T.D.

Huge fan of Ambler, though I must say some of his classics feature improbably naive narrator/protagonists. A Coffin for Dimitrios is one of my all-time favorites (in spite of the narrator). Alan Furst is pretty good in the "wartime historical fiction" genre, and I enjoyed the first few of his novels I read, but I got a little tired of his general style. [Added] Have you read any of Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series? I like the series a lot and try to keep up with it (w. some lag in order to get library copies ).

I really enjoy a twofer of Alice in Wonderland + Cleopatra's Dream (Evans and Powell tributes) by the "David Hazeltine Trio". I ordered from Japanese seller on Amazon, not cheap but cheaper than individual CDs. Warning: this does have the soft-porn cover art (from Alice in Wonderland) and as hinted at by Lon above, the engineering is not great (e.g. audible studio chatter at times). Good music, though.

I own many Mozart opera and chamber music recordings, but am less interested in the symphonies and unlikely to get a complete set thereof. That said, FWIW (which may not be much), I'd go for the Mackerras. Based on the recordings I've heard and a couple of Mackerras-conducted operas I attended, he's a fantastic Mozartian (and has a reputation as such). I doubt you could go badly wrong with him. [Added] I own a double CD of Bohm conducting late symphonies (35-41), and it's good, but I'll look for other interpretations if I add more recordings.

Thanks! The Trane documentary showed semi-locally at two places the past couple of weeks, but I didn't go because it was too far (at least an hour and a half). Better catch this one while it's reasonably close (only 2 days run).

Showing locally this weekend. Will probably go.

Agreed that there's a huge amount of bluesy jazz. Bird probably should be represented, so I'll suggest "Parker's Mood".

Frank Wright, Unity

PM sent.

My copy arrived yesterday. Very much enjoy the music, and the booklet is excellent (though it seems to omit playing times of the tracks). But track #8 does not seem to be "Keshava Murahara" as listed in the booklet...as far as I can tell, it's very similar to track #5 ("Hari Narayan") but with some vocal passages in the middle that I couldn't make out. Did anyone else notice this, or am I hallucinating? And unfortunately, track #8 on my copy skipped and stopped playing before the stated (9:44 by allmusic and Amazon) conclusion, so I returned it today. Replacement on the way.

Didn't work for me either, but I searched for the seller (uncle_b_jay). To my great surprise, only positive feedback showed. But on further reflection, I wouldn't expect a buyer to spring for a murky-looking $1,775 item unless the eBay feedback was good. I rarely visit eBay any more, and am even less likely to now!

!

Mosaic's weekly "Jazz Gazette" e-mail today had a link to a JazzTimes item on this release: https://jazztimes.com/news/luaka-bop-release-new-alice-coltrane-compilation-may-5/ I'll wait to hear some clips, though I admit not owning any of her Impulse recordings (which I'd be inclined to look to first).

I really enjoy Sir Roland's playing, but there are so many solo recordings that I haven't been able to keep up! Purchased this from Clifford (thanks!), just arrived today:

My brother strongly recommended Herron's "Slough House" books a couple of years ago. I instead read Down Cemetery Road (because it was available @ local bookshop), wasn't overwhelmed, and left it at that. Will have to look for Slow Horses.

RIP (unusually, I saw a copy of the physical NYT and read the obit before seeing this thread). I read and enjoyed many of the Inspector Morse novels. Also watched a number of the BBC TV episodes (John Thaw as Morse). I share the enthusiasm for (British) cryptic crosswords Morse was a relatively complex character with some rather noticeable character (shall we say) imperfections.

Hadn't spun this recently, but had an urge to hear Iron Foundry.

A personal favorite.

Tribute to Pauline Oliveros this Sunday (3/19) at City of Kingston.

Just Sinfonia (with the New Swingle Singers!). Eindrücke is a kind of once fashionable Darmstadtian serial piece that never interested me (disclosure: I enjoy certain serial works and composers, but it's not a big percentage of my listening).