A Lark Ascending

Excellent series. I used to use it extensively for teaching The Cold War to A Level (exams prior to university in the U.K.) students. The final programmes on the coming down of the Iron Curtain are very moving (and rather topical in the current European crisis over borders).

It's quite fun just watching who turns up in bit roles. Rick Wakeman was sat on the coach in episode 1 of this series - not sure he said anything. And you've got to admire Peter Gabriel for joining in during the last series, given that he's the butt of most of the humour.

We all have things that we don't take to. I'm referring to the serially unimpressed, people who seem to define themselves by how hard they are to please. I think they like to think of it as 'discrimination' or 'fine taste'. Always reminds me of:

You need to add "and then the self-consciously hip go out of their way to be unimpressed."

Sinatra: All or Nothing at All (Part 1) Documentary that went out over New Year on BBC4. Two great 2 hour slabs. Just watched part 1 over a couple of days. Mainly based around interviews with Sinatra and his family/associates plus a few egg-heads (warning - includes Terry Teachout who I recall is persona non grata around here). Part 1 ends with the revival of his career with 'From Here to Eternity' and Capitol contract. Interesting. But I wonder how independent it is. Bends over backwards to disassociate him from mob connections. I don't know enough about him to know if those connections were malicious rumour or based on evidence. Maybe part 2 will tell me more.

That might be just what I'm looking for. My dad had a record of those instrumental opera snippets with things like Mascagni, Massenet and Leoncavallo on it. I think they were light music favourites on the radio in the 50s/60s. Never quite known how to get a record of such lollipops (as they were referred to over here by the cognoscenti) apart from one of those '100 Greatest Classical Music Love Themes' albums. I wuz wrong, Starthrower! Really enjoyed 'Intimations' today. Maybe I was Finzi-ed out when I first bought it. He does work in a rather narrow emotional area - pining twilight. Though the 'scherzo' bit is almost jolly. The nice thing about this thread is that it doesn't just introduce you to things you don't know but can send you back to things you think you do know but don't! From the Francophile end of inter-war British composing. No cows or gates.

You shouldn't have any more problem than I have following films set in The Bronx (Hebden Bridge is the UK's equivalent of The Bronx).

Just saw the funniest thing in WH Smiths in Worksop next to 'Trout Fisherman Monthly' and 'Crotchet World': https://www.deagostini.com/uk/collections/jazz-vinyl/?gclid=CPD-mpaJyMoCFaMSwwodYaINdQ A part-work series based round vinyl copies of 'classic' jazz albums. The jazz revival is official.

It's funny how a brief period of mainstream success can sustain a jazz career. Andy Sheppard, a British sax player, had a brief period of success beyond the jazz world in the 80s. Nothing comparable since though he has continued to tour widely and make albums. The two main venues that I go to jazz concerts in rarely sell out - but Sheppard sold out in Sheffield at the end of last year; and when I booked a ticket to see him in Nottingham in March it was all ready 2/3rds sold. So if Mr. Washington doesn't prove to be the next big thing in jazz, he'll probably be able to make a living. Anyway, I thought Robert Glasper was meant to be the next big thing in jazz.

Before watching this I only had a 1% understanding of what happened in 2008. I now have a 5% understanding. The reviewers in The Guardian and New Statesmen were pretty snooty about it but I found it compelling. Recommended if you like muttering 'b*****ds' repeatedly under your breath (don't think I've done that since 'Bambi'). For the first time ever I was the only person in the cinema. Probably helps explain why it's all happening again. **************************** And 'Happy Valley: Series 2' arrives in a fortnight on BBC1. http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/jan/26/happy-valley-realistic-tv-bbc-crime-drama-second-series If it's half as good as series 1 it'll be worth the watch. Eeee, it's grim up't North.

It seems to me to be more of a 'Look at those kids playing on that bit of ground over there....the game looks a bit like one we used to play but they seem to be making their own rules. Good on 'em. But I think I'll go back into the living room and play space invaders'

Now the chances of this being at all interesting are not great given Santana's track record since the 70s, but maybe, just maybe.... https://www.spincds.com/s-n-a-c-k-benefit-kezar-stadium-sf-23rd-march-1975-cd-48089 "Santana will release their highly anticipated album Santana IV with the return of the band's original lineup. Carlos Santana (guitar, vocals), Gregg Rolie (keyboards, lead vocals), Neal Schon (guitar, vocals), Michael Carabello (percussion) and Michael Shrieve (drums) have come back together for the first time in 45 years to record what is, essentially, their follow-up to Santana, Abraxas and Santana III. All three of the original albums went two-times platinum while Abraxas achieved three-times." I'd have preferred a follow up to 'Caravanserai' but I'm intrigued enough to watch for the reviews of this. Not sure what state his guitar playing is at these days. Just hope Cindy confiscates any synths, drum machines etc and sends any orchestras who turn up at the sessions home. The blurb (which is a hilarious bit of boosterism...though I didn't notice any reference to higher states of being, oneness or the like) promises 'swirling B3 organ hooks'. Who knows! A few rock legends from the 70s have surprised us in late career.

Everyone hates proselytisers (well maybe not everyone). There's something about 'you should be listening/reading/watching this, not that' that is almost a threat to ones own sense of identity. Which is different from reading/hearing/watching someone just enthusing without trying to convert you or foist their enthusiasm on you. I'm regularly drawn in by enthusiasts for musics outside my area of interest who can communicate their love without seeming to claim that they have seen the True Light. As for the record collection dream, I can still recall hearing about John Peel's legendary record collection in the early 70s and thinking how wonderful it would be to have something like that. I now seem to have it (well, not close to Peel's archive, but...). And it is wonderful.

I do like the not very subtle references to Genesis and Peter Gabriel...a very funny send-up of the Gabriel/Kate Bush song last week. My favourite is the manager. "You've been offered £10 million to play a personal concert for William and Kate. I told them to f.o." (not a direct quote...just his style).

This has become something of a favourite.

She had a walk on role in the first episode of 'Brian Pern' last week (a Spinal Tap-like spoof on Prog-rock). Not great TV but good for a few chuckles. Suranne Jones along with Nicola Walker will always get me watching an unfamiliar TV series. Two of the most powerful British actors on TV at present.

I had a similar entry point to you but from a more British slant (we share McLaughlin but after that it was more Soft Machine, King Crimson (the Ogun chaps on board) and what is termed the Canterbury bands). However, there was a period of about 3 to 4 years when I listened to that music (alongside other rock) without having any desire to listen to jazz. It was when that music started to lose its impetus as part of the wider stylistic changes of around 1976 + (and I suspect the changes there were more pronounced over here) that I had to look for something else to listen to - jazz, classical, later folk. Maybe if tricksy instrumental rock had developed and blossomed after the mid-70s I'd have never have walked through the 'gateway'. What happens to Washington and his current audience remains to be seen - it would need to be a wider movement with lots more performers over a period of time to be comparable with the 70s. Some may well follow up the jazz references in his music. But I doubt if most will. I have a good friend who had similar tastes in the 70s to myself and who (like myself) still listens to that music with enthusiasm. But he never passed through the gateway to jazz. He occasionally comes to gigs with me but it tends to be those with a more jazz-rock/fusion side to them. We do tend to treat jazz as somewhere you end up if you follow the true path. Yet almost everyone I know sees it (and my classical and folk enthusiasms) as an eccentricity, even an affectation. Despite spending 40 years listening to the stuff and amassing a ludicrously sized collection I don't think I've ever converted anyone.

But did that music only have value as a gateway to jazz? If you'd never followed on to 'proper' jazz, would you have been any less happy? And is that Kamasi Washington's prime value? A gateway to jazz? Those of us who have discovered a love of jazz (everyone on this board) have found a rich and lasting form of entertainment. But I do think we tend to over-mythologise it and indulge in a form of ancestor worship (much the same happens in other genres). This can lead to a distorted view of contemporary musics that touch on jazz as being just gateways back to jazz rather than areas of music in their own right that might just be heading somewhere very different. After all, rock and roll proved to be something rather more than a gateway to the blues, rhythm and blues and country music.

Shijiazhuang, northern China: A frozen waterfall in the capital city of Hebei province Photograph: Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2016/jan/25/photo-highlights-of-the-day-banksy-and-a-baby-gibbon

Excellent post.

I like the look of those. My favourite Getz album is the Steeplechase 'Copenhagen' record from '77 which has Brackeen and Hart on board. Wonder if Brackeen is playing e-p as well as organic piano. I'm an e-p fan.