BillF

Tel Sid Hissing Sid Captain Beaky Schnozzle Durante Chester Conklin Nostrildamus

Now there's a fine player - sadly no longer with us. Saw him on one occasion (about 3 decades ago) with Humph (Kathy Stobart was on baritone, Mike Pyne on piano and Kenny Baldock on bass I think). Didn't he get tagged as a 'dirty bopper' by the Fygges? He certainly did! But then he did study with Tristano!!!

For Dancers Only (Lunceford/Oliver) The Kerry Dancers (Trad) Dahomey Dance (Coltrane) I Could Have Danced All Night Dance Sessions (Basie) Next word: LIE

Bernard Punsly Bobby Jordan Gabriel Dell Rudy Vallée Valentine Dyall Phil Fone

Its style seems to be international. Mansfield is a long way from London, but it looks the same to my eyes:

Abraham Moss Besses o' th' Barn Pomona http://www.metrolink.co.uk/pdf/Services_Map.pdf

Last night: Alan Barnes (alt, clt, bar) and Amy Roberts (alt, clt, flt) with the Tom Kincaid Trio at Wilmslow. Amy Roberts is an amazingly talented 22-year-old student at Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester who has already appeared with the Chris Barber band. A great clarinettist and her forceful alto playing takes me back to the sound of Bruce Turner. http://www.chrisbarber.net/bb-roberts.htm

Ken Clarke's Jazz Greats from BBC Radio 4: Joe Henderson

Arthur English, Prince of the Wide Boys Ivor Broadbottom Arsène Wenger

Have You Met Miss Jones? Stompy Jones (Ellington) The Jones Boys (Thad) Keepin' Up With the Joneses (Thad, etc) Tones for Joan's Bones (Corea) Next word: CAT

Lee Hallam and Duncan Winfield (trombones) with the Gerry Tomlinson Trio at Whitefield yesterday afternoon. Played Jay & Kay charts, standards and a composition by a fellow trombonist based on "Killer Joe" called "Guerrilla Joe".

Johnny Mars Venus Williams Sol Yaged

Blondie Alastair Brunette Ginger Baker

WKCR Jazz Profiles: Mark Murphy

Black Nightgown (Mandel/Mulligan) Black Bottom Stomp (Morton) Black Beauty (Ellington) Black and Tan Fantasy (Ellington) Black Nile (Wayne Shorter) Next word: WHITE

Geoff Mulgan Gerry Mulligan Mungo Jerry

Jazz Record Requests from BBC Radio 3 Now playing: Greg Abate, "Living the Dash" from Evolution

Mucky Alice Jan Smuts Norman Fowler

Sid and Doris Bonkers Crazy Otto Marty Wilde

Sister Sadie (Silver) Serenade to a Soul Sister (Silver) Theme for Sister Salvation (Freddie Redd) I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate (I like Muggsy Spanier's version) Little Soul Sister (Ray Bryant) Next word: BROTHER(S)

I like Roy best in the 50s. He blows beautifully on these albums: Newport Rebels (Candid) His solo on "Mysterious Blues" is the ultimate! Johnny Hodges, Not So Dukish Herb Ellis, Nothing But the Blues Roy and Diz

Mr Piano Banjo Paterson Sax Rohmer

Poor Cow Paul Calf Tosser Bull

Curiously enough, I am also reading this, and also from the library. I actually wasn't expecting it to come in nearly so soon, but I think they ordered a bunch of copies system-wide. I'm halfway through, and I'm going to have to go with some of the less positive Amazon reviewers -- meh. I do have slightly higher hopes for the newer stories in the last section, but I haven't found the first ones compelling at all. In particular, The Runner strikes me as a writing exercise where he was trying to write a Raymond Carver story and didn't pull it off. While I say I admire DeLillo, the truth is he is really hit or miss for me. White Noise is an outstanding book (I'm actually going to try to reread it in 2012) and I also really liked Americana. On the other hand, I really slogged through Underworld and can't recall much of it at all. I struggled with Libra and have put it aside for the time being. I wrapped up Kroetsch's Badlands, and it was ok but not outstanding. Fairly shortly, I will reread What the Crow Said, which I guess is a kind of magic realism (written before Garcia Marquez had really gotten much attention in the north). I think what Kroetsch is really trying is to take seriously what life would be like in a backwards, frontier town if mythology were real (Zeus as a golden shower and so on, though in this case it is a swarm of bees that seduces a young girl!). My understanding is that John Banville's The Infinities is along similar lines, and I'll be reading that relatively soon (nearly ordered a copy, then realized the library had many copies already). I finally finished reading RLS's Kidnapped to my kids. I know some people love it, but I found it pretty boring. The language was a considerable challenge and I found myself having to change a lot of the words in the middle of reading to make it understandable. Ultimately, I skipped over large chunks that were basically insensible if you didn't know the difference between a Whig and a Jacobite. This wasn't nearly as much of an issue with Treasure Island, which they did like. Probably read something shorter next time. If I can dig out my copy, I'll probably go ahead and read A Christmas Carol to them this holiday season. The title story of Esmeralda is very reminiscent of an episode in Underworld, but it's such a fat tome that I can't be bothered to go through my copy to find out just how close it is. Agree "The Runner" is Carver-ish, but I think it works. I also like White Noise, as well as Libra and Mao II, but didn't get on with Falling Man. Understand your difficulties in reading Kidnapped to the kids! Thought it great when I was that age 60 years ago, but its language and issues have now become so remote that there was no chance of interesting my kids in it in the 90s - or in Treasure Island, for that matter.

G G Hall Harry the Horse Marshall Ney Napoleon Wellington Nelson Lady Hamilton Hamilton Academicals Scott Hamilton