlier records.

On one occasion I saw Remembering Shakti in Birmingham, their first tour since the long break - half the audience were aging jazz-rocker like me; the other half from the Asian community (out for Zakir Hussain and Hariprasad Chaurasia, I suspect). The Asian listeners kept bursting into applause at various points whilst we jazz-rockers looked round mystified. Clearly the former knew what they were listening to structurally and could react to a particularly fine improvisation within the codes of the music. I got the feeling the rest of us were actually musical tourists - loving the music, impressed by its colour and virtuosity but not really comprehending what was happening. I always feel a bit like that when listening to Asian or Middle Eastern music.