A Lark Ascending

Amerocentric, heck... it barely -- and unsurprisingly -- ventures outside of the five boroughs. Which five boroughs?

Hopelessly Amerocentric.

Keith Tippett, Roy Babbington, Frank Perry in the very early 70s. Something more recent. About time we had a new recording from this wonderful player.

'Caravanserai', 'Love, Devotion and Surrender' and 'Welcome' all had a major impact on my listening (though they overlap with the first two Mahavishnu records in my mind). I have a feeling I first read about Coltrane in interviews associated with those records - and heard my first Coltrane tunes on the latter two (I was entranced with 'Naima'). 'Caravaserai' was my first conscious experience of Afro-Cuban percussion (it was obviously used on other mainsteam rock records...Chicago for example...but this was where I first noticed it standing up front). One slow burning influence was 'Stone Flower' - I loved the song and arrangement without having a clue where it came from. It wasn't until 20 years later that I picked up the Jobim original and the whole Brazilian thing started to open up for me. Crossover ain't always a bad thing! ******************* I'm 2/3rds of the way through the stereo Beatles. Enjoying it thoroughly - the sound quality is certainly superb.

Christmas morning in Eastwood, Notts. D.H. Lawrence country:

I have 'Lotus'...though it's a while since I played it. I recall 'Caravanserai' getting ecstatic reviews in the UK music press when it was issued. Didn't seem to translate into sales. I didn't get to hear it for at least a year and I don't think I owned a copy until the late 70s. My purchasing power was severely limited until that time.

Follow up to the 1956-64 'Never Had it So Good'. Covers the Wilson (Harold, not Brian) years up to 1970. Sandbrook writes good popular history, balancing the politics and economics (which he seems to have a particular interest in) with the cultural and social changes. Probably goes a bit to heavy on the pop music - large sections on the development of the Beatles, the appearance of the Stones, even the Kinks. Sandbrook is about 5 or more years younger than me so it's not as if he's living his youth. 250 pages in and I've got to 1966 - quite useful as I was out of the country from Aug '65 until Feb '68 (undercover in 'Nam at the time). He's currently writing a third volume on the 70s with a final book on Attila the Hen's years due afterwards.

Indeed. Off topic I know but any love for Caravanserai? I picked it up yesterday, the guy at my local record store said "for most people the first three are the way to go but based on your tastes try Caravanserai". Caravanserai stands head and shoulders above anything else in the Santana catalogue to these ears. Not following that line of development strikes me as one of the lost opportunities of early 70s rock. Some of the guitar playing is just ecstatic - the varied atmospheres give a real sense of a journey across the disc. It also took the fullest advantage of the LP format, hitting two astounding peaks at the end of each respective side. Commercially, it couldn't sustain the sales of Abraxas so retreat was almost inevitable.

Hope you have a good one and Santa is generous (and appropriate!). Thanks for all the nice conversations this year and the wonderful recommendations in a multitude of genres. Special greetings to Jim for keeping this whole thing afloat. I don't know how he does it.

I'll take your advice...and invest the money in a company whose shares are bound to rise in the next three years:

Peter King the alto player also writes operas! Has a great affinity for Bartok - did a great tour with his quartet and a string quartet about ten years back. He used to be a regular at Appleby and could always be guaranteed to tear the place up on those three horn jam session things they did so well there. http://peterkingjazz.com/bio.html This is a great disc to sample his playing: ****************** I don't know much about the recently deceased Pete King - but given the importance of Ronnie Scott's in UK jazz life has achievement was considerable.

What should I do about my mortgage? It will still have four years to run. Will I still be liable in the next world?

Has worked very smoothly over the week. On the first day it was taking time to move between pages when you clicked but that was sorted within the day. No problems now - wish farewell to those late morning UK cut-outs.

Listened to 'Look at Yourself' (the track) on Spotify. Very much of its time. Not my cup of cocoa.

Should not be confused with Peter King the alto player.

Fish and chips is such a great meal. Almost enough to earn forgiveness for the rest of England's culinary contributions... I have a feeling the chips part is originally from Belgium! So we can't even claim that! I do like a burger every now and then, just as long as they don't butter the roll. And that it's cooked right through!

How DARE you! I'm sorry- this means WAR. Looks like flame-grilled White House again!

Fish and chips.

I nearly bought 'Look at Yourself' when it came out (c.1970/71?) - I recall hearing the title track on the radio. Is there a manic organ solo in the middle? I was really into manic organ solos at the time (Jon Lord, Emerson, Vinvent Crane etc). [but what 15 year old boy isn't!!!!!!!!] Might have to check Spotify to see if my memory is correct. Shortly afterwards I learnt from the NME that Uriah Heep were not cool and so never bought any of their records (traded in my Deep Purples and ELPs too!). Got my organ fix from Caravan, Soft Machine and Hatfield and the North instead. Oh, the power of the fashion police.

I have Stevens' cello concerto on an old cassette tape (from my days of illicitly taping things not available commercially from the library!). Haven't played it in many a year. Will need to seek it out and give it a try. William Mathias is another very appealing UK composer (Welsh, actually) who did the bulk of his writing during this time period. Three symphonies, concertos, choral, organ music (he was associated with St. Asalph's in Wales) etc. More in the British-take-on-Stravinsky-esque mould - a bit like the Holst of the '20s (or, perhaps, Rawsthorne). There are recordings on Lyrita and Nimbus. I heard an especially wonderful organ concerto one year in Gloucester as part of the Three Choirs Festival (a famous Britocentric shindig). Sadly, I don't think it ever got recorded. This one is especially enjoyable: Can't beat a good harp concerto!

Bizarrely, this was my first Jarrett album (and first ECM!). I've always liked the long flute and strings piece, the brass music and the track with Ralph Towner (which set me off exploring him). The string quartet loses me. I've never heard Luminessence but I have the later Arbor Zena with Garbarek, Haden and strings - I've always found it a bit glacial. The strings seem to move as a block - I don't get much of a sense of the independent movement of parts that a dedicated orchestral writer can bring off.

Looks good to me. Well done, Jim. Can't believe you have a full time job as a musician, a young family and still have the enthusiasm to make this board work so well.

That's been sorted. It's called downloads! "I buried Bev." Or "Paul is going to make some really dire records after this one."

In the end I don't think there is any overall superiority of one medium over another. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. I think most of us decide on a preference beyond the rational (in the same way we might prefer one style of garden or wallpaper [actually, I prefer paint!] over another). It's easy then to get blind about what others hear. With vinyl I always hear the clicks, pops, inner groove distortion, wow and flutter - and if it's not there I'm waiting for it. I know others can just tune out (in the same way that I have no awareness of differing sound quality between downloads and cds - but then I've never 'A/B'd' a recording in my life). Apart from the relative cheapness of the format, it's the instant availability of downloads that have led me in that direction. I know I'm not typical amongst (older) music obsessives in that regard - apparently the record companies in the UK still sell 90% of their catalogue via CD with only 10% on download. Partly suspicion of the new technology, partly its association with youth and superficiality, partly a lack of awareness as to just how far the quality has come on in a few years, partly a failure of the record companies to successfully market non-pop music in the new formats (too hung up on worrying about illegal file-sharing). When you open up iTunes you see such a glitzy, glossy, kiddie-pop front page and it takes a bit of time to navigate to the gems that lie within. With e-music there is no differentiation between the careful, high quality release and the bargain basement repackages. To grab the specialist audiences these sites need to get better at doing the equivalent of a record shop having its new releases on display and core catalogue in an obvious place, with all the cheapo versions lying in a separate bargain area. I miss three things with vinyl: a) The big sleeves. b) The 20 minute sides - awkward in some longer pieces, but in most music having to change sides really did help you focus. c) The way the 20 minute sides made performers really think about album track sequencing. Very hard to do this over 70 minutes - but on the LP you had two points where you could make a real impact with maximum concentration; two points of ending (where you could drift into the ether or end with a bang). I never really feel that sense of architecture on CDs of new material - tends to feel more like a sequence of tracks.

Have you never noticed how the most common place to get those static skips is towards the end of a disc? Normally because you've plonked a sticky finger-print there! Has anyone programmed their player to go the other way. Might reveal some astounding revelations on a few 60s/70s discs!