Alexander Hawkins

Two nice turns of phrase!

Iker Casillas of Spain, for one. ← Good shout. I like Casillas (not sure I'll concede better, but ). I'm surprised no-one's mentioned any of the Italians: Toldo, Buffon, Peruzzi, Abbiati, Antonionli - hell, even Cudicini, the Chelsea second keeper, is probably the second best in England!!!

Oops - you're quite right! I have to say, one of the frightening things about that Brazilian line-up is that there are 3 or 4 players whom you wouldn't be at all surprised to hear scored a hat-trick!

Yeah, the funny thing about the (admittedly not very many) Rhodes I've played is that although the action is very very light, it's easy to control.

Actually, at the risk of indulging in pop psychology, one of the great things about football is that you can be entirely irrationally and bigotted and not feel bad about it. In which spirit, is there a better stopper in the game than Petr Cech?

OK - I've got to admit my bias, but... Del Horno does look pretty good! And moving on, Paulo Ferreira is a decent... Well, anyway.

Wow...December's going to be my 3rd time in the states, and my first in NYC, so as if I wasn't excited enough... How long in advance do you typically have to book tickets to a place like the Iridium? Or maybe you don't? I don't want to miss out! It'll be cool to see Marshall Allen and J.D. Parran as well. I wonder if Taylor Ho Bynum has played with CT before? Struck me last night that CT was the second half of the London Jazz Festival bill last year that included the now-famous Braxton quintet gig. I wonder if Taylor heard Bynum there? Bynum was fantastic on that gig, by the way!

I was on a gig Saturday night, but caught about half and hour of this before playing - roughly 15 minutes either side of half time. Italy seemed to be ALL OVER Scotland. That said, Scotland looked tenacious, and Kenny Miller was up for it for sure. Nice goal, too. David Weir did a pretty awesome job in the first half as well. Great result, though, and I'd really liked to have seen Scotland tough it out for the victory. Having asserted earlier in this thread that John Terry was the world's best centreback at present, let's continue the theme: I think Zambrotta is, if not the best leftback in the world, then amongst them. BTW, it sounds as though Brazil were rampant last night - 5-0, with a hat-trick for Robinho...

Interesting comments about electric piano feeling more comfortable. I agree that the Rhodes does feel very nice under the fingers, although most other electric pianos I have played I can't stand the feel of...I wonder if anyone else has a strong preference one way or the other?

Really interesting - thanks!

But I'm not sure that he'd necessarily regard all heads as equal, or that the head should have the same function during each performance, would he?

'Carefree' from the last CD in the Nessa box is just awesome! I've had these three takes going round and round all morning. I love this tune, and the feel they get is amazing (a little like the 'Dexterity' from Paris). And it's good-humoured - makes you smile! I think there's Roscoe shows a bit of a kinship here with Sonny Rollins, rhythmically, and in the way he improvises on the theme - taking little bits here and there, worrying them over etc. The bass playing is wonderful on these tracks as well.

I'd almost say the same about Jarrett! ← Care to elaborate? ← Here goes... First off, I should say that I meant the 'almost' I inserted...I don't know enough of Jarrett's music to make the statement more concretely. But, having started digging, I'll carry on! 1) He seems to me to take himself incredibly seriously. A lot of what attracts me to a lot of jazz is humour. Sonny Rollins, Fats Waller, Monk, AEC. to me, this often makes it more 'real' - I mean, real people do have a laugh from time to time, and what sometimes sounds like 'earnestness' amongst musicians often strikes me as in fact almost the opposite, where 'earnest' has connotations of being 'genuine' or 'honest' 2) Clearly there are exceptions to this point - his Impulse recordings, for example - but I find his music too conservative. I'd always listened to jazz at home, but as a player, I was brought up in a strict classical tradition. When I sat down and thought about what music meant, I thought it made sense to play what I loved (improvised music) rather than what I was schooled to do, and merely liked (the classical repertoire I played). So when I started listening to jazz, I couldn't get over people like Parker, Rollins, Ayler, and now people like Roscoe Mitchell, Braxton, and Leo Smith. To me, these are/were musicians who play with the freedom and risk-taking etc. that attracted me to the music. I don't really hear these qualities in KJ. What I hear is a sound that every conservatory musician (I mean that in a substantive - i.e. 'plays by the rules' - rather than a descriptive - i.e. 'happened to go to music college' - sense) I know in this country (again, I don't know how it is in the US) raves about. I hear Jarrett's sound as very generic in this respect. 3) This is very subjective, and I know will get me in trouble ...but I distrust the polish. Now, this isn't a thoroughgoing thing - I love Tommy Flanagan, Hank Jones, and Teddy Wilson, for example, but wouldn't level this charge at them...But I find Jarrett's sound very hard to relate to. It sounds too facile to me (grunts notwithstanding). When I listen to Muhal Richard Abrams, Meade Lux Lewis, Jimmy Yancey, Cecil Taylor, Monk, Bud Powell - I can somehow identify with it through its immediacy (touch, attack, choice of notes - all these things must factor into it) - but I can't get beneath what sounds a lot like a veneer to me with Jarrett. 4) The personality thing - well, it bothers me, but I'd hope never to base an opinion about someone's music on something like that, so I won't toss it into the mix! That's a few thoughts about my comment above... In addition, I agree with the comments about singers trying to be cool etc. - what I said most certainly wasn't a forlorn defence of Elling et al. by saying 'yeah well I hate Keith Jarrett'!

I'd almost say the same about Jarrett!

The Bad Plus and Myra are not playing in the same league. ← Oh no - I quite agree - I didn't mean to suggest that. But the same groove-orientated approach. Melford is clearly a far more interesting player than that (maybe ill-advised!) comparison I made suggests. I was just a little frustrated by this CD. Although, as I say, I did really enjoy sections of it! I think I was disappointed having read someplace about a Don Pullen influence etc...

Definitely - especially in some of the RCA recordings, I think the crossover is very pronounced. Really looking forwards to hearing this new Rollins!

I've just listened to 'Alive in the House of Saints' for the first time, and must admit, I'm a little non-plussed. I do like it when she gets into freer territory - whether in the Taylor-esque passages of improvisation, or the composition of 'Frank Lloyd Wright Goes West...' - but otherwise, it sounds a bit monochromatic to me...The very long, groove-based tunes remind me a bit of 'The Bad Plus' (although I think MM is a clearly superior example of the genre!)

That's the weird thing because of all my expectations, this place was the one 'sanctuary' where I assumed there would be good music in a suitable environment; the club owner is a well known British jazz drummer and it has a reputation nationally for offering high quality acts. The thing is, where I live, some 250 miles from London and 180 miles from Edinburgh, good jazz clubs are thin on the ground and I don't get chance because of my circumstances to visit other cities to listen to good music. So it's special occasions like this (a few nights away with my good lady sans child) that I get the opportunity; if my expectations exceeded what is being offered in a joint like that, then I am up shit creek ← Tony - who's the drummer who owns the club? I think I may be up there in a few weeks, and was wondering! How was the gig? I know someone else who was planning on going - not sure if they made it, although it sounds like it might not have been ideal anyway...

You're not alone, Soul Stream, Herbie never did that much for me, either. ← I can happily cope without Herbie too. On topic, I can't wait for the Elmo Hopes which are about to appear.

Thanks everyone for the Allen and Jordan pointers - I'll take a listen to whatever I can find, and report back!

I was literally logging on to comment about this. I also really enjoy it, and was wondering for some recommendations for Jordan and non-Ra Allen? Any suggestions appreciated!

Quite agree! Not wanting to be negative, but those same solos of Oliver Nelson's that have been mentioned I'm not too keen on for the precise reason that they do sound rehearsed. At best, I think he's playing 'composer's sax' here...

Damn straight!

I forget the name, but the (Hope-penned, IIRC) ballad is awesome. I think it highlights a kinship between Hope and Andrew Hill. Dupree Bolton...wow! Fire.

The English team's doing alright, despite the fact that if you read the papers the day after the Denmark game, you'd have thought we'd just dropped the World Cup. A qualification game coming up against Wales. A year or so ago, this would have been a tricky fixture, but Wales' form is tailing-off fairly precipitously, so I'd have thought it'd be a relatively straightforward win to England. I suspect the Northern Ireland qualifier will be more than relatively straightforward - they are, sadly, NOT a good team! If England don't breeze through (e.g. if either Wales or NI is a draw), chances are it'll come down to our final game with Poland. England have real previous with Poland, going back to Tomaszewski (sp?) et al. in (IIRC - I wasn't born) 1973. If this fixture is significant in deciding anything, it could well be interesting. As a neutral punter, you'd still have to back England, but Poland are never easy. As for team news, much as it pains me to say it, Wayne Rooney is still all the talk round here. He does, it has to be said, play exceptionally well for England, even if he isn't the second coming, as the tabloid press would have you believe. The goalkeeping berth should be Paul Robinson's, but his number 2 is a more interesting question, especially after David James' shocker against the Danes. Also, talk that Ferdinand may lose his starting berth in central defence. IMHO, this is entirely correct. Ferdinand is good, but highly overrated. John Terry is a far superior player, and, I'll venture, the best centreback in world football.