A Lark Ascending

A related question. I've had this Pioneer PDR 609 for a couple of years and have been very happy with it: Now I'm fully aware you can't use data CDRs on it. But the other day I bought some Sony CDRs which were labelled in the shop as for Audio. When I load them I just get a 'Monitor' signal. They work fine burning from the PC, but seem not to work in the stand alone. Is there any way to get round this? CDR-Audio discs are getting harder to find in the high street shops. I suspect they will be on sale mainly in HiFi shops and online from now on.

He stormed off from there too last summer. Outraged at some of the jazz magazines that 'silly' members like myself were defending. He gave the impression he was writing a scholarly tome.

I'm on exactly the same plane as everyone else. A Ryanair one, I suspect.

Looks like Diana Krall making a bid for the multi-instrumentalist thread.

Hermeto Pascoal: flutes, saxes, tuba, guitar, bass, mandolin, piano, organ, accordion, percussion from trap set to hand drums and seemingly random objects like tea kettles, hubcaps, and the sounds of live animals. http://www.sfjazz.com/concerts/fall04/fall...s/hpascoal.html

Banjo face in interwar Lancashire. Aye, it's grim up't North.

One night Miles put the vodoo on him and directed a nasty little power surge through his Rhodes. He never touched an electric keyboard again. The memory haunted him. Each time his fingers came close to the keys of a piano he uttered a little whimper...

And did Jan pinch some...

What did Sri Chimnoy put in his carrot juice...

Don't you mean in the front rows...

Here's Alvin being emasculated...

I always liked Robert Fripp. In the midst of playing something totally wild he: a) Sat down b) Looked like he was trying to puzzle out something in Plato Though he appears to have been mildly moved here:

Surely he can't beat Alvin Lee on the Woodstock film. Once described as looking like someone having his genitals extracted with a chainsaw.

Phil Robson Phil Lee John Parricelli Mike Walker Colin Oxley

I wonder if there'll be internet forums where people complain about the dumbing down of music and worry over why young people don't listen to hip-hop any more.

http://www.swedejazz.se/links.html#3 Fascination with jazz of one anothers' neighbours is arguably the story of contemporary jazz in Europe. Here was the line-up of one weekend jazz festival in the UK during 2004: Stacey Kent and her Musicians (US + UK) Esbjörn Svensson Trio (Sweden) Stimmhorn (Switzerland) John Law’s European Quartet ‘In Extremis’John Rae's (England/France) Celtic Feet / Hungarian Collaboration (Scotland/Hungary) Ballamy/Carstensen Duo (England/Norway) Louis Sclavis -’Napoli’s Walls’ (France) Gianluigi Trovesi / Gianni Coscia Duo (Italy) Brian Kellock (Scotland) Système D (Netherlands/Senegal) Soweto Kinch Group (England) Amsterdam String Trio (Netherlands) Mirabassi/Biondini Duo (Italy) Renaud Garcia Fons Quintet (France/Spain) Courtney Pine Band (England) The Uk audience was very much into this music.

That's just the Scots! The diet of colonials who have learned their place...unlike some I might mention!

That's rich coming from the land of the quarterpounder, the big Mac and the Supersize Me! [Also just kidding!]

That proposal helps explain why so many impenetrable books get published. The poor chap is having to write in academic-speak to get the attention of the academic publishers. The quote by couw shows the sort of humour that, if used, would make the book an interesting read. There are many good books on European jazz just waiting to be written...I doubt if one book could encompass its breadth and different tributaries, without oversimplifying. But a straight narrative of how jazz developed in Europe from its beginnings to the present, unsullied by grandiose theories, would be most welcome. I suspect Stuart Nicholson will probably be very quick off the mark with one; unfortunate in that he has a bee in his bonnet. We're bound to get the facts-arranged-to-fit-a-theory type book referred to above. As a sideline the BBC will be showing a three part documentary on the history of British jazz at the start of February. There will be a bit of a hulabaloo surrounding it including special concerts at the Barbican. Details here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressrele...tish.shtml#jazz Only a sliver of the European picture, but interesting nonetheless. I wonder if there'll be an accompanying book?

I can see that by reading this book I'm finally going to understand Garbarek!!!!

Speaking as a card-carrying non-intellectual I can vouch for a suspicion of intellectualism well beyond the USA (in the UK intellectualism is perceived is rather too French to be of any value [one of those smiley's denoting an ironic comment rather than a comment expected to be taken at face value!]). So much intellectualism is so joyless. Those who perceive themselves as intellectuals seem to delight in what they dislike, the limits of their taste, their distance from the public at large. Most people (and I think I can generalise in this instance) enjoy music on an emotional level. Many also enjoy it on an intellectual level; or use their intellect to unpick music that interests them but does not immediately connect emotionally. It comes as a real irritation to see music that has connected with you in a genuine, honest, emotional way belittled by a self-proclaimed 'intellectual'. Critics/writers/commentators or whatever you want to call them who can communicate the joy of listening to music get all my gratitude. They enthuse me. Those who can illuminate it through work, research, study put at the service of the music, the musicians, the listeners are to be as valued as any other contributers to society. Those 'intellectuals' who sit on the sidelines picking fault, preening themselves with regard to their discrimination, stewing in their own perceived superiority deserve nothing but ridicule. I suspect the age of the self-contained 'intellectual' was left behind in the last century. [Apologies for my inability to name drop leading 'intellectuals']

I like to read how others react to music. It is interesting in itself; but it can also suggest other things to focus on which can, sometimes, lead you into music you don't get. I find some writers worth reading because they have a musical (or musical -historical) knowledge that can explain things that I don't understand. What I don't care for are the writers who assume they have the complete picture of what music should be and then pronounce, without humility, without recognition that they are only seeing part of the picture; or those who take an intellectual dislike to a particular style of music and use reviews to grumble about that dislike. Above all I have no time at all for the writer who, rather than trying to explain what the musicians are doing, attempts to project his/her obsessions onto the music. Alarm bells start sounding the moment grandiloquent social or 'spiritual' theories start being expounded. Do we need critics? Probably not. But I think we need people to write about their reactions to music, just as long its the music they're writing about and ever mindful that, however much music they might have listened to, they are only seeing things from one particular viewpoint.

Come and play in Worksop once a week. I'll turn out!

Baile = Bal-yeh Atha= Awe-hah Cliath= Clee-ah The New Year greating is pronounced: "Athbhliain faoi Mhaise Daoibh" (AH vlee-ihn fwee WAH-shuh Heev) (I don't know a word of Gaelic myself...but it's a beautiful language to hear sung).

Yup! Amazing what you can find on a search engine.