A Lark Ascending

I'm probably not quite understanding you. Are you saying you're not completely taken by Ellington's arranging? The orchestral bits rather than his own playing or the spaces he left for the soloists? That's right. I like quite a lot of the Webster/Blanton band stuff - but mostly the commercial things like "Main stem" (though the duets are wonderful). And I love the "Road band" CD from 1957, because the band sounds so mellow and juiced. But a lot of Ellington's orchestral stuff is just too much for me to get. Well, y'know I'm really an R&B fan MG Ah, I understand now. You'd have been one of those people crying 'Judas' when he first started recording pieces that took up more than one side of a 78 in the early 30s!

Thought it was a bit small for Maiden Castle - I recall the latter as being massive. Amazing what you just stumble on in the countryside. I was heading from Cheddar to Cornwall the other week and decided to try and find Athelney in the Somerset Levels where Alfred the Great hid from the Vikings and supposedly burnt the cakes, prior to his later victories. Just saw this from the road and had to stop: Burrow Mump it's called. Nothing to mark Athelney - you'd have thought there would at least be an Alfred and his Cakes Tea Room (though I think I spotted a pub called The Alfred or something similar). (pay close attention to the English Summer at the top of the picture)

Where is here, sidewinder? Maiden Castle? Or another hill fort?

I'm probably not quite understanding you. Are you saying you're not completely taken by Ellington's arranging? The orchestral bits rather than his own playing or the spaces he left for the soloists?

There seems to be something of the preparing gourmet meals in the kitchens of the Titanic about all of this vanity box set lunacy.

Summer came back over the last two days - two very nice sunny days to end the holidays on.

The major record labels seem to have laid off all their engineers, A&R people etc but retained the packaging designers. There could be a TV series in this - a 21st century spin on 'Mad Men'.

I'm sure you're right, but I do prefer his piano playing to his bandleading. Possibly this is because I'm not sufficiently well educated musically to get what's really happening with the band. MG Don't the soloists stick out for you, MG? I'm probably less musically educated than you, but that got me from the start. Though I found the 50s to 70s Ellington orchestras rather harder to take to for a long time. I think it's that post-40s 'big band' sound that I've always had to suspend my disbelief towards. To my ears the 20s-40s band was less prone to fill in all the spaces. I'm probably quite wrong but just sounds more fleet-footed to me. There is something special about hearing the piano in the more scaled down situations.

Many thanks; noticed that on e-music. Will put on hold.

Thanks all. Was looking at the Whitney today. Will put it into my 'saved for later' box. The Pablo and Storyville too. I have the two you mention MG - know the Trane one very well but haven't listended to the Hodges enough - will rectify. ***************** There are two sides to Ellington's piano I really like: 1. That very hard style where he bangs out sparse notes on the piano (C Jam Blues, Great Times [which seems like a variation of C Jam)). Stan Tracey seems to have really taken to that. 2. His ballad style - sometimes this gets a bit schmaltzy with all those florid runs; but at other times it's almost like Debussy or Ravel (I seem to recall early critics comparing him to Delius!).

Been enjoying Ellington as piano player over the last few days. MG made a comment that he preferred him as a piano player to his orchestral persona (or something to that effect...sorry, MG, if I've misunderstood you). I know 'Money Jungle', 'In the Foreground', the Pablo 'Big 4' and finished off this month's e-music downloads with the Strayhorn duets and 'Piano Reflections'. And, obviously, there are lots of isolated things in smaller forms across the catalogue (I dearly love 'New World a-Comin''). Favourites? Recommendations? Observations? Reactions? (sorry if there is already a Ellington piano thread - couldn't find one) Bev

MG Just as well they never put out a 'Best of Brahms and Liszt'!

Gosh! There's a throwback. Remember reading that in the summer of '73, between 'A' Levels (last lot of school exams) and going to university.

Finished this yesterday (had a two week gap half-way whilst on holiday). Excellent account. Can't wait for the flurry of Battle of Britain docs due on TV in September. Also finished: Heard bits on 'A Book at Bedtime' earlier this year so I wanted to fill in the gaps. One of those dissolute lives amongst the well-heeled at Oxford books. Now gripped by: Wonderfully written - gets exactly the right balance between historical overview of what was happening and vignettes from the testimony of people who were there. My god, we are so lucky to have been born after all of that!

There was some wind yesterday - blew my garden parasol right out of the garden table! At least there were large stretches of sun; as of lunchtime we are back to grey again! Any political party that promises to organise sun in the daytime and rain/cloud at night gets my vote. More efficient too - less evaporation, less outside man-hours lost to bad weather.

Though they might pass the incident on to the Jazz Police.

Sounds like a great bill. But did you ever see his dad, Bill? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Skidmore

Thank the lord for that dot!

I imagine it's mixed. Lots going for the fun, many going because they are 'seriously' bitten by the music bug (though not 'our' music bug). Like jazz and classical really. Plenty in those audiences who are there as a lifestyle accessory. The being seen to be 'serious' about 'serious' music is part of it. Most of the young colleagues I know who go to see bands at festivals or gigs do so because they find music exciting; and they have substantial collections of recordings to boot. What is rarer is an historical sense of the music or a desire to burrow outside the world of contemporay rock/pop (or 'classic' pop/rock). Though when I read interviews with younger jazz or folk or classical musians they seem just as searching as I was at that age. [and I know one young colleague who plays in an amateur metal band, loves the music of a band called Rancid (!) but who has become 'seriously' interest in classical music (including Prom visits) and was getting my recommendations for an Ellington album a while back). I imagine the balance between the obsessives and those who just wanna have fun is perhaps less weighted in favour of the obsessive simply because there are more alternatives today. Anyway, the vast majority who don't obsess on music obsess about other things. I can't believe how many shoes some people have!

Or like Keith Emerson...with your feet. And knives!

This is excellent: As is: Both from the 70s. A lot of what he did in the 90s was in 'Homage to 'Trane' territory. Very enjoyable (especially live) but not music I often return to. More recently he's been recording with South African musicians (more World music than Blue Notes). I must go back and give those a listen.

A different perspective from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/aug/27/music-festivals-record-industry May not apply to the States but I know a whole bunch of young adults who are off at festivals this weekend; it may not be the music I like but their enthusiasm is genuine. Maybe the way of experiencing music is changing and we're just not keeping up?

Weird England! Cornwall's answer to Mardi Gras...though a few weeks later: And here's the same thing from 1932: Most of the year Padstow is an overcrowded tourist honeypot, increasingly dominated by the commercial concerns of a celebrity chef. But on May Day it's overcrowded lunacy. Bev

I use the middle finger for the wheel. Having said that, I've been a one finger typist since I got a cheap typewriter for my birthday in 1966! Sure I'm storing up future hell.

Have to admire your dedication to the wireless, Bill! JRR was good tonight - the Don Byas/Slam Stewart track was great - never heard that. Ornette's Rambin' which is wonderful. And the Duke track at the end (Kinda Dukish/Rockin' in Rhythm) sent me straight to 'The Great Paris Concert'.