A Lark Ascending

I'm not sure I'd describe Yes as 'funky' but I think I know what you mean. I've been listening to and enjoying early Genesis lately. One think that you do notice is how little improvisation there is in Genesis; Tony Banks keyboard parts are almost baroque. With Yes there's a much greater freedom in the instrumentals. I think Bill Bruford's comments about the Anglican church tradition apply very much to Genesis; with Yes I'm not so sure. Steve Howe could pull off some very jazzy guitar - the last two tracks on "The Yes Album" are worth listening to just for the guitar. On the Genesis front I've become much more aware of the contribution of Steve Hackett. He played a huge part in the colour of that music in the early to mid-70s. I think one of things that disappoints me about the later Genesis is not so much the loss of Gabriel as the loss of the textural breadth you had with the acoustic/electric contrast. The electronic keyboards just seem so much narrower. I'm very much with Aric on Topographic. Can never understand the pasting it got. The melodies are gorgeous.

Yes, Sheenans was the other place. Clearly an old website.

It was the Wellington indeed. Yes, I can appreciate his schedule. Just a pity my timing was out. Does he play there regularly? I noticed an advert somewhere that he did a regular Monday night gig just off Grafton Street. I arrived Tuesday!

I very nearly got to see Louis last weekend on a visit to Dublin. I noticed on a listings site he was playing in a pub on the outskirts of the centre so a toddled down there in pouring rain! Arrived to find a pub with no sign of music, no advertising - this is quite normal in Ireland! Asking at the bar I ws told that Louis was playing upstairs...later. So a couple of pints of Guinness later I toddled upstairs...to find a pleasant flute/organ/drums trio!!! About two numbers in they apologised Louis couldn't make it...but he be there next week! No good to me! Enjoyed the trio though. ********* There's an item in this month's Jazz Review announcing that Louis will be touring in a group with Gilad Atzmon next year. A very odd combination - Atzmon is a superb Israeli sax player based in the UK. He's well known for his outspoken anti-Zionist political views; his last two records have been strongly polemical with use of Arab musicians and music. I associate Louis Stewart with the standards repetoire! But then Atzmon has done some excellent sideways takes on standards so it could make for very interesting listening.

I didn't know the Brotherhood themselves when they were active in the early 70s; but I cut my jazz teeth on many of the musicians associated with them, first by hearing them on a Robert Wyatt recording and then by investigating many of the releases on the Ogun label. I've caught up with the BofB in the last few years. You can get the 1971 'Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath' on CD - its a rather more restrained affair than the live stuff. As well as the Bremen and Travelling discs mentioned above there's another marvellous live session from 1973 on Ogun called 'Live at Willisau'...one of the few Oguns still in their much reduced catalogue. I'd also recommend these two: Both are by a large orchestra Louis Moholo occasionally puts together to celebrate the music of the Blue Notes and Brotherhood musicians. Joyous stuff. Info on Chris McGregor here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/music/muze/i...artist_id=19730 Bremen to Bridgewater here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/jazz/reviews/mc...or_bremen.shtml The Cuneiform releases here: http://cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/brotherhood.html And a rather good survey of the Ogun catalogue here: http://nostudium.blogspot.com/2004_04_01_n...um_archive.html

No mention of Bobby Wellins? Yes, Bobby Wellins, Mike Osborne, John Surman, Ronnie Scott, Evan Parker, Chris Biscoe too...to say nothing of marvelous younger players like Jason Yarde, Julian Arguelles, Iain Ballamy etc. And I've missed a few dozen more! Oh, and Trevor Watts, of course!!!! No intent at a beauty contest between them. Merely that when UK jazz gets mentioned in the States in particular Tubby Hayes tends to get the limelight. There's a lot more out there. As I'm sure you're very aware.

Dare I mention Tubby Hayes? Nothing against him as a player and I have several discs by him that I enjoy. It's just that he's lionised so much that many other UK sax players tend to get overlooked by comparison. Because he played mainly in a swing/hard bop style maybe he's just easier to relate to in the States. The only Uk sax player who gets anything like the attention is Joe Harriott. I'd like to see the likes of Don Rendell, Tony Coe, Elton Dean, Stan Sulzmann getting a bit more attention rather than the fixating on Hayes.

I'm not totally sure why we were there. The RAF had quarters all over London, often quite a way from the actual military bases. My dad (who was an RAF policeman) told me a few years ago that we moved there very suddenly from Lincolnshire after his cover was blown. He'd been mascarading as a CND-inclined student in Nottingham, keeping an eye on airmen in the pubs who might fall victim to the KGB!!! I kid you not! This was c.1964, the height of the Cold War. Unfortunately at 9 or 10 I was in no position to sample the pubs on the high street. I do recall enjoying the broken biscuits in Woolworths!

Whoah ! - what place was that? Dildeboys Hall ? A 'nice' little Roman Catholic primary in West Drayton, London (one of those places mindless (and memory-less) critics of current education like to eulogise). I was taught in a small group of about 20, directly by the Head. He took the kids who were thought likely to pass the 11 Plus and used terror to try and get us through (God only knows what happened to the other 95% who had clearly been written off even before they'd taken that wretched exam). He suffered terrible moodswings - he could be Mister Joviality one minute, Joe Stalin the next. I have a feeling he was not a very well man. He was Irish...clearly a product of the Christian Brothers! Fortunately my father was posted off to Singapore after a few months there so I moved to a much more benign RAF primary where there was little pressure. Managed to pass my 11 Plus about 8 months later without having the essentials beaten into me. Good old days? Pah!

I got the cane* at 10 for getting less than 15/20 in a spelling test. I still can't spell! * 'the cane' - a piece of bamboo traditionally used in UK schools for corporal punishment until the early 80s.

I voted for Schneider. But in second place I'd put the Colin Towns Mask Orchestra...an absolute gem that is virtually unknown outside Europe.

I'd give 'Journey's End' a big thumbs up. Not really fusion at all - with both John Surman and John Taylor on board it is very similar to their recordings. Worth buying for 'Tess', to my mind Surman's most beautiful composition. If you've an aversion to ECM (as some people have) I'd say ignore it. If you like things like the Ralph Towner Solstice group or the Jarrett European quartet of the late 70s then you'll love this.

Unlikely. I saw them in a small pub in Nottingham. Thanks, Claude. I don't pay much attention to DVDs so clearly missed this completely. It would seem to be the same tour but at a different venue. Sadly, no 'Laurie'.

But all the others are crap!

Who'd want to live in a world that had nothing you could complain about? The thought of a world with nothing to grumble about gets me so angry. I have to say...

Fair enough. Though it does beg the question as to why one should feel the need to complain about a board one does not contribute to. Human nature, I suppose. We all like to grumble about something.

None of my friends like jazz. But then I don't like rock climbing, belly-dancing, football and all the things they individually love. We're friends because we enjoy one anothers company, not because we necessarily share interests. It'd be nice to have a friend who did like jazz, but...we'd probably lose all the others in jabbering about music all the time!

That's exactly how I see it. Perhaps the best thing to do if one has issues with a board is to take them directly to the board in question rather than carping about it elsewhere.

Anyone know anyone about this, listed on Jazzmatazz (http://jazzmatazz.home.att.net/) I'm especially intrigued by the Evans section. There was a Beck discs called 'Seven Steps to Evans' that has long been OOP. I saw Wheeler and Beck do an Evans tribute concert in the early 1991 and long wanted to hear this music. They did a glorious version of Evans' late composition 'Laurie'.

No problem with the 'insider' nature of the board. Anyone who chooses to post here has to relate to that or go away. I could just do without the swipes at other boards by some members. But maybe I've just got to learn to bite my tongue on that one.

I'd suggest this was a good thing! AAJ has never had the communal thing that this place has. It has always seemed to me like a high-profile bar on the front street that has a passing trade that often never returns. Organissimo is more like a 'local' with a lot of people who know one another and with a 'code' all its own.

I'm being overharsh, Leeway. Every couple of months there seems to be one of these comparing todgers (I think that's peckers in your part of the world) threads over here (they don't seem to do it at AAJ). I never see the point. AAJ can't match the depth of the posts of some of the posters on this site; but it compensates by having a greater interest in the jazz world beyond America. As for 'idiots', well I suppose one person's idiot is another person's sage. There are people on both boards whose sanity I doubt! I'd imagine people on both doubt mine! Strengths and weaknesses on both sites. One site has more action than the other? OK. But I'd say that's as interesting as one saxophonist playing more notes per minute than another. Unless, one's a financial analyst tracking the economic viability of both places. AAJ has provided a place to post for Organissimo members when this site has been down, a service people who rarely post there otherwise have made use of; Organissimo has done the same for AAJ. The way I see it AAJ and Organissimo are two strong sites that complement each other. But then I'm a woolly European liberal, resistant to hardnosed competition.

I'll recommend a bit of self-congratulatory back slapping and 'Arn't we better than them guys' group hugs. That should get the testosterone level back up.

The original Liberation Music Orchestra disc and the later Ballad of the Fallen heavily feature Carla Bley. They both have the slightly edgy, askew feel that I miss in later Bley. Both highly recommended.