A Lark Ascending

One of the key sounds of my teenage years. Never flash but incredibly atmospheric. Very sad.

I went from a 20gb mp3 to an 80gb ipod in the summer. The 20gb was rapidly filling up (thus the purchase of the new one). The 80gb is less than 1/3 full and has so much music on it that I don't think I'll be needing anything bigger. What a wonderful invention.

Great song...No 1 hit I believe in the UK in 1969. I associate it with walking to school in Newquay, Cornwall in the spring of that year, a good year or so before I started buying my own records. Very much a record that conjures up 'The Sixties' for me. Was used in an advert here recently. Thunderclap Newman were touted to be a really big thing...I think they managed another half-successful single and then vanished. Restore your all-knowing pop credibility here: http://www.thunderclapnewman.com/tn/ Even they are on the revival circuit! [Actually, I can imagine Neil singing it....]

Many thanks, everyone. 1 x 16 it is then, for the present.

Thanks. That's what I'm trying to establish - should I just go for the quickest.

When you burn a CD-R you are offered a wide range of burn speeds. I've never really got my head round this. In my mind the lower the speed, the more accurate the burn. But, audio technicalities are rarely that logical. At present I use 1 x 10 on Winamp. Any suggestions (please don't get too technical...it would zoom over my head!)?

I agree with everything you say there, Jsngry. One of the reasons I was so taken by the passage was its parallels in other areas of music. I first started listening to music in a 'crossover' era (the early 70s - jazz-rock, folk-rock etc); a fair bit of what I listen to today from this side of the pond involves collisions between jazz and other forms of music and I often read similar criticisms to the ones Gioia cites (ECM anyone?). And, I can also find myself disturbed by some collisions - my own internal compass goes haywire when faced with drum machines, hip-hop etc (not just in jazz but also in folk music where I'm drawn to a more acoustic, scratchy approach). In those cases my brain just isn't making the necessary jump to the new worlds being created. One of the things I really like about Gioia's book is how hard he works to take the different musicians on their own terms and see the good in them. Overall, he echoes the view I've most frequently read about Kenton (whose music I don't know apart from the odd track - I've clearly been brainwashed not to go near him!) as making music that over-ices the cake; yet he takes care to point out what he thinks was good in the music. Dave Brubeck, someone who had the reputation that smooth jazzers have today when I was first listening, gets a very good write up. I've just finished the Chet Baker chapter and once again, he's not afraid to pan certain albums, but the overall feel is of great admiration for his music, especially in the 50s.

I started Ted Gioia's 'West Coast Jazz' in the spring but got distracted; finally settled down again today. I was particularly struck by this passage: From Chapter 8: centred around Stan Kenton.

One that seems to have sneaked into the new releases: http://www.triorecords.toucansurf.com/Trio...s_Products.html I love those venue names. Can you imagine 'Miles in Pinner' or 'Sony Rollins at the Panshanger Golf Complex , Welwyn Garden City.' Along with the new Ingrid Laubrock, this week's buys.

At $18 you've got a marvellous range of the label on those 12 CDs. It's so inexpensive that even if you don't like what you hear you've hardly lost anything.

Ingrid Laubrock has a new release on Intakt that will be my next order: Ingrid Laubrock:soprano and tenor saxophone Liam Noble:piano Tom Rainey:drums Amazing how far she's come in ten years or so. Her first album was a pleasant, almost mainstream, affair but she'd moved right out into pure improvisation waters.

Anyone with a taste for English classical music will be sad to hear Vernon Handley, a great champion of the music, has just died: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7608956.stm

Rather not ... his working bands is only Birds of Underground - all others are "projects" - I don't understand why Berendt didn't record his regular group more often. Albert was much more avant-garde than these albums show, he was a regular member of Schlippenbach's Globe Unity. But he was versatile. I always found the United Jazz Rock Ensemble rather bland - no black groove. I heard him live so often I don't need any CDs to remember him. Yes, I know what you mean. The drumming always sounded very stiff.

You have a point there. Though I can't say I've really noticed the smirk in Penguin that bothers you. I have noticed an imperiousness of tone which I find irritating - but that seems to be the default position of many critics when writing about jazz.

It's a Brit thing in another sense, Larry. Unlike you, Cook and Morton as commentators on the 20th century American music called jazz lack two factors: not American and too young to be around when much of it happened - hence the emphasis on records. There's a fallacy in that idea, Bill - the idea that someone present in an historic period will have a greater understanding than someone looking back to it from much later. But someone present in that historical period will have a perspective that others will never have. Absolutely - a unique perspective and a vital eyewitness. But inevitably a very partial one. A grenadier at Waterloo can tell us things no subsequent commentator can match; but will his view from the ranks, on a part of the battlefield, in the fog of war give him the wider perspective of what happened on that day, let alone where its significance lies? As a historian I'd want to take in his account as evidence; as a general reader I'll enjoying reading about first hand experience. But if I was wanting to learn about Waterloo in the round I'd go to the writings of a well researched historian (who will rely on documents and artefacts in the way that Cook and Morton rely on records). And just as all history books are constructions made of available evidence, shaped by the preconceptions of the writer, so jazz commentaries are much the same (though in the case of books like Penguin or AMG with far more speculation, far less thorough research). It's probably worth staying away from those that construct a version of the musical past that conflicts with our own tastes/preconceptions. That only ceases to be the case if you believe that there is a 'true' history of the jazz past to be unveiled by musical criticism.

IIRC that's one of the best of the bunch. I found his studio album always a little restrained. They should have recorded the band with Peter Giger live, they were wild. Too few live recordings by Albert's working band. Joe Behrendt was Orrin Keepnews European counterpart, in this respect. Thanks, Mike. I think I've only heard him as a member (or guest) of the United Jazz Rock Ensemble which, I'd imagine, is hardly representative.

I've always been curious about MUMPS - the Surman/Phillips/Martin group. I recall reading about them just as I started listening to jazz but never heard the record. Might give Vol 2 a go...there are some other interesting names there.

Dear, oh, dear! Might be an idea to merge this thread with the one about not watching TV.

Most of what you write there is supposition. You may take issue with their judgement, you may question their accuracy; but I'm not sure how you gain your insider knowledge that they are faking their views in order to sound edgy (there are far better examples of that on this site!). I've never much cared for the late Richard Cook. I've heard him talk in person, actually gave up on Jazz Review because I was irritated by his (to my mind) rather purist jazz views. I've a lot of time for Brian Morton, mainly as a result of a superb, wide ranging radio programme he did in the 90s (everything from the totally free to Ella Fitzgerald in one programme). I've never had any reason to doubt his honesty.

I very much agree with this. I'm interested in reading about what excites people; I've little interest in reading what they dislike or feel superior to. There was an item on a radio programme a year or so back about phrases critics used in panning reviews. A number of critics gave examples. Then one very wise woman replied 'I don't write bad reviews, I send the book back.'

It's a Brit thing in another sense, Larry. Unlike you, Cook and Morton as commentators on the 20th century American music called jazz lack two factors: not American and too young to be around when much of it happened - hence the emphasis on records. There's a fallacy in that idea, Bill - the idea that someone present in an historic period will have a greater understanding than someone looking back to it from much later.

Quite the opposite. Although there are some tried and tested oldies that I'll still turn out for (John Taylor, Stan Tracey, Norma Winstone etc), I get the real buzz from seeing younger players emerging.

As with an 'guide', if you stay with the subject for any length of time you soon float free of it. I can't imagine there are many long term jazz listeners who use Penguin as their only reference. If your interest is (or becomes) Tadd Dameron (or any other individual musician), then there's not enough in there to nurture your curiosity. You're soon going to come across other viewpoints and re-evaluate. I find plenty in Penguin that grates on me, some dismissive comments about ECM for example. Brian Morton got into some bother writing in Cook's 'Jazz Review' publication a few years back for less than complimentary comments on the Rendall-Carr Quintet (at the time of the reissues). And if Penguin annoys you, Cook's comments in Jazz Review would have made you livid. I think there really is a cross-Atlantic difference of perception and priorities. I used to get wound up by what I saw as the insularity of most American books and magazines (and bulletin board posters) on contemporary jazz. What I've learnt is that this is largely to do with the opportunities to hear what happens elsewhere. On both sides of the Atlantic we have an inevitably skewed view of what is happening, based on what is in our face most of the time (leading to a general American indifference to non-American jazz; a tendency in Europe to overvalue jazz from Europe and paint US musicians as conservative'). Reading commentary that does not fit that view can be irritating, especially if it is critical. I read Cook and Morton like I read any history book...with my antennae turned on for the authors' prejudices. It can be pompous and self-important, but any judgement presented as fact rather than opinion comes across that way. And that is the common currency of jazz writing. I still find it more enjoyable than, say, the equally useful but (to my taste) somewhat anodyne AMG. [i very much enjoy Gary Giddins writing on jazz but have been frequently annoyed by his judgements. Anyone coming to jazz through Giddins as a recommended guide would quickly learn to avoid Keith Jarrett. Giddins' dislike of Jarrett's 'romanticism' is not presented as opinion but as 'how it is').

I've heard he's working on 'Come Away With Me'.

Can't say I hear much folk influence in the Beatles, though plenty of music hall. However, the last two Mojo magazines have been dissecting 'The White Album' and comment on how impressed they were with the folk guitar thing that was raging by that time, McCartney and Lennon sitting down to work out how Davy Graham, Bert Jansch etc did it. Donovan, apparently, showed them. 'Blackbird' is suggested as one of the fruits.