A Lark Ascending

The track I heard on the radio last week had a wonderful John Taylor piano solo at the start, then became more ordinary. I've never found myself absorbed by Tommy Smith's playing. He's clearly a fantastic force for getting things done - all sorts of projects, unusual concepts etc. But whilst I'm often excited by the ideas when it comes down to listening to the end result I hear a tenor player not unlike a few score more. I'll probably buy this to hear Taylor in a different context and hope to have my view on Smith (and Lovano come to that, another player who has rarely moved me) changed.

And so to my favourite theme...how we all have very different ears and should be careful trying to 'nail' recordings or performers into their place in an imagined hierarchy (I'm not saying anyone here is doing that, far from it!). Here is a 5 star review in Friday's Guardian by John Fordham, arguably one of the UKs most informed and well balanced critics: http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/fridayrevie...1054185,00.html I still havn't heard this. I scoursed Nottingham for it on Saturday but there was not a sign of it. Maybe its release date has changed in the UK. Or the name appeared too obscure to be stocked!

This was what saddened me at the time. It just seemed like people who had a character all their own were forced to adopt certain approaches in a vain attempt to stay 'relevant'. The young punk/New Wave/New Romantic or whatever scene of the 80s I could happily accept even if it left me stone cold. After all that's what happens; music moves on to something else and the previous generation finds it hard to keep up. But there was something of the 'Embarrassing-middle-aged-uncle-strutting-the-latest-dance-styles-on-the-wedding-reception-floor' about 60s and 70s stars going synth. Shame on you Joni! You really hear this in the Clapton 'Crossroads' box. 3 1/2 discs where Clapton plays to his strengths within his characteristic style. And then half a disc of 'staying relevant' which just sounds over-cluttered, over-produced and far too desparate.

Something I was thinking about. It is common for jazz enthusiasts to evaluate the success of jazz in terms of 'emotion.' Music is often dismissed for being cold, passionless, lacking 'soul.' Now if you move across to the visual arts the idea that a painting must have emotion or 'soul' is pretty 18th-19thC. Much 20th C painting would set as its goals, and be evaluated according to its ability to present interesting patterns - creative use of colour or space or form. I just wonder if musical listeners also respond in those different ways. Some are looking for that supposed 'emotion' in the music whilst others can be satisfied by something considerably more abstract. Of course most music contains elements of both. But as a generalisation it could be argued that traditional blues based jazz seems to vere more towards 'emotional' expression whilst much ECM music, for example, seems to be more focussed on the 'sound painting.' When certain listeners express disquiet with the 'chilly' soundworld of ECM perhaps its because they are listening to music performed for reasons very different to their own expectations. I suspect I'm more of 'patterns' listener. Someone running through a set of blues chords, however 'passionate', is likely to lose my attention because the structure is so familiar. Whereas a Bobo Stenson or Tomas Stanko or Eberhard Weber recording strikes me as having much more interesting colours. I'm not trying to draw firm barriers here; I like music from both sides but I'd say I vere towards the 'interesting sounds' rather than the 'heartfelt emotion.' I mention this because it strikes me more and more both here and on AAJ that many of us are listening to jazz with very different ears. I wonder if our very different reactions to particular recordings might be tied in with our very different expectations of what we want music to sound like. This would certainly seem to be the case with those who find something missing in contemporary jazz which they hear in spades in the recordings of, say, Art Pepper.

I had a total aversion to New Wave being a child of the 60s/70s era. The loose, freewheeling nature of the best music of that era seemed to be replaced by a sort of hyped up, rhythmically four-square approach that sounded as if it had been recorded in an aircraft hanger. One area of influence which irritated the hell out of me was on Richard Thompson. For a time - from 'Across a Crowded Room' - you had these jittery numbers with clipped backing vocals and toy organ sounds. Always sounded like Thompson-goes-New-Wave to me. 'You Don't Say' was the first offender. Much of 'Daring Adventures' was weakened for me but that same tinny sound. A lovely ballad like 'Jennie' (fortunately recorded more sympathetically elsewhere) is spoilt by a 4 square new wave beat, the sort of thing I associated with the mass invasion of the synth/drum machine of the time. To someone who grew up on the liquid sound of John Martyn or Little Feet the New Wave thing seemed most unattractive. As a consequence I spent most of the 80s getting to know classical music.

Well, I'm sure I could list lots given time...does the entire Robert Wyatt catalogue count as a Post-Soft Machine 'solo project'? I would support Crosby's 'If I Could Only Remember My Name' - an undervalued gem if ever there was one by an underappreciated and unfairly maligned performer. Robert Fripp's 'Exposure' is a big favourite of mine - Fripp after disbanding King Crimson in the mid-70s and going to New York, colliding with punk and taking on some very out philosophical notions yet retaining some key Crimson moments. Definitely a strange record but one I can listen to from start to finish without losing attention.

Yup, mine's a PDR-609 too.

I love Stenson and Garbarek but do not own this one...I nearly bought it when on a Garbarek binge in Oslo a few weeks back. I have a special liking for 'Serenity', a beautiful 2CD on ECM with Jordan and Christensen. A little like Paul Bley's ECMs but a touch warmer. It also contains one of my favourite tune titles - 'Polska of Despair' - which gets played twice. There's an ECM with Stenson due at any moment...I think its been ready to release for over a year (its there on the unspecified release schedule of Alankin's site)- with UK players Martin Speake (alto) and Mick Hutton (bass) and Paul Motion. I saw this group a couple of years back and they were excellent. Most definitely ECM territory but that's a compliment in my world! Having read this thread I'll have to get "Witchi-Tai-To" now. Oregon have also done several nice versions of this tune.

It's not been released yet. I saw it advertised on the UK Crazy Jazz http://www.crazyjazz.co.uk/archive/new0310.htm October listings...probably too expensive for US wallets! Both Jazzos and Conrta Tempo http://www.controtempojazz.com stock Label Bleu though neither have it listed yet.

I've had a stand alone Pioneer CD recorder for 18 months and have experienced no trouble at all. I've put alot of vinyl onto CD-R...mainly stuff unlikely to be reissued. You're at the mercy of the quality of your vinyl (in my case it suffers somewhat from having been played on cheaper turntables in the past) but I'm quite happy with it. Apparently you can do noise reduction things but that's too fiddly. Essentially its as Lon says much like recording a cassette. You just need to read the instructions a bit more carefully to work out the range of options. Worth noting: 1. If you want to play the resulting CD on most CD players you'll have to use CD-R. This is a 'burn once' device. If you make a mistake you'll have to live with it or start a new disc (given how cheap the discs are not a financial problem, but can be a bit time consuming if your record decides to skip in mid-recording!). 2. Getting the tracks numbered can be a bit awkward. The machine can be set to do this automatically. But if you set it too high it doesn't recognise any gaps; too low and it interprets pauses in the music as track changes. I tend to use the manual setting but you have to be alert. More than a few times I've started doing something else, forgotten I'm recording and missed the cue. An egg timer is invaluable!!!! 3. You get a choice for analogue or digital recording. So if you are recording a CD or a track off a CD that is protected you can just switch to manual and it will record. I can't say I've noticed any drop in quality. It's probably there but you probably have to want to hear it. I don't regret buying it for a minute. I have lots of older OOP albums on disc now. It's nice for making compilations too.

I certainly tire of particular genres at times but simply skip to another. A month or so of ye olde Englishe folke or Scandanavian nyckelharp music or early 20th C classical or old Neil Young records does a wondrous job of refreshing the palate and making the jazz sound all fresh and shiny again. I can also recommend a good dose of the divine Emmylou Harris (a fine exponent of honest, creative, evolving country-folk!) as a marvelous way of resting tired jazz ears [did I mention that I really love Emmylou!]. In the Middle Ages they used to practice crop rotation, leaving one field out of three fallow each year to refresh itself. Seems a pretty good principle for a lot of things.

BOJAN Z TRIO - SCOTT COLLEY / NASHEET WAITS : TRANSPACIFIK : LABEL BLEU Bojan Z otherwise known as Bojan Zulfikarpasic, the great Serbian pianist, has a new one on the way. Best known for his work in Henri Texier and Julien Lourau's bands, though he's had a few discs of his own. His last one - Solobsession - was mainly solo and a real beauty. A player within the jazz tradition but with a way of colouring his solo's with a lovely eastern European sound. I very much look forward to hearing him in this trio setting.

Oh, I know my Costello dislike is a personal thing. It's the voice! He's written some fine songs...'Shipbuilding' is up there with the best. But the voice! I know others feel the same way about Robert Wyatt yet he has an unconventional/unschooled voice that I love. In fact there's a nice idea. Wyatt as vocalist on a Mingus Big Band album. I could just hear him doing something like 'For Harry Carney'...though he'd need to write the lyrics.

And here's a live review from the tour: http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/reviews/sto...1051823,00.html

Released this week and one of a number of new issues destined to bankrupt me this weekend: Denys Baptiste - LET FREEDOM RING! featuring Ben Okri Stirring contemporary jazz with gospel, blues and Afro-Cuban music, inspired by Dr Martin Luther King’s momentous I Have A Dream speech on its 40th anniversary, and featuring an explosive 12-piece international line-up including Omar Puente, Abram Wilson and Gary Crosby. "Denys Baptiste ... taking Europe by storm and becoming the icon of British jazz". Time Magazine Celebrating the 40th anniversary of Dr Martin Luther King’s historic I Have A Dream oratory, Mercury and MOBO Award winning British jazz star Denys Baptiste has created a stirring new suite of music, which takes its inspiration from the rousing spirit and instantly recognisable rhythms of the momentous speech. Collaborating with Booker Prize winning author Ben Okri, Baptiste has synchronised extracts of the epic poem, Mental Fight, into an infectious mix of contemporary jazz with gospel, blues, and Afro-Cuban music. Jazz has always been closely connected with the struggle for freedom and justice and the suite’s four parts - I Have A Dream, With This Faith, Let Freedom Ring, and Free At Last -pay tribute to those who have fought to overcome oppression, expressing ideals which are as relevant today as they were 40 years ago. Supporting sets will come from either Robert Mitchell Equinox (solo piano) or Juliet Roberts Beneath the Surface (jazz quintet) - see tour dates for details. Robert Mitchell mixes jazz and classical influences with seamless invention, to create fresh and highly original music reminiscent of McCoy Tyner and Keith Jarrett. Juliet Roberts’ powerhouse voice never fails to ignite audiences and her new jazz quintet features Abram Wilson, trumpet (USA), Andrew McCormack, piano (UK), Neil Charles, double bass (UK/Jamaica), Rod Youngs, drums (USA) "A star in the making. Quite simply a revelation." The Times on Robert Mitchell "Great delivery, great finesse, lustrous sound." The Guardian on Juliet Roberts Let Freedom Ring! line-up Denys Baptiste Tenor Saxophone (UK/St Lucia) Ben Okri spoken word (Nigeria) Nathaniel Facey Alto Saxophone (UK/Jamaica) Abram Wilson Trumpet (USA) Trevor Mires Trombone (UK) Omar Puente Violin (Cuba) Jenny Adejayan Cello (Nigeria/Grenada) Andrew McCormack Piano (UK) Adam Goldsmith Guitar (UK) Gary Crosby Double bass (UK/Jamaica) Satin Singh Percussion (UK/India) Rod Youngs Drums (USA) I saw the premier of this back in May - very impressive. A lengthy piece of writing from a young Brit, one of the many great jazz players from the Afro-Caribbean community who are making such a strong impact on UK jazz at present. Worth going out of your way to sample. Baptiste is touring it round the UK to promote it. Highly recommended.

I very nearly passed this one by. Another MBB album! And Elvis Costello on a vocal track (who does he think he is?...Sting?!!!!)! But I heard a track on the radio that gripped me and have not regreted the purchase. My brain mentally deletes Costello (I just can't take his voice, I'm afraid). 'Devil Woman' with Frank Lacy on vocal is great. Nothing (stylistically) the MBB have not done wonderfully before but if you enjoy them you'll enjoy this.

Here! Here! (accompanied by a toss of my bowler hat in the air - which I will, of course, catch on my umbrella).

I'm convinced! Next time I see it. I also want to track down that first Eastern Rebellion CD. Often quoted as a big influence on UK tenorist, Iain Ballamy (now there's a marvellous under-40 player!).

I have 'Big George' on LP from the early 80s. Nice record though I prefer him in quartet mode. There's also this more recent octet release: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&u...l=A4c8n1vj3zzca I've seen it in London but never got around to buying it. After this discussion...

That's one I don't know. I think you will be very impressed by the 'My Funny Valentine/Four and More' set - originally two separate albums drawn from the same concert with the ballads on the former and the faster numbers on the latter. It might seem to be all the same tunes that Miles recorded in the early/mid 60s but they sound very different here. Coleman is just wonderful. [This is all due as part of one of the last Columbia boxes]. I'd be interested to hear more of him in the 60s. I seem to recall a few LPs around in the 80s. I also have him on a Booker Little LP and a Max Roach LP. Played Alexander's Summit Meeting tonight and can see the similarities...right down to having Harold Mabern on piano.

Good luck, Templejazz. Teaching is a fantastically rewarding job - full of headaches and heartaches but I know I wouldn't want to do anything else (except perhaps play jazz piano...slight problem there!!!). You'll hit difficulties, bolshie kids and the horrors of paperwork but don't lose sight of why you want to do it. One kid clicking into what you are trying to put over will carry you through a thousand disappointments. I've got five new teachers in my Faculty this year so can appreciate your apprehension. Always, always seek help and advice if you are stuck, unsure or feel out of your depth. The biggest mistake new teachers make is thinking that if they can't do it on their own then they've failed. You'll be astonished how quickly you'll move from inexperienced newbie to old hand. I have people working for me with three and four years experience who seem like they've been doing it for a lifetime...and are still full of enthusiasm! Good luck, once more.

Ordered the Chambers Select last night.

Oh, track down George Coleman - Miles' 'My Funny Valentine' + 'Seven Steps to Heaven' and Hancock's 'Maiden Voyage' are his most well known outings. But he's been a regular performer over the last 30 years and one who is much loved in the UK because he's played here frequently. He used to be a regular at Ronnie Scott's. I particularly like 'Amstedam After Dark'. 'Manhattan Panorama' and 'At Yoshi's' are wonderful too and there's a double CD drawn from his Ronnie Scott engagements. Over the last couple of nights I've been really enjoying 'The Wynton Kelly Trio with George Coleman' recorded live in 1968. The sound is impaired by the flutter on the original tape but once you've aclimatised it sounds magnificent. A man who seemed to get lost in the shadows of Miles' other tenor players. I've always found him to be a player of great warmth, invention and...to take up the theme of recent posts on this thread...personality.

Sounds fair enough. Though I'd be in no position to comment on who was or was not derivative of whom. But I could tell you of lots of saxophone players under 40 who I greatly enjoy!

I can't wait for the Euro. I travelled to Italy last year through four other mainland countries and never had to change money once...they even took Euros in the Swiss motorway service stations (though you got your change in Swiss Francs). By contrast when I drove up to Scandanavia this year I had to get Euros for Germany/Belgium/Holland/Germany, Danish krona for the bridge tolls, Swedish krona for my stay there and Norwegian krona for the few days I spent there. Mad! Anyway it will be worth going Euro in the UK just to watch the apoplexy at the Daily Telegraph and amongst the other Blimps. Bring it on, Tone (some hope!). I hope I live long enough for the day when we join the rest of the world in driving on the right! The weeping and gnashing will be glorious.