A Lark Ascending

Don't tempt me, Michael. I've still got another hour of annual strategic plan writing to complete before I can reward myself with listening to this disc! So why am I typing here. Get the job done...

I'm not a big fan of the traditional big band - with some honourable exceptions like Ellington, the earlier Basie band and a few more. Perhaps Schneider appeals to the more classical side of me. I've always been more drawn by harmony and melody than rhythm. Which is clearly my problem (well problem is the wrong word, but you know what I mean.) Maybe at 80 our listening will meet, JS? I don't know very much Brookmeyer, Michael, but can hear the comparisons in a marvellous 1999 CD of his I have called 'New Works'. I also think your observation about her enthusiasm for 'dance' in its wider sense is very true. Another way in which her music draws on areas outside of that used by the usual jazz arranger.

I love both of these. With Stanko I prefer his late 90s albums but still think this is a beautiful band. Track 3 is mesmerising. The Abercrombie is beautifully poised music. But I'm approaching these as someone who grew into jazz via ECM; and someone with a parallel love for 20thC classical music and various European folk musics. I suspect that listeners coming from a purer jazz background might not latch onto them quite so quickly.

Mine was on the doormat as I arrived home tonight. Looking forward to exploring it. I can imagine Maria Schneider's music might sound a bit 'cool' to some ears. But she fits right in with some of the European orchestras - Westbrook, Gibbs, Towns, Wheeler (I know, he's Canadian). Not a lot of visible sweat or grease. I tend to hear these bands as inheritors of the Gil Evans tradition up to the mid-60s. Gil went somewhere else afterwards which I enjoy but don't find so convincing. I also love the harmonies of Schneider's music - seems to draw on Debussy/Ravel etc as much as the usual jazz suspects.

Thanks for that article, Michael.

Sorry, I copied the track details direct from the website. Nice to see another accordion!!!! They're taking over the jazz world!

Just received an e-mail announcing the new Maria Schneider is on its way, entitled "Concert in the Garden": 1 Concert in the Garden - Monder (guit) Kimbrough (pno) Versace (acc) 2 Choro Dançado -- Rich Perry (tenor) Frank Kimbrough (piano) 3 Pas de Deux -- Ingrid Jensen (fluegelhorn) Charles Pillow (soprano) 4 Dança Ilusória -- Frank Kimbrough (piano) Larry Farrell (trombone) 5 Bulería, Soleá y Rumba -- Donny McCaslin (tenor) Greg Gisbert(fluegelhorn) personnel TIM RIES alto/soprano/clarinet/flute/alto flute/bass flute CHARLES PILLOW alto/soprano/clarinet/flute/alto flute/oboe/English horn RICH PERRY tenor/flute DONNY McCASLIN tenor/soprano/clarinet/flute SCOTT ROBINSON baritone/flute/clarinet/bass clarinet/contrabass clarinet TONY KADLECK trumpet/fluegelhorn GREG GISBERT trumpet/fluegelhorn LAURIE FRINK trumpet/fluegelhorn INGRID JENSEN trumpet/fluegelhorn KEITH O’QUINN trombone ROCK CICCARONE trombone LARRY FARRELL trombone GEORGE FLYNN bass trombone/contrabass trombone BEN MONDER guitar FRANK KIMBROUGH piano JAY ANDERSON bass CLARENCE PENN drums JEFF BALLARD cajon and quinto cajon on Bulería, Soleá y Rumba (right) GONZALO GRAU cajon on Bulería, Soleá y Rumba (left) GARY VERSACE accordion on Concert in the Garden LUCIANA SOUZA voice on Concert in the Garden and Bulería, Soleá y Rumba voice and pandeiro on Choro Dançado PETE McGUINNESS trombone on Pas de Deux and Dança Ilusória ANDY MIDDLETON tenor on Pas de Deux and Dança Ilusória Details: http://www.mariaschneider.com/album_detail...D=60&artistID=1

Both are worth buying. Like many above I find Miles in the Sky less engaging than most of the music of that Miles period. But Filles is an absolute wonder. Just a glint of electricity to give it a very special sound. It's often explained as a prelude to the electric years (which in one respect it is) but I've always felt it to be very much a world of its own. One of my favourites.

The other 'Flamenco Sketches' on KofB. Not better but a different journey round that structure.

My equal second favourite of the songbooks. Ties with the Ellington; the Rodgers and Hart my personal favourite.

Are you sure it's this one?

Are we all talking about this one?: With this tracklist?: 1. Can't Come Down (Garcia/Kreutzmann/Lesh/McKernan/Weir) - 2:57 2. Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks) (Garcia/Kreutzmann/Lesh/McKernan/Weir) - 3:12 3. You Don't Have to Ask (Garcia/Kreutzmann/Lesh/McKernan/Weir) - 3:55 4. On the Road Again (Traditional) - 2:42 5. Cream Puff War (Garcia) - 5:37 6. I Know You Rider (Traditional) - 4:20 7. The Same Thing (Dixon) - 11:38 8. Dark Star/China Cat Sunflower/The Eleven (Garcia/Hart/Hunter/Kreutzmann/Lesh/McKernan/Weir) - 25:25 9. Clementine (Hunter/Lesh) - 7:49 10. Mason's Children (Garcia/Hunter/Lesh/Weir) - 3:34 11. To Lay Me Down (Garcia/Hunter) - 5:39 12. That's It for the Other One (Grateful Dead) - 20:53 13. Beautiful Jam (Grateful Dead) - 4:41 14. Chinatown Shuffle (McKernan) - 2:54 15. Sing Me Back Home (Haggard) - 10:26 16. Watkins Glen Soundtrack Jam (Grateful Dead) - 18:31 17. Dark Star Jam/Spanish Jam/U.S. Blues (Garcia/Hart/Hunter/Kreutzmann/Lesh/McKernan/Weir) - 18:59 18. Eyes of the World (Garcia/Hunter) - 18:30 19. The Wheel (Garcia/Hunter/Kreutzmann) - 11:14 20. Stella Blue (Garcia/Hunter) - 11:37 21. Estimated Prophet (Barlow/Weir) - 10:52 22. The Music Never Stopped (Barlow/Weir) - 7:24 23. Shakedown Street (Garcia/Hunter) - 17:25 24. Cassidy (Barlow/Weir) - 5:47 25. Hey Pocky Way (Modeliste/Neville/Nocentelli/Porter) - 6:02 26. Believe It or Not (Garcia/Hunter) - 5:04 27. Playing in the Band (Hart/Hunter/Weir) - 12:24 28. Gentlemen, Start Your Engines (Barlow/Mydland) - 4:09 29. Death Don't Have No Mercy (Davis) - 6:41 30. Scarlet Begonias/Fire on the Mountain (Garcia/Hunter) - 19:34 31. Bird Song (Garcia/Hunter) - 13:09 32. Jam Out of Terrapin (Grateful Dead) - 5:08 33. Terrapin Station (Garcia/Hunter) - 12:34 34. Jam Out of Foolish Heart (Grateful Dead) - 5:24 35. Way to Go Home (Bralove/Hunter/Welnick) - 6:27 36. Liberty (Garcia/Hunter/Hunter) - 5:59 37. Lazy River Road (Garcia/Hunter) - 6:57 38. Eternity (Dixon/Wasserman/Weir) - 7:35 39. Jam into Days Between (Grateful Dead) - 7:04 40. Days Between (Garcia/Hunter) - 10:59 41. Whiskey in the Jar (Traditional) - 5:14 42. So Many Roads (Garcia/Hunter/Hunter) - 9:57

...dropped through the post. Django Bates first for six years. A name probably unknown in the States but one of our most quirky and original composers and bandleaders. Imagine a contemporary sounding jazz band with influences from Zappa, 70s Canterbury rock, Viv Stanshall and Hermeto Pascoal! File next to your Robert Wyatt albums! Totally distinctive and hugely entertaining.

I mean the nostalgia comment in the nicest possible way, Lon. I more or less gave up on rock music in the late-70s with a few exceptions and for a time found my musical pleasures elsewhere - folk, jazz, classical. But I kept going back to my 70s rock collection and by the late 80s realised it filled a musical space I liked that neither folk, jazz or classical could. So I started to fill in the gaps in what I knew I liked - I really got to know The Byrds and The Band then rather than in the 70s when I was only dimly aware of them. So it was only a matter of time before the Dead connected. There was a programme on the TV here a few nights back challenging the myth of the 'Sixties' in Britain. A bit of a right-wing foggies backlash but with some pretty wry observations (e.g. that Swinging London ceased to exist once you went a hundred yards from Carnaby Street or the King's Road). And that was my experience of the 60s and 70s - I enjoyed them as a young chap growing up but against a rather grey backdrop. Faultering economy, inflation, power cuts, unstable governments etc. Yet still I find myself drawn to the myth and will happily watch anything on TV or read any old recollection of the time. In some ways those Dead records sound like the Sixties and Seventies should have been. Maybe they were for some people. ********** Like so many great bands the Dead benefitted from having players from such different backgrounds - rock, blues, bluegrass and then Phil Lesh's contemporary classical studies. I think that helps explain their range. It is so easy to hear them as a bar room band. But as everyone has said above when they take of the music is as intricate as any jazz band. There are times when the endlessly unfolding jams remind me of the second Davis quintet. Not in instrumentation or even overall sound but in they way the music seems to be evolving and developing from all the players simultaneously. A far cry from the usual rock recipe of a rhythm section holding down a beat while a soloist plays on top. Another thing I find is their songs rarely get you on initial hearings. But then sometime down the line they just hook you. Very unusual constructions. I especially like things like 'Bird Song', 'Eyes of the World', 'Estimated Prophet', 'Terrapin Station' (completely weird in construction) and the 'Scarlet Begonias/Fire on the Mountain' pair. ******** I'm not too keen on those endless Pigpen blues rants on the earlier discs (a personal thing; I know they are regarded with great affection by many fans). And on the later discs the guitar and keyboards sound too processed for me to really enjoy them - but there are nice moments. But a great band nonetheless. And one it would be so easy to completely miss because what they seem on the surface only hints at what lies beneath.

Despite being an avid riock listener from 1970 the Dead passed me by. I tried a couple of the albums in the 80s - 'American Beauty' and 'Live Dead' but nothing clicked. And yet I had a nagging feeling there was something there. As music similar to that era dried up in contemporary rock I was longing to find a old seam to mine where there might be gold and I felt sure at some point the Dead would reveal it. Hearing Garcia on other albums - notably David Crosby's first solo album - made me sure there was something there for me. The disc that began to open it up was 'One from the Vault', a live set from around the time of 'Blues for Allah' that I borrowed from the library in the mid-90s. I then took the plunge on the 5CD box 'So Many Roads' set that features the instrumentals heavily. I think not having to plough through the dodgily harmonised cowboy songs helped me to connect. Some of the playing on those discs is stunning. One minute they're chugging along on a bar band boogie beat, next they've gone spacewards with the guitars and bass weaving around one another with incredible invention! Since then I've picked up a dozen or so of the live records (Dick's Picks and others) and the big Warners box. I'd agree that it's the live sets that really make them take off - why I even enjoy the dodgily harmonised cowboy songs now. And join in, making them even more dodgy. I go through Grateful Dead phases where I might play several sets in succession, overdose and then leave them aside for months. And then back I go again. I suspect part of the appeal is nostalgia. Nostalgia for an era I was contemporary with but never really part of.

I'm listed on the cover (LP)/booklet (CD) of Mike Westbrook's 'The Cortege' as a patron! This makes me sound like a wealthy aristocrat distributing my largesse. It actually means that at a concert by the band I paid for a copy before it was recorded, supposedly helping to finance the venture.

Referring to another thread, this seems the ideal way to cross:

I get this. I wish!

But that's not correct either. Great Britain is the island that includes England, Scotland and Wales. If you add Northern Ireland you get the United Kingdom. You're absolutely right! Officially it's "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". My mistake Well I've learnt something here. I'd always assumed Great Britain and the United Kingdom were different terms for the same political concept. Swing Swede is confirmed here: http://www.know-britain.com/general/great_britain.html

I love crossing bridges! That one looks stunning! My recent favourite comes on the crossing from Denmark to Sweden. You have to cross two bridges to connect to the main islands ofshore of the Danish Jutland peninsular and then you get this beauty, the Oresund, crossing The Sound, the historic entry point to the Baltic and dividing point between Sweden and Denmark since 1658. A wonderful experience. This is taken from Malmo on the Swedish side:

There's an excellent Surman discography here: http://mysite.verizon.net/vze8f4kf/surman.htm If you're not familiar with his post-late 60s recordings I'd urge you to hear 'Stranger than Fiction' on ECM. Much of his output is solo, solo playing against synth or in choral/chamber settings which probably doesn't appeal to many jazz fans. Personally, I love it. But Stranger is a marvellous quartet date. I saw Surman with John Taylor, John Marshall and Chris Laurence a couple of years back and it was astounding. Really high energy stuff. As good as the equally outstanding David Murray/Hamid Drake Quartet atbthe same festival.

Can I recommend...

I have Flying High. A nice 2CD highlights disc. I enjoy Gene Clark but can't say that he jumps out as an overlooked genius. Personally I find Gram Parsons on his two solos and the first FBB much more compelling.

And today...