A Lark Ascending

I'd forgotten he was there last year.

I'd like to hear that. There are some funny stories of Spedding not fitting in with the jazz musicians he was playing with in the early 70s. Lovely one about the Mike Gibbs band where tensions were rising. The band turned up for a gig all dressed down. Spedding arrives in a pink suit!

Desperate fight to secure the copyright on 'Happy Birthday'. Could there be a better illustration of greed?

Some lovely early days of autumn shots from The Guardian website: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/gallery/2015/sep/23/first-day-of-autumn-in-pictures-autumnal-equinox You've been able to see the leaves changing over the last week or so. I was in Sheffield yesterday and the place was alive with freshers queuing up to register for university - the season and those (very, very young) kids really stirred the memory pot. http://www.theguardian.com/world/picture/2015/sep/24/eyewitness-autumn-equinox-penrith-cumbria

Actually went to the cinema for the first time in about 10 years this afternoon (a wonderful feeling knowing a former colleague was teaching my nice but awkward Y10s (now Y11s) whilst I relaxed!): A lovely film of a marriage rapidly unravelling when the past catches up. Especially liked the scenery of a gloomy, overcast Norfolk. I lived there for 6 months at the end of 1977 and it looked exactly as in the film. Had quite forgotten how much better things look on a large screen.

Merci - will keep that one in mind.

'Happy Birthday' ruled out of copyrightOutrageous! Now we'll never get that Bear Family box with all the alternates.

All from the BBC Weather site, taken in recent days by various contributors: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/34314695 Symondsbury, Dorest. Looks like it wants to be Thailand! Oxford Circus London Lewes, East Sussex Wharfedale, North Yorkshire

You hear a fair number of Kenny Wheeler tunes played by British jazz musicians - I think 'Everybody's Song But Not My Own' is the one that is most common. But I doubt if it's a standard in the sense of musicians just turning up and playing it. But given that most musicians work off sheet music these days I'd imagine they could work up a performance pretty quickly.

Simon, Can't recall where you are based...thought it might be London. If so or somewhere that way keep an eye out for a band called The Long Hill Ramblers from Brighton. They are British, playing a bluegrassy/old time style. Now that can often be a recipe for OK. But a couple of things make this lot special. The fiddle player, Ben Paley is the son Tom Paley, of one of the founders of the New Lost City Ramblers who were a big influence in the American folk revival of the late 50s/early 60s. He moved to Britain in the 60s and is still recording today. Ben just seems to have this music in his bones. The other remarkable feature is singer Laura Hockenhull. I think she's originally from a folk music family up in Yorkshire but is the partner of one of the current generation on The Copper Family and so is firmly ensconced in the folk/roots scene around Brighton. There are no American accents or mannerisms in her singing - she just sings this very American music in her natural voice. What brought her to mind was your mention of Sandy Denny - like Denny she has a beautiful way with grace notes. Doesn't seem to tour much and has no solo record I'm aware of - I suspect being a young mother might explain that - but she has one of the most arresting voices I've heard in a while. I saw the Ramblers at the Sidmouth Festival last year and was so bewitched I went back again two days later. They seem to play London every once in a while. Their album is excellent and sits nicely alongside Alison Krauss; less glossy but equally as pleasureable. Would go down well at the upcoming Tory Party Conference!

Thanks for the tip, kinuta. I thought this was excellent. Not at all what I expected. Rather 'A Christmas Carol'! And very pertinent to current events. Ken Stott is one of my favourite actors - like Kenneth Moore, Pill Patterson and Bill Nighy, I always feel safe when they are on screen! I've never read any Priestley but can see I need to correct that. What I would like to get my hands on is a long programme he did in 1960 about 1940. I had it on video but it got chewed up. Very much English mythology but only 15 years after the event that's hardly surprising. I don't think I've seen anything on those events with so much contemporary footage - Priestley is there as a voice guiding you, not jumping around in front of the cameras all the time. Talking of which, a couple of nights back: Operation Mincemeat - BBC doc from some time back I found on my digibox, based on the best seller. Vaguely knew about this but found the details fascinating. A bit sceptical about the 'this one deception changed the course of the war' angle but TV documentaries tend to need angles like that. Suffered a bit from the 'what do we show on the screen whilst the tale is being told?' problem - so some rather silly reconstructions. But overall a good programme. For some reason I've completely missed 'This Is England' - will wait for the DVDs to appear in a few weeks and hire from Lovefilm. I need a good, lengthy series to get my teeth into having found nothing that caught my fancy since I finished The Good Wife and House of Cards. All recommendations welcome!

The highlight for me of this excellent disc... ...is Chambers version of Janet Jackson's 'Come Back to Me'. I don't know the original but it make a great vehicle for a jazz performance here. I often hear versions of more contemporary songs on vocal records and in performance - Norma Winstone regular sings things from the likes of Joni Mitchell, Randy Newman and Peter Gabriel. Nick Drake Songs...especially 'Riverman'...often appear too - I think that like with Joni, the chords work well for jazz. Which is not often the case with music from a rock or folk background - to make them interesting for improvising over a lot has to be done to the harmony and often the tendency is to straighten out the irregularities. Which means you often lose complete sight of the original song. I found that with the Herbie Hancock 'New Standards' album of 15 or so years ago. Having said that, these are often one offs rather than standards. Even 'Riverman' has a way to go before it catches up with 'Body and Soul'.

Wonderful singer. Tends towards the more sentimental on her solo albums; but on the Union Station albums I feel the balance is just right.

I assume you are being ironic.

I'm afraid there's still no image. I also watched The Go Between. I thought it was a straightforward, satisfactory version that would be sufficient to stand in it's own right providing you hadn't seen the 1971 Joseph Losey/ Harold Pinter version, which is much superior. The supporting cast were good but my main problem was the rather lifeless Joanna Vanderham, not in the same league as Julie Christie, and the tepid portrayal of her relationship with the fancy man: agree about the voguish ripped torsos, glistening with sweat. The camerman was way too enamoured by overuse of lens flare. If you liked it, I'd very much recommend finding the Losey/Pinter/Christie/Bates version. I was quite disappointed as I really love the original and was eager to see a different take on it. An Inspector Calls is easily the best of the three so far. Not seen The Inspector Calls. Will try and catch it on iPlayer given your recommendation. Given that Julie Christie was in the original The Go Between I'm surprised I haven't seen it!

Sad to hear. I really liked his 'Reverie' album from the 70s and he did a lovely free-ish album a few years back called 'Rue Victor Masse' as well as playing on at least one of Tony Levin's albums. He's also on Nick Drake's ' Bryter Layter'. RIP

Add to 'being cultured' list: Not being impressed by Oscar PetersonIn fact one of the defining signs of 'being cultured' is being unimpressed by a lot of things.

You've got to give it to Morrison, he must love performing beneath that gruff exterior. Incredibly hard working. The slightly younger Richard Thompson is another who just keeps on going. They can't need the money at this stage.

Don't they speak ancient Celt where you are? Suppressed elsewhere by the Anglo-Saxons! The list is of course silly - I can't quite work out if the researchers came up with it or if it was made up from responses to their survey. It's the main article I find interesting - the idea that your 'Normans', instead of using 'Culture' and 'Art' to exclude the masses are now welcoming the masses in as long as they admire it on their terms (i.e. keeping power in their hands). I'm not sure it's that recent a phenomena - after all the original Reithian briefing of the BBC included 'educating' and the Third Programme (now Radio 3) made quite clear what people needed educating about (lots of string quartets but let's keep that jazz stuff to a minimum). You can see something parallel going on in the machinations of our political leaders at present. Out go the traditional or sociological class demarcations of old. We now have two classes - The Hard Working Family; and the Scroungers and their Apologists. By encouraging the middle 60% to believe that they are part of the first group and need to despise the second, attention is deflected from themselves hanging onto their privileges and extending them. So by encouraging all those Hard Working Families to embrace 'our' culture there's no danger of it ever being taken away. There was a good recent example of rallying everybody to 'our' culture in defence of 'God Save The Queen'.

Add to 'being cultured' list: Don't watch TVDespise shopping

Ah, but you're at a disadvantage for being American. So you start on 10, giving you a final score of 24, well ahead on me! Now if you were French you'd start at -10 because you'd have assumed from birth that you are an intellectual. [Health warning - one of those smileys denoting the tongue-in-cheek nature of those assertions...if we could add 'refusing to use smileys' to the list I could pump up my score to 17!]

Yes, typical pub list. And rather Anglo-centric. Watching cricket? I suppose watching cricket if you live in Finland would be a sign of cultural elitism. In this day and age watching football or supporting a team ought to be there. Of course there are multiple cultures within every country. The kids in the area where I used to work are every bit as concerned to align themselves to a prevailing culture but I doubt if they'd recognise many of those points as things to aspire towards. But I think the main article says some very pertinent things about the cultural assumptions that drive a lot of decision making in the BBC, Arts Council etc. One thing that has changed in that 'elite' cultural world-view can be seen in the Guardian website. Up until a few months back there were separate tabs in the music area for folk and jazz. They seem to be gone - the only options are 'classical' (what the elite are taught to admire in a particular way at their expensive schools) and 'Music' which is dominated by pop/rock, especially in its more alternative forms (what the elite choose to do when they are not placing their vitals in dead pigs' heads).

Oh yes... We can’t leave it to the elite to decide who’s cultured The list referred to in the article is as follows. I think they missed 'listening to folk/jazz/blues/world music' and 'affecting a preference for dead maestros over living musicians': I scored 16! On my way to being cultured it would seem!

Sorry, didn't notice the image did not appear. Think it's there now. A DVD hired from Lovefilm.

Not quite landscapes but elements thereof: Berlin, Germany: Water droplets glisten on grass in Tiergarten, one of the capital’s largest parks http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2015/sep/18/photo-highlights-of-the-day The British Wildlife Photography Awards 2015 winners: Overall winner and habitat category: Barrie Williams, 'On the Edge', northern gannets, Shetland Isles, Scotland http://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2015/sep/14/the-british-wildlife-photography-awards-2015-winners-in-pictures That last one immediately has me thinking of Pink Floyd's 'Echoes'.