A Lark Ascending

Another obscure one for flute lovers: Rutland Boughton was an early 20thC English composer who composed a series of huge operas based on Arthurian legend, to be performed at a sort of English Bayreuth at Glastonbury. They're all long forgotten. I think I'm right in saying that John Cowper Powys' 'A Glastonbury Romance' was based on these events. This CD is a much lighter affair. The flute concerto is lovely, especially the magical slow movement. Recommended.

"Is this the way to Amarillo?" as a rugby tour song? What happened to "Four and Twenty Virgins came down from Inverness"? More evidence of the dumbing down of contemporary culture!

"Walking the Long Miles Home'" from Richard Thompson's 'Mock Tudor'. I was playing a live version in the car on Saturday and this jaunty little number about missing the last bus home has been stuck in my head ever since.

This is the UK disc of the moment. Not yet in the shops but available from the label directly: Gritty, punky, spluttery, impassioned, exciting, lyrical (in a raw sort of way). From the F-IRE stable, a parallel development (with occasional overlaps) with the Dune group of players that Baptiste works in.

What is the Texas Panhandle? Serious question. I havn't a clue what a Panhandle is. Sounds like something used to organise cattle on the Great Plains!

Enjoyable but not great. The first half was just his trio playing to a film set in southern Tunisia - 'Remparts D'Argile' - nice playing but unable to really take off because of the need to fit the film sequence. 1 hour and 25 minutes of this was a bit hard going. The recording of this music is much stronger. The Strada Sextet were much more the business but I think we were all a bit tired by then. I don't find that Sextet or the Vivre CD nearly as affecting as his previous Azur Quintet or his trio with Louis Sclavis and Aldo Romano. The opener - 'Old Dehli' is wonderful (as it was at the concert) but I find the CD a bit disjointed after that. 'Mosaic Man' remains my favourite Texier - a very special disc - along with the two Texier/Sclavis/Romano CDs. Back to the weather. Still dull. Must clean up the living room...

Very hazy in the Midlands yesterday - I drove to Birmingham to see Henri Texier. The sun came through the mist a bit in the afternoon, however. Nice and warm though. Very dull this morning but still warm. Might hit the weeding this afternoon!

Christ! I've got to take 50 kids to Conwy in three weeks. I thought a coach would be enough. Does this mean we have to catch a plane? (Offa would be very impressed by the size his Dyke has grown to!)

We're up to 20 degrees C here in the UK in places - June weather in March! Three weeks ago we were having blizzards!

Hey, the insignificance of Wales is official. Last October the EU produced a report with a map on the cover that missed it off completely: Now I know why I always feel so damp at the Brecon Jazz Festival.

I've always preferred alkali jazz.

Rugby? That's the one where blokes get all muddy chasing an easter egg round a field. [uS readers might like to know that Wales is the name of a very large car park west of Birmingham where you wait for the ferry to Ireland]

I knew there were some Atom Hearters out there somewhere! I'm just struck by the number of times I see it written off, dismissed as pretencious...even Gilmour hates it. It was my first Pink Floyd album...one of the first albums I had...and it still holds my attention from the first bit of Wagnerian brass murmuring to the water going down the plughole.

Read the bottom, Andy! This is similar in sound, a bit further 'out'. Wonderfully oddball version of 'Send in the Clowns'. Both groups owe more to the 60s free/semi-free scene than they do to Garbarek. I like Garbarek but this is nicely different. I've always liked jazz that treads on the edge between the structured/melodic and the totally free - the Ogun stuff of the 70s, LJCO, Brotherhood of Breath, 70s Carla Bley etc. These seem to work in that territory but with their own dialect.

Atomic!!!!!!!! And Atomic with Ken Vandermark: One of my favourite groups of the moment. Very different to what is normally thought of as jazz from Norway - they avoid the ambient 'fjord-music' going for a rougher yet frequently melodic approach. At times they remind me of the Jarrett American Quartet of the 70s but with rougher edges.

Yes, I recall reading about the cancer around the time 'Purple' came out. Good to see he's pulled through.

This one's good from the marvellous Finnish orchestra: Electric Miles seems to be a take-off point for quite a few contemporary bands. Three I've seen in recent years in the UK: Matthew Bourne - something of a young whizz kid who I can't quite decide on at present; but he did a very impressive full-on electric blast at a concert a few years back. Martin France's 'Spin Marvel' - a great drummer from the Loose Tubes/Django Bates area of UK jazz. This band with John Parricelli and Mike Walker on guitars and Iain Ballamy on soprano worked beautifully through 70s Milesish electric soundscapes. I believe they have a recording coming out soon as part of the F-IRE collective movement though Mike Walker might not be with them (a pity). Gerard Presencer - after some pretty disappointing discs this trumpet/fluegelhorn player came out a year or so back with a very nice electric disc which draws off that sound world: Some of the recent Dave Douglas disc are clearly rooted there too.

Yes, I saw the Jazzwise piece. Add to your overdraft with those Huong Thanh discs (you are more likely to see them under 'World Music' in the shops). I'm currently playing the most recent - Mangustao - which also has Fresu. I particularly like the contribution of Paul McCandless (of Oregon fame) - I believe he's on the new Le disc. Paolo Fresu is worth following in his own right. There's a great quintet disc recorded in Montreal under fellow-trumpeter Enrico Rava's name and including Stefan Bollani on piano (another tremendous player): Nice long versions of tunes associated with Miles...and not the usual ones!

The cod-Beach Boys on Summer '68 are wonderful!

I've not heard this yet but dearly love: Some of his recordings can mix the multi-ethnic musical influence pot a bit too much, ending up a bit bland (a problem I've found with Trilok Gurtu's more recent music). I also enjoyed his Hendrix tribute: There are a number of recordings with Huong Thanh that follow the Vietnamese folk song link of Tales from Vietnam (the singer on that disc): Nice playing on this disc by Italian trumpet player Paulo Fresu too: A great live player too - he did a storming trio concert at Cheltenham a few years back.

I think I'm the only person in the world who loves: My favourite along with Meddle, Umma Gumma and Wish You Were Here. I enjoy the first two too, though they were a couple of years before I started listening to music so sounded a bit tinny in 1970/1 to my ears. I enjoy DSoftheM but even at the time was disappointed by its more conventional song-based approach. I like the lengthy noodling and (especially) the breakfast cereal noises.

Thanks Daniel, A good Wheeler discography is long overdue.

I saw The Fringe in a pub in Wales a few years back playing totally free improvisation. I often lose interest in the completely unstructured but this performance was electric. Edge of the seat stuff. Very, very impressive.

Spring! You should have seen my two ponds this morning. Positively pornographic! Scores of the buggers (that's probably biologically inaccurate). [On the other hand, this might be Camilla and the Frog Prince)

19th? 7th? 28th? How do you rate a pianist? Why would you rate a pianist? (He has a new trio album due from ECM later this year with Anders Jormin and Paul Motion. It's on Alankin's site but with no date yet)