A Lark Ascending

Atomic!!!!!!!! And Atomic with Ken Vandermark: One of my favourite groups of the moment. Very different to what is normally thought of as jazz from Norway - they avoid the ambient 'fjord-music' going for a rougher yet frequently melodic approach. At times they remind me of the Jarrett American Quartet of the 70s but with rougher edges.

Yes, I recall reading about the cancer around the time 'Purple' came out. Good to see he's pulled through.

This one's good from the marvellous Finnish orchestra: Electric Miles seems to be a take-off point for quite a few contemporary bands. Three I've seen in recent years in the UK: Matthew Bourne - something of a young whizz kid who I can't quite decide on at present; but he did a very impressive full-on electric blast at a concert a few years back. Martin France's 'Spin Marvel' - a great drummer from the Loose Tubes/Django Bates area of UK jazz. This band with John Parricelli and Mike Walker on guitars and Iain Ballamy on soprano worked beautifully through 70s Milesish electric soundscapes. I believe they have a recording coming out soon as part of the F-IRE collective movement though Mike Walker might not be with them (a pity). Gerard Presencer - after some pretty disappointing discs this trumpet/fluegelhorn player came out a year or so back with a very nice electric disc which draws off that sound world: Some of the recent Dave Douglas disc are clearly rooted there too.

Yes, I saw the Jazzwise piece. Add to your overdraft with those Huong Thanh discs (you are more likely to see them under 'World Music' in the shops). I'm currently playing the most recent - Mangustao - which also has Fresu. I particularly like the contribution of Paul McCandless (of Oregon fame) - I believe he's on the new Le disc. Paolo Fresu is worth following in his own right. There's a great quintet disc recorded in Montreal under fellow-trumpeter Enrico Rava's name and including Stefan Bollani on piano (another tremendous player): Nice long versions of tunes associated with Miles...and not the usual ones!

The cod-Beach Boys on Summer '68 are wonderful!

I've not heard this yet but dearly love: Some of his recordings can mix the multi-ethnic musical influence pot a bit too much, ending up a bit bland (a problem I've found with Trilok Gurtu's more recent music). I also enjoyed his Hendrix tribute: There are a number of recordings with Huong Thanh that follow the Vietnamese folk song link of Tales from Vietnam (the singer on that disc): Nice playing on this disc by Italian trumpet player Paulo Fresu too: A great live player too - he did a storming trio concert at Cheltenham a few years back.

I think I'm the only person in the world who loves: My favourite along with Meddle, Umma Gumma and Wish You Were Here. I enjoy the first two too, though they were a couple of years before I started listening to music so sounded a bit tinny in 1970/1 to my ears. I enjoy DSoftheM but even at the time was disappointed by its more conventional song-based approach. I like the lengthy noodling and (especially) the breakfast cereal noises.

Thanks Daniel, A good Wheeler discography is long overdue.

I saw The Fringe in a pub in Wales a few years back playing totally free improvisation. I often lose interest in the completely unstructured but this performance was electric. Edge of the seat stuff. Very, very impressive.

Spring! You should have seen my two ponds this morning. Positively pornographic! Scores of the buggers (that's probably biologically inaccurate). [On the other hand, this might be Camilla and the Frog Prince)

19th? 7th? 28th? How do you rate a pianist? Why would you rate a pianist? (He has a new trio album due from ECM later this year with Anders Jormin and Paul Motion. It's on Alankin's site but with no date yet)

37th ************ This is a gorgeous disc: I love the title of one of the tunes - 'Polska of Despair'. He did a short tour in the UK a few years back with Mick Hutton, Paul Motion and Martin Speake. They recorded an album but it's been stuck in the ECM vaults for ages.

Now available at Dusty Groove for Stateside Ogunites.

I'm suspicious of the argument that there is a general decline in writing standards. Now I certainly experience plenty of poor writing from 16-18 year olds - I'm currently being driven crazy trying to decipher coursework. But two other things are at work (in the UK at least): 1. Far more students are staying on at school beyond 16. 25 years ago I was lucky to have an Advanced Level group of 10. Today I have three groups totaling over 50 students. Many of the poor writers we have in our classes today would have been down the pit or in the factory in 1980. 2. I'm also suspicious of our memories of our own skills at 16. I know I was still getting my grammar pulled apart at university. The biggest weakness I see in my students is an unwillingness to read, something that inhibits their ability to write well themselves. Although I accept these are problems that need working on - even if writing skills are the same as in 1980 we should still be trying to make them better - I suspect there are other things that need thinking about. Above all communication through reading written text is no longer the only means of exchanging information. We need to be a bit careful in thinking that because it appears that kids are not as skilled in things that were considered essential in our youth, that all is lost. There's every chance they have made up for that in developing other skills that we have failed to acknowledge. I'm all in favour of pushing reading/writing skills - kids who lack those skills are disadvantaging themselves. But debates like this run the risk of descending into inaccurate nostalgia (a sort of parallel to jazz musicians ain't what they used to be...of course they're not, they're doing something else).

Well, that was certainly all I was required to do when I took my first set of public exams at 16 in 1971. The 16-year-old kids I teach today in the UK have a much wider range of skills to master and show evidence of. For example, on history papers they have to compare and contrast written and pictorial evidence, commenting on reliability and utility to the historian for a specific purpose. Sound factual knowledge is necessary to do that well; but just regurgitating facts without relevance to the sources or question will lead to a low level of performance. Far more difficult than anything I had to do. I don't know what it's like in the States, but in the UK there are far too many educational experts who've not spent more than an hour or two per year in a school for decades (and that's just some of the teachers!). Spend a week working in a classroom with kids and it all starts to look very different.

I was disappointed by 'Welcome' at the time - too many 'soul' type vocals. Always liked things like the McLaughlin/Santana blast out and the opening/closing tracks. The 'soul' vocals don't bother me so much now. I nice record if not one that has me awestruck like Caravanserai.

Outside of the Shakti recordings I like 'The Promise' best of all McLaughlin's post-70s recordings.

I'm quite amazed to find you all listen to music on a Sunday. I thought the whole of America was in church! (Please note: one of those smiley things. This is a lighthearted comment) ********** I enjoyed Arnold Bax, William Alwyn and Malcolm Arnold this morning.

I saw Liam a few weeks back at the Barbican with the reformed (occasionally) Planxty. Still doing the business - I spent most of the concert close to tears! I've never seen the live Brendan performance but have had the LP since the early 80s (recently got the CD). Glorious music. Liam O'Flynn doing a lament on the uilleann pipes is one of those things guaranteed to reduce me to a quivering wreck. Must be some genetic folk memory!!!!

And here's another that went down very well on this up jumped spring morning... * Quintet for harp and strings * Elegiac Trio for harp, viola and flute * Fantasy Sonata for harp and viola * Sonata for flute and harp

Just listened to this. A beautiful Sunday morning record with lots of flute pieces: * Quintet for Flute, Violin, Viola, Horn and Bassoon Op 7 (1944) [12'11] * Duo for Flute and Viola Op 10 (1946) [9'43] * Divertimento for Flute, Oboe and Clarinet Op 37 (1952) [7'58] * Oboe Quartet Op 61 (1957) [11'41] * Flute Sonata Op 121 (1977) [14'31] * Three Shanties for Wind Quintet Op 4 (1943) [6'55]

In case you havn't noticed it's really morning.

I really like 'Lotus' though it does have some annoying steam powered synth chipping in at way too loud a volume in places. It's very much of that 'Caravanserai'/'Welcome' era, though more heated. Doesn't have the immaculate poise of 'Caravanserai'.

The odd thing is that these things are more associated with Scotland (and, perhaps, Northern Ireland) than Eire: When talking pipes in the south we're thinking: Not exactly easy to carry along the street. St. Patrick's day is a very low key affair in England, celebrated by some people of Irish descent and a few pubs on the make. The only way I ever remember it being different from any other day was when my grandfather used to send me a postcard of Athlone (where he lived) and some shamrock. It's never been a good idea for the Irish to flaunt their Irishness here.

Saw wonderful UK pianist Nikki Iles tonight with her trio. She started the second set off with an exquisite 'Danny Boy'. This is clearly now an official part of the Great American Songbook.