A Lark Ascending

Could someone explain this joke to me. I can't work it out. I presume it's some hillbilly reference.

And very wonderful it is too! Totally improvised but within a recognisable harmonic framework. When Keith Jarrett does free form improvising he brings along all manner of semi-mystical baggage. It all has to be so larger than life, so much of a 'deep' experience. On this recording Tracey and Moholo just sit down and do it. It's exciting, moving, enthralling and you don't feel as if they expect you to genuflect at the end. Don't get me wrong, I like Jarrett's music and owe him much to leading me to jazz; but I couldn't help but be struck how everything about this Tracey/Moholo CD - the performance, packaging, liner notes etc - are carried off without the fuss that surrounds every one of Keith's magnificent utterances.

Glad you found so much to enjoy in 'Let Freedom Ring'. I saw the premiere a couple of years back at the Cheltenham Festival. I suppose, for me, it would have been nice if they could have rehearsed a bit more before recording. It's that raggedness that holds it back from getting my full enjoyment. I'm not talking the deliberate raggedness that could make things like the Brotherhood of Breath sound so winning; it just sounds under-rehearsed. Pure economics, I've no doubt. I've heard nothing about new projects from Denys - the Dune site is the place to watch. While I think about it, try and get a copy of Soweto Kinch's 'Jazz Planet' single. Kinch integrates hip-hop/rap into a very Ornettish style. Now hip hop/rap is a world I'm clueless about and generally draws a blank - but somehow he carries it off in a way I can handle. This single is an absolute scream - a rap on a world where jazz players are celebrities and boy bands play in the back rooms of pubs where there's not enough space for their dance routines! Jazz Jamaica have a new CD coming based on Motown! They're playing this round the UK including Cheltenham.

On the Polar Bear/Acoustic Ladyland/Partisans front I meant to say that all three have new CDs coming out in the next two or three months which are likely to bump up their visibility somewhat. Ignore all the fuss over Jamie Cullum - this is the real jazz UK 'revival' (what...again?) of the present.

Yes, Ingrid Laubrock is another gem of the current scene - her recent 'Forensic' CD is a great leap forward in her recording career - very freewheeling with Shorter and Steve Lacy overtones. From Germany but, hey, an honorary Brit! I've booked her gig and the Ornette. Chose Enrico Rava over Herbie, however.

Apologies in advance for hyping UK jazz further - no intention to promote it as 'better than this', 'better than that' - it's just that hearing this stuff in the flesh quite regularly I'm very excited by it and believe it could excite well beyond its native land. Here are three recordings from elsewhere in the UK scene by bands making very big waves, and, what is more, getting attention beyond the established jazz audience: Acoustic Ladyland: Polar Bear: Partisans: Look here for details - a great independent label dedicated to getting lesser known music out: http://www.babellabel.co.uk/ The other place worth exploring is the F-IRE collective. A collective based in London that has been operating for a few years now - musicians work, practise, play together, share and solve problems. It has spawned an extraordinary number of bands who are now staring to pop up everywhere. A sort of self-help group to by-pass the problems of getting recorded, getting gigs etc. I'm very much looking forward to some F-IRE big band concerts due at this years Cheltenham and Bath Festivals: http://www.f-ire.com/ This is Bev Stapleton signing off with his letter from the UK for this week...

Sorry, forgot the link! Thanks Couw. An afterthought. This Dune CD has Baptiste in 1997 playing Jazz Messenger-like hard/post-bop. On board are a couple of other names who have gained big profiles over here - alto/baritone player Tony Kofi and pianist Alex Wilson (very big on the dance/Cuban scene):

Denys is wonderful live - I saw him a couple of weeks back playing alongside Soweto Kinch in one of Gary Crosby's bands, Nu Troop. He's yet to really reveal that fully on disc. His most recent recording is: A really ambitious project based on MLK's 'I Have a Dream' speech. It doesn't quite come off but marks a player really prepared to work at the composing as well as the playing. It's worth keeping an eye on this label: http://www.dune-music.com/index2.asp Run by Gary Crosby (one time member of the Jazz Warriors who rocketed Courtney Pine to stardom) it mainly (though not exclusively) puts out music by Afro-Caribbean jazz musicians in the UK. Baptiste runs the risk of getting overlooked in the excitement generated by Soweto Kinch, a fabulous alto player who I believe is already making his way in the States. That would be a pity - he's a marvellous player with a really engaging stage manner. To my mind the real star of this part of the UK scene is the older Jason Yarde. It is a complete mystery to me why we have not had a solo record yet. He turns up on other peoples' discs but has not put one out for himself. He played with Louis Moholo's band at the recent Jazz Britannia jamboree and I've got a ticket to see him at Cheltenham in late April - hopefully this is sign of a growing profile. Finally, here's a project for the next six days. Click on this link to the BBC programme 'Jazz Line Up". After Stacey Kent has read her script about what's on the programme you will hear Jazz Jamaica's arrangement of Wayne Shorter's 'Footprints' (arrangement by the aforementioned Jason Yarde). Jazz meets reggae, meets ska, meets fun. The soprano sax solo here by Andy Sheppard is outstanding. Be quick. It's only there until next Saturday.

Just a health warning - the recording has virtually none of the Larry Youngish organ of the live date and is a notch or two more subdued. Nice album though with especially interesting takes on 'White Line Fever' and 'Shady Grove'. I'm hoping there's a live album being prepared!

I'm afraid the live broadcast is no longer on the BBC website - they only run for a week. The band have two CDs - the first (which I've not heard) - was heavily promoted because Norah Jones was on a couple of tracks. I ignored it assuming it was some cash-in. But the broadcast really impressed me - the tunes would be sung in a drawl and then vere off into wonderful improvisations with David Binney going absolutely bonkers. It was the organ of Gary Versace that really had me puzzling where I'd heard this sound before and 'Lifetime' sprang to mind. Here's the track list of the 2nd CD: 01. Riding on the Midnight Train 02. Galveston 03. Shady Grove 04. I am the Light of This World 05. I’ll Fly Away 06. So Long Second Street 07. Waterbound 08. The Water is Wide 09. Time Flies 10. Oh Death 11. White Line Fever 12. Wichita Lineman Personnel Joel Harrison - electric, National Steel guitar, baritone guitar, voice David Binney – saxophone Gary Versace - accordion, organ, piano Stephan Crump - acoustic bass Dan Weiss – drums Todd Isler - frame drums, hadjini, misc. percussion Guests: Uri Caine – piano Rob Burger - organ Emilie Cardinaux - voice Total praise Gospel Choir Details: http://www.actmusic.com/act9431_e.htm#track

Try this: A strange fusion of jazz and country/bluegrass. The CD is actually quite tame by comparison with a live broadcast the BBC put out a few weeks back where the band sounded like Hank Williams fronting Lifetime!

Yes, Charlie Haden's 'Ballad of the Fallen' has that 'raggedness' that I love in her early records. The arrangements are just too smooth for me from the late 80s, the jokes too well rehersed.

I somehow doubt whether Nikki Iles will mean a thing on this board, Andy. I'm not sure she has a profile ouside of the UK. Having seen her a number of times I'll count myself as an admirer. A beautiful CD from a couple of years back ('Veils' with Stan Sulzmann and Chris Biscoe) and a lovely trio CD from 2004. She also plays with Tina May - a very nice CD from about 6 or 7 years back. There are supposed to be recordings with Tony Coe and Norma Winstone in the pipeline. I first came across her playing piano in a Mike Gibbs orchestra in the early 90s.

Dave Liebman is playing the Cheltenham Festival over here in late April with Ellery Eskelin, Tony Marino and Jim Black. One of the events I've booked for.

Anyone heard this soundtrack recording also released recently?:

Escalator, Tropic Appetites, Dinner Music, European Tour '77 and Social Studies are all huge favourites of mine. There's an oddball eccentricity to these discs; the arrangements are strange with a certail Kurt Weillish feel in places. I have a number of her discs from the late 80s onwards and find them far less involving. More conventionally 'big-band' which I'm not a great fan of.

Bev, the title of that album is 'Carnet de Routes' not Le Querrec. Le Querrec is that great photographer Guy Le Querrec who was the official fourth member of the group during its travels thru Africa. He was playing with his cameras. Did another great job of his! I can never work out the title. Both CDs carry the words 'carnet de routes'. Where the 1999 disc has Suite Africaine, the 1995 has Le Querrec. Both, as you point out, list the photographer alongside the trio. The thick booklets of photos that come with the CDs are an added bonus. Maybe 'Carnet de routes' was the title of disc 1 and they decided to use it as a name for this particular trio, thus explaining its reappearance on disc 2. Whatever the names the music is absolutely stunning. I came across the group on a BBC broadcast in the mid-90s. It kept me company on a long drive from London and I got the first CD soon afterwards.

Yes, I was enjoying 'Vivre' in the car today. My only reservation with it is the shortness of some of the tracks. The opener is a real stormer - 13 minutes or so of real energy with fabulous playing all round. I could have done with more of that. I really like 'Strings Spirit' - a very different feel to the other albums. I like the way the srings are not made to gush like so often on strings backed recordings. I still think this one is an absolute pearler: Some very beautiful tunes, that unforced slightly African feel to some pieces and the wonderful Bojan Zulfikarpasic throwing in his unique way with piano improvising - very eastern European. This is another beauty - I suspect this will be the trio in the concerts:

I actually think 'Le Querrec' from (1995) is the stronger of the two. Not that there is much in it. I just play it more often! Label Bleu is one of those labels I keep my eye on. Always interesting.

So we have Easy Jet and Ryan Air to blame for flying droves of them over from Saxe Coburg International Airport to fill the streets during the Queen Mum's funeral and the whatever Jubilee a couple of years back?

I'm never too sure where all the supporters of the monarch live. Whenever we get to the purpose of the monarchy in citizenship lessons I find 14 year olds excel themselves with their complete and utter contempt.

And this is the other one:

I havn't. But I noticed today that the Birmingham concert is the first day of the Easter holidays so I've booked to see him then. Would be a pity to miss a rare visit by a player who has become a real favourite of mine on CD. Sebastien Texier is more than just a famous son. I find him a really absorbing player.

Superb player as is his son, Andy. Chase down 'Mosaic Man' by his Azure Quintet or the two CDs he did with Louis Sclavis and Aldo Romano. Muscular, energetic yet also melodic. I believe in this tour he's with his new Sextet and a trio both with his son. Two good recent recordings from those units too. Sadly he's playing Nottingham on a night I've got a parents' consultation evening. Bloody inconsiderate of them (the parents' that is!).

'Litania' is stunning. The line-up: Tomasz Stanko - Litania - The Music of Krzysztof Komeda Tomasz Stanko trumpet Bernt Rosengren tenor saxophone Joakim Milder tenor and soprano saxophones Terje Rypdal electric guitar Bobo Stenson piano Palle Danielsson double-bass Jon Christensen drums I love 'Leosia' and I'd add 'From the Green Hill' as front runners. The two recent discs are beautiful but I think there's a danger this group could eaily become a formula like EST. I'd like to see Stanko in a completely different setting on his next ECM - no piano, some edgy horns perhaps.