A Lark Ascending

I really like the bagpipes. But that might be because my listening context involves a lot of British folk music - Scottish, Irish, Northumbrian - and, to a lesser extent, European folk music where bagpipes feature. I love hearing his completely different way of using them. Talking of contexts, he did a marvellous record with Scottish concertina player Simon Thoumire. Last year I was at a small concert with melodeon god, Andy Cutting, who was extolling Thoumire's virtues and willingness to play in all sorts of contexts outside the folk world. But, he warned us, steer clear of the 'free jazz' record he made. It's awful! Dunmall has recorded a huge amount - whether that is any more over-recording than Evan Parker or Anthony Braxton, I'm not sure. Putting out zillions of discs seems to be a particular thing with free jazz (well it was until bands in every genre realised they could put out every concert they'd ever played as a CD!). I've always assumed it's because they see themselves documenting the in-the-moment music rather than trying to make definitive statements. Makes it hard to get a grip on the musician in overview but you can just dip in here and there.

Rained all weekend...cold this morning but has really warmed up now. Maybe summer is here.

Cambridge? Oxford? Milton Keynes? Very nice - looks Aztec or one of those central American ancient civilisations.

I'm intrigued by the practicality of having your earphones connected to your wrist. A bugger when gardening or scrambling around coastal footpaths (not to mention International House Cleaning Day).

Yet it was nowhere to be seen in Bath or Salisbury a couple of weeks back. Have ordered from Amazon - saving it for the summer hols to read, though.

I really like this one: Probably not for those who prefer their free jazz paint stripping. He talks in the article I mentioned above about time spent with a spiritual group ultimately ending up working with Alice Coltrane at one point. That gives the reference to this. Can be heard here:

Good record me neither been an dedicated Gidon Kremer follower nor too fond about Weinberg I`ve participated @ concerts no 1+2 of folllowing festival http://www.festwochen.at/programmdetails/hommage-an-mieczyslaw-weinberg/ yesterday. As said performances left some deep impressions with me, this buy was something of a follow-up .... I couldn't tell Kremer from John Luc Ponty (though I could tell him from Dave Swarbrick). But I like Weinberg. Wish we had programmes like that here in the English provinces! I know, Vienna (like London) is a major cultural centre. Different rules apply to programming.

A bit small but the full size version can be seen here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-33069418#1 At first I thought it must be the WWI battlefield area of Flanders but I think that's just a trail in the snow.

My watch (Casio) costs about £8. It will break sometime in the next couple of years (usually when I break the seal replacing the battery and then moisture leaks in). At that point I'll buy another one...probably for £9. The watch is essential in my day job...timing things within a lesson is vital. On the few occasions that I've been without it's been like having my legs chopped off.

I really like this one from about 15 years ago: I like it when he drifts off into those countryside/seasonal reveries.

Good record

I imagine this award is for his Classic FM oratorios rather than his jazz beginnings. They're not my cup of tea but all praise to him for writing music people enjoy listening to and want to sing. I think he's a staple of amateur choirs.

I'll buy an Apple Watch when my heli-pack arrives. I wonder if this is also linked into the streaming service. Cut us off from our iPods so we subscribe there.

Van is a puzzle for me. His music rarely ventures very far from a standard soul/R'n'B/blues formula (occasional dashes of folk etc dropped in), his lyrics are often quite trite and for much of his later career quite misanthropic...and yet I love listening to him. There must be something in that voice. Even today when the range has reduced considerably I still get great pleasure from his records...just as well as I seem to have a lot of them. I was listening to this in the car this evening: Self absorbed? Moi? Reading all that Blake and Yeats doesn't seem to have had much influence!

Short but interesting interview from 2000 here: http://www.mindyourownmusic.co.uk/paul-dunmall-interview.htm Explains where the 'spiritual' side came from.

It's also regular in job applications. 'I am passionate about the teaching of history....' It's all part of that Saturday night talent show zeitgeist of 'reaching for the stars', 'dreaming your dreams' blah blah blah. I'm always more comfortable with understatement.

Paul Dunmall gets mentioned frequently in various threads but doesn't seem to have had much comment in his own thread. There are two that the search engine pull up so I've gone for the slightly longer one. I've known Dunmall's music since the early 80s when I saw him with Spirit Level and then bumped into him on and off over the years, especially with the Mujician recordings (and one extraordinary performance at Bath). Over the last year I've found myself listening to him a lot, largely because he's made many of his DUNS recordings freely available in a couple of places (try Youtube). At least that's how I understand it. He's usually praised for his power and prodigious technique. But what I've found myself drawn to is the enormous range of his approaches. There's a lot of music of incredible delicacy and some that seems to come from strong spiritual beliefs (not my outlook on life at all but the music that comes out of it is very engaging). Given his catalogue is immense, wondered if people had some favourites (to add to the above). Individual recordings with a few words about why preferred over lists.

Here Comes The Knight http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33109755

Will do.

I've booked my ticket for Barnfield. And will purchase a copy of the album in advance.

There's a link to this within the link Bill F posted but you might miss it: http://www.theguardian.com/music/gallery/2015/jun/11/ornette-coleman-life-in-pictures Also a Richard Williams article: http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/jun/11/ornette-coleman-ourage-and-rightness

Let's hope so. Now if they can just spend some of their money hiring people to tag their downloads/streams with more precision. I must own no more than 30 records that I call reggae. But using the tags provided by the sites I've got hundreds! I know; music beyond the immediately popular (except, perhaps, classical) is seen as a low revenue stream so not worth taking much time over archiving sensibly. We should be grateful it is there...somewhere.

Absolutely. I'd say the kids I teach are much sharper than I was at their age (not more or less intelligent...but sharper). They don't automatically absorb the cultural prejudices handed down by their elders (although they have the same trouble we all did resisting the cultural onslaught of big business). I would now like to announce the prize winner: 'Art'.

Very sad. Beautiful music and a wonderful role model. Personifies asymmetrical music for me.

If it's a streaming approach that way, fine. Just as long as you can access the music you want some other way...by CD, download, cylinder disc, whatever. It's the idea of music being exclusively locked into one system with the only means of access being buying a subscription to the whole site that I fear. I don't have satellite/cable TV...but I can wait for the DVD to appear and then rent. But if it all gets reduced to a few players, who know where exclusivity will go.