A Lark Ascending

This should do the trick, David: http://www.barbican.org.uk/jazzbritannia/

The Right Honourable Axeman Cometh: Anyone got a picture of GW playing a banjo?

Spinach curry (Pt II: the Re-mix...with extra CORRIANDER!!!).

Many thanks, Eloe. I didn't know about that release. Kenny seems to be working in overdrive at present. You can listen online to a broadcast from his recent 75th Birthday Big Band Orchestra UK tour here (until Friday): http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/jazz/ ******** Great label, CamJazz, by the way!

There are a fair few from AAJ going on that Saturday too (I'm curious about Sunday, even though I've never paid Courtney's music much attention so am doing both days). The Saturday afternoon concert looks especially tasty.

Strong recommendation for the 'Live at the Zoom Club' KCCC release from Oct, 1972. The (audience) recording quality is poor (especially the vocals) but your ears adjust very quickly. David Cross' violin can strain the ears a bit too. I think this release is particularly interesting as it is the 72-74 band in the throes of creating their music - much looser than it later became when you tended to have set pieces interspersed with improvs. The whole of this 2CD has a making-it-up-as-you-go-along feel. Interesting to hear Easy Money sound almost cheery! Fripp plays some very choppy, funky guitar across the disc. I must have seen them a few weeks later and don't recall them being quite so free-wheeling. Perhaps they'd settled some of the arrangements by then. A marvellous band.

4th Feb: Brotherhood of Breath Reunion Concert from last Autumn.

This one seems to be connected: ElektriK Live in Japan 2003 Track Listing: 1 Introductory Soundscape 2 The Power To Believe I: (A Cappella) 3 Level Five 4 ProzaKc Blues 5 EleKtriK 6 Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With 7 One Time 8 Facts Of Life 9 The Power To Believe II (Power Circle) 10 Dangerous Curves 11 Larks' Tongues In Aspic: Part IV 12 The World's My Oyster Soup Kitchen Floor Wax Museum Recorded at Tokyo, Kouseinenkin Kaikan, April 16, 2003 The first DVD of this set seems to be the same concert: KING CRIMSON - EYES WIDE OPEN (DVD) DVD1: Live in Japan - Tokyo, Kouseinenkin Kaikan, April 16, 2003 Introductory Soundscape - The Power To Believe I: (A Cappella) - Level Five - ProzaKc Blues - The ConstruKction Of Light - Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With - Elektrik - One Time - Facts Of Life - The Power To Believe II (Power Circle) - Dangerous Curves - Larks' Tongues In Aspic: Part IV - The Deception Of The Thrush - The World's My Oyster Soup Kitchen Floor Wax Museum + Tokyo Sound & Camera Check DVD2: Live at the Shepherds Bush Empire - London, July 3, 2000 Into The Frying Pan - The ConstruKction Of Light - VROOOM - One Time London Improv 1: Blasticus SS Blastica - Dinosaur - The World's My Oyster Soup Kitchen Floor Wax Museum - London Improv 2: C Blasticum Cage - ProzaKc Blues - Larks' Tongues In Aspic: Part IV - Three Of A Perfect Pair - The Deception Of The Thrush - Sex, Sleep, Eat, Drink, Dream - Heroes

Ogun

I realised I got the dates wrong, Greg. It was late '72 (Muir band) and then spring and autumn '73. So this Heidelberg date must be from around the same time as much of The Great Deceiver box. The Warsaw discs seem to come from the same tour from which 'Heavy Construction' was culled.

When in 1974? I saw them in late '73 with Muir; early '74 and again in Late '74. All three shows were excellent but by the third they were starting to edit their material (LTIA Pt1 especially). It would be nice to hear something from earlier in the year when Bruford was adapting to handling the percussion on his own.

Ronnie Scott on the still-unreleased-on-CD gem 'Serious Gold'. Lovely mid-tempo version.

A pity he's not recorded his mid-size band (can't recall if it was an Octet or Tentet). That was a great band live when it played the UK three or four years back. Yes, I've not found myself playing the first Big Band disc very much.

I'm not familiar with her non-ECM work which I gather is much more abstract. On all of these records you get a lyrical melodicism without it ever being gushy. Inhabits the same world as Bley (as I said) and Bobo Stenson. I'm especially drawn by the way that in the trios the three musicians work together yet seem to be following quite independent lines. There's no sense of a leader with support; and the rhythmic side is extremely delicate which is how I like it. I can do without pronounced swing.

Ronald Schatt = Ronnie Scott

Looks good. I saw the Jazz UK advert for this. Sadly one I'll have to miss. Hopefully it will become a regular. The Texier band/s are playing in Nottingham around that time; unfortunately they have been inconsiderate enough to do so on the night of a parents' consultation evening. Looks like a mad rush from that into Nottingham for the gig.

Another superb Jazz on 3 on Friday 21st January. I'd seen the CD widely promoted on the back of the Norah Jones connection and assumed it to be some sort of cash-in. Anyway, the concert is Jones-less and a very powerful performance indeed. The tunes are all based on country classics like 'Shady Grove' and 'Witchita Linesman' but all zoom pretty quickly into an area that reminds me of Tony Williams' Lifetime. I've known Binney for a while; his playing here makes me want to hear some more of him. The other players are also outstanding. First heard bits of it on Friday night - as always I can't keep awake at its broadcast time (11.30-1.00) so end up dozing and then coming to in the middle of some astounding music before drifting off again. Played it online this morning and enjoyed it hugely. The organ fans here might want to give it a listen.

This is indeed a magical album. Anyone who loves Paul Bley will find a kindred spirit there. I've only heard one of her Braxton recordings which was tough going for me. But these two are equally beautiful. A related recent release is also highly recommended. Crispell makes a major contribution to this quite unique recording by bassist Anders Jormin which also includes the superb Swedish singer, Lene Willemark. A brilliant combination of jazz, Scandanavian folk and contemporary classical music:

I'm not too sure what is showing. The Saturday afternoon concert has only been announced recently; as well as that there is a free stage in the foyer with other music. I suspect things are still being put together. I'm curious about Sunday afternoon - I'm hoping for something similar to Saturday afternoon but showcasing the younger generation. We might see Harry Beckett yet...possibly with Working Week as he played on 'Venceremos'. Harry is touring in the spring. I notice he is playing in Nottingham with Chris Biscoe. I'll try and make that - the last time I saw him (with the 'Soupsongs' band doing Robert Wyatt tunes) he seemed less agile than in the past. I suspect Wyatt will be there - every time I go to a jazz event in London I seem to see him in the audience.

I agree that the first album is head and shoulders above what followed (even if great chunks are lifted from Bartok and Janacek...am I right in thinking that the acknowledgements to the latter on the CD reissue were not there on the initial release? I certainly don't recall being aware of the origins until buying classical CDs in the 1980s and thinking 'Now where have I heard that before?'). I lost track with them after 'Trilogy'. I recall trading in all four albums just before going to university - I think I got a Family and Matching Mole LP in exchange! Never heard Brain Salad or the rest. Yes, Palmer was a plodder! [i really like the steam powered synth on ELP and Pictures. Such a pity it turned into the ultimate bland-out instrument!]

I also bought 'Pictures at an Exhibition' alongside the Elegy recording. Another record I originally bought c.1971 and havn't heard since 1973. I must have heard the Mussorgsky/Ravel a hundred times since then, yet found the ELP a great pleasure regardless. The Mussorgsky bits are pretty straight but there are some very nice diversions, especially Greg Lake's almost Spanish song. A group unfairly maligned, I feel (and I include myself in the culprits!).

The two days of concerts put together to support the BBC series on UK jazz history is shaping up into something quite extraordinary. How about this: Saturday afternoon Stan Tracey and Louis Moholo; John Surman with Chris Laurence and John Marshall; Evan Parker; Andy Sheppard and Kuljit Bhamra; Django Bates; Orphy Robinson; Lol Coxhill; Mike Westbrook. Saturday Evening Gilles Peterson hosts Impressed/remixed, an evening of specially assembled big band and small group performances. The line up features: Matthew Herbert Michael Garrick Soweto Kinch Stan Tracey Bobby Wellins Mike Westbrook Norma Winstone. And straight afterwards... Working Week - Simon Booth, Larry Stabbings and Juliet Roberts reform their hit-making group of the 1980s (remember 'Venceremos'?) Sunday Evening Courtney Pine hosts a journey through the myriad communities and influences that have shaped British jazz as we know it today delving into the cultures of the Caribbean, Africa and India as well as the folk traditions of Britain to name but a few. Artists include Jazz Jamaica Louis Moholo Soweto Kinch and Byron Wallen re-visiting the music of Joe Harriott; Andy Sheppard And the organisers were nice enough to arrange it the weekend of my half-term holiday!

As is generally the case, my affection for the place is probably more connected with the people I knew and the fact I was there in those crucial years when you first get your independence. I tend to associate the place with those rolling Wiltshire hills rather than the concrete town itself. I've passed through a few times in recent years; probably as ugly as Basingstoke and yet...

RAF Wroughton for a few months; then in Wroughton village itself for about a year. I must be the only person in the world who looks at Swindon with nostalgic longing!!!

I have vague childhood memories of stopping there for a picnic lunch on the way down to Cornwall (where my father comes from). When I was 17-18 I lived just south of Swindon so it again kept whizzing by on journeys. Later I got to spend longer there under my own steam. I spent a few hours there last May after the Bath Festival. Went for a walk up onto one of the ridges and then round to West Kennet Longbarrow and Silbury Hill. Very evocative. Probably a bit too touristy now to actually live in but you don't have to go far to be in the middle of nowhere!