A Lark Ascending

I agree. One every 3 weeks to a month makes sense. Too close and it will not just be a chore making them. It'll be a chore listening to them! The current spacing gives you time to play them a few times and absorb what you are listening too. Given all the other things most of us clearly listen to (to say nothing about annoying things like work, family commitments, life etc) I would imagine that anything more frequent would start to lead to discs not actually being listened to.

And no harm assumed, king ubu.

Rooster sums it up well. In general the very, very cheap discs can be carelessly put together, normally from older recordings. But there are, today, excellent low price discs - reissues by major labels and others; new recordings by labels, notably Naxos. I share Rooster's enthusiasm for Naxos - they are doing a brilliant job of exploring unfamiliar repetoire. The American series he mentions is wonderful - I'm looking forward to more Piston, Harris and Schumann there. I'd also point to their championing of British composers, an enthusiasm of mine. In the end you can't judge quality by the price (often with the full price EMI disc you are paying for celebrity rather than 'better' music). There are online resources that compare recordings and can give you a guide (though as with all guides, they are only as good as the reviewer and how far he/she fits with your own tastes). I use UK classical magazine, Gramophone, in the first instance. You have to register and its search method takes a bit of working out but it's got a huge range of reviews going way back. Think of a specific piece you want to get a CD of and see what they say. http://www.gramophone.co.uk/details.asp?forum=

Unfair to single out 'bests' - there are labels which have attained a financial viability that gets them a higher profile and thus gives them the opportunity to put out more. ECM, Enja, Fresh Sounds come to mind. But then there are scores (if not hundreds) of labels which put out much less, have short life spans yet still add to the overall diversity of the jazz gene pool. And, of course, 'best' would be dependent on what you're looking for. To one listener Intakt might seem best whilst Nagel Heyer would be hardly worth considering. And vice versa. One thing I feel very firmly. Despite the reissue programmes of the majors which have brought forward some great music it's the smaller labels who are the real heroes of the last 10-20 years. Long may they prosper.

I've not signed up officially but am getting mine through Gary. So if you want to keep a check of participants add my name.

I guess they would not care if we did all the work, the main problem is - if we were producing all these discs of italian, french, german, austrian, swiss, polish, czechoslovak, finnish, danish or whatever jazz, they would never identify a single tune... ubu And British! Don't forget British! We're Europeans too...though at times I know it's hard to believe!

Saturday, November 22nd. BBC Jazz Line Up Live from the London Jazz Festival To include performance by Jamie Oehlers. A chance to hear this player who is getting a great deal of attention. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/jazz/jazzlineup.shtml Wonder if George W. will be attending?

1. Secular Humanism (100%) 2. Unitarian Universalism (98%) 3. Liberal Quakers (83%) 4. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (79%) 5. Nontheist (72%) And I thought I was a Fundamentalist Atheist!

I always feel its better to get four or five discs of music from now. There's oceans of marvellous contemporary jazz out there. Present it as a living music. The riches of the past can come later. After all, if a reluctant reader asked you to recommend some fiction to get him or her interested in reading would you really recommend Chaucer?

Excellent. I really look forward to this one. I might even guess a few! Maybe! Hoping for a few Germans we might not know of. A Friedrich sleeve will be mandatory!

Actually, Bev, I'd love to hear a disc of all British artists. I subscribe to Jazz Review and I've often wondered what some of the artists they write about sound like. I'd welcome a disc like that. I won't promise an all-UK disc, Brad. I suspect, though it would be largely non-American; not out of dislike of US jazz but merely in the interest of variety...and a little crusading spirit! It would also be likely to stretch the definition of 'jazz' somewhat!

A good point - but solvable by breaking down into smaller webs. It would not make sense for, say a European to send out to 30 US addresses - might get ver expensive. But if the European sent discs to volunteers 1 to 10 who in turn agreed to burn and distribute to five people each...well you've got 50 discs out. I've got my two so via Gary.

Yes, Jim. Like #7 of test 1...though sadly I missed that disc! Tip of an iceberg! I think we just need to take the risk and go with whatever each compiler choses. It's up to each listener to approach each disc in an open minded way and if it's not to their taste, wait happily for the next one. In the end I trust people to want to put together something varied. I can't imagine anyone putting together a disc of all Andrew Hill tracks. Or something all British, for that matter!!!

I think this is an excellent idea. I've enjoyed the two discs so far because they've confronted me with types of American jazz I've normally overlooked. The guessing part has been of little importance to me (though I was thrilled to pick out Louis Stewart...only to have me excitement quashed when JSngry got there first!). I'd hope that the majority of posters who live in the States would be equally intrigued by what European (or Antipodean!) posters might put together...be it European (or Australasian) jazz; or American jazz chosen from a non-American outlook. I think they'd be in for a few surprises.

My younger brothers and sister still rag me about having LPs with pictures of a sock on by Henry Cow.

There used to be an Irish band based in Nottingham, UK called Patty O'Doors and the Sun Loungers. I alwas though Hatfield and the North was an odd name - the band were named after the first sign on the M1. And one for the medieval history buffs that I've mentioned before - an English folk reggae band (seriously...dub meets morris dancing) who called themselves Edward II and the Red Hot Polkas. Sadly they changed this to Edward II and more recently EIIK.

I love 'Henry' - the songs all sound about 300 years old! I suspect it was too low-key for its times. I was just getting into Fairport when it came out - I bought Sandy Denny's 'Northstar Grassman' but passed Henry by for some reason. It went OOP after a short while. Then I kept hearing versions of various tracks and pining for it. Finally got a copy c.1980. I'm not sure the record cover helped. Thompson's choice of art work has always puzzled me. 'Sunnyvista', 'Amnesia' and 'Mirror Blue' have particularly awful covers.

I assume that's a euphemism for onboard entertainment between master and cabin boy!

Rumour has it that the Cage Estate have found a missing 57 second segment from the original version of this piece. It might well be the centre piece of the forthcoming Mosaic multi-box set that claims to contain all the alternate takes. Now that really should be worth playing LOUD!

Does the film have 15 minute segments where someone explains the technicalities of rigging, sails and masts in great detail? Without this the film cannot possibly get the authentic feel of the books...well, the one O'Brian I got a third of the way through, anyway!

John Cage. 4 minutes 33 seconds

Absolutely. Where Celtic Feet, John Rae's own group, wear their Scottishness very much on their kilt (and I like that too!) this record handles it much more subtly. It'll be on my favourites from 2003 list. And well done to Caber. A marvellous roster building there.

Well worth the chase. High octane, muscular trio jazz with a strong eastern European flavour. Some gorgeous ballads too. The up-tempo stuff is in a McCoy Tyner sort of vein but taking the occasional exoticisms of the latter much further. Even on what sounds like a fairly straight ballad like 'Sepia Sulfureux' Zulfikarpasic goes on runs that are clearly based on scales you don't normaly get in jazz recordings. Try 'The Joker' for the hell-for-leather piano trio in full flight side. 'Bulgarska' or 'Z-Rays' for the strongly Balkan-tinged approach. Colley and Waits are superb too! To my ears the most interesting jazz pianist around at present. Have a look here: http://www.bojanz.com/sounds.html Can be got here. Just put Bojan Z in the search engine: http://www.jazzos.com/articles.cgi About $21 once the postage is thrown in. Very good vendor.

Here's a disc for those who want something a bit unusual. Colin Steele is a Scottish trumpet player whose music is very much jazz but who uses themes (all self-written) that are inspired by traditional Scottish music. Not folk music with add-on-jazz but jazz built round folk inflected tunes. A quintet - the great Julian Arguelles (on of the UKs best kept secrets, a player who has explored English folk music a la Surman on his own releases) on tenor/soprano, Dave Milligan on piano, Airdan O'Donnell on bass and John Rae drums. A little reminiscent of some of Mark Isham's work; the sheer melodicism of the disc has me in mind of the Jarrett European Quartet - 'My Song' specifically. Two examples: 'Lament for Miles': a ballad, with Miles-ish muted trumpet. The theme sounds like some ancient, keening lament. You can hear it in your head on the pipes; or sung by an unaccompanied folk singer. A great moment where Arguelles uses his vibrato to imitate the pipes. 'Reel Deal': Absolutely exhilarating. The sound of a dozen fiddles at a sweaty island fling approximated by the trumpet and sax swirling round one another in a manner that seems to have more to do with early jazz than contemporary. Special mention for pianist Dave Milligan who reminds me, strangely enough, of Bojan Zulfikarpasic - must be the folk based harmonies. If you need your jazz to break through to the next frontier this ain't for you. But if you like gorgeous, exciting, melodic jazz with a totally distinct flavour then give it a try. Highly recommended to expatriate Scots. More details (and lots of reviews): http://www.cabermusic.com/ [p.s. I don't work for Caber. Just bought this with my own money after hearing a track on the radio !!!] [p.p.s. I like this from the review in the Independent by Sholto Byrnes: "It’s also far more openly optimistic than most jazz and distinctly non-urban, the harmony painted in bold, major keys that are a real balm to the troubled soul." Not sure about the last seven words but the rest of the description is spot on!]

Here's another worth your time: A million miles away from standard hard bop. Piano, bass, clarinet with a very Italian feel. You could imagine some of the themes as operatic arias. Reminds me a little of the chamber music of people like Poulenc - with a jazzier edge.