Alexander Hawkins

Thank John! Also, another one just in at AAJ.

That is correct. Forgot to mention that. And it's a memorable first appearance. Saw Peter sit in with the trio of Evan, John Edwards and John Russell at the 'Freedom of the City' festival this year. He works absolutely fantastically with Evan IMHO.

Good point about Steve Beresford! Played opposite him last night - he was in that fantastic trio with Alan Tomlinson and Roger Turner (in fact, playing piano, rather than toys etc., for the first time in this group). Howard Riley puts me in mind of another guy - Alex Maguire. Have we mentioned Sten Sandell?

...and I think I'm right in saying that one is Peter Evans' also first appearance with that band on record!

Thanks! Yes...will have to organise something out in that direction...about to start working on some more gigs for the group

Cheers John - I didn't know about that one! Just dropped you a PM..!

Dear all, Just to say - we are 'officially' launching my new record at The Vortex on Monday...would be great to see any UK residents there! *** Orphy Robinson - steel pan Otto Fischer - electric guitar Hannah Marshall - 'cello Dominic Lash - double bass Javier Carmona - drums yours truly - piano, compositions, arrangements *** cheers! Alex

Another review just in at Point of Departure - just scroll down! I still have copies [p.s. for those in the UK, we have the 'official' album launch at the Vortex on Monday!]

Kind of lame, as Liverpool seems poised to be the best team in the EPL next season... Ooh...I'd have to resepctfully disagree here! I have to come clean and admit to being not their biggest fan by any stretch of the imagination, but nonetheless, I was pretty amazed they finished where they did last season...minus Alonso (should that happen), they'll rely even more heavily on Gerrard...if he doesn't get his quota of goals, or if he should get an injury somewhere along the way, I can certainly see them not getting an automatic Champions' League spot for 2010-11...

I can take either on his own - but I saw them together on tv a few weeks ago, and it was *horrible* IMHO. 'Mine is bigger than yours' 'music'-making of the worst order, as far as I could tell!

Yeah! Weirdly, I wrote the first version of that piece before I'd ever heard GTM...I did toy with not putting that track on the album - 'anxiety of influence'-type stuff - but I figured that in any case, it's an interesting musical language to explore...

Yes, yes, yes - please anyone who is on the fence buy this. Some of the most powerful music ever to come out of this country. I had the privilege of sitting in with Moholo-Moholo's band on Monday for the second set of their album launch - if anyone is placing an order, put this one in the cart too! Louis is IMHO one of the very greatest drummers playing today. The spirit the guy summons is astonishing. A beautiful, beautiful musician.

Was being bashful, but Clifford just posted this very kind review in the 'Best of 2009' thread, so I thought I would do the same here...

Damn. Just turned on the computer to order these! How are they?

The organ symphony is a bit of a French tradition...yes, there are others! They really grow out of the French improvising tradition, so there are quite a few, and several issued recordings of improvised works (I would do an Amazon search for 'Pierre Cochereau' - one of the master improvisers). There a some by Louis Vierne, a blind organist who (IIRC) was titulaire at Notre Dame. A favourite of mine is the Marcel Dupre 'Symphonie Passion' - wonderful, wonderful music, (and a complete headache to play(!)) There is a whole raft of extended works which are symphonic in their own way. Check out the awesome Chorales by Cesar Frank (there are three of them, of which the a minor is the best known). If you get a French piece - really try hard to find a recording made on a Cavaille-Coll organ. It's very difficult to separate out the repertoire from the actual instruments for which these pieces were written, and these organs are absolutely THE classic instruments from the French tradition. They sound like nothing else - magnificent. Unbelievable reed sounds are perhaps their defining characteristic. Moving into other traditions, there are various other pieces. Check out the Max Reger Sonatas for some really overblown Germanic stuff, and also the (purely instrumental) setting of the 94th Psalm by Reubke.

Bev - not much use now(!) - but he was Composer of the Week a couple of months or so ago...it was a real surprise to me - some lovely, and completely unexpected, stuff.

Amina Claudine Myers is a favourite!

Thanks everyone for the replies - all really useful.

Thanks Shawn. Seem like a lot of these programmes are essentially very similar...interesting that none seem to have personnel information though...I wondered whether any could key into e.g. All Music Guide or something like that.

Apologies if this is a duplicate post - I did search, but didn't come up with anything! I'm looking for some simple software for download to help me catalogue my collection on my computer. I've found a couple of things - for example this. This seems very simple to use, but one major shortcoming seems to be that it rarely 'knows' the personnel on a given album (I downloaded their free trial just to check it out). Does anyone have any suggestions for software which will automatically retrieve data such as personnel/recording date etc? Many thanks in advance for any advice!

A couple of reviews of the CD in: All About Jazz The Vortex ...and the blurb from DMG.

Thank you!

I'm looking to 'consolidate' the Bird studio stuff I have, by getting box sets... Two questions... 1) is there anything to choose between this and this? Is the sound different, or does the latter simply repackage the former? and 2) would I be correct in thinking that this is the way to do the Savoy and Dial stuff? I'm aware there's live Savoy material as well, but as far as the studio stuff goes... Many thanks in advance!

I would definitely check out some Ellington - either the 'Blanton/Webster' band (for some c.1940 stuff) or one of the late 20s bands. Then, join up the dots in between 1924 and 1941 or so..! Also, if you like Basie, Lester Young, Armstrong - I would really recommend some of the early 30s Fletcher Henderson big bands... Oops...sorry, I missed this...agree!