sidewinder

I like it. Good '70s British jazz-rock with some nice bonus live tracks. Mike and Kate Westbrook were interviewed on BBC Radio 3 last week in recognition of Mike's '75th and the forthcoming 'The Serpent Hit' (they played a couple of tracks from it). Can't remember the name of the show but it was one of the review programmes. Only caught it by chance ! Thanks for posting that. Peter Russell - of 'Peter Russell's Hot Record Store' fame, a shop now long, long gone alas (half the shop was jazz LPs, the other half was hi-fi kit). I've still got LPs from that place, a veritable jazz Alladin's cave in Plymouth 'back in the day'. Never realised the influence that it had on Mike Westbrook's starting out !

I hear you. I get all sorts of people claiming to be a 'friend' on that site. Lots of posers on there who think the more 'connections' they have the more 'important' they are.

Colonel Sanders Colonel Bogey The Colonel

John Coltrane 'Giant Steps' (UK London DG, mono)

Shocking news just in from Bath - 'Duck, Son & Pinker' have abruptly closed the business after over 160 years of operations. This place withstood The Corn Law riots, 2 World Wars, the Boer War, the Great Depression etc. Bath won't be the same again without the chance to amble in here and peruse. I feel very sorry for the staff caught up in this. Duck, Son & Pinker Closes

Ian Carr & Nucleus 'Alleycat' (Vertigo spaceship label, stereo) I think that LP/CD was mastered from a tape left in Neil Ardley's archive. A copy from the master I would guess - maybe the master still reside with Universal UK? I find the sound a bit compromised - especially with the roll-off at the top end, even on the LP. Great to have it though - shouldn't complain. Neil used to sell the CD from this tape on his website prior to his untimely death. I think one or two on this site (Bev?) have such copies.

Ken McIntyre 'Year Of The Iron Sheep' (United Artists Jazz, mono)

I have a 70s 2LP version, which was put out here as a German pressing I think. Sound quality pretty good I recall, will have to dig it out. That first LP of the set in particular is an absolute stonker ! Some brilliant Woody Shaw on there.

Happy Birthday !

Not Preminger but Emeric Pressburger, Powell's alter ego! Great film, also shown last week on TV on this side of the Channel! Duh (it was too early in the morning) - Pressburger, off course. There must have been an 'Entente Cordiale' cross-channel Red Shoes season ! It got high profile on the BBC website too - I have to say that Michael Powell's cinematography is just stunning. Exactly !

Fats Domino Dot Cotton Speckled Red

Check out the Mercer bio. There's quite a bit in there about Shorter's liking for sci fi and the drawing of comics as a youngster. Also about his infatuation with the Powell/Preminger movie 'The Red Shoes' - which was shown on TV here a few days ago (first time I'd seen it - a masterpiece). Have always liked 'Phantom Navigator' since it first came out, although some of the electronics now sounds a bit dated.

Osborne, Cameroon & 25 Pints A Night, Millipede & Ballsup Cleggie & Ginger Nut

Glad it went well !

All the best ! 2006 feels like an economic lifetime ago..

I keep seeing lots of stuff on CD put out by Tony Russell/Spotlite (not sure about this one) so it wouldn't suprise me if this one is also now out on CD. Will keep my eyes peeled !

I read all of this with dismay and a sense of 'deja vu'. Brings back memories of the Jazz Centre Society funding problems in the late 70s/early 80s and the shelving of the 'National Jazz Centre'. Also Ronnie Scotts on the brink of bankruptcy. Strangely enough, some of the very best evenings of music I ever saw at Scotts were during those days. Was at UCL last week and the protesters were out for the fee hikes (the governing council voted for 9% that day - quelle surpris). I can remember the protesters out there that very same spot in 1980/81 the last time the country was a busted flush but it was reductions (or capping, I think) in local authority grants that time.

Mr Tiggly Wiggly Mr Men Mr Benn

Thad Jones Mel Lewis Solid State, CD1. Still one of the greatest Mosaic boxes and fabulous accompaniment to a nice Spring day !

Captain Haddock Herge Thompson Twins

Hi John, sorry not able to make this one. Will be interested to hear how it goes.

I have a couple of them. Grant Green's 'Am I Blue' being one of them (I think it cost me 50 cents $Cdn in West Edmonton Mall ). Cover art looks like a cheap monotone facsimile of the original with a layer of colour over the top (often dung brown). Sound of these is about up there with French Pathe Marconi DMM. Not great. The one I used to see very often on this label is Bobby Hutcherson's 'Natural Illusions'.

Supposedly 10.59 GB, more or less as these things go. Thanks ! You can be sure there would have been a couple of "f-bombs" in the answer... and a couple of mothers..

Great item to have, Brownie ! Now spinning Donald Byrd 'Byrd In Flight' (BN mono - Original cover, one of those heavy vinyl 'RVG/47W63rds' from the early Liberty era. Sounds great though - apart from a couple of pops).

I can only speak for the local scene, the quantity and quality of groups gigging around here seems to be on the up over the past year - although 2008-2010 was low key during the 'crisis'. Maybe it is a North/South thing? At the end of the day, the music will be sustained by the enthusiasm local jazz clubs and sterling festivals such as Swanage, for example.