BillF

It's a good one, but for me most two piano recordings are one piano too many. Generally too much effort required to figure out who's playing what and when. I'm lazy. Hope you exempt Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson from that, John! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIVJw8yX6GY

Booty Wood Dagwood Bumstead Louise Van Aarsen

Those sort of Olympian pronouncements are still around but, in general, I think much 'criticism' is far less dogmatic these days. The magazine I've read more or less constantly for the longest, Gramophone, has changed immeasurably. It used to read as if it was being written from a lofty, crenellated tower above Magdelan College. Much more polite and sensitive now. I know some prefer the 'strong opinions' approach of the likes of Larkin. I prefer to see a bit more open mindedness to the possibility that what the reviewer doesn't care for might hold attractions to others. I've never read Larkin but have often seen him bracketed with Kingsley Amis as an example of the post-WWII lower-middle class grammar school boy making his way noisily and disruptively into the 'arts' world dominated by the upper classes in Britain. Strange that the sort of dismissiveness that you see in MG's quote could have come straight off the pen of one of the elite he'd been annoying. You've really got the Larkin mode there with your "lofty, crenellated tower", Bev! He writes how "a pile of scratched coverless 78s in the attic can awaken memories of vomiting blindly from small Tudor windows to Muggsy Spanier's 'Sister Kate'". Agree with you absolutely on preferring to see open mindedness, etc. I have read Larkin - just about all of it, actually - poetry, novels, essays, biography - though you have to be a bit apologetic about this nowadays. His and Amis's stars have fallen rapidly in this more sensitive age, and we now forget their honesty, rebelliousness and fantastic literary flair. However, don't read either of them if you want to know about Charlie Parker!

Elle Fanning Seymour Butts

Larkin's views on jazz were the result of self-imposed narrow mindedness (whole areas of the music ignored and dismissed) and bravado (enjoyment of the hatchet job or eulogy and of verbal self expression). But in the times when he wrote, he wasn't so unusual. British critic Rex Harris denied that anything outside the New Orleans mode was jazz - even twenties Ellington was too modern to qualify! For eulogies, see Panassié, who also ignored vast areas of the music. Whitney Balliett sometimes seemed more interested in verbal gymnastics than jazz. All in all, there seemed to be less respect for musicians and their work and we were frequently treated to the unappealing spectacle of harsh criticism from writers who couldn't play a note themselves.

Panzer Corps Samantha the Panther Joe Puma

Buzzy Donna Lee Big Foot

Brand Hedda Gabler Talking Heads

Prince of Darkness Night Hawks Edward Hopper

Ingmar Johansson Johann Sebastian Bach Paula Backscheider

Small contribution sent.

Corky Hale http://www.jazzwax.com/2012/05/corky-hale-the-swinging-harp.html Russell Harty Farty McSimmons

I don't see any falling off in his later work, either. Mind you, nostalgia may be playing a part as some very late paintings were done on the South Wales coast at Penarth, a place I have happy memories of from my childhood. http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/arts/sites/alfred-sisley/index.shtml

Chev Off Da Ave Ava Gardner Julia Plant

Graham Sutherland landscapes at Abbot Hall Gallery, Kendal Abbot Hall's thing is 20th century English painting and their exhibitions are always excellent.

Fashionistas Tomasz Stanko

Winston Churchill Norma Winstone The Stone Roses

Hermione Baddeley The Wicked Witch Alan Whicker

Chuck Berry Percy Thrower Lobby Lud

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/23/albert-murray

Midnight Cowboy Captain Midnight Captain Marvel

Ella Speed Mistress Quickly Zippy

Wayne Shorter Shorts McConnell Diedrich Knickerbocker