A Lark Ascending

I've listened to this piece (different recording, on Naxos) 3-4 times this week. Highly recommended! I don't know that recording either - it was the only one I could find a decent image for on google! I have an old Boult recording (which I've just listened to myself). I especially like the bit with the penguins!

My car spent the last 9 months taking 20 minutes before it would play the CD - kept spitting it out. Once it had warmed up it was fine. For some bizarre reason it played instantly if I turned off the engine. Luckily I was ready for a car change. Damned annoying for those 9 months. I was nearly at work by the time it complied.

Music for a snowy day...

The last heavy fall of snow I recall was in late 1990 when it brought all the powerlines down in Notts - it was a Friday night/Saturday morning and Nottingham shops had to shut after vainly attempting to struggle on by candlelight and without their tills. The Irish Electricity Board was called in to give emergency help to outlying parts of the county. Since then, apart from a few brief flurries...zilch. This matters if you work in a school. Heavy snow can mean a day or two off!

Even better, this was North Wales on Wednesday morning. The view from the dining room of a Youth Hostel I was doing a risk assessment on. Now here I could live... (You might just spot the snow on the far right!!!)

This is what it's been like here for the last couple of days. I took this at a local place famous for its snowdrops! Strikes me Spring is ready to spring!

When did you take those, Tony? It's cold but bright and snowless here.

Agreed too. I think it's run its course.

Jsngry, Notice this line from my post: I don't for a minute believe you harbour any elitist intentions. My issue is with the assumptions you unwittingly make with regard to AAJ - as if it's somehow less serious, somewhere more suited to a poster on the learning slopes of jazz. Now I actually agree that AAJ is more welcoming to new posters who have little knowledge (though it can be equally as harsh to a new arrival wanting to lay down the law). But it also has discussions which are as intense as anything here - find the one on non-Western improvised music as an example. The people who run Organissimo seem to have a very open approach to who posts here. It's developed its own particular identity. It has some very knowledgeable, experienced posters here who I've learned loads from (I'm just a mere listener with no inside knowledge, no grand theories, I can't even play an instrument). But sometimes some of the regulars here can get rather self-congratulatory - 'Arn't we the best, I only post here not there because...' You don't really get that at AAJ. Part of the trick of being intelligent, beautiful or skilful is to carry it off with some humility. Suggesting 'Newbies' with limited jazz knowledge would be better off starting some place else so as not to get hurt might be meant with good intent. But it actually comes across as patronising to both the 'Newbie' and the place you are suggesting they go to. To repeat, I don't think that this was your (or Brad's) intent. But to a (relative) outsider whose main 'home' is at AAJ that is how it came across.

I'm sorry but I just find this all a bit patronising. People drift in and out of boards; they tend to stay if they find them interesting, comfortable, go elsewhere if they find them hostile, dull or unresponsive. I'd imagine new posters will be quite capable of finding their own level; if they shoot their mouth of too soon they'll get their head bitten off. That's how it happens everywhere. Take this: So if your into being cool, you need AAJ. But if you're 'serious' you want here. Choice yes...though we'll try and persuade you to choose elsewhere if you don't do it our way. There's something a bit "separate but equal" about all of this. The 'intent' may be innocent - the actual effect is to make AAJ appear like the place you get sent if you're not clever enough to cut it here. Be totally inclusive. No need to suggest there are other places where less experienced posters will be happier. People find their own level. AAJ and Organissimo are distinct, different, each with their own qualities. I once described the difference as being like a high street bar where lots of people drift in and out (AAJ); and a backstreet pub dominated by a regular clientele but still welcoming of visitors. 'Advice' like that given above gives the impression that the pub just introduced a dress code. 'No we're not telling you you have to, but..."

"Ah, Grasshopper! You must spend 7 years in the valley of the AAJ. Only then will you be ready to join the Great Minds at Organissimo." You know, I finally understand why Punk happened!

Perhaps the board could introduce a property qualification, literacy tests? Good grief!

"He's as queer as a rabbit's egg" ("queer" as in "odd") One from the North of England. Also: "Talk abaw't pot callin't kettle grimey arse." (stress the 't) A Northern variant on the pot calling the kettle black.

...I actually just put a down payment on the place! You did read the small print? 'Outside bath.'

You might try this place, south east of London. Security is good.

Oh yes. They have a new disc just out.

The Chilterns arn't cheap! I had an uncle who decamped that way after making a fortune in the kitchen bakery business in Chelsea. It was very Horse and Hounds. Lots of celebrities live that way too. You might try Milton Keynes - its about 30 mins north of Hemel or even Northampton (about an hour). Milton Keynes is a new town - I'd imagine there'd be affordable places there. Northampton is an older, semi-industrial town which I'd have thought might have reasonable property. ********* A random search for "Renting Home Counties" produced this for Hemel: http://www.primelocation.com/uk-property-t...emel_hempstead/ ********* Here's an example from Milton Keynes: http://www.oaktree-property.co.uk/page00.asp *********** And Northampton/Milton: http://www.thomasandcompany.co.uk/back.htm ********* These are all £500 pcm + I'm sure on the ground something cheaper could be had. God! And I thought my mortgage was alot!

Bet you've 'gone native'! I havn't!

Or the mushy peas they make you eat with your fish and chips! (I'm a Southerner who's been doing missionary work in the North since 1978). (P.S. Bath is fabulous - much pleasanter than London!)

It sounds great in the extended versions on some of the KCCC discs. I've never heard the original B-side.

...Sal lives in Chicago, he's used to congestion! I'm talking about the motorways between cities. In the UK you can be stuck in tailbacks in the middle of nowhere!

It reminds me of the early to mid-70s when I first came into the music. Jazz was covered in places like the Melody Maker (I bough my first Westbrook as a result of a review there (Love/Dream Variations)) and jazz musicians played the university circuit alongside the big rock bands (I recall seeing Nucleus, Lol Coxhill, Stan Tracey, Harry Miller's Isipingo on campus). I largely missed the late 80s revival apart from Loose Tubes and Working Week - watching the final part of Jazz Britannia I was made aware of how little I came into contact with it. I was attending the pub gigs with Stan Tracey or Kenny Wheeler when everyone else was clearly jazz dancing to acid jazz grooves! What makes it really hopeful is that the emerging new talent has been building for some years independent of the Impressed/Jazz Britannia miniboom, Which leaves hope that it will be sustained when that inevitably subsides. Sorry...this thread is supposed to be about relocating to the UK. Maybe it will give another reason to make that move!

Sorry, an assumption on my part, given that it had those two extras.

Very, very true! Jazz has its problems here like in the States but in general there is a spirit of optimism and movement (also true of Europe in general).

Tony Coe is a magical player, criminally underrecorded. Most of what gets recorded tends to be his more mainstream side - there are a whole bunch of recordings on the mainstream Zephyr label. I've seen him play marvellous compositions for large orchestra live that have never made it to CD. 'Zeitgeist' that sidewinder mentions is a record I'd love to get a chance to hear (I missed it at the time). I'm hoping it might sneak out as part of the current spate of interest in 60s/70s UK jazz over here. Of the recordings originally listed I have a recent CD reissue of "Coe Existence" - a very enjoyable mainstream date but not one that will have your jaw dropping. I'd say the aforementioned "Nutty" is the one to get - Coe in a much more freewheeling context.