A Lark Ascending

I have it on good authority that Her Majesty and Brian May had a blazing row degenerating into serious mud-slinging over whether hollow guitars were better than the solid-bodied variety. Apparently Richard Thompson was there somewhere too - http://www.richardthompson-music.com/catch..._day.asp?id=346. This is just the archaic way we promote industry in the UK!

I have frequently waxed lyrical (and nostalgic) about Ogun. In the mid-70s it was my first crossing point into jazz from the aforementioned King Crimson and the Soft Machine. There's not a great deal of the original catalogue on CD but Hazel Miller (Harry Miller's widow) has done her best to get some things back and to get new discs out. The Harry Miller box set issued a few years back is excellent, especially 'Family Affair' by Isipingo with Miller, Tippett, Osborne Griffiths and Moholo. Ogun reissued a great two-on-one last year - Osborne's 'Border Crossing' with 'Marcel's Muse'. I love both 'Frames' and 'Spirit's Rejoice' and would throw in the two Dean 'Ninesense' records, 'SOS' and the Dean Quartet's 'They All Be on this Old Road' as highpoints. The one I'd love to hear - I recall it from the radio at the time - is the Tippett/Charig 'Pipedream'. ********** Two more recent Ogun's worth tracking down (both available on CD) are the two Dedication Orchestra recordings, celebrating the Blue Notes with a large orchestra. Louis Moholo played a couple of great sets at the recent Jazz Britannia shindig. I'm expecting any day at all the new Stan Tracey/Louis Moholo CD 'Khumbula' to drop through the door (contact hazel@cadillacjazz.co.uk for details). Hazel Miller was at a Louis Moholo interview at that event; she told us that Ogun were currently putting together a boxed set of Blue Notes recordings. I'd imagine it will include some of the material in Blake's post. ********** This blogspot I stumbled on last year is quite informative on the Ogun label recordings: http://nostudium.blogspot.com/2004_04_01_n...um_archive.html

Now which dance craze was this? 'The Hucklebuck'?

I must admit I'm a bit vague about it. Memory tends to telescope events. I'm convinced I saw the assassination of Robert Kennedy on TV in Ireland in early 1968. He actually died later that summer. I think my brain confused MLK's assassination with the later one. Fox was a great broadcaster. I started listening to him in 1977. My particular memory is coming in from work when I first started in 1978 and hearing him in that Tuesday afternoon slot. Whereas Peter Clayton played everything from Trad to Kenny Wheeler, Fox pushed on to the more 'out' recordings. I recall being puzzled by Anthony Braxton and India Navigation LPs on his programme. It's one thing I think (well one of many things) the BBC is lacking at present - a regular programme covering jazz releases. The Saturday afternoon Claire Martin slot does this a bit but is pitched at a more centreground audience. There needs to be a more ambitious programme fronted by someone as knowledgeable as Fox. Classical fans get all Saturday from 9.00 to 1.00 for record releases. Can we have an hour?

He can certainly play Mah Jong.

Agree with you 100% about Citadel. I remember the first time I played it and that BBC signature tune leapt out (I've a feeling it was Peter Clayton's Sunday late night programme that used it...Fox's 'Jazz Today' used Stan Sulzmann's 'On Loan With Gratitude'*). I'd always loved it He was still playing with jazz-rock a bit then but the whole recoring comes off superbly. It's worth trying to find a copy of 'Love/Dream and Variations' which is similar to Citadel but loses all the the jazz-rock. The bit of 'Duke' he played at the Barbican was the theme that runs right through the 80 minutes, getting a full treatment in the last 12 minutes or so as 'Music Is..." * One of these used the Loose Tubes tune 'Yellow Hill' as an opener for a time. Another one I couldn't trace, stumbling on it when I bought the album.

Cricket?

Far from an 'authority'. But definately an enthusiast with a lot of his records. As chance would have it I've just been making a CD-R of my vinyl copy of 'On Duke's Birthday' this morning. Well, worth getting if not (to my mind) in the top league of his output.

My memory of Exeter is very hazy - I've only been back a couple of times since the 70s. I recall the shopping centre (there's probably 5 shopping centres now) with...I think...a church or old medieval building stuck in the middle. I recall where the Cathedral was. ***** I just checked a map and can see where you mean. I think I might be thinking about the Guildhall. Noticed Paris Street - there was a great record shop there where I bought some of my first jazz records. Might have been called something like 'The Left Bank'. I'm long overdue for a reconnection with Devon and Cornwall!

I love bluegrass - in an odd way it connects my love of jazz and UK folk music. I recall hearing a programme a few years back where it was claimed that 'scientific tests showed' that it was the genre of music that generated most brain activity. Probably means nothing more than 'they play fast'. But I thought it was interesting given the way the music is often parodied in the UK - the non-too-bright, slow of speech, inbred Appalachian playing a banjo on the porch.

Your order, sir:

I've always found political songsters who just do political a bit wearing after a time. It can get so earnest, rather 'right-on'. What works for me is the singer who explores a range of human experience - the political can really pack a punch then. Martin Carthy is exemplary this way - most of what he does is traditional but the choices he makes often have political undertones. And then he can unleash a contemporary song that just floors you. Dick Gaughan is much more 'in your face' with his politics but can then do breathtakingly beautiful love songs or traditional tunes. Robert Wyatt also comes to mind. One thing I like about his political music is that it rarely sounds agitprop - in fact it comes across as extremely melancholoy, a sort of sadness at the failures of the socialist dream to to translate into political reality. I get the impression that Bragg felt his early career was getting a bit one-dimensional; as I understand it he broadened to much wider human themes.

Well, he defined it to the 80s generation. He was following in the footsteps of hundreds of others - McColl, Gaughan, Rosselson etc - people whose music he covered and acknowledged. I've never been too taken by him though I've heard one or two of his songs sung by others and they have sounded great (Levi Stubbs Tears as done by Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin for example). I feel the same about Springsteen - can't relate to the bombast but when Emmylou Harris has sung some of his songs they are very affecting. I like seeing Bragg on things like 'Question Time'. He's articulate and unstuffy. And a great champion of folk music all round.

I spent a year in Exeter doing my teacher training. I remember the Northcote (sp?) Theatre on campus and seeing Henry Cow at the Town Hall (I think!). I don't recall the Phoenix - probably opened since 1977.

And George Bush accused the Iraqis of possessing weapons of mass destruction!

..... Just 4 more weeks to go before the spring equinox, when it will be time to once again pop in Stravinsky's "Rite Of Spring" and if it's warm enough, open some damn windows! Try this one as an alternative. 'Enter Spring' works at that point when you think it's spring and then winter suddenly bites back for a few days...and then back comes spring... There's an inexpensive Naxos version: Which also sets you up for the following season!

Yes, I'm looking forward to that one. I'm hoping he tours it in the UK - both times I've seen his orchestra have been exceptional performances, leaving key moments etched on my memory. ******** I hope the late 70s/early 80s recordings get out eventually. Mike's Deram stuff has become quite well known again thanks to recent reissues. But I have a particular liking for thing's like 'Love/Dream and Variations', 'Mama Chicago', 'Goose Sauce' and 'On Duke's Birthday'. 'For the Record' has never reappeared either. The solo record, 'The Cortege' and 'Bright as Fire' are all that stands of this period.

Last time I looked (which was a long time ago!).

I assume that was 'a good dancer'?

Mike has a larger piece ready to roll as well as 'Art Wolf' called 'Turner in Uri' - "two vocal soloists, jazz & rock musicians, a 25 piece choir and the 30 strong Brass Band URI." Due in March 2006. 'Art Wolf' will be performed in some UK dates too including: April 21st 2005 St Georges, Bristol May 20th 2005 Kettles Yard, Cambridge June 17th 2005 Phoenix, Exeter Looks like your neck of the woods, Sidewinder. ********* You might like to know that 'Love Songs' which was planned for reissue as part of the Impressed Repressed series will now not be reissued; Mike does not want it reissued for some reason. However, it is avalable as a recent Japanese reissue - I doubt if it will be here long. I've got one paddling across the Atlantic at the moment from Dusty Groove.

Who is Beverly Stapleton? I'm a Bevel (weird Cornish name). ******* I agree; the place is generally very friendly. But there are times... I promise to bite my tongue for at least one month!

Elton Dean - I've enjoyed his playing since the Soft Machine days. He can move from providing interest in a jazz-rock context through relatively structured jazz compositions all the way to the totally free. And all points in between. I'm currently enjoying a disc by the Anglo-Italian Quartet with Harry Beckett, Enrico Fazio and Fiorenzo Sordini that works on the cusp between the latter two areas, more in than out.

Vera-Ellen was her name I believe. No doubt doomed to be known throughout the annals of film history as "the other one". Thank you. I would never have recalled that name. In fact I think I've already forgotten it...

I never could understand the excitement of Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and the other one (?) when they were sat on that train in 'White Christmas' and burst into: "snow....Snow....SNOWWWWW"!

Brad, And I have no problem with that. There are many threads I have no interest in here. Which does not mean they are not interesting threads to others. Which is fine too. I find AAJ covers the areas of jazz I enjoy most more comprehensively, so post mainly there. I don't feel the need to tell the people at AAJ about the sites I don't find interesting, however. I think that gets to the heart of my insider comment. I suspect you can't see it going on because you're so close. Believe me, as an outisider, it is striking how often the 'arn't we marvellous' comments crop up. I could point you to a classic example from the last few days...but won't so as not to take this further. Of course not. I'm just struck by the times when someone announces that X is about to appear and there is a flurry of 'welcomes'; contrasted by the unpleasant way that some newbies get mocked. Organissimo is enriched by having musicians, writers etc who have a deep experience of the music; just as AAJ is enriched by its guest musicians. I just think some members here could do with being a little kinder to those newbies who might take a bit of time to gain their balance. I'm not talking about those who roll in making outrageous or inflammatory statement who deserve all the get (an I can be just as caustic at AAJ to such people!). Again I completely agree. The insularity is not a reference to musical taste; just the above mentioned clubiness. Sorry about that one, Brad. I was amused by a comment that was made about my 'Anglo' hang-ups on the weekend thread. I was playing with that! Make no mistake, I find this to be a fine board and I have no beef whatsoever with those who run it. It would be the easiest thing in the world to sit back and make no comment at the points I find distasteful. But a big thing is made here about plain speaking - being prepared to speak your mind and take the flak that comes with it. So I'm expressing what I see in the full knowledge that it is a minority view.