A Lark Ascending

A short set of interviews. Found in this wonderful second hand bookshop in Cromford near Matlock: Also found three of the excellent BBC Music Guides for £1.50 each. Long out of print. Now I've finished sailing the seas over the centuries with the British navy I'm on to: Napoleon's just crossed the frontier and headed for the Prussians. A really good read - detailed but so far hasn't got bogged down in the minutiae of regiments etc.

Thanks, Bill. I will next time I'm over that way.

The southern Pennines at the high point between Sheffield and Manchester on Friday. Lovely sight on a late-summer day; rather scary when driving back on a mid-winter night. George Osborne's Northern Powerhouse (formerly known as Manchester). Not sure how many minimum wage hard-working families live in the flats round the quays (or can afford the tickets to The Lowry that we middle class types eat up). Eee, it warn't like this when I were a lad. Journey back across the Peak District from Manchester to Nottingham: Middle one there is Arkwright's first mill at Cromford from the 1770s, now claimed (amongst other competing sites) as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. I cut my teeth there as a young teacher taking history field trips in 1980. Despite lots of promises and lots of money it's still in much the same dilapidated state as 35 years ago...except it has tea shops, places to buy lavender smelly things and a few people in fancy dress spinning. Very nice to walk by the canal though which seems to have more trees than I remember.

A Fairport/Thompson connection you might have missed: Came out a couple of years back. The Rails are James Walbourne and Kami Thompson, the latter being Richard and Linda's daughter. Very good debut album with strong echoes of the R&L albums of the 70s. Kami sounds very much like mum, especially on the harmony vocals. Not quite the ache but there's time. Where what I've heard of her brother has passed my by, I think Kami has something. Very much a finding your feet and showing your influences record - there's a couple here that could have come off Henry the Human Fly. The songs written very deliberately in a folk style are probably just a little too formulaic. But an entertaining record all round showing promise for the future.

A weekend with fellow codgers (on and off-stage). Friday: King Crimson in Manchester (blathered about elsewhere) Saturday: Richard Thompson in Nottingham. Another excellent evening. Standard format - a lot of the latest album (which is good!), healthy sprinkling of back catalogue, solo acoustic section in the middle. Personally I wish he'd retire the chestnuts - Vincent, Wall of Death etc - but if you've not heard him live before then these will probably be highlights. Highlight for me was one of his best recent songs, the nostalgic 'Guitar Heroes' with it's vignettes of the people who inspired him. His guitar playing is as astounding as ever and the reason I turn out again and again. Interesting how some of the humdrum album tracks of recent years ('Hard On Me') become really blazing songs in the live context. I wonder if the fact he plays live so much means that the indifference of such melodies get lost in the excitement of the performance leading to them getting recorded. The trio format suits him well - some of those bands with lots of players in the 80s crowded out the sound. And yet...I'd still like to hear him with a quintet of more folky inclined musicians at lower volume revisiting the Sufi-Ceilidh band years of the mid-70s,

Excellent King Crimson's Greatest Hits concert in Manchester on Saturday. LTIA1, Pictures of a City, Easy Money, The Letters, Sailor's Tale, Starless, Epitaph (amongst others) ... and both ITCOTCK and 21st Century Schizoid Man for encores. Making up just over 2 hours. Very faithful renditions with real effort to get all the finer details of the original arrangements in (especially in the mellotron parts (which look like they were played on some modern gizmo that did a very good impression of the mellotron)). Lacked the lengthy exploratory improv's that marked the band at its height - most of that was handled by the three drummers who were superb moving from powerful rock drumming to more delicate gamelan like sections. Very much the visual focus of the band, sat along the front with the reeds/bass and two guitars on a platform behind. Fripp as distinctive as ever but, as has been the case since the 70s, reluctant to stand forward, preferring to be part of the overall texture. But that utterly unique guitar style could be heard loud and clear. No new ground broken and probably utterly bewildering to anyone with no knowledge of them. But a great pleasure for anyone who has enjoyed their music down the years. A bit like going to see Very Lynn in the 70s (but with Schizoid Man standing in for White Cliffs of Dover). Full setlist: Not very impressed Guardian review of an earlier concert here: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/sep/10/king-crimson-review-hackney-empire-london-return Gushy fanboy review of the Manchester concert here: http://andrewkeelingcomposer.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/king-crimson-lowry-centre-manchester.html

Very good news, Roger. Been wanting to hear those for a long time. Thanks for the alert.

Michael Janisch's Paradigm Shift in Nottingham Michael Janisch (double and electric bass) Jason Yarde, Paul Booth (reeds), Alex Bonney (trumpet, electronics), Cédric Hanriot (piano and keyboards) Colin Stranahan (drums). Excellent, intense concert from this American bass player who seems to be based here in the UK. Intricate originals full of choppy metre changes, shifting between the acoustic and more electric soundscapes - the final piece sounded like one of those smeared early Weather Report pieces with the horns playing an ill-defined theme whilst the electric bass provided much of the melodic focus. Excellent soloing from all - never come across Hanriot before but he was marvellous. Jason Yarde was his usual incendiary self. Paul booth great on tenor - and opened the first piece with a didgeridoo - don't think I've seen that before in a jazz concert. Excellent solo version of 'Donna Lee' on the latter (actually I made that up). What Tangerine Dream used to do on huge racks of synths Alex Bonney can now do on a laptop and a few gizmos on a table top. Amazing the energy of the band considering they only just arrived in time after a 14 hour journey from Seville! The Guardian was less impressed by an earlier concert: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/sep/04/michael-janischs-paradigm-shift-review-curios-vortex On a lengthy UK tour to the end of the year. Worth catching if they are in your area - they probably are! Dates: http://www.michaeljanisch.com/live/

A couple of new releases to 'celebrate' the death of Louis XIV in 1715: And one of those great slab box sets collecting previously released music: I have a completely unmusical (well, not completely) interest in this stuff having spent way to much time in Louis' company in the 80s and 90s (1980s and 90s, that is). Really like the ballet music which seems to jump between the graceful/'classical' and the rustic. Brings my 'classical' and 'folky' sides together. Looking forward to the first - I suspect I have a few things on the second but I imagine most will be unfamiliar so at the £27 asking price am likely to take the chance.

Mine too. When I was dabbling with jazz in 1976 this was one of the records that made me want to look further.

Love and Betrayal in India: The White Mughal (BBC 4) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/18SDBJqWwgc7VLDM7MhGK2S/a-love-story-that-broke-the-conventional-boundaries-of-empire Intriguing story of an early 19th C love affair and marriage between an officer/diplomat in the East India Company and an Indian princess and its political repercussions. Presented by William Dalrymple (and based on his book), an historian who I've yet to read anything by (I have The Last Mughal on the shelf waiting!). Want to explore him having attended an educational conference workshop a couple of years back where his work was used as a means of presenting an alternative view of the British Empire. Dalrymple did a wonderful job in rubbishing Michael Gove's preconceptions when he attempted to singlehandedly re-write the English history national curriculum a few years back. Loved this bit which he ended the programme on:

Mainly overcast but no rain. The odd bit of evening sunshine which is incredibly mood-enhancing when it appears. Definitely the feel of autumn in the air - that slight coolness, a bit damp, earlier nights. Saw a beautiful flight of geese (or something of that ilk) fly south cawing yesterday. Woke this morning to see a huge stork descend on a neighbour's TV aerial. Don't know if storks fly south.

Not sure if this is fog, mist or just twilight gloom.

One I took at the weekend - The tropical storm Grace over the far-eastern Atlantic, as seen from the International Space Station Source And one from my gap year: Source

New stone monument found by Durrington Walls near Stonehenge. http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/sep/07/stonehenge-archaeology-ritual-arena-neolithic-monument Picture would make a nice album cover. Liked that one too. http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/sep/10/stonehenge-teeming-chapels-shrines-archaeology-research

Passes the time but this may be a case of much of the humour getting lost in translation. I'm not sure if this post-dated Britain's 'The Thick of It' - the latter is much more acidic.

I know this one it controversial here; but I liked his interpretation of how 'The Blues' were constructed out of a selective survey of the past. Interesting to read it alongside the Keith Richards bio where the latter is very much part of the process of popularising some of the mythology.

Australian jazz is one of the best kept secrets in jazz: [Tried to post link to thread but it insists on presenting my first post from 12 years ago! If interested, click 'Australian Jazz' at the top]

Eclectic tastes? I'm just a butterfly. Flit from one thing to another.

Cotopaxi, Ecuador http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/sep/05/the-20-photographs-of-the-week

I love your Finnish and Norwegian jazz sections! Jealous But I notice I've misfiled some!!!! Crisis!!!! I switched to plastic sleeves a couple of years ago, and it's worked out well, except for one thing - it's hell when you misfile something. It's happened a couple of times, but I've always been able to find my mistakes eventually. Yes, I have had that problem. Often it is a case of absentmindedly putting a disc back on the shelf above or below where it should be. Can be a bugger if you really want to hear something...and once you know you can't find it you REALLY want to hear it.

This is how I organise things. Been like this a few years now and don't miss the old way: As mentioned above Digipacks are waved from the repocketing.

Nice shot.

Just the mp3 - my ears don't distinguish. Came as a standard folder that took a couple of minutes to download; then just needed extracting (took a few seconds). Another good thing about this recording is that it retains Mike's long spoken introductions to both parts, describing the origins of the piece and explaining how the music was built from one chord in particular and a sequence of melodic ideas (rather 'Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra' with illustrations from the musicians). The sort of thing that would almost certainly have been omitted from a commercial release.

Listened to 'After Smith's Hotel' this afternoon - admirers of Westbrook can safely purchase. Although a live recording presumably never intended for release it sounds excellent. Very good job done bringing it to release. Good to hear the music (and excellent soloing) much of which we know from elsewhere. The 2 LP/CD 'On Duke's Birthday' had some of these pieces - the difference there was the dominant voice of the violin. Here it's the standard orchestra sound. If you liked that era of Westbrook - The Cortege, On Duke's Birthday, London Bridge - then I think you'll want to hear this.