A Lark Ascending

When I'm working at home (marking, preparing etc as opposed to the close quarters combat of the classroom) I always have music on. It makes the work less of a chore. But it has to be instrumental - classical, jazz, bluegrass, morris dancing music, whatever. I don't pretend I'm really listening to it but it has the right ambient effect. It's words that muddle up my brain! No singing while working (that's the record player, not me!)! Unless it's in another language. It became a bit of a trend a few years back to play music in classrooms - apparently someone somewhere proved that baroque music improved student concentration. Something to do with BPM, I seem to recall. Close to the heartbeat or something. Personally I find baroque gets like an overloud grandfather clock after a while. Gnawingly irritating.

I sometimes sneak something in where I can find a vague connection with the history lesson I'm teaching. The kids normally throw things at me, however. Managed Josh White, Mingus and Big Bill Broonzy in a class doing the Civil Rights Movement recently. I normally hang around for 90 minutes after work to mark and put music on to ease the pain. Then the other staff throw things at me.

Why is this in the Miscellaneous Music section? I don't understand. Sorry, I'm British.

I think the most I saw on stage at the same time were: Archie Shepp, Grachan Moncur III, Rosewell Rudd, Andrew Cyrille, Reggie Workman with the occasional bit of reading by Amiri Baraka. And: A Kenny Wheeler big band with Abercrombie, Erskine, Holland, Taylor, Winstone, Sulzmann, Lowther, Parker, Rutherford amongst others. And: Moholo, Rogers, Tippett, Rutherford, Parker, Yarde (OK, Yarde is a bit young for 'great' yet).

Surprised we didn't get "...and a reader of..." How do you ever get to a state where you hate so much?

John Surman, Mike Westbrook, John Taylor, Stan Tracey, Keith Tippett. Evan Parker, Kenny Wheeler, Louis Stewart, Norma Winstone, Gianluigi Trovesi........ I think 30+ years of marvellous music might qualify to make you a 'great'.

A rare mid-week trip to the shops led to: Charlie Haden and John Taylor - Nightfall. A favourite bass player and piano player together! Bliss! An odd compilation of early Fleetwood Mac stuff...a result of hearing a track on Paul Jones' blues programme a few days back: and The newly issued fourth volume of Chandos' wonderful Frank Bridge series...a strange obsession of mine. Just as well they normally send me down the salt mines on week days.

Though I'm quite unfamiliar with the living/dead status of PMs, wouldn't this actually be Maggie? She'd be an ex-PM. Though she definitely clogged up space for 11 years too many. Sorry! I should be saying this in the politics column!

"What is the oldest PM you have clogging up space?" The obvious answer is Tony Blair. But I quite like the chap!

Yes, it's one of those throwaway joke songs he does every now and then.

What happened to the days when you people got really pro-active about taxmen and started dressing up as indians and throwing things in harbours?

I loved Mariano in Eberhard Weber's 'Colours' group of the late 70s. A group that explored one of the other directions that 'In a Silent Way' could lead!

Clementine, Very much enjoying the Geremia. Just my sort of a disc. His vocals remind me of Lowell George at times! Beautiful guitar playing and very well recorded. Have you ever listened to Martin Simpson? A UK guitarist/singer who hops back and forth between blues (which I suspect was where he started) and English folk. He lived in the States for a long time but I think he's back with us now. His recent 'Righteousness & Humidity' CD is a really beauty. If you can take a guy from Scunthorpe having the blues its worth your attention!

His two most recent CDs get my vote as the best he's done in a long time. Really stripped of excess production. I've always found his albums to contain a fair proportion of throwaway stuff...but every one has a few gems on. The last two seem to have higher quality control. The growing list of live recordings is fun too - you get to hear some of the songs that were swamped in the the studio (for me the studio nadir was Daring Adventures...yet it's packed with good songs!). Promised for later this year on http://www.richardthompson-music.com/ : ---RT LIVE 'RETRO' CD (SUMMER 2004) ---RT BAND LIVE DVD (AUTUMN 2004) ---RT BAND 'ARCHIVE' CD

I remember the early versions of ELO doing sessions on the BBC late night programmes in the early 70s but they never really attracted me. I loved 'Living Thing' when it came out as a single in late 1976...I distinctly recall hearing it in my Aunt's kitchen in a tiny seaside village in Cornwall on the morning I'd gone down to be introduced to the school where I was to do my teaching practice. I bought the album and really liked it for a few months...and then it wore off. After that I just associate ELO with that late-70s era where everything I loved to listen to (the whole early-70s prog-rock thing) just disappeared, flattened by the punk/New Wave onslaught. ELO were one of the few dinosaurs to maintain some success in the UK...and I'm afraid what they had to offer sounded very thin to my ears. So on balance ELO do not bring back happy memories. I much preferred The Move!

That's interesting. I can half remember hearing a farewell Fotheringay concert on BBC radio all those years ago, well before I got interested in Fairport or Fotheringay. I remember the announcer getting all sentimental about this band I knew virtually nothing about. I didn't have a tape machine either (I must have been about 15).

I think this might have been a case of cultural misunderstanding. Thompson's stage persona is laced with irony. Maybe it comes across as condescending in the States in the same way that many US performers can seem over-brash to us Brits! Whenever I've seen Thompson he's had the audience eating out of his hand. In the right setting - on his solo tours in particular - he can generate a really folk-cluby repartee with the audience. I've seen him ask for requests and manage virtually every one. And not just his own songs! There was a TV documentary about him on over here last year. His family were totally astounded that he was even on stage - he was apparently an extremely shy person in his youth. I think I can detect that even now...he always seems nervous, on edge. You also get the impression that he likes to keep his distance a bit. He's never thrown himself 100% into the Fairport revival thing at Cropredy. That's the past for the odd revisiting. ******************* There's not much extra Fotheringay as far as I know. The 80s CD reissue had two excellent additions - Two Weeks Last Summer and Gypsy Davy - and there was an early version of Late November on the Sandy Denny Box from the sessions for their proposed second album. There's also a few dodgy live things...I'm not sure Fotheringay playing 'Memphis Tennessee' is essential listening!!! But who knows. All sorts of intersting (if lo-fi) stuff has come out of the closet in recent years from the classic era Fairports. Both of these 4CD sets are a goldmine for anyone who loved this band in its hey-day:

I still await the day when a live broadcast from the Bath Jazz Weekend cancels "Record Review" or "This Week's Composer"!

Due out in the UK on Monday, 12th April. Remastered etc: 1 When I Get To The Border 2 Calvary Cross 3 Withered And Died 4 I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight 5 Down Where The Drunkards Roll 6 We Sing Hallelujah 7 Has He Got A Friend For Me 8 Little Beggar Girl 9 End Of The Rainbow 10 Great Valerio Bonus Tracks: 11 I Want To See The Bright Lights live/bonus track 12 Together Again live/bonus track 13 Calvary Cross live/bonus track 1 Hokey Pokey (The Ice Cream Song) 2 I'll Regret It All In The Morning 3 Smiffy's Glass Eye 4 Egypt Room 5 Never Again 6 Georgie On A Spree 7 Old Man Inside A Young Man 8 Sun Never Shines On The Poor 9 Heart Needs A Home 10 Mole In A Hole Bonus Tracks: 11 Wishing BBC session 12 I'm Turning Off A Memory BBC session 13 Heart Needs A Home BBC session 14 Hokey Pokey live 15 It'll Be Me live Streets Of Paradise 2 For Shame Of Doing Wrong 3 Poor Boy Is Taken Away 4 Night Comes In 5 Jet Plane In A Rocking Chair 6 Beat The Retreat 7 Hard Luck Stories 8 Dimming Of The Day/Dargai Bonus Tracks: 9 Streets Of Paradise live/bonus track 10 Night Comes In live/bonus track 11 Dark End Of The Street live/bonus track 12 Beat The Retreat live/bonus track Some of those bonus tracks look like the live stuff off "Guitar/Vocal". Three marvellous records from the 70s. 'Pour Down Like Silver" is one of my all time greats. Henry the Human Fly, Fotheringay and Fairport's Angel Delight, Babbacome Lee and Rosie to follow later in the year.

If you've got a high speed connection you'd be better listening on-line. All these programmes are archived for a week so you can replay them at leisure. Can I recommend one on BBC Radio Scotland called 'Bebop to Hiphop' - very catholic, lots of Blue Note as well as more contemporary releases: http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/radioscotlan...how.shtml?bebop This is the current playlist: NEFERTITI - NICOLA CONTE BONITA - HORACE SILVER QUINTET HOT HOUSE - DIZZY GILLESPIE & HIS ALL STAR QUINTET SALAAM: TAGI - CHARLES LLOYD & BILLY HIGGINS RIGHT NOW - JACKIE McLEAN MINOR PEACE - JACOB YOUNG THE WHOPPER - EBERHARD WEBER(GARY BURTON) SENT FOR YOU YESTERDAY (AND HERE YOU COME TODAY) - COUNT BASIE Followed by an hour of dancefloor jazz and Latino tracks. Part two is normaly more like part 1. Wednesday: 19.15 - 21.00 repeated Sunday 22.05 - 24.00.

Why bother stopping? If you can afford to eat, live, provide for your family and your retirement, make the donations you think appropriate and still have some spare cash why not buy CDs? Unless you want to use the money for other things like fine wine, wallpaper, cocaine, fast cars conservatories etc. Or be 'sensible' and hoard it where you'll never get to enjoy what you worked for.

I recall seeing Priester a good 20 years ago playing with Dave Holland's Quintet back in the Steve Coleman days.

I 'lost' Frisell in the late 90s after seeing him on a double bill with Kenny Wheeler's Angel Song Band and the Motion trio with Lovano. All the excitement of a packet of frozen peas. But I've recently 'found' him again on that disc with Dave Holland and Elvin Jones where he sounds great! I don't think I've ever 'found' Joe Lovano. An eternal mystery to me.

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