David Ayers

Thanks for posting those, Mark. Good reviews! I know MacMillan's fun side. The concert I attended included Mozart's K467 and Tchaikovsky 4, so as a curtain raiser MacMillan had knocked off a very short, occasional piece called Stomp (with Fate and Elvira) which toyed around boisterously with the themes from the Tchaikovsky ('Fate') and from the once so-called Elvira Madigan concerto. He did actually publish it (http://www.boosey.com/cr/music/James-MacMillan-Stomp-with-Fate-and-Elvira/51430) though whether anyone has since performed it is moot...

Yes, Walking Dead does move a little slowly, I agree.

OK now I am ashamed. I looked at the list of MacmIllan compositions on wikipedia and was surprised how many of them were LSO commissions or co-commissions, and fp here under eminent conductors. I *was* aware that I had been consciously passing over opportunities to hear MacmIllan - I just hadn't realised how many I had missed So the new motto is: sneak ten Macmillan premieres past me once - shame on you: sneak another ten past me - shame on me.

The one piece of MacMillan I have heard in concert was The Confession of Isobel Gowdie (LSO/Davis, March 2007). At that time, I was only familiar with Veni Veni Emmanuel in the Colin Currie recording on Naxos. I had begun to find that a little too straight in terms of its treatment of the well-known theme - and still do - but Confession, which I now rehear on the LSO Live recording, I very much like. Nothing else of the little I have heard of MacMillan in recordings has won me over, though he is performed here every year, I suppose, and I am pretty sure I will be going to hear something of his again soon. Have there been pieces since Gowdie and VVE which are especially exciting or did he peak early, do you think?

And in fairness to me, Larry has posted about Lance before....

I prefer the only moderate threat presented by slow-moving zombies. Incidentally, has anyone seen the new post-apocalyptic series, Falling Skies, on Fox, which just aired the first episode in the UK on Sky? This one is alien invasion and is set in Massachusetts. Walking Dead is set in Georgia. Seems every state will soon have its own apocalypse series.

And if I don't get it what about all the people who *don't* post forty times a week on a jazz bulletin board...

I'm no expert - at all - but based on that image I think your donkey may have gastric problems and you should consult a veterinary surgeon. Does she have any other symptoms?

Some fadeouts, if you turn them up and listen, do lead to a bum note, dull phrase, or other loss of momentum. Little hobby for us all there.

I quite seriously assumed this thread was about Lance Armstrong. I had to do a double take when I read the link.

I prefer the slow-moving ones in The Walking Dead. Gives the actors more acting to do, less running.

Rigamortis? In Latvia maybe.

Jazz musicians can be lazy writers. How is it with a two horn line-up they so often don't write a descant? Two voice writing is hardly rocket science. OT, sorry.

I don't use iTunes much, and I think one reason is that it does absolutely no work for you in terms of identifying things you might like based on purchase and browsing history. Or am I wrong? This is something amazon does very well. I know for example that iTunes has a Sun Ra page. I found it though only from an external link. I would have no idea how to find it from inside iTunes. I find myself wondering if iTunes is a bit of a dead letter. Most of my listening is CD or streaming. My perception of iTunes is part of why I see downloads as a format whose time may have gone. Tell me if I am missing something on iTunes though!

I recently took a look at Pete Stubley's EFI site. In the January update he says he had considered closing the site as his information was no longer current. Having discussed this with others, such as Evan Parker and Barry Guy he has opted to continue and includes a massive update. You can see his problem just from the update. So many new names and labels from recent years, and so very many releases from the established names like Guy and Parker. I am finding our own thread here quite useful just for recommendations - but there seems to be more stuff out there than EVER.

Why are zombies always fully clothed?

Just a pity that Sony or Universal weren't backing it.

I guess my other thought on this is that jazz musicians tend to repeat themselves a lot and there's a law of diminishing returns which can kick in pretty quickly.

if you really *have* to *own* CDs isn't it just better to wait for things to come around, as folks here are saying? Personally I'd look at that $75 as money to go and catch a live performance. Of course you don't want to say what CD it is but sometimes another person can easily locate something if their search methods and/or favoured websites are different from your own....

Strauss without singing has never been my cup of tea. Is not a cup of tea in fact.

Those BN SHMs are the first ever digital transfers to sound more or less immediate. A pity the music is overfamiliar ;-) and a pity that other remasters like this one can't match them.

Yes I get that it is something about the failure to move jazz up to highbrow status, and that having failed...I think. I guess we never really had Wynton here in Europe so it all reads differently over here ;)

Not sure I've got Larry's point but is it this - rattle the jazz cage by saying jazz is pointless fare for middlebrows who think it is art - people pour out to say in a laborious and PO-faced way, 'who are you callin' middlebrow?' - point made, cage rattlers move on to next cage.

Jazz. How is that still a thing?

Keep music live!