A Lark Ascending

Got behind while away but catching up with: Last episode ever next week it seems. Then, I suppose, it will be 'Hathaway'. I think this is brilliant. Tom Courtney is especially good. Trevor Eve's nasty self-made millionaire has me thinking Alan Sugar every time I watch it. Last episode next week.

Diwali celebrations in Leicester. My sister used to live on one of the streets on the left. Food heaven! The Dhol Enforcement Agency – Leicester's self-styled number one dhol, or drum, team – perform Punjabi folk music. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/ng-interactive/2015/nov/04/diwali-celebrations-the-lights-and-sounds-of-leicesters-golden-mile

Hipster vocalese falls into the same category as British singers singing in American accents (or Brazilian singers singing in heavily accented English...its the vowels!). Irritates me no end to start with...but after a few listens I learn to ignore the affectations (if I didn't there'd be an awful lot of unplayed British singers!). I actually like Kurt Elling - didn't at first but a chance hearing of a song a few years back got me listening. The first play of any album can provoke lemon-eating expressions on my face but after that I get to enjoy them. I've never been able to connect to Murphy, however. Have to give him another try. Like a lot of people of my age 'Twisted' was my first conscious experience of vocalese via Joni Mitchell.

(photo from: http://www.londonjazznews.com/2015/10/interviewpreview-julian-arguelles-tetra.html) Julian Arguelles' "Tetra" Arguelles (tenor, soprano), Kit Downes (piano), Sam Lasserson (bass), James Maddren (drums) Yet another of the Loose Tubers, Arguelles now fronts a wide range of bands in the UK. I've followed him since first seeing him in the late 90s in Cheltenham. Last night's concert was as good as any I've seen him do. Very roughly, music that operates in a world approximating the Jarrett American Quartet, Wayne Shorter's recent quartet and John Surman's quartets. Structured with clear compositions but flexible and free-ranging. There's a pronounced 'Spanish' feel to the music in places reflecting Arguelles' background. Two of tonight's pieces had links with folk music from regions of Spain. The other thing he does which I like is a soprano effect that sounds like a Scottish bagpipe...I think he lived in Scotland for a time (might well still do). You hear the Surman influence there. Downes and Maddren seem to be in every other band I see - marvellous players. I've not come across Lasserson before but he was superb - featured in a number of places to great effect. They still have gigs to come in Brighton, The Vortex and Coventry. Worth seeing.

Do the leaves fall in autumn in California? That might be a daft question, but for years I assumed they did, largely based on the lyrics of 'California Dreaming'. It was only a while back I actually listened to the lyrics and realised it was about someone dreaming of being in California watching the leaves fall in somewhere like New York (yes, I know, most people will have got that in the late 60s!!!!). Perhaps the leaves fall at different times like in the rain forest so you don't get a season like in cooler climates.

The high priests at the BBC who pull out the entrails of chickens to predict the weather are promising a week of....

Well, that was jolly! Good film but I could have done with subtitles. Shakespeare's language and syntax have your brain working overtime in normal circumstances, given how quick things move. There was a fair bit of mumbling here meaning you lost bits of sentences making it even more of an effort to hold on. Perhaps I should have waited for the DVD - but then you'd lose the wide screen backdrops which were spectacular. Don't think the sun ever came out.

Salar de Uyuni, Daniel Campos, Potosí, Bolivia Pages of A Humument Watercourses of the Tuul River, Töv Province, Mongolia Pink Flamingos in flight above Lake Magadi, Kenya (you need to look hard to find the flamingos) http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/nov/04/eye-in-the-sky-awesome-aerial-views-of-earth-in-pictures

Another day, another Guardian vinyl article. Islington homes must be full of the stuff: http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/nov/04/best-vinyl-record-shops-uk-guardian-readers-tips

I saw him a month back playing with British singer Georgia Mancio and rhythm section. They've put a programme together based on Alan's tunes and Georgia's lyrics, due for recording around now and release next year. He must have played the world's grandest stages; yet he seemed just as happy playing to at most 50 of is in a leisure centre in Nottingham, above the swimming pool! Always liked his playing in Quartet West.

I loved this. Can't remember the last time I had to keep my emotional snorts under control in a cinema for most of a film...Schindler's List, perhaps. The inevitable historical telescoping - the key antagonists (Maud Watts and the nasty intelligence chap) turning up at all the key moments. But it had the good sense to confine itself to a short period (1912-13) using the Derby of 1913 as the emotional climax. I thought Carey Mulligan was brilliant in the key role. Can imagine this will get much use in British schools. I could just see the impact it would have on many of the kids I used to teach. And not just about political rights in the olden days. Meanwhile, back in the real world....

Yes, can be a bit ear-wincing at times but done well and shorn of hipsterisms can be engaging. There are a lot of jazz instrumentals that make good vocal vehicles. Here's a little known record of vocalese that I really like: British by birth, raised in Australia, but has been resident here for a long time. She wrote a fair few of the lyrics herself. Moanin' Watermelon Man Autumn Leaves Night and Day Lonely Woman Doodlin' The Sidewinder Blues on the Corner Wonderful, Wonderful And What If I Don't In fact I think I'll play that next! Have a listen to this - 'Autumn Leaves'. I love it:

Tekkin' dog for't walk in't fog*: Adam Dunlop photographed this foggy scene in Box Hill, Surrey on 1 November. Atmospheric misty day at a marina in Bristol on 1 November. Photo by Jacqui Thornycroft. http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/34700094 * Somehow doubt they talk like that around Box Hill. ********************************************************************************************* Some interesting shots of the Moscow underground: More here: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/oct/31/moscows-metro-stations-in-pictures And, by contrast, the Montreal Metro: The blue streaks are the passing trains photographed on a long time exposure. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-34679942

Il fait brouillard.

Stunning sunset at the end of BST on the Isle of Anglesey. Photographed by Don Cardy on 24 October. A misty start to Greenwich Mean Time by the River Thames at Medmenham, Buckinghamshire on 25 October. Photo by Paul Monaghan. Both at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/34638158

Thanks, Shawn. I'll give it a listen a bit later.

Well, there's a project for the next week. Hunting down the Leffe shops.

I've never really connected with Franck...apart from the violin sonata. He lies in that mid-to-late 19thC area that I find difficult to relate to. But the violin sonata is beautiful (and I'm not one to prioritise chamber music). Can't recall exactly but I there's an outline of the structure of the sonata on Wikipaedia that I found very useful the last time I listened.

Got hooked on the blonde in Belgium last week. Brought back 18 bottles of blonde, brun and ruby. Rather fancy the Xmas one!

In the bio he talks of the influence of his mother playing music like that when he was a kid. I know very little about Hockney but have enjoyed some of his recent landscape paintings; so I thought I'd find out more. Very interesting video - Hockney seems pretty down-to-earth for someone living in an anything but down-to-earth world.

I'm reading! If I'd been aware I could have been at one of those concerts - I was in London for the Proms and they fell on an empty day and an afternoon when I was free (they did three - two on the Friday and then an extra one on the Sunday). Sadly, they sold out very quickly. After Porcupine Tree, Big Big Train are the band in this area who I've enjoyed most. They write songs about hedgerows, castle builders and painters. I'm pretty sure that's illegal.

They do autumn in Belgium too: In and around Ypres.

Excellent record - I don't think it's ever made it to CD. I bought it around '73 after hearing Tippett on the King Crimson records and seeing Robert Fripp's name on the credits. Totally confounded me but over time it worked its magic. A CD would be nice - a lot of the record is very quiet, my vinyl copy very noisy! Might be a victim of the 72/73 oil crisis. There was a bit of deterioration in the quality of vinyl used on LPs of that era, which seems to be an issue with UK RCAs in my experience. Possibly. Thinking about it I think I bought it around Easter '74 which was about 8 months after the Yom Kippur War...my first 6 months at university had that whole crisis as a backdrop. I certainly recall vinyl getting thinner and more dodgy. That's when I learnt to hate it!!!!

More Guardian Vinyl Romanticism: http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/oct/28/best-uk-record-shops-chosen-by-experts Useful to anyone who fancies a holiday touring England and Wales with record shops as focal points.

Excellent record - I don't think it's ever made it to CD. I bought it around '73 after hearing Tippett on the King Crimson records and seeing Robert Fripp's name on the credits. Totally confounded me but over time it worked its magic. A CD would be nice - a lot of the record is very quiet, my vinyl copy very noisy!