Royal Oak

Charity shops and car boot sales!

"I'll tell you what Sonny, Wynton swings like a mother on 'Newk's Time'"

Wot, no Lady Gaga?

More classical / jazz comparisons. I've just listened to Mikhail Pletneyev playing a piano transcription of the the prologue and fugue from Shchedrin's "Anna Karenina". I swear I hear the first phrase of "I'm A Fool To Want You" a couple of times. If so, it would be interesting because the song predates "Anna Karenina", so it could follow that either composer or pianist put it in on purpose.

Thanks everyone - my suspicions of Lebrecht are duly confirmed. Thanks to Moms for all the recommendations for further reading - I'll check some of those out.

I just finished reading this book (subtitled "The Secret Life and Shameful Death of the Classical Record Industry"). I am a neophyte in these matters, so wanted to know if anyone has read this and has any opinion. From reading the Amazon reviews, and a bit on these boards, I see that Lebrecht isn't everyone's cup of tea. For what it's worth, I found the book very interesting. I imagine (because I have no point of reference) that it's rather sensationalist; some of the stories seem a little too good to be true, and Lebrecht's opinions are certainly strongly-held. If nothing else, it's explained why the Grieg and Schumann piano concertos are always together on record (similar length, same key, and each wrote only one.) Anyway, any opinions welcome, as are any recommendations for further reading.

You got to get paid...

I've seen this list before, much like Harry Pearson's "The Absolute Sound" List. Who knows how they come up with these lists, much less why.

:g :g I'm telling you - a squirrel here and there is cute. But you get too many of them together, and they start thinking that everything is theirs. They'll gnaw their way into your attic, chew you wires, clim up in your trees and stare you down when you com out your door, they're just EVIL little fuckers. No me gusto las ardillas!!!!! They DO stare you down! My wife and children are suckers for them when they see one skipping across the top of our fence, a sprig of holly in it's jaws.

You got what it takes? Well do ya, punk? My old man hated squirrels, as they ate his prize bulbs. He had a squirrel trap - a wire mesh cage, placed on a shelf round the back of the shed. One afternoon I came home from college and was mooching in the garden when I heard a scrabbling noise from behind the shed. There was a squirrel in the trap, and believe me, close up, that thing was seriously wild. It had managed to bite off one of the bars of the trap and was going mental, running around in circles in this cage, hissing and foaming at the mouth. I did the decent thing and let it out, not before donning a pair of thick leather gauntlets in case it went for me. The old man wasn't pleased at my mercy mission - called me "St Francis of Afuckinssisi" for a day or two....

I had an alto saxophone twice in my life - at school and then again in my early twenties. Packed it in at school because I didn't really want to play it in the first place. Took it up again years later - taught myself up to grade 5 (theory and practice). I think I finally got to know what "the changes" were, could even hear them, but could not play them. In 1995 I sat behind the saxophones section of a local big band at one of their rehearsals ("Shades of Kenton" I think the band was called - BillF - do you know of them?). Realised I couldn't read for toffee and packed it in on the spot. I haven't regretted it for a second - there are enough things in life I'm no good at - why pick another?

All my gear is 20+ years old and sounds pretty nice to me.

I'd have bought it at that price. It looks SOLID.

It seems that the booze was de rigeur among musicians in that era. My old man had many a tale. I bumped into one of his old musician friends recently - he said of Bredbury Hall (a nightclub where they played together in the 60s) "It was the breathalyser that killed live music there".

I wonder where Tubby's records have been all these years? I remember spying a bunch of Zappa recs in a second hand shop in your area (1981?) and was pleasantly surprised to find 'em all in NM condition. Definitely had expected those ones to have been used & abused by someone who'd been hammered like a mackerel. The records I mentioned in the post above contained a LOT of Zappa LPs. Dad was no stoner though, and if he ever went to parties I doubt they played Zappa! Ah memories of "Hot Rats" and "The Grand Wazoo" while stoned.....

Obligatory . Even that battered old deck upstairs at Mole had one of them. When I had a dig through my late dad's record collection the other day (sister inherited it) I was pleasantly surprised at how well it looked. I guess the Telefunken system he bought in the early 70s must have been okay. The one exception was "Go Go Gouraguer" (I believe it's quite a collector's item) - it was in a fairly bad way, but it had obviously been bought second hand - had a price sticker to the front (£3.50)

And invariably around that time-frame it would be a radiogram with auto-changer and a knitting needle-ish stylus. The first was an "ALBA" box with the built-in speaker. Yes, it was an auto-changer. Couldn't say about the stylus but it did have a decimal halfpenny glued to the headshell.

When I used to buy records (when records were all you could buy, unless you consider cassettes) I don't recall it being such a big deal keeping them in pristine condition - you played them and that was that. Chances are you had a crappy turntable, you'd bump into it and send the arm flying, or you'd drop the arm trying to cue on to a certain track. You might leave the thing on the platter for days on end. You didn't wash your hands before you handled it, you were often stoned/drunk and clumsy (record sleeves were used for skinning up). If it got scratched, so be it. I never felt I was in posession of a "precious thing" - it was just, well, a record, a way of listening to music you liked.

Jean-Luc Ponty - "Sunday Walk". This is from 1967, so predates his time with Zappa, yet sounds Zappa-esque to me.

It's the Handy's that "bite" isn't it? Thanks for the heads up. I agree with your comment about Criss - on everything I've ever heard so far Criss certainly tries his bollocks off (an old term I used to hear in greyhound racing circles!)

Is anyone familiar with the two Sonny Criss titles? Going off the track listings (lots of pop tunes), these must be 70s albums? Are they any good?

I'm not sure any future jazz reissues are viable, seriously. That must make a couple of members who are involved in doing reissues feel very good. It gives me no pleasure to say it - I simply can't see that there can be a market, other than the diehards.

I'm not sure any future jazz reissues are viable, seriously.

I don't know exactly what that is, but I am nonetheless shocked and horrified, and I feel compelled to weep openly, for you, for your children, and your children's children. Bow tie; why I didn't call it that probably speaks volumes on a Freudian level, ie wearing one makes you feel like a dick.

Roll the dice, pay the price, add some spice with this slice of nice Gryce. Don't make me say it twice, buy online and get it in a trice. I'm imagining Oscar Brown junior saying this as I type...