A Lark Ascending

Sad to hear this too. The McGarrigles made quite a stir in the UK c.1975 when they first arrived - sounded like something from another planet.

And watch out for the Inquisition. Remember, no-one expects...

When returning to Dublin the temptation will be to take the main roads in. A much nicer experience is to cut across the Wicklow Gap through the Wicklow Mountains (I cycled it many years ago which was an experience). Down the bottom you'll come to: Glendalough. You can spend a happy couple of hours wandering around the ruins and the lakes. It's only about 90 minutes from the centre of Dublin (traffic permitting!). ************** I'd agree that you'd be best limiting your distance - a distance that looks quite speedy in US road terms will prove much longer on the twisty, turny coast roads. Focus on Mayo/Galway/Clare/Kerry (you'll still feel you've rushed things!) with some time in Dublin if there are things you'd particularly like to see (Kilmainham Jail is a good tour if you have an interest in Irish history).

You've got a great route there - but you'd get 2 weeks in just one of those days! In Derry walk the walls - there's an amazing bit where you look across and see a Loyalist street with all the Union Jacks, slogans etc; turn the corner along the wall and you're looking down into the Catholic Bogside with a completely different set of identity markers. There's a locally run Bloody Sunday museum in the Bogside - they do a tour from there which I missed. Linger through Connemara - I especially love the coast road from Westport round to Galway. The Burren is amazing - try to take some time up there. The Poulnabrone Dolmen is worth a visit and there's a good historical/geological centre at Kilfenora. The Cliffs of Moher are worth a look too. You might try your luck down in Doolin which has a reputation for traditional music. I've generally been unlucky there - clearly commercial tourist bands playing 'Whiskey in the Jar' but you might strike lucky. To be honest I find Killarney just a bit 'tea-cosy' Ireland (you'll get lots of that!). If you want a real adventure try and take your day 8 out on Skellig Michael. It's a rock in the Atlantic with Dark Age monastic beehive huts at the top and loads of puffins. When I went in the early 80s you couldn't go there officially but the girl at tourist info slipped me a piece of paper and told me to ring Paddy. Paddy took us out - it'll eat up your day but you'll never forget it. I suspect it might be better organised now. It's a long time since I was there but the drive around the Dingle peninsula is breathtaking - there used to be a great book shop there. Beehive huts again. I don't really know the Cork area at all. Ireland is not exactly the place to look for jazz and the last time I was there (2007) the record shops not that exciting (though there were great trad folk music shops). Worth checking the internet for Louis Stewart. He plays there regularly (or used to). Hope you are luckier than me. I either miss him by a day or...on one occasion...he failed to turn up as he was still stuck at the Cork Jazz Festival (I was never sure if it was due to the floods or dhrink taken!) Wherever you go you'll have a great time - don't worry too much about the guidebook highlights. You can venture off the beaten track and hit fascinating little jewels of scenery or history. The place is blessed with them. Enjoy the trip.

Oh the music sounds nothing like the rock organists. It's just the sound of the organ. It's so rare these days outside of jazz organ trios. Yes, the mellotron company started up again a while back with a new model. Hopefully less likely to catch fire than they used to!

You must visit the Alhambra, especially the gardens (not sure what will be there in February). Best to pre-book - you can do that online. The area around the main square is full of reasonable restaurants; you should be spoilt for choice. I got hooked on Gazpacho - cold tomato soup (with much more!). Might not be in season.

That throws up some interesting points. When we are exploring a new music we are reliant on advice from people versed in the music, often for many years, even decades. But when they make their recommendations of greatness, how much of that is inherent in the music, how much includes a layering of their own memories. In which case, should our 'innocent ear' be necessarily hearing the richness that they do? I often think this about 60s/70s music that I recommend - it still has enormous power for me but is enough of that in the music itself? I know I often find myself unable to hear the power that others locate in some past musics (a fair bit of UK jazz from the 50s/60s, for example).

Interesting article in this months Gramophone by Simon Callow about the associations we carry with music and how hard it is to disassociate them in later listening. He gives the obvious example of Mahler 5 and Dirk Bogarde wandering round Venice; and the less obvious example of buying a copy of Elgar's First and on the way out of the shop bumping into a figure he half recognised who he later found out to be Sir Oswald Mosley (leader of the British Union of Facists in the '30s). The latter must really spoil your listening! Thought about it again this afternoon whilst listening to Alex's organ trio record - the sound of the organ threw me back to the 70s when it was a major sound in rock. I don't imagine that association ever enterred Alex's head, nor would it make any sense to anyone who came of age after the mid-70s. I wonder if this is part of the reason we become so attached to older music; because the power of music is not just in the notes but in what was going on around us when we heard that music (or even a sound or style which we might hear in a very different context). Or is it possible to completely detach the music from everything else and hear it pure. I would imagine that this is what some of the more extreme free musicians might be aiming at - Year Zero with no associations at every moment. I'll admit that, for me, music is always drenched with associations not explicit in the sounds themselves - I seem incapable of detaching them. How about you?

Indeed. And there's a lovely version on Santana's album of the same name. There's a bunch of great ballads by Coltrane from that era - 'Dear Lord', 'After the Rain', 'Alabama', 'Soul Eyes'.

Just listened to volume 1 (it appeared, along with volume 2 on e-music a few days back). Great record! I was immediately thinking 'Lifetime' - but without the heads or the rock drumming. Has the boiling energy (but much easier to listen to than Lifetime as it's better recorded). I was intrigued to see the blog review above reference Jon Lord. There's nothing in the actual playing that sounds that way, but the sheer sound of the organ threw me back to the early 70s. At a time when guitar-heroes were all the rage in rock, I was always drawn to the keyboard players and those organs were very much in presence (presumably because they were easier to move round and amplify than a piano!!!). Lord, Emerson, Crane, Rattledge, Sinclair, lesser known players like Graham Field. They were part of the sound of the turn of the 70s before synths took over. A free disc but one that I think even those not too keen on the totally free would enjoy. Organs seem to be mainly associated with the Jimmy Smith tradition (with all its variations) at present. I think organophiles will be really intrigued by this very different approach. Will give volume 2 a spin a bit later. Looking forward to the mellotron album....

Yes, I have that Arriale. I agree it has a folkish feel. Which is unusual for Walton who generally steered clear of the folk-influenced style of RVW, Holst and others. I've put the record on 'save for later' on e-music for when I refresh in a few days time. Erskine did a marvellous concert at Cheltenham (or was it Bath?) about ten years back with music written specifically for a British jazz orchestra. Never appeared on disc. Thanks for the recommendation, John.

The last of the four Javier Falcon quartet. A taught, exciting thriller - given how much running around there is, Hollywood might just get interested. The Wilson books set in Seville are highly recommended if you enjoy a contemporary thriller/detective novel. There are also two excellent books set in Lisbon. I must read his first four African novels.

Of course, true audiophiles will use white chocolate. Better definition of instruments, a wider dynamic range and an overall creamy sound. I'm astounded that they are starting this with brown chocolate.

Thank you so much for this suggestion. I downloaded it from eMusic yesterday and used it for my wake up album this morning. Wonderful, peaceful, inventive music. There's a new duet album between Guy and Fernandez just up on e-music. If you don't know them I'd also recommend Guy's trio discs with Marilyn Crispell and Paul Lytton.

I'd imagine they've gone the same way as these things: Gosh, I can still imagine the taste and texture! Can't have been around since the 60s.

Vanished overnight! Just a few, forlorn dollops of snowmen left. Horrible wet rain now! Still cold. Of course, if you see a field full of carrots its really just a snowman's graveyard. There will be a few mangy scarves too.

Doubt that you can legally. There might be gizmos that enable you to do so otherwise.

Vanished overnight! Just a few, forlorn dollops of snowmen left. Horrible wet rain now! Still cold.

Isn't that a William Walton piece from his Henry V music rather than a folk tune? (sorry...just being pedantic!) http://www.williamwalton.net/works/film/henry_v_suite_chorus.html I don't know that record, but Erskine also recorded it on one of the trio albums he made with John Taylor on ECM. It's a lovely tune.

I CD-R'd a Stan Tracey/John Surman album from the late 70s last night. When I came to transferring to iTunes there was no recognition. As it probably only had limited distribution (it was on Stan's own 'Steam' label)it's probably not on the database. Though all bar one track was put together with the Tracey/Tippett TNT for CD release (by Blue Note, I think, during Stan's brief period there). That would probably show up.

Anyone heard this?:

8 degrees C here in Cornwall. Just about to dig out my shorts and find the sun cream. They'd be putting the outside tables up in Nottingham if it got that warm!

I must get hold of this new one - Stan's had a really good run in the last few years with some marvellous discs (I especially like the one with Peter King and the Wellins Monk album). Though my favourite period is the late 70s/early 80s (the Steam Years!). Not only was he playing superbly but writing marvellous tunes. 'Captain Adventure' is well loved but there are some othe quartet records from afterwards that are fantastic. Art Themen was a more abstract player (maybe 'smeary' would be a better term) than the people he's used since, bringing out something else in his records. I'll be interested to hear Simon Allen - recall seeing him with Clarke's band at Appleby.

Worst day of the winter so far! Nothing to speak of snow wise (though I believe it is bad in the west). But early in the morning it rained onto cold ground. Black ice everywhere. It's quite unnerving when you go into first, press the accelerator and...nothing happens! I was lucky, only a few slides. But the area around work was mayhem. Loads of colleagues did 180 and 360 degree turns, a few crashes (none serious). Once again, very disruptive to the school day. Even the kids are fed up of snow now. Looks like the temperature is going up on Friday, thank goodness.

There's a splendid 20 odd minute track on the 2nd disc of the Eric Clapton 'Crossroads 2' box with Santana joining Clapton's band - a very exciting perfornce. Recorded in Providence, Rhode Island in 1975.