A Lark Ascending

Lots of nice things yesterday. Highlight was Maz O'Connor, a young singer and guitarist whose records I've been besotted with over the last couple of years. A really talented songwriter - interesting chord choices, clearly a natural. Beautiful voice with those grace notes that bewitched me with Sandy Denny all those decades ago. Good sets from Whapweasel (dance music from England with rock and roots flavouring... Included two saxophonists who smiled which I found odd), Nancy Kerr (a rising young thing not that long ago, now a inspirational singer and writer to the current generation) and close harmony singing from a The Devil's Interval - a trio from a decade back now major names in their own right.

Lots yesterday. Started with a 50 piece orchestra of pensioners playing folk tunes in strict tempo (yeah baby, like cool dudes, man). Then Mawkin - great young band picking up the folk-rock and punk folk mantle without the lumbering rhythms. Some fine young Scots in the afternoon playing songs and tunes. Highlight was the great John Kirkpatrick with his one man show of the songs of the two wars. Instead of the usual folky approach that follows the WarPoets/60s anti-war narrative, he based it round the songs the Tommies and their families actually sang with a focus on their endurance and sense of duty rather than the pity of war. Never thought I'd find myself in a room full of baby boomers raised on Dylan and The Stones singing along with Flanagan and Allen and Vera Lynn songs.

Pete Townshend - Who Am I? Enjoyable if somewhat narcissistic auto-bio. Elizabeth George - With No one as Witness Probably my favourite of the detective writers. Wonderful characterisation, dense plots...after the first two or three in the series where she was still finding her feet, every book is an absolute forest of plots and sub-plots. Strong sense of place too - you would never guess the author was American, her depiction of contemporary Britain being so convincing. I even find myself drawn to the aristocratic leading characters, wonderfully contrasted with the pop-tart eating rogue sidekick. The covers make these books look like they are frothy - 'great art ('darling')' they may not be but if you enjoy thrillers and police procedural novels these are highly recommended. Start 3 or 4 in and then go back to the first few if you get hooked. Robert Goddard - The Ways of the World. Had to give up on this after 150 pages. I've read a fair few of his historical mysteries over the years - often good holiday yarns even though the characters are stereotyped and the plots full of improbable twists. I can't care at all for the characters in this one who are so cardboard. I knew Goddard in the 70s - we were on the same teacher training course. He never seemed a natural for state education and I'm glad he's found success as a writer - even then I remember him talking about historical fiction well before his first novel. Ha-Joon Chang - 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism - the one area of history I've always struggled with is economic history. Too many variables - I've got my head round one and another comes along and I lose the plot. This is easily the clearest book on economics I've ever read. Demonstrates with good humour and no anti-capitalist venom how the total free marketeers have controlled the narrative since the mid-70s...and the huge flaws in that narrative. Written in the last days of New Labour the assumptions are even more the driving force under the newly unshackled Cameron/Osborne government. I can't imagine they would have read this! Looking forward to reading his more general economics primer.

Que? ........... Tim Eriksen and Jeff Warner - 'traditional' music mainly from the eastern coast and Appalachians of the USA. First came across Eriksen here in Sidmouth a couple of years back - proved one of the most rewarding discoveries of recent years. Rich, cobwebbed harmony.

Steve Tilston - wizard guitar player and singer/songwriter who has been around as long as I've been listening. But I'd never caught him before. Lovely relaxed concert in the sitting room of a hotel for pensioners on the Devon seafront. I have found my spiritual home.

Excellent concert in Exeter last night. As far as I can tell a new 2 hour piece 'A Bigger Show' (not sure if it was up scaled from smaller units). Westbrook as I like him best - 21 piece band, lots of soloing, great orchestration, interesting lyrics (well sung by the three vocalists). Nice to see the return of textures like the two electric guitars. Lots of highlights - Alan Wakeman in excelsis, a tremendous alto/pocket trumpet double improv from Roz Harding and Dave Houldsworth (also leading the sousaphone revival). Hope the recording went well - due out in Oct according to the flyer. Still a couple more dates in the West Country - highly recommended to those in range.

Spent the weekend at the tip of Cornwall - heavy rain and wind at night but nice walking weather in the day. Just moved to a hill further north above Wadebridge and there's a bloody gale . Great fun putting the tent up. There's a fair chance I might be blown to Sidmouth for Thursday. Nothing quite like an English summer...apart from November.

I was daft enough to store them in my loft...just in case. Got rid of a few hundred at Easter. Will make a serious effort to recycle in the next month or so.

Mine are 13cm wide. Easily takes standard CDs and the standard inner sleeve - I often have 2 or 3 in one. I think they are bigger than the ones you indicate - you can get 100 for £3.00 to just try out: http://www.jetmedia.co.uk/popprods.htm?Product=JWAPP100-4&popup=popup I originally had some very tight ones bought in Wilcos or somewhere similar. These are much better. It can't fit the back artwork which usually flaps over the spine of the jewel box. I just fold it over once. I can see why that might worry some people, especially when thinking of resale value.

This one here. I'm sure I ordered 3000 a couple of years back but it says 4000: http://www.jetmedia.co.uk/popprods.htm?Product=JWAPPBASIC-10&popup=popup

Thematically. I use CD jewel cases with a sticker on to mark different performers or areas of music. So I have a 'Stan Tracey' followed by 20+ Cds in sleeves; then 'Peter King' etc. I have sections like 'Swiss Jazz' or 'French Folk'. If they start getting big then I alphabetise - 'English Contemporary A-D'. Everything is quickly findable.

I dumped all my jewel boxes a few years back and went to plastic sleeves. Ripped up a lot of cardboard multiple CD holders too. I too was conflicted at the start. But I've never looked back and saved acres of space. I mainly download now (though I still burn a CD-r and make a functional sleeve (daft, I know). The thing that made me jump was when I faced up to the fact that however beautiful CD packaging might be (and it can often be very lovely) I generally only looked at it once or twice. I keep the inserts for CDs; generally download information can be easily found online (not essays but musician info). I've still to make the final move to playing straight from a designated streamer connected to a giant hard disc. Maybe when I move over the next year.

Two enjoyable thrillers from series I've followed a while: And a history book:

Yes, one of the most exciting jazz performances I ever saw (and heard) was the 'Four Johns' quartet in the early noughties at Cheltenham - Taylor, Surman, Marshall and honourary John, Chris Laurence. One of those rare occasions when I was just bubbling over with excitement and could hardly keep to my seat.

I'm not qualified to judge it musically. But if you take my starting point as someone whose greatest love in Miles lies in the 1955-68-ish bands, then this is a set of sessions I really enjoy despite being far from those approaches. You can't listen to it as a 'complete work' and there are inevitable repetitions (though not nearly as much as on the Jack Johnson box). But I go back to it more than the live boxes from that era. And, personally, I think 'He Loved Him Madly' is as as good as anything Miles ever recorded. Taste some of it on Spotify or the equivalent - you'll then know if you want to commit to something more permanent.

Terrible! One of my favourite musicians (in any genre!). I can't count the times he's given me pleasure in concert (not to mention on record). Saw him in Sheffield back in January in a wonderful trio - he was in superb form. A dreadful loss. RIP

One possible way of getting that one is to buy a Miles 'Trumpet Case' box from Popsike when a good deal comes up on it, trade the rest of it and keep the 'On The Corner' box ! One possible way of getting that one is to buy a Miles 'Trumpet Case' box from Popsike when a good deal comes up on it, trade the rest of it and keep the 'On The Corner' box ! That's actually a brilliant idea. The Trumpet Case set can be gotten for $425 on ebay right now, where the Corener box is going for $220 on Amazon. But I'll wait and hope for a relatively low price reissue at some point. 'Complete on the Corner' is available very cheaply as a download (less than £20 in the UK). It can also be listened to in full on Spotify (in the UK at least). If you want to hear it (as opposed to own a physical product) those options are there until a sensible reissue comes along. I have no problem with the sound on the download (health warning - I'm a dedicated downloader/streamer so don't have issues over sound quality!) I never cared much for 'On the Corner' - heard it very late in the day (though I did know and very much like some of the material from those sessions that came out on other compilations). But set in the context of this set it is a wonderful experience. Anyone with a taste for 70 Miles will get a lot from the collection.

I read that a couple of years back. It was superb! Excellent on the causes and background (though given how disputed historical interpretation is I'm not sure how it fits with more recent scholarship) as well as the conflict itself. The one thing I did need was a separate book with more maps in - my geography of the US only goes so far. This was good. It also acted as a recap when I'd gone hazy on sequences of events I read earlier in the book: There are books that are specifically atlases that might be even more useful.

Last Days in Vietnam (BBC4) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b062mbng Excellent documentary about the events of April 1975 in Saigon from the US/South Vietnamese perspective. Done in the old fashioned way I prefer - original footage, testimony from eyewitnesses. No celebrity or has-been politician leaping about in front as part of their career portfolio. Never realised the famous picture of the queue on the stairs climbing onto a helicopter was from the suburbs and not the embassy.

Needed that after Shawn's shots of LA earlier. I could not live without green. I thought this was gorgeous: Poznan, Poland: The Milky Way above the old oaks at the Rogalin Landscape Park http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2015/jul/17/photo-highlights-of-the-day-fires-in-greece-to-floods-in-scotland

I can only imagine a lot of kids are getting chased off Neil Young's (presumably many acred) lawn at present.

Doubt if she has much of a presence outside the UK (even here she's better known in the North) but I've loved listening to Nikki Iles on disc and live since the early 90s. Out of the Bill Evans/John Taylor strand of piano jazz (can't see her making a jazz tribute to Black Sabbath CD in the near future) - would be enjoyed, I suspect, by those taken by Lynne Arriale.

Fortunately I don't need one in the near future.

My last 160 cost me £179. The iPod Touch 128 is priced at £329 on the Apple site. Of course, in time prices may drop.

Seems to be almost twice the price of the Classic but good to know I can replace a damaged iPod and manage music on the move the way that works for me.