A Lark Ascending

Oh, I'm far from suggesting people follow the same path I did. It would be impossible - most of the catalogue was OOP then. Much had to be acquired on imports on rare visits to London. Very different today when, in the case of a huge icon like Miles Davis, nearly everything (and more) is available. I'm all for encouraging as wide a body of people as possible to hear this music. But something like ESP, for example, is out there for around a fiver. A pretty inexpensive way to dip your toe in the water. I know exactly what you mean about established jazz fans protecting their interests from late-comers! Being from the class of '76, coming in on the back of jazz-rock, I've encountered that from older jazz fans on more than one occasion!

The biggest box I own is the Ellington RCA set - there I was dealing with music, much of which couldn't be obtained any other way at the time. It was also music I knew I'd enjoy and explore for decades to come. Most of the boxes I have are of music unavailable elsewhere - a dozen or so Mosaics, various collections of live or unreleased material by musicians I really like. Or sets that give a broad survey of music I know I don't want to explore all the way. The classical doorsteps have no appeal at all. I'm guilty of buying (downloading these days) several discs at once of a current craze; but generally, I like the one at a time approach. There's something of a 'One-Stop-Shop-To-Being-Cultured' about these 'complete Mozart' things.

The only problem is that it amounts to resources being focussed on recordings that are readily available (in this case in a fair few formats). I can only assume from a business point of view selling the same thing multiple ways works and brings in the profits. I know its naive to expect it but I'd just prefer Sony to use those resources to get issued OOP music from its catalogue...or, dare I suggest it, focus on encouraging new music (I know, silly idea)! I'm pretty dubious about great blocks of music being good entry points, anyway. Having come to this music over many years, disc by disc, I'm not convinced a novice buying this will have anything like the same pleasure of gradual exploration and unfolding. I wonder how many of these boxes (The complete Bach Cantatas etc) sit on shelves with most discs unplayed. But this is all about commerce. Personally...and I know its not a popular option...I'd go for doing what labels like Chandos or Hyperion do in the classical world. Everything they have ever released is there to download (and most is physically available). So you can slowly explore it disc by disc. They've done a few blockbuster sets (a huge Liszt one recently on Hyperion) but I imagine for most listeners slowly moving through the music that interests you is going to be the most rewarding approach. Yes, you can buy the box and explore it slowly yourself. But I just have a hunch that a lot of these things get bought because 'it will be cheaper this way' and then sit on shelves. I know I've a few by people I though I might like and then lost interest in.

It's working fine here: eMusic US. On the whole, though, it is a buggy site. Strange. I get the same error message linking there. (Just tried the 'Help' button - got to that page but every link took me back to 'Oops'. It did allow me log into my account with correct details there. But links, search etc just came back to Oops. Maybe they are doing some work on the UK version.) Edit: Seems to be a Google Chrome issue. Just tried via IE and it opens fine.

God, the endless possibilities. Don't just shuffle the albums into different boxes; shuffle the tracks onto different albums. 'The Ultimate Miles Davis Album With The Word 'I' In It'

I assume this will be followed up in the new year with a cube of all the other albums - 'The Imperfect Miles Davis Collection'. Do record companies now have dedicated departments working out all the different ways they can 'realise their assets' to the maximum?

E-music seems to have vanished! I've been getting 'Oops! Page Not Found' for 24 hours now. Hope its just a temporary blip!

Thanks, Bill. If you point and shoot 1800 times over a couple of weeks you're eventually going to get something nice!

Finished this today. Very good general survey of the 1792-1815 period. Could have done with some proof-reading on the dates - just errors that get events out of sequence in places rather than historical inaccuracies. About to start:

Shame that they filled in some of the steep incline below the Saxon front line with soil when the B'tard built the Abbey to atone his sins ! Still a very atmospheric spot - in particular that boggy bit on the RHS where they butchered the over-eager lot who went chasing the Bretons. Still a bit boggy to this day ! If only Harold had taken his mum's advice and held off for a day. The consequences would have been huge (probably no USA for starters..) Having taught the BoH to kids for over 30 years it was fascinating to see where it happened. Much more compact than I imagined. I've drawn diagrams of Senlac Hill many times over the year - a bit weird finding myself staying at Senlac Wood campsite! Cornwall:

Sussex and a bit of Hampshire: First one shows what you might have seen if you'd been a Norman on 14th October, 1066 (give or take a few trees, an landscaped hillside and a bloody great abbey built subsequently to make amends for the slaughter).

Humphrey Lyttelton had the advantage of being a 'personality' - a well known name from a time when a certain approach to jazz was briefly mainstream popular in the UK, one who was known for his broadcasting in other areas ('I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue'). It was lucky he was also a devoted jazz fan (and player) and one with very open ears. Jez Nelson and Alyn Shipton don't have that celebrity clout. 4 Radio 3 jazz programmes, 3 condemned to the graveyard slot from this September (even the very mild Jazz Line-up got pushed there). Somehow JRR has survived in its current slot for as long as I can remember (I started listening in 1977) - tea time Saturday (give or take the occasional shunting round the schedule to accommodate the Valkyries). Edit: From a Blog in 2009: http://shirazsocialist.wordpress.com/2009/04/11/in-defence-ofjazz-record-requests/ The last 'reply' made me smile.

According to Jazzwise 'Jazz Library' is shifting to a midnight slot from 17th September. More evidence of the BBC's lack of interest in jazz? Or its conviction that jazzers are nightbirds by nature?

For a long time In a Silent Way appealed to me far more than Bitches Brew. The rock/funk element is very understated and there's an open spaceiness (!) there that appeals to someone who was coming to jazz via ECM (as one route). I love the way it shimmers. Over time, however, I've come round to Bitches Brew and couldn't choose between them now. I do think from BB onwards the funk side was increasingly played up and that was what what was mainly picked up on by jazz-rock/fusion musicians. The possibilities of the cooler IASW approach have been less explored (though bands like Eberhard Weber's 'Colours' on ECM always strike me as owing a lot to that record). Interesting that some of the re-explorations of electric jazz in recent years have stepped back to IASW. Dave Douglas' marvellous 'The Infinite' always sounds to me as if it is referencing that world.

Decided Oliver Nelson wasn't really for me - love 'Stolen Moments' but most of the rest had too much of that brassy, post-40s big band sound for my taste. However, I really enjoyed the Basie track towards the end - 'Afrique'. Didn't sound like Basie at all!

Ken 'Snakehips' Johnson Not a combatant but a casualty.

I notice the Django Bates biggish-band concert (or part of it) from this year's Cheltenham is being broadcast on Jazz on 3. The highlight of this year's festival for me, so will be interesting to se how it comes across at home. Think it was broadcast a while back but I missed it. 'Another chance to listen to...' (BBC-speak for 'Repeats') is not always a bad thing. There's also a Food concert from 2010 which I also attended. Recall not being too engaged by that, despite being an admirer or Iain Ballamy. Will be interesting to see how that sounds in retrospect. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013m2mh

Oliver Nelson this afternoon. Guy Barker is doing the enthusing.

I had a feeling it might have been something like that. We live in an age when everything can be sorted with a pat formula.

It does say the plan is to cut back on drama to focus on 'arts'. So it might not be as bad as it first sounds - we might even see more music (a permanent webcam in the Royal Albert Hall!). Though, the slippery slope situation is more likely! Hope they maintain their recent habit of importing continental detective series - I'm addicted top the Saturday night slot. DEnmark, Sweden, France and, this weekend, Italy. With the second series of 'The Killing' just a few weeks away. In some ways I'd prefer to see them importing high quality drama from Europe (or elsewhere). Keep the original BBC commissioned drama to BBC1 and BBC2 at the expense of the strictly-come-be-a-millionaire-with-the-soap-stars-while-watching-police-cars-chase-chavs type programmes (my Guardian reading, woolly-minded, luke-warm lefty credentials fully on display there). [Two other things that have me incandescent with rage, while we're here: 1. Who thought it was a good idea for newsreaders to stand up in pairs while reading the news? I find myself turning into my father and screaming at the TV 'Sit Down, for god's sake'. 2. Why, on documentaries, have they started repeating things. They do this a lot on those 'Secrets of the Pyramids' type programmes just after the breaks in case you've been so mesmerised by the adds that you need a recap. But I noticed on a 'Who do you think you are?' the other night they did a recap at the end of every 3-4 minute segment - 'And so Jo has learnt that her grandma was the illegitimate daughter of a travelling trombone player...' Yes, I know. I saw her finding this out two minutes ago! Worries me a bit, that last one. I do something similar in a lesson!]

I don't know how I exist without it! Get started with: http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDSA6805&cat=396 or http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDSA6810&cat=396

Lots of these were my entry point to earlier jazz from around '77 onwards - lots of the Miles and Evans ones, several Verves (including the Ella songbooks), Monk, Rollins etc. Gil Evans, Lee Konitz and Mingus via the Blue Note series. The extensive liners could be very helpful when written historically to contextualise the music - when you knew virtually nothing about jazz that helped you find your way a bit.

As mentioned on a classical thread, Dutton Vocalion are just starting to put their recording out as downloads on iTunes. Only a handful so far and mainly classical and nostalgia. But in the long run it should make the jazz recordings not just more available but keep them in circulation. Of no use to downloadaphobes but I'd imagine it would make acquiring the music easier from outside the UK.