A Lark Ascending

I really love "Útviklingssang" off this disc. Beautiful melody, marvellous saxophone. I'd strongly recommend "European Tour (1977)" from around the same time. "Spangled Banner Minor and Other Patriotic Songs" is a wonderful piece of musical irony. My two favourite Bleys are the earlier 'Tropic Appetites' and the sprawling, very 60s but thoroughly marvellous 'Escalator Over the Hill'. All records I've lived with for 30 years and still play regularly. There was a Kurt Weill-ish off-centred feel to the Bley of the 60s and 70s. Personally I've found her music from the 80s to be more conventional. The eccentricities seem more studied, less spontaneous.

I got bit c.1976 and am still spending silly amounts of money on jazz recordings. I've had a couple of periods away from the jazz...a couple of years in the early 80s, a long stetch in the late 80s into the 90s when classical took over. But since c.1991 jazz has been centre stage. I'll still have the odd month when I'll play anything but jazz but jazz I always come back to. August/Sept were Irish folky months for me but I'm back to jazz again now.

I ordered the set over the phone on Saturday from the source above. It was sat on the doormat waiting for me when I got in from work 20 minutes ago. Great service, excellent price (for the UK).

You don't have to look far on jazz boards to find hosts of people who get upset about just that. Wade into any discussion of pop or smooth jazz...

Dual disc is already old hat. The HEXADISC plays as a CD, SACD, DVD, DVD-CD and Minidisc on five of its respective sides. The sixth side has the CD with built in snaps, crackles, pops and jumps to please the vinyl market. The Hexadisc can also be used as a Rubiks Cube. A new player is mandatory, of course. As is rebuying your record collection.

I can see exactly what you're saying. The fact that the likes of Anderson made a huge fortune way beyond what Kirk could hope for, displaying a fraction of the talent, is bound to rankle...and the racial politics dimension only intensifies that. [Despite having a general affection for the prog-rock of that era JT are not my cup-of-teabag either] But I'd imagine Kirk 'borrowed' alot of the devices he used from earlier musicians before he started to develop his own innovations. It's how we all start. Bruckner, Mahler, Elgar, Debussy, Schoenberg...it's hard to listen to any of their early music without hearing Wagner. It's that thing of hearing or seeing something new and striking and saying 'I want to try that.' I'm reminded of a similar example. Back in the 70s and 80s a bunch of Irish musicians turned traditional Irish music on its head and made it relevant and exciting for the rock world. Yet the likes of Planxty and the Bothy Band never really broke out of the world of the folk revival and the marginal folk-rock area. And from the late 70s onwards interest went elsewhere and they ploughed on in their own way. Anyway, towards the end of Planxty's lifetime that used a keyboard player called Bill Whelan to provide colouring and arrangements. Ten years later Whelan puts together an extravaganza called 'Riverdance' and cleans up across the world. The whole musical basis - in a more sugary form - lay in the 70s work of Planxty. Whelan had found a way to bring it to a mass audience. I've read interviews with Andy Irvine (one of Planxty's members) where without being openly hostile, his indignation with Whelan is barely supressed. In terms of innovation it should have been the Planxty lads who got the fortune. But that's not the way it seems to work. Whelan might have had little of musical interest to add to what they'd achieved...but he sure knew how to dress it up for wider consumption.

The indignation is understandable. But it would be interesting to speculate what music would sound like today if every musician had begun their career determined not to appropriate an idea that had been first dreamed up by an earlier musician.

It's probably inevitable that anyone in any field will commence their careers 'borrowing' from elsewhere. I know I took most of my teaching techniques from other teachers in the early years...and continue to steal to this day. Another example of influence/robbery I recently noticed - I was listening to some very early John Taylor and Keith Tippett recordings (late 60s/early 70s). What stood out was how much of McCoy Tyner both had absorbed. Probably inevitable for a young piano player at the time. By the mid-70s there's hardly a trace of Tyner there and he'd be one of the last pianist you'd compare either of them with based on their recordings of the last 30 years.

I see the distinction. Prog-rock groups of that era were keen on 'appropriation'. Lots of 'chunks' of classical music got appropriated. Having said that is Ian Anderson 'appropriating' RRK any different to Martin Carthy 'appropriating' a Bob Copper song? Often he transforms the music he gathers from the tradition; but sometimes he...and other folk revivalists...just get off on singing a bloody good song or playing a bloody good tune with little embellishment. Maybe what matters here is acknowledging the source, which Carthy has always been very strict to do. Did Anderson acknowledge the RRK source?

I came to jazz in the 70s partially through the Keith Tippett/Louis Moholo/John Surman/Mike Osborne/Brotherhood of Breath area of the music. It always sounded quite unique to my ears. I was recently listening to Albert Alyer's Greenwich Village recordings and was astonished by how much of that UK/South African exile music owed to Ayler. Not just in its high octane freedom but in the use of marches and tunes derived from folk/popular culture. Now the musicians mentioned have never hidden that influence. But having never previously really listened to Ayler except in passing I was greatly struck by the parallels. Robbery? I think not. They take Ayler's way of doing things which they clearly love and take it somewhere else. Strikes me as the way music happens.

The box is selling at about £79.99 in the UK (that must be getting on for $150!!!!). UK potential buyers might like to know that 'Badlands' in Cheltenham are selling it for £59.99...considerably cheaper! There's an advert in MOJO (and I imagine the other rock magazines). Tel: 01242 227724 They don't have a website. I just ordered a set. I've not used them before, but have visited their shop. They have a good reputation as Cheltenham's most prominent independent CD shop.

I've never much cared for attempts to define jazz (or any other music) as they tend to obsess on making firm what to me are pretty liquid frontiers. But this definition I love. I don't think I've read a better one!

I imagine Lon is referring to building the curry from things like cumin, corriander, tumeric powders etc rather than the ready made curry powders. You can also buy the seeds and crush them yourself if you want to. It also helps to use some fresh herbs. Buy a good curry book and read the front pages. They usually tell you how to make up various powders and pastes. I have a fabulous recipe for a curry puree. I make a huge batch and then freeze it in small tubs. It can be used as a base for various curries. Highly recommended. If interested I'll post it. (Apologies for referring to a huge range of Indian/Asian meals as 'curries')

Top of the mornin’ to ye, Clementine. Bejezuz, that’s a grand temper ye have on ye. Now, would I be roight in thinkin’ that you learned that ridiculous Brooklyn Hillbilly posing at the Fame Academy? And would they have been learnin’ ye anything else at that place? Moight a drop of the ole Guinness calm ye down? Be sure to leave the head to settle, mind ye. Wannabee-Oirish Bev to Wannabbee-Street-Cool-With-Banjo-Clem [boi the way, ye’d be loikin a grand Proper box called ‘Farewell to Oirland’…lots of deloightful com-all-yees from Oirish-America in the Rare Ole Toimes. In fact Oi moight just boi me a copy fur the weekend, begob.]

Stan Getz - Live at Montmartre. Sometime in the 70s.

After a month of obsessing on Irish folk music I've found my way back to jazz in the last couple of weeks. I've been enjoying a number of recent UK CDs in particular by the likes of Stan Sulzmann, Nikki Iles, Liam Noble and Arnie Somogyi. I'd go as far as saying that I'm as excited by UK jazz at the present as I was back in the late-70s. Musicians seem to be finding ways to get their music out on disc on smaller labels, giving a much broader picture than a few years back. I'm working my way again through the Elvin Jones Mosaic that I bought last year. Fantastic music. I'm especially drawn to Joe Farrell on the tunes where he plays. And in a completely different world a harrowing two part documentary on English composer Malcolm Arnold has had me digging away at his music. Absolutely beautiful stuff and not nearly as well known as it should be.

Next week there's another Caber connected concert. A recording from Edinburgh of Tom Bancroft's recent tour with jazz orchestra and Geri Allen on piano. Bancroft is the drummer with Trio AAB and a regular in all manner of ensembles that play through Scotland and the UK. A very funny chap too!

A strong recommendation for tonight's Jazz on 3 (8/10/04). Two concerts I saw at May's Bath Festival are being broadcast. Celtic Feet - a group of Scottish musicians associated with the Caber label who perform jazz with a folky edge to it. In this case they are joined by a Hungarian duo on violin and cimbalon. A great afternoon. John Law's European Quartet - another excellent band that started one afternoon off...never the best spot on the bill...and performed superbly. I'm very much looking forward to hearing these again.

I'm a curry fan myself and very much enjoy making them from scratch. There are two curry traditions in the UK. I grew up eating my mums currys which come from the British Empire tradition - Brits abroad adapting recipies in India etc, bringing them home and then adapting them once more to what was available in local shops. Then there are the vast range of dishes available from Asian restaurants that really started to take off here in the 60s and have in turn created an enthusiasm for making the things. The 10 pints of lager followed by 'a curry' has become something of an English tradition! It's frequently joked that the 'curry' is now the national dish of England, it's become so popular. Fresh herbs - especially coriander - really make a curry for me. Despite not liking cream or yoghurt their presence in moderation in a curry can make a wonderfully rich experience. I'm also very fond of a cod and tomato dish with fennel seeds at its heart from and old Madhur Jaffrey book. The 'currywurst' recipe came randomly off the net! Curry wurst or bockwurst with curry sauce are a million miles from a great curry; but I really enjoy them as a fast food.

Lookee here... http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...miroslav+vitous

Try this at home: Die Currywurst-Sosse aus dem Revier 2000 g Tomaten 500 g Schalotten geschält 75 g Ingwerwurzeln 6 Knoblauchzehen geschält 3-4 Chilischoten 50 g Currypulver Madras 1 TL rote Currypaste (Tandoori) 200 ml Weißwein Alles grob zerkleinern und in einem Topf aufsetzen und köcheln lassen für ca. 30 Minuten dazugeben 3 Selleriestangen 1 Gewürzsäckchen bestehend aus: 2 EL Korianderkörner 2 Gewürznelken 1 TL Senfkörner 1 TL Muskatblüte zerkrümmelt Die Soße nun durch ein Passiergerät streichen und für ca. 60 Minuten köcheln lassen, das es sich um die Hälfte reduziert (dickliche Soße) Für je Liter Soße Nun ¼ L Apfelessig 75 g brauner Zucker 2 TL Salz 1 EL Paprikapulver und wiederum unter rühren ca. 1 Stunde köcheln lassen, bis zur dicklichen Soße.

You bet. Sometimes it's a curry sauce like ketchup. Other times it's tomato ketchup with curry powder sprinkled on it!

When in Germany I always enjoy a bockwurst with curry sauce and frites from one of these:

The ever growing chains of cornish pasty shops spreading through the UK.

Are you expecting my dishonest opinion?!!!!!! [one of those smiley faces to make clear this not genuine outrage!] 'Yellow Fields' was the first Weber I heard (apart from Solstice) and I never heard 'Chloe' until many years later. Chloe has never struck me as strongly. I actually like 'Silent Feet' and 'Little Movements' better than both. 'Yellow Fields' is very much a group record; a little minimalist in feel in that the group set up loop-like patterns but then develop them into something more organic in their solos. I think the tunes on the album are lovely. With 'Silent Feet' and 'Little Movements' the group break further away from the patterns but retain the melodicism - it just seems more natural to my ears. So in a way its hard to advise. I'm not sure what expectations 'Chloe' well set up in listening to these records and whether they'll be fulfilled. All I can say is I get great pleasure out of all four records and love that sound world. I've always felt this 'Colours' group of Webers developed a side of 'In a Silent Way' that remained largely unexplored. Where most followed the rock/funk possibilities (including Miles himself), Weber seemed to pick up on the shimmering melodicism.