Jazzjet

I don't recall Honest Jon's being near Charing Cross Road. I think the original shop was in Camden and then became Rhythm Records when HJ's opened in Portobello Road. Ray's was originally in New Oxford Street, just along from Imhof's ( anyone remember them? ). It then moved to Charing Cross Road, just up from Foyles, in a modern block before moving to Shaftesbury Avenue ( and subsequently Foyles ). I've obviously spent too much time in London record shops!

When Dobell's relocated, it moved to Tower Street - a side street off the eastern side of Charing Cross Road ( Dobells was on the western side of CCR, the same side as Foyles but lower down ). The location was quite near The Ivy and also, I believe, the theatre where The Mousetrap played for many years. The 'new' Dobell's was a sort of corner location. Not sure it could really be described as 'modern' but I believe it did have white walls. And lets face it, any shop would look modern in comparison with the old Dobell's! The jazz was in the front of the shop, the folk and blues at the back, so it probably was the one you remember. Last time I was there I think it had become a shop selling beads.

I picked up the stereo Revolver, Sgt Pepper, Abbey Road, White Album and Magical Mystery Tour first thing today. Apart from the obvious general sonic improvements and the clarity of detail, the most striking thing about them is the enhanced bottom end with Paul's basslines shining out in their full glory. 'I Want You' is a real trip.

Have a great birthday,Bob. What better way to spend it than with Michael Garrick's 'Troppo'?

Mmmm. I've read the book and I'm not sure I go along with the theory. At a superficial level maybe but philosophically ( let alone morally ) there was a world of difference between hippies and the Thatcherites. I recall a quote along the lines that the Thatcherites were like the nerdy schoolkids who watched on in envy while the hipper kids got it on, experimented with free love, drugs etc. Then, when they achieved power, they got their revenge. I can see that there are parallels with people like Branson, Richard Neville, Felix Dennis etc but basically they were chancers who would have thrived in any environment - it just happened to be the hippy culture.

And the Ashes are won!!!

And my physical home! Nice photos, Bev. Glad you got some good weather - its p***ing down today. Lanhydrock is one of the more interesting estates.

There were also a couple of 70s CBS samplers - 'Fill Your Head With Rock' and 'The Rock Machine Turns You On'. This was when CBS put out a lot of prog like Flock, United States of America etc. There was also another Island cheapo sampler called El Pea and an earlier one called 'You Can All Join In'. The latter, if I recall, had a photo of a group of hairy Island label 'stars' photographed early morning ( non rock n' roll hours ) on Hampstead Heath. Jethro Tull - probably the biggest Island stars at the time - thought it would be a good idea to loon around at the back of the group and remain obscure in the photo. Just imagine how many PR people, advisers, consultants. PA's etc it would take nowadays to prevent that kind of thing happening.

Can I suggest you don't experiment in Redruth! 78s have only just arrived in Redruth.

MiniDiscs? I've got a player/recorder but don't use it much any more. Nice and compact format but never really caught on as far as I'm aware. I used to work in a record shop in the late 60s and we stocked some 8 track cartridges. Not sure I remember selling any though. I've often thought that there's got to be a workable business model for physical record shops today. Something that combines the physical ambience of a shop with the modern technology of digital downloads. Not sure what it is though - otherwise I would have made some money!

Yet that Stan Getz Quartet show with Gary Burton from the LSE was broadcast recently on BBC4 - previously no shows from that series were thought to survive. I wonder if there are any others that they uncovered, or whether that particular show was just a quirk. I'm hoping for more Jazz Goes To College shows to emerge as well. Heaven knows what exactly is in the BBC archives and what is just myth. You would have thought that it would be possible for the BBC to reveal this. Anyway, from Jazz On The Screen, the complete list of shows appears to be : Sonny Rollins/Max Roach Quintet, The MJQ, Astrud Gilberto, Horace Silver, The Ronnie Ross Big Band, The Max Roach Quintet, Stan Getz Quartet, Albert Ayler, Stan Tracey Quartet, Tubby Hayes Big Band, Dave Brubeck Quartet. ( All between 1966 and 1967 ). On another, related, topic I'm wondering whether the BBC ( probably BBC 4 ) is planning something to mark Blue Note's 70th Anniversary. The BBC loves an anniversary to hang its programme's on - like the 1959 programmes earlier in the year - so maybe there's a chance.

This wasn't Jazz 625. There was a later series titled 'Jazz Goes To College' which included the Max Roach quintet with Rollins but this wasn't at Ronnie's and was recorded in 1966. My best guess is that it was a programme titled 'Ronnie Scott - And All That Jazz' which was made around 1989. It was a 30th birthday tribute to the club and featured interviews with many musicians ( including Rollins ) and performance clip ( again including Rollins ).

And don't forget his Live At Carnegie Hall album on Sussex. One of the best live albums of all time.

Where would that be? A cousin of mine lives in Porthtowan, just as you go in off the Portreath to St Agnes Road. I spent last summer up at the campsite at Scorrier. I did my teaching practice at Redruth School back in 1977, staying with an aunt who lived in Portreath. My father's family, although they ended up in Tregony, come from round there - Illogan, Portreath, Towan Cross. Small world! Small world indeed. I live just up the hill from Porthtowan - the quaintly named Skinners Bottom, near Mount Hawke.

Strangely enough I did live in Swindon in 72-73 - it actually seemed might sophisticated after Cornwall! I read a bio of XTC a few years back and Andy Partridge mentioned how he worked at the record counter of one of the big Dept stores there. He may well have served me! Anywhere would seem sophisticated after Cornwall, even more so back then! It was suggested that they should put a sign up at the county boundary saying ' You are now entering Cornwall - put your watches back 25 years'. Cornwall - the land that Starbucks (almost) forgot! After spending the Easter weekend zooming between Truro, Sticker, St Ives, Porthcowan, Newquay and Padstow I have to say I'd move back there tomorrow, given the chance. If you do, we could jointly set up a jazz / prog club! God knows we need one. ( I live about 2 miles from Porthtowan ).

Strangely enough I did live in Swindon in 72-73 - it actually seemed might sophisticated after Cornwall! I read a bio of XTC a few years back and Andy Partridge mentioned how he worked at the record counter of one of the big Dept stores there. He may well have served me! Anywhere would seem sophisticated after Cornwall, even more so back then! It was suggested that they should put a sign up at the county boundary saying ' You are now entering Cornwall - put your watches back 25 years'.

Kennedy might have been a trigger (sorry!) - the Profumo Scandal and the fall of the decayed Conservative government are often mooted as the triggers of the Swinging Sixties in the UK - but I'd say the causes are the same ones regularly touted for all the other social ferment of the period. In particular, a young generation with a higher level of education (and one spread across a wider social base) than any previously, money in their pockets, no war (in most cases) to go to and a general sense that a system based on authority and obedience had failed in the first half of the 20thC and had to be questioned. It's that willingness to question anything and look down alternative paths that marks the era. Throw in the technological innovations that made it so much easier to explore - cheap printing, TV, long playing records, cassettes, satellite connections that made news instant etc. And finally, a world watching the space race, especially the race to the moon - that really did give the feeling that human potential was limitless. When did that optimism end? 1968 or Altamont the following year? I don't think so - it was still going when I really clicked in from 1969 onwards. I'd place it around 1973 with the Yom Kippur War and the oil crisis, a time that (in the UK at least) was even more frightening than the present financial crisis. Suddenly the limitless expansion of affluence was put into question, paving the way for the conservatism of the Thatcher/Reagan years. Which is certainly why prog started to look so outmoded in the UK in the second half of the 70s. Long rock suites and spangly capes did not fit with the growing dole queues and the sense of political and social disintegration of those years. ************ On where prog started, I'd go with the Beatles too. A recent UK doc went for 'Whiter Shade of Pale'. I'm not sure when the term 'Progressive Rock' was first used but I recall reading about it c.1970 where it was very much a term to try to distinguish one sort of pop/rock (serious music played by skilled musicians) from another (bubblegum music played by paid-by-the-hour session musicians with pretty boy/girls up front). Of course the reality was much more mixed. But if anything distinguished Progressive rock it was a self-belief that what it was doing was not ephemeral and just might court consideration alongside more respectable musics like jazz or classical. In that sense you could trace it back to something like Dylan's 'Desolation Row'. Although I miss the speed of change and breadth of reference of that time, I don't miss the self-importance which probably proved the music's Achilles heel in the end - by 1975 the grandiosity was not being matched by musical development. With jazz-rock/fusion you are getting two quite different things colliding. Jazz musicians like Miles, Ian Carr, Coryell etc becoming attracted to rock rhythms and features as a way of keeping their music developing; and rock musicians like Chicago, B, S & T etc, Cream etc picking up on aspects of jazz like long solos to give their music more gravitas. Though, again, that is more complex as some had feet in both camps. I'd still argue for the likes of Graham Bond and John Mayall as one of the key sources. Nice analysis, Bev. There is a tendency, however, to ignore the regional differences when the 60s exploded in the UK. I read an interview with Andy Partridge ( XTC ) where he said that the 60s might have been in technicolour for a few dozen people in central London but it remained the 50s monochrome in Swindon.

And don't forget Jerry Hahn who was doing a jazz-rock thing around 1966/67.

Where is it available? My local jazz CD specialist shop had one copy on the shelf. Looked intriguing so I went for it. Must have been a special import for it to hit the shelf over here. Update - click on link on the first post. Amazon UK seem to be selling it for about £15.60 I've only watched the main feature so far but it seems a well made and thorough documentary with some fine live and unseen footage.

Just added myself. First in the kingdom of Cornwall, South West UK!

The Jazz Goes To College series included shows by Sonny Rollins/Max Roach, the Max Roach quintet ( with Freddie Hubbard and James Spaulding ), Horace Silver, the Ronnie Ross Big Band, Tubby Hayes Big Band, Stan Tracey, Dave Brubeck, Thelonious Monk, Woody Herman and the infamous Albert Ayler show. Joe Harriott appeared in an Indo Jazz Fusions programme in the Jazz 625 series ( 1966 ). It would be great if that one came to light!

Ah, wearing those ex-Army greatcoats and carrying the 'right' albums under one arm so that the covers could be recognised. Those were the days!

For the early stuff, the easiest way is to check out the samples on Amazon : Manfred Mann - Down The Road Apiece In particular, check out Without You ( great Kirkish flute ), Why Should We Not and Sack O'Woe. I'm sure there's soemthing similar for Chapter 3. They are only short samples but give you an idea.

What you need is their 'Manfred Mann Chapter 3' stuff released on LP for Vertigo - I'm not aware of any CD issue though. Excellent stuff, with UK jazzers of the time such as Harry Beckett and Henry Lowther featured. The Manfred Mann Chapter 3 material is indeed great and pretty groundbreaking for its time in featuring heavy duty jazzers with a rock band, although I would definitely go for the first album rather than the second. However, I think the question was more directed towards the early 60s material. There were some great tracks like 'Why Should We Not', 'Cock A Hoop', 'Sack O'Woe' etc which pre-dated their hits and had significant jazz content. The best place to look is a set entitled 'Down The Road Apiece' which focuses on their EMI recordings between 1963 and 1966. There might be other albums with some of the same material but make sure these tracks are included.

Totally agree about his sideman work. Houston Person's 'The Real Thing', recorded live at the Club Mozambique, is a special favourite.