A Lark Ascending

Perhaps they'd like to ask me to do the screenplay. I visualise this great scene where they go on tour in Europe and wind up at a club called Minton's in Helsinki where the see bebop being born. Might go some way towards making up for that U-Boat/enigma machine film!

Just in case anyone is even remotely interested you can hear the Robson/Hart/Genus trio on BBC Radio 3's "Jazz on 3" programme on Friday, 16th April. Goes out at 11.30 p.m. UK time (that's teatime in the States I'd imagine!) but is streamed for the following week. No info online at the lime of writing but everything you need will be here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/jazz/jon3/jon3.shtml

In the summer of 1970 I bought my very first LP, one I considered to be the epitome of musical excellence - "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition (don't even ask how a 14 year old in a Cornish seaside resort took a liking to something so middle American!). I seem to have 'lost' Kenny by about November of 1970!

Very much looking forward to OD12049 Atomic/School Days "Nuclear Assembly Hall" Atomic are one of the most exciting bands in Europe at the moment; I've really enjoyed what I've heard of School Days too.

Actually this is the coolest tree: Brrrrrrr!!!

You call that a tree? This is a tree. Just a few miles from here. You can have all sorts of fun with it: Go here and you can take a tour of the hole inside: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/360/where_..._interior.shtml Needless to say there are plenty of local rumours that Robin Hood and his Merry Dudes used to hide in it (personally I believe they just used it to hang out their tights to dry):

"Stupidly Happy" XTC

Have a giggle here: http://www.richardthompson-music.com/catch..._day.asp?id=242

That is indeed a gorgeous record. I'll get to see him in early May at the Cheltenham Festival though, sadly, only as accompanist to vocalist Silje Nergaard.

I havn't. But I'm going to the Bath jazz weekend in May where one of the performances is Balthasar Streiff (alpenhorns) and Christian Zehnder (voice, accordion). Looks like fun!

Exactly, Simon! My whole approach to music is very much a personal quest. I use maps and guidebooks but am just as likely to go off at a wild tangent (Scandanavian folk music!!!). I like the idea of presenting jazz as a place you can come and find your own route rather than a place where you've to pass some 'driving test' proving you can appreciate 'the greats'. The great appeal to me of jazz in the mid-70s was that it seemed to offer almost limitless possibilities. Exploring jazz should be for independent travellers, not a package holiday taking in the famous sights! ********* There's also something contradictory about a music that makes so much of 'freedom' and 'surprise'; and then has admirers wanting to draw up a 'canon' or identify the 'vital elements'. Do that and you move into 'and this can't be jazz because it lacks ________.' (fill in your own vital element. I'd go for alphorns!!!) Jazz in 2004 has lots of elements it didn't have in 1930. It'll have lots more by the time we get to 2004. Do we really want to define a 'heart and soul' that it all must at least aspire back to? I'd prefer to leave it to go where it will. Now a list of key records pointing how it got where it did today. That is interesting. An absolute minefield of competing interpretations, but interesting. ********* Tjobbe, I don't know "Fenster aus Jazz" but I'll certainly look out for it. Sounds intriguing.

I am also too cool to own a cell phone. But if I had one I'd want a bit of Evan Parker circular breathing as the ring tone!

Nothing 'stupid' or 'wrong' with the thread at all. Putting together a list of recordings that people who already know and enjoy the music can recommend has to be useful. They have one permanently set up at AAJ for example. But seeking the 'heart and soul' of jazz in three recordings? Sounds like something Stanley Crouch would do on the liners of a Wynton CD!!! I can already hear the Holy Ghost of Swing descending! Sorry - I'm probably giving that 'heart and soul' comment more emphasis than was intended! Offends my fundamentalist relativism! When I started listening to and buying jazz records I started with things I'd read about in the rock papers that still covered jazz in those days (mid-70s). Not an option today. I also went for things I'd heard rock musicians banging on about - Bitches Brew, A Love Supreme. Then I started listening to the jazz radio programmes. But after a few months I wanted a context. Mine was Joachim Berendt's 'Jazz Book'. I must re-read that. It was written at the height of fusion and the list of recommendations certainly reflects that. I wonder how it would read now! Anyway, I interpreted this thread as great recordings that would give a listener a flying start to the breadth of jazz - thus the Westbrook. I'd like to put in 'The Age of Ellington', a 3LP set put out by RCA in combination with 'The Sunday Times' in the late 70's that took an LP each for 'The Popular Duke', 'The Historic Duke', and 'The Longer Duke' - one of the most influential records in my collection opening all sorts of doors. Unfortunately it hasn't been around for thirty years - perhaps the RCA abstract from the complete set?

Thanks everyone. I'll give these a try sometime in the near future. I know a few of these things from the compilation (like the version of Wooden Ships and Volunteers itself). The JA get a universally bad press here in the UK. Critics can't seem to get past their superficial politics which conflicted with their wealthy lifestyle.

It's the Crosby connection that has me interested. I only have the 2 disc compilation of the Airplane's music plus the reissue of Baxters so don't know their music that well. But I'm a huge fan of IF I COULD ONLY REMEMBER MY NAME. I'm hoping for just a little of the rambling gorgeousnouss of that disc.

I'd say it can't be done. Unless you believe that there is something objective called "the heart and soul of jazz". Everyone of us on this board has a sense of jazz that is different from the other. I don't like the idea of narrowing things down that way. It's like those 'Six books you MUST read' articles in magazines. Three pieces of literature that reveal the 'heart and soul of America'. Well, which America? Whose America? It's good fun to put together starter kits. Fun for those doing it. Helpful for newbies. Useful for all of us who might have overlooked things. But three recordings that convey the heart and soul of jazz? You'll quickly be back to 'what is jazz?' and the usual disagreements.

I picked up my Liebman/Beirach from the delivery depot. Then went on to Leeds and splurged out on: Bill Frisell's trio with Dave Holland and Elvin Jones. I heard this in London twice in Virgin and was mighty impresed. Love it! Rendall Carr - Phase III/Live - the second reissue from BGO. The first is tremendous. Looking forward to engaging with this one over the holidays. Grateful Dead - The Closing of Winterland (1978) - I'd played a couple of the Dick's Picks sets over the previous week and couldn't resist this. They really were a wonderful, wonderful live band. Mariza - Fado - Part of my preparations for a visit to Andalusia in the summer. I know, it's Portuguese but it's close. The daft thing is I also needed a new watch. Came back empty handed because there was nothing I fancied for under £10!!!

Thanks, Most of what I've heard rates Blows, not so keen on Sunfighter.

Any comments on these: I recall hearing them in the early 70s and like the line up.

Artist: Mike Westbrook Title: The Cortege Recorded: 1982 Label: Currently on Enja; orginally on Westbrook's own label A composition for voices and jazz orchestra. Kate Westbrook (tenor horn. piccolo. bamboo flute. voice) Phil Minton (trumpet, voice) Dave Plews, Guy Barker. Dick Pearce (trumpets) Malcolm Griffiths (trombone), Alan Sinclair, Dave Powell (tubas) Chris Hunter. Phil Todd. Chris Biscoe (saxes) Lindsay Cooper (bassoon, oboe, saxophone) Brian Godding (guitar), Georgie Born (cello), Steve Cook (bass) Dave Barry (drums) Mike Westbrook (piano, tuba) Music composed and arranged by Mike Westbrook. Texts by Lorea. Rimbaud. Hesse. Blake, Belli, Clare, Saarikoski and others. Cornerstones should be undermined from the off! Otherwise we all end up with the same record collections! So here's a recommendation for an astounding disc that will get anyone starting out in jazz realising the sheer range and breadth of the music. I don't know a better large scale 'concept' jazz work. The poems provide the core of the work but are set in music that is exciting, beautiful and plain peculiar by turns. The soloing is outstanding throughout. Great moments? Malcolm Griffiths trombone solo on 'Leñador'; and the brooding 'Cordoba' (that one has haunted me so much I'm finally going there this August!). Its nearly a quarter of a century old so can claim classic status. A new listener with an armful of Coltranes, Armstrongs, Davis', Hawkins etc can only start their jazz listening off the richer by getting their ears round something that is such a contrast (and yet still quintessential jazz) as this.

Picked up mine from the delivery depot today (this time hidden in the depths of Sheffield's industrial regeneration area! They do pick their spots!). Have just listened to disc one and loved it. The sonic issue causes me no problems. I've heard far worse than this. The music I love. This is what jazz sounded like when I first got interested in it in the mid-70s. Personally I love the sound of the fender rhodes and can't get enough of it. I agree, Gary, with your Miles comparison. This is very much out of that period...but without the pronounced 'funk' that characterised a great deal of Miles' stuff from Jack Johnson onwards. Looking forward to disc 2 and 3.

'New Morning' Bob Dylan

I think Bill Bruford might have had Banks in mind when he commented about prog rock having little or no jazz and being basically Anglican church music! As you say, no improviser...but a great player. It would have been interesting to hear Genesis a couple of tours earlier - Nursery Cryme time. I first heard them on the radio when they did a session for John Peel (a very well known UK alternative DJ). I happened to tape it and after a few plays was hooked...especially on Giant Hogweeds!!! Peel went on to make Genesis one of his great dislikes! Now Jethro Tull I never much cared for. I had 'Thick as a Brick' for a time when it came out but sold it after a year or so. They were always a bit lumpen for me. I did like some of the early singles. I can still recall Ian Anderson on 'Witches Promise' on Top of the Pops and wondering 'What on earth is this about?' I also hold a grudge against Andersron and Barre. At some point in the mid-80s they turned up at Fairport Convention's annual Cropredy weekend in Oxfordshire. They also brought with them hundreds of Jethro Tull fans and proceeded to overrun badly, cutting the Fairport set. Cropredy was never quite the same again. The small, cosy folk-rock festival became something much bigger. I'm sure it helped Fairport pay their mortgages, however!

Sounds good to me. But I'm no organ expert!

Yes, I realy enjoyed Gilmore on that Douglas tour. Hoping he gets to record on the next Douglas.