sidewinder

Jacqui Smith Jess Yates Oona King

Today I will be cracking open the Chu Berry box. It has sat unopened for nearly a year..

That Gil Evans is very enjoyable ! Now spinning - MJQ 'Looking Back at the Modern Jazz Quartet' (Esquire, mono RVG). Early Prestige sides. Followed by Herbie Mann 'Let Me Tell You' (Milestone, 2LP) 70s twofer.

A bit risque ! Do they do an 'Inner Urge'? Bl**dy hell ! Can't believe some of the titles they have on there. 'Its Time' and Tony Williams 'Spring' tee shirts for the Summer would be nice. Not the sort of thing I thought I would ever see on a t-shirt. Agree that they look on the small size. Why is it that UK t-shirts are always sized for teenage stick insects and not for the likes of most of us? It would be nice if some company did the same thing but with really good quality cotton sweat shirts that last longer than a week. I have the suspicion that these t-shirts will get baggy pretty fast and not last more than a few washs.

Torygraph Article One or two interesting items listed here. Early Hank and Coltrane 'Cosmic Music' make the cut. A pretty dubious list, I think. Someone should tell them all to invest in Blue Note 'Applause' pressings..

Yes. The guys in Mole clearly never went on the 'Have a Nice Day' Customer Relations Course! No 'Stakeholder Management' there..

'It's Time' is certainly a very interesting listen. I find that those sessions which have vocal direction by Coleridge Perkinson have quite a distinctive sound, be they on Blue Note, Impulse or wherever. Mention of Coleridge reminds me that he was on piano I think in that Max Roach/Abbey Lincoln group back in the 1960s. The German TV broadcast has him in the lineup.

All the best !

I certainly recall seeeing Ray himself behind the counter there well into the 1990s. Always helpful - whereas the guys in Mole could be a bit intimidating at times.

Sad news, Bill - sorry to hear this. I certainly recognise the familiar face holding fort behind the counter on Shaftesbury Avenue, in the days when they had the 'Rare as Hen's Teeth' vinyl section (not that I ever bought anything from it). I remember those Jazz Journal adverts with 'From George Lewis to George Lewis' too. Also 'Harry Barris to Barry Harris' and 'Son House to Sun Ra'. Glad to hear that he was able to enjoy a retirement watching the beloved cricket though - RIP.

Cheers !

Happy Birthday Erik !

In the UK most people are on the "pay as you earn" (PAYE) system. Income tax is deducted from your monthly or weekly pay before you get it and sent to the revenue by the employer. If you're self-employed you have to make an annual tax return. Same here, and you have to make an annual tax return before April 1 when you have more than one source of income, own a house and things like that. Most people here e-file nowadays. In the UK the system requires an annual tax filing - although if you are a permie employee and paye via PAYE the tax office with no 'special issues' the tax office usually advise that there is no need to file separately. They make the adjustments via the PAYE. This is a bit of a change from the situation less than 10 years ago - like Canada all earning adults then had to file tax returns either manual or on-line. They must have got sick of the workload. Of course, if you are a non-dom or a banker boy, they call round in person with a wheel barrow of free cash and a doffing of caps.. Quite miss the mad dash annual rush to funnel as much as possible out of the way into RRSPs !

CBBB 'Live at Ronnie Scotts Vol 2' (UK Polydor, stereo). Another £3 gem !

One of the things I used to really like about these mis-70s 2LP sets from Miles ('Specially Priced') is that long after other LPs had run out of their 20 minutes or so you would still have about 10 minutes of noodling blissful groove still to go from the likes of 'Calypso Frelimo' and 'Billy Preston' before you had to take your Sennheisers off.

Happy Birthday, yer Maj.

Cheeky Girl 1 Cheeky Girl 2 Lembit Opik

My first copy of 'Sorcerer' was/is an Italian mid-1970s issue from a time when the chance of finding 'Sorcerer' in any UK vinyl shops was about the same as picking up a Sun Ra Saturn. It actually sounds very good - although these days I tend to spin the US 2-eye and the mega box CD set version more. Always thought this one was very under-rated on the whole. Beautifully recorded.

Ian Carr's Nucleus 'Awakening' (Mood Records) - signed by Ian. Clare Fischer 'Surging Ahead' (Fontana, stereo). UK issue of the Pac Jazz.

Ricky Skaggs Buck White & the Down Home Folks The Fugs Mohammed 'Fuggin' Al Fayed Dodi Al Fayed Dido

What Royal Wedding? It will be Mosaic backlog listening day chez moi for the paid holiday and TV verboten. Bliss !

Quincy Jones 'The Quintessence' (HMV, mono). Great find for £3. Beats the pants off my UK Impulse 70s reissue in terms of sonics - and the Mosaic version on CD.

Good to hear ! Will listen out for the BBC Radio 3 broadcast of this. I noticed that 'Rays Jazz' had the DVD 'Mama Chicago' in stock. I'm pretty sure I saw this on TV when it was originally broadcast (BBC2?) and certainly have at at least a bit of it on a compilation DVD (from a show the Beeb did a few years ago which was an UK artist compilation).

They are good guys - glad to hear that they were able to sort something out.