London Finds

Just finished my reports for the two covert shops I did in London. One of them was that Vietnamese fast food shop in which I had spicy pork meatball pho.

Wednesday could be a relaxing day.

I took a load of CDs with me to exchange at Rays Jazz Shop inside Foyles. 25 in total and received £75 in exchange. I spent fifty of that getting these - the balance is on a loyalty card.

Various Artists - Jazzactuel (3 CD box set) (Charly)
Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet - Landfall (Nonesuch)
Jamie Branch Fly Or Die II - Bird Dogs Of Paradise (International Anthem)
Spontaneous Music Ensemble - Karyobin (Emanen)
Koby Israelite - Dance Of The Idiots (Tzadik)


and the book -

David Toop - Ocean Of Sound




From MVE Notting Hill in another exchange, I got these CDs

Vashti Bunyan - Lookaftering (Fat Cat)
Harmonia - Musik von Harmonia (Gronland)


and these books -

Young Gifted And Black, The Story Of Trojan Records
Revolution In The Air, The Songs Of Bob Dylan Vol 1 1957- 73




So some good reads whilst listening to the new music.

Good Morning

Branching Out

From her second album on International Anthem here is Jamie with a warning to Trump -

Jamie Brach Fly Or Die II - Prayer for Amerikkka Pt. 1 & 2

Enjoy.

Karyobin

From the late sixties and reissued on CD in 1993 and again recently is this classic slice of jazz history in Britain, and highligted in a Wire Primer from 2006 (British Visionary Jazz). Rays Jazz Shop had the new digipak version of it at £14 but in his very clean near-mint second-hand section -as he rejected just two CD's I had to exchange due to being scratched - he had the 1993 reissue on Chronoscope Records for seven quid. Still cheaper than a vg+ version on Discogs at £12 and I had a full £75 on the gift card given to me in the exchange. I called it a loyalty card the other day but actually, it's a top-up-able gift card that can be spent in many Foyles shop. Books and DVDs are also covered by it.

I digress, here from YT is the full album - a vinyl rip.

The Spontaneous Music Ensemble - Karyobin

Soprano Saxophone – Evan Parker
Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Kenny Wheeler
Electric Guitar – Derek Bailey
Bass – Dave Holland
Drums – John Stevens

Producer, Recorded By – Eddie Kramer
Remastered By – David Bernez
Painting – Robert Macauley

00:00 Part I
26:45 Part II

Enjoy.

Tracks From My Haul

More from the haul yesterday!!

Koby Israelite - Toledo Five Four

From the album Dance Of The Idiots

Gilad Atzmon: Clarinet
Koby Israelite: Drums, Vocals, Electric Guitar, Pocket Clarinet, Flutes, Piano, Accordion, Keyboard, Melodica, Percussion
Marcel Mamaliga: Violin
Reut Regev: Trombone
Yaron Stavi: Upright Bass, Electric Upright Bass

2003 Tzadik Records

Archie Shepp - Blasé

Harmonia - Sehr kosmisch

Vashti Bunyan - Hidden

Enjoy.

BYG Actuel

This Charly records box of fire music (as David Keenan describes it) came out in 2001 and featured in the Wire primer Fire Music (June 2001) and I had it originally back then. After all the moves from moving from Brighton to Kent I lost the album or sold it. But yesterday I bought it again and noticed it is a reissue from 2013 and not manufactured in the UK, US or Germany but China! Still the same music of course.

Mind you last time I did not have the excellent 48-page biographical booklet. Still wonderful after all these years. Music produced in the '60s and '70s France when the BYG Actuel label was a leader in progressive jazz and alternative music.

Book 15 - David Malouf "Remembering Babylon"

David Malouf "Remembering Babylon" (Vintage)





This is a novel filled with strong characterizations, an interesting narrative told in several voices and written in poetic prose. Yet I was only lukewarm about it until the final chapter. It was there that Malouf braided his strands together and presented me with a coherent picture. Though it's subtle, he compares the natural, gentle world of the Aborigine, their Jerusalem, with the Babylon of the European settlement with all its complications of human nature, including aggression, duplicity, and bigotry.

It's not so much a fall from grace, though Gemmy does just that, as it is a fall into grace by members of the white community as they come to recognize how well and naturally the Aborigines fit into the environment. He sees the Aborigines as belonging to the land and being a part of it and is concerned in part with the loss of Eden. The novel's about the opposition of the natural world with that of civilization. Much of the novel focuses on words and their power, and on naming. Words are the products of and stand for civilization. Their dissolving in the redeeming rain of the penultimate chapter is a return to grace. Though it wasn't as dense as I'd expected, it's a very well-written novel with something interesting to say about the interface between the primitive and modern societies.

Throughout, the pages are filled with startling insights and memorable images making each paragraph a delight. I especially loved the passages describing how some characters became able to see, really see, the world they had lived in and struggled to subdue for so many sweat-blind years. It’s a novel of emerging consciousness told with grace and charm and compassion. I recommend it highly.

More BYG (Beautiful Young Generation) Music

Ah, more BYG music from Paris n'es pas.
C'est magnifique avantgard musique. Bon!


Frank Wright - One For John

Label - BYG Records
Country - France
Year Released - 1970

Don Cherry - Teo Teo Can

Dewey Redman - Tarik

Jimmy Lyons - Premonitions

Enjoy

Whoopsie...

Have you ever walked out of a shop and forgot you did not pay for an item?

Have you ever caught something on fire while you were cooking?

Have you ever sent a text message to the wrong person?

Have you ever forgotten to pay a bill?