David Ayers

Since I attend a cathedral I get to hear a lot of music performed, and I wonder if anyone else experiences music in this way. The usual communion service at my cathedral includes organ voluntaries at the beginning and end, parts of a sung mass (normally the Gloria, the Sanctus/Benedictus, and the Agnus Dei), and also a motet and a sung psalm, the motet being by a name composer, the psalm being sung as so-called Anglican chant. So today, for example, the voluntaries were by Vierne and Frescobaldi, the mass was Lassus' Missa super bel'amfitrit altera, and the motet was Esquivel. So for Anglicans interested in music in its living tradition this is good. Does anyone else get their music this way, of whatever kind? I posted in 'classical', of necessity, but this is rather why 'classical' generally has to appear in inverted commas. PS please can we avoid anything that belongs in a now defunct forum...

No argument on some of those catchy tunes from Les Indes galantes

I'm pretty sure that if this cost five times as much we'd all be rationalising why we *don't need it ...

I thought it was in mono.

A really good question, from my point of view. I understand the baroque well enough as to what it is, but as for favorite pieces outside some of the well-known and most recorded classics (some of which have been mentioned), I don't know what it means to really get into baroque. No need to discuss Bach, obviously, but even though I love to listen to Handel and Vivaldi singing, it is not that I really live with any of those works, outside Messiah and some classic Handel arias. I do think performance matters, though, for many of these works, outside Bach, as a disc of arias is a wholly different proposition from the operas which constitute the 'work', as so many works exist in only one recorded version, and as there are so many different ways of realizing the scores.

from me too

Just to get back to Daniel's post - I would be very grateful for a heads-up if and when this book comes back into print...

Sadly the book seems to be unavailable....

Not too much trouble to learn some Swedish - not like next door in Finland...

Ah ... those .... I have Vols. 1 to 8 (Vols. 1 to 4 on vinyl, Vols. 2 to 8 on CD) and I find them all excellent (if CDs would really wear out then some of the would be worn by now ). Evidently my tastes differ from those of King Ubu (and I am biased in favor of Swedish jazz from the 1935-60 period anyway), but while Vols. 6 to 8 would be most fitting as musical illustrations to Jan Allan's book, I'd certainly advise not to downplay or shrug off Swedish jazz (even pre-1945) unduly. They did have their own thing going, and while some vocals and some big band arrangements are indeed relatively stiff (but not more so than the average German oreven English ones), there are a fair bit of individualistic voices to be found there that make for interesting listening. But of course, to some extent you DO HAVE to be able to listen to this music in the context of its times in order to be appreciate then on their proper terms. Blah about them being "derivative" etc. won't do the matter justice. I hear you. What I hear so far is quality in the selections. So often with box sets the principle is discographical inclusiveness. Here they include really a lot of different musicians and ensembles but have still manged to concentrate on quality. How are the booklets? I know that ... but I have no interest in it there are hundreds and hundreds of discs around that need (well, I want!) to get a spin! Simply no need as there'd be no time for it, so I don't want to pay a cent there, it would just be wasted. Noooo! I'm doing my tour of Swedish jazz history as I type - and I could be doing it from anywhere in the world...

They are not cheap, and that is the only way to get the documentation. The focus is very much Swedish, so it really is not about visiting musicians, though there are some (Cherry - well, he lived there - Red Mitchell, maybe others). On Spotify, without the documentation and with personnel incomplete and no other details, these are simply very pleasant anthologies of music. I like the *project* as such though - well-funded, well mastered and documented, based on archival (rather than discographical) work, mostly unpublished recordings. By the way you *don't* need facebook to register on spotify, and it is relatively cheap....

I think the reference I mentioned is in Frank Kofsky's Black Nationalism and the Revolution in Music. I'm not going to check but somebody might want to. I could be wrong and I don't have any notes that I can find.

All on Caprice http://statensmusikverk.se/search/?q=swedish+jazz+history&site=3&fromsite=3&lang=en#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=swedish%20jazz%20history&gsc.page=1 That should display in English but if not go back to the home page, switch to 'English' and search on Swedish Jazz History. I guess we'd have to start buying these to see full discographical information and they are reported to have good booklets (like the Cherry release we discuss). I wish more governments and banks would support this kind of work!

A little gem here documents Cherry's first appearance with Rosengren in Stockholm - Spotify Various Artists – Brotherhood Suite

Would love to see this book! In the meantime, how about these 10 multi CD sets of Swedish Jazz History to keep us going? Spotify Swedish Jazz History That is about 28 hours of music - if you were wondering.

I didn't say that. I said I thought that the music he is involved in with Ornette on Atlantic achieves a peak of refinement - in the music as a whole - which you don't get in any of the later ventures. So yeah I don't think his Blue Notes get as far as the Atlantics, much as I don't think this fine Caprice release does. It happens, that people peak and then fall away a bit - or a lot - for whatever reason. So that was my answer to folks who take 'jazz' Cherry over 'world' Cherry. It *is* a fine release, this one, I suggest people hear it.

I do know those records!

Really Cherry was never musically as good as with the early Ornette bands, or at least, those bands made the most, even more than the most, out of him. When I say musically I mean in terms of harmony and melody, the conventional jazz terms. Those Ornette Atlantics really manage something that neither Cherry or Coleman did since, real richness and surprise in the harmonic journey. Cherry always played with delicacy, it was his trademark really, but where you go for depth in the musical argument after those Atlantics, I am not sure.

There seem to be 243 tracks in this set. Don't ask me to work it out.

you will never finish that set!

Yes sorry to butt in, and without reading Allen's link - but yes it goes all the way back to the late 1960s. I don't have the reference to hand but Jones, as he then was, and a certain politically minded tenor saxophonist, were said to have distributed anti-semitic leaflets on the streets of NY, probably at the time of the 1968-9 teachers' strike which was a trigger for major fiction between Jewish and African-American communities. That is also why I posted the Black Dada Nihilismus link, make of it what you will.

I found the ABF session pretty wonderful. Since there are two trumpets and two saxes you get plenty of that in the form of some boppish tunes and free improv. The other session (which in the spirit of things includes children...) has not yet entered these ears. In fact I kicked myself because I saw this in store and nearly bought it. I wish now I'd done it that way but for me with a lot of things once I've done it I've done it.

On Spotters: Don Cherry – Live in Stockholm