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You Looking At Me?
Feb. 6th, 2017 01:03 am
Latest pic of Riley from my brother.
Feb. 6th, 2017
Latest pic of Riley from my brother.
Sleepy Hollow
Feb. 6th, 2017 07:14 pmLast night i caught up with episodes pf Sleepy Hollow, and i realised that i have not watched any episode of Season 3 ,so i did three last night in a row. The TV series obviously goes beyond the original Washington Irving story. The introduction of Pandora and her box is a new twist to the series.
Money Spree
Feb. 6th, 2017 07:24 pmAssume someone gave you one million dollars or pounds , but the catch was that you couldn't keep any of it for yourself -- you had to give it all to other people. Who would you give it to? Would you split it up to give a little to lots of people, or would you give it all to just one person?
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Monday Music Selection - Allsorts
Feb. 6th, 2017 09:14 pmMore quality music from an eclectic selection of my music CD's.
John Martyn - Go Down Easy
( More music here )
Enjoy.
John Martyn - Go Down Easy
( More music here )
Enjoy.
Annette Peacock
Feb. 6th, 2017 10:57 pmAnother of these artists that deserves more attention - she was based in Brooklyn New York and made some fine genre stretching jazz albums with a hint of funk.
Annette Peacock - Survival
After her stunning, groundbreaking album X-Dreams received wildly enthusiastic critical reviews and attained nothing less than complete public indifference, composer, singer, songwriter, and pianist Annette Peacock was at an artistic crossroads. While she wasn't willing to compromise her musical vision, for financial reasons she needed to expand her view to include what she perceived to be the popular music of the time: Steely Dan, Rickie Lee Jones, et all. (Apparently her vision did not include the Clash's London Calling.) In typical Peacock fashion, brash arrogance dictated the album's title, The Perfect Release. To be fair, although wildly ahead of its time, it nearly was perfect. Utilising the talents of one band (the group she met when singing backing vocals on some Linda Lewis sessions) rather than a hearty gang of 20 studio musicians as she had on X-Dreams, Peacock constructed an album of seven extended tracks that were too rock- and pop-oriented for jazz radio programmers to handle and a rock and pop album that was farther to the left than Steely Dan's attempt at appropriating jazz -- this was jazz. Needless to report: the album was a commercial flop, and is only being properly discovered here in the digital age. The Perfect Release stitches together the lounge jazz of Lower Manhattan, the Brazilian pop of Tom Jobim, Nara Leao, and Caetano Veloso, the slippery funk of War, and the shifty rock skullduggery of Joni Mitchell's LA studio period. The opener &"Lover's Out to Lunch" has steel drums crosscutting the guitars as the synths shape the hallway Peacock has to sing into. When she gushes, "What's happening/Nobody gets it on/Anymore?" and "Love is on the doorstep/Of feeling," all the pop styling are slashed to ribbons. The melody is catchy and smooth and her singing as soft and sweet as it is carries razor blades for lyrics. The track &"Rubber Hunger" has Peacock singing like Astrud Gilberto, in a breathy, lilting wisp. The lyrics drip from her mouth like running water as the band provides the room for her flow, creating a gorgeous groove in the center of the major and diminished sevenths. As a closer, there's the beat poetry dissertation on the state of love in the world in &"Survival." Robert Ahwai's guitar trades eights with Max Middleton's amalgam of keyboards underscoring Peacock's Zen poem. It's a rap from the here and now about the here and now; history is relegated to invisibility. Basslines slip under the drums and Peacock slides under them both. It's sexy, relaxed, and loopy; 14 minutes of sensual riffing and rapping that come off as loose as an unbuttoned blouse. In all, if the record's not a masterpiece it is something close. The Perfect Release may not have given Peacock the commercial success she longed for at the time, but it is a record that stands the test of time very well, and is one she is able to be proud of as an artist to this day.
Annette Peacock - The Succubus
( More music here )
Annette Peacock - Survival
After her stunning, groundbreaking album X-Dreams received wildly enthusiastic critical reviews and attained nothing less than complete public indifference, composer, singer, songwriter, and pianist Annette Peacock was at an artistic crossroads. While she wasn't willing to compromise her musical vision, for financial reasons she needed to expand her view to include what she perceived to be the popular music of the time: Steely Dan, Rickie Lee Jones, et all. (Apparently her vision did not include the Clash's London Calling.) In typical Peacock fashion, brash arrogance dictated the album's title, The Perfect Release. To be fair, although wildly ahead of its time, it nearly was perfect. Utilising the talents of one band (the group she met when singing backing vocals on some Linda Lewis sessions) rather than a hearty gang of 20 studio musicians as she had on X-Dreams, Peacock constructed an album of seven extended tracks that were too rock- and pop-oriented for jazz radio programmers to handle and a rock and pop album that was farther to the left than Steely Dan's attempt at appropriating jazz -- this was jazz. Needless to report: the album was a commercial flop, and is only being properly discovered here in the digital age. The Perfect Release stitches together the lounge jazz of Lower Manhattan, the Brazilian pop of Tom Jobim, Nara Leao, and Caetano Veloso, the slippery funk of War, and the shifty rock skullduggery of Joni Mitchell's LA studio period. The opener &"Lover's Out to Lunch" has steel drums crosscutting the guitars as the synths shape the hallway Peacock has to sing into. When she gushes, "What's happening/Nobody gets it on/Anymore?" and "Love is on the doorstep/Of feeling," all the pop styling are slashed to ribbons. The melody is catchy and smooth and her singing as soft and sweet as it is carries razor blades for lyrics. The track &"Rubber Hunger" has Peacock singing like Astrud Gilberto, in a breathy, lilting wisp. The lyrics drip from her mouth like running water as the band provides the room for her flow, creating a gorgeous groove in the center of the major and diminished sevenths. As a closer, there's the beat poetry dissertation on the state of love in the world in &"Survival." Robert Ahwai's guitar trades eights with Max Middleton's amalgam of keyboards underscoring Peacock's Zen poem. It's a rap from the here and now about the here and now; history is relegated to invisibility. Basslines slip under the drums and Peacock slides under them both. It's sexy, relaxed, and loopy; 14 minutes of sensual riffing and rapping that come off as loose as an unbuttoned blouse. In all, if the record's not a masterpiece it is something close. The Perfect Release may not have given Peacock the commercial success she longed for at the time, but it is a record that stands the test of time very well, and is one she is able to be proud of as an artist to this day.
Annette Peacock - The Succubus
( More music here )
Evan Parker
Feb. 6th, 2017 11:27 pmA friend of mine and i was talking just a few mins ago over a pint about the UK jazz improv scene. Wart said that my fave improv saxophonist - Evan Parker - lives in Faversham. i have seen the geezer live quite a few times in Brighton.
Some of his way out stuff -
Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble - The Eleventh Hour, Pt. 2
The Eleventh Hour is the fourth offering by Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble on ECM. The ensemble here numbers 11 members, six of whom are electronic sound sculptors and sound processors, with the remainder -- including Philipp Wachsmann and Paul Lytton -- are free jazz and new music improvisers. This piece, in five parts, was commissioned by the Contemporary Arts Center in Glasgow, where the album was recorded. Free improv of an intense variety kicks off the first section with live acoustic instrumentation in the foreground and sonics are slipped forward and backward through the dialogue. As the piece develops, silence, ambience, and repetition play more and more of a role, as new modes and routes are proposed and integrated through the sections as each "real" instrument is allowed its own free play, and then dialogue, in duet and trio engagements with others. The final five minutes of this work is one of the most ominous and tense dronescapes, punctuated by high-pitched industrial sounds and offering a mood of pure foreboding, and even dread. It's dynamic, dramatic, and utterly unsettling, leaving the listener spellbound once the recording has drifted into silence.
Evan Parker & Paul Lytton - Lytton Perdu
Evan Parker: Saxophones | Paul Lytton: Percussion + Electronics | Collective Calls (Urban) (Two Microphones): An Improvised Urban Psychodrama In Eight Parts | Incus + Psi | 1972 + 2002
Enjoy.
Some of his way out stuff -
Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble - The Eleventh Hour, Pt. 2
The Eleventh Hour is the fourth offering by Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble on ECM. The ensemble here numbers 11 members, six of whom are electronic sound sculptors and sound processors, with the remainder -- including Philipp Wachsmann and Paul Lytton -- are free jazz and new music improvisers. This piece, in five parts, was commissioned by the Contemporary Arts Center in Glasgow, where the album was recorded. Free improv of an intense variety kicks off the first section with live acoustic instrumentation in the foreground and sonics are slipped forward and backward through the dialogue. As the piece develops, silence, ambience, and repetition play more and more of a role, as new modes and routes are proposed and integrated through the sections as each "real" instrument is allowed its own free play, and then dialogue, in duet and trio engagements with others. The final five minutes of this work is one of the most ominous and tense dronescapes, punctuated by high-pitched industrial sounds and offering a mood of pure foreboding, and even dread. It's dynamic, dramatic, and utterly unsettling, leaving the listener spellbound once the recording has drifted into silence.
Evan Parker & Paul Lytton - Lytton Perdu
Evan Parker: Saxophones | Paul Lytton: Percussion + Electronics | Collective Calls (Urban) (Two Microphones): An Improvised Urban Psychodrama In Eight Parts | Incus + Psi | 1972 + 2002
Enjoy.
Book 7 - Lisa Randall " Warped Passages"
Feb. 6th, 2017 11:56 pmLisa Randall " Warped Passages : Unravelling the Universe's Hidden Dimensions" (Penguin)
Lisa Randall is a theoretical physicist who specializes in the so-called Standard Model of particle physics. She explains the particles and forces depicted in that model, and where the model fails as a picture of the real subatomic world. For example, it does not explain gravity's weakness compared with electromagnetism and the weak and strong nuclear forces. Randall's proposed solutions to the deficiencies in the Standard Model, unlike some of the other propositions of string theory, can be experimentally tested.
Randall writes as clearly as possible, I think; but to follow the text is made much easier if one is already acquainted with some basic principles of theoretical physics.
One awaits eagerly the results of the tests at the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at CERN, which will or will not support her theories. If she turns out to be right, we will know that there is at least a 5th dimension to our universe and that the 'branes' of String Theory are real.
Lisa Randall is a theoretical physicist who specializes in the so-called Standard Model of particle physics. She explains the particles and forces depicted in that model, and where the model fails as a picture of the real subatomic world. For example, it does not explain gravity's weakness compared with electromagnetism and the weak and strong nuclear forces. Randall's proposed solutions to the deficiencies in the Standard Model, unlike some of the other propositions of string theory, can be experimentally tested.
Randall writes as clearly as possible, I think; but to follow the text is made much easier if one is already acquainted with some basic principles of theoretical physics.
One awaits eagerly the results of the tests at the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at CERN, which will or will not support her theories. If she turns out to be right, we will know that there is at least a 5th dimension to our universe and that the 'branes' of String Theory are real.
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