Like

Like I really get frustrated and annoyed with the like button, that red heart that is similar to the Facebook blue one. Like if I see another like rather than a comment I would ban the offender. Like you know I am serious about it, so like this and be warned.

Jazz Talk

2021 marks three score years of Horace Tapscott’s vision, and the forthcoming 60 Years compilation is set to contain truly special material, including home recordings, live sessions, and unused studio tapes stretching back to a transfixing elegant 1961 garage recording of “The Golden Pearl” by the first UGMA group, and forward to a storming 2019 version of Hill’s “Dem Folks”, featuring Angel Bat Dawid.

I also hope some of these old vinyl issues will be released again on CD,so here is hoping.

Obituaries: Horace Tapscott -
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituaries-horace-tapscott-1078636.html

Meanwhile, there is another new CD of material from the archives of John Coltrane -

John Coltrane A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle (Impulse!)



Pt. I – Acknowledgement

ENJOY

Haitink R.I.P.

A few days ago, Bernard Haitink, the conductor passed away. He was 85 and retired a few years before, but his wonderful conducting will be missed. So as a tribute here is one of his favourites -


Anton Bruckner - Symphony No. 4 in E flat major "Romantic"

ENJOY

Good Morning

Sunday Slouching

Another mild autumnal day with November just around the corner. Well, eight days hence that is. As for my neck of the woods, I have been slouching in bed – bad habit I know – reading the current LRB – that is The London Review of Books – to the uninitiated. It is a fortnightly publication which I sometimes purchase but not as regular as The Wire. There is a fascinating review of a book on Uwe Johnson who was resident in Sheerness and a regular drinker at one of the pubs there.

Johnson was born in Kammin in Pomerania (now Kamień Pomorski, Poland). His father was a peasant of Swedish descent from Mecklenburg and his mother was from Pomerania. In 1945 the family fled to Anklam in West Pomerania and in 1946 his father died in a Soviet internment camp (Fünfeichen). The family eventually settled in Güstrow, where he attended the John-Brinckman-Oberschule from 1948 to 1952. He went on to study German philology, first in Rostock (1952–1954), then in Leipzig (1954–1956). His Diplomarbeit (final thesis) was on Ernst Barlach. Due to his failure to show support for the Communist regime of East Germany, he was suspended from the university on 17 June 1953, but he was later reinstated.
Beginning in 1953, Johnson worked on his first novel, Ingrid Babendererde, which was rejected by various publishing houses and remained unpublished during his lifetime.
In 1956, Johnson's mother left for West Berlin. As a result, he was not allowed to take a normal job in the East. Unemployed for political reasons, he translated Herman Melville's Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile (the translation was published in 1961) and began to write the novel Mutmassungen über Jakob, published in 1959 by Suhrkamp in Frankfurt am Main. Johnson himself moved to West Berlin at this time. He promptly became associated with Gruppe 47, which Hans Magnus Enzensberger once described as "the Central Café of literature without a capital"
In 1974, Johnson, his wife, and their daughter moved into a 26 Marine Parade, a Victorian terrace house overlooking the sea in Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, Southeast England. Shortly afterward, he broke off work on Jahrestage, due partly to health problems and partly to writer's block. However, his ten years in Sheerness were not completely unproductive. He published some shorter works and continued to do some work as an editor.
In 1977, he was admitted to the Darmstädter Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung (Darmstadt Academy for Speech and Writing). Two years later he informally withdrew.
In 1979, he gave a series of lectures on poetics at the University of Frankfurt, published posthumously as Begleitumstände. Frankfurter Vorlesungen.
In 1983, the fourth volume of Jahrestage was published, but Johnson broke off a reading tour for health reasons. He died from hypertensive heart disease in Sheerness on 22 February 1984
Now we have this wonderful biography of the writer and editor -



It is already on my wants list.

These are just some of the plaudits for the book -

''A masterful modernist history, and Patrick Wright's most important book, bringing Europe to England by showing it has always been here, at a moment when too many want to believe something else.'' - David Edgerton


''An astonishing chronicle of the great German author Uwe Johnson, who moved to Sheerness, Kent, in the 70s.'' - Helen MacDonald

''To repeat: this tidal book, reaching into everything and then withdrawing to show what is left behind, is a triumph.'' - Neal Ascherson, author of Black Sea

''A model portrait of person and place, a kind of cultural and literary geography that never fails to fascinate.'' --Kirkus Reviews


''A huge achievement: a comprehensive portrait of a place and a person, and the best book about Brexit that’s yet been written.'' -- Jon Day, White Review Books of the Year 2020

''A glorious rabbit hole of a book ... a longue durée portrait, from the 17th century to Thatcher, of a single location on the edges of British national life.'' -- Nicholas Dames, Public Books

''Wright plays both the anatomist and the elegist for the blighted modernity of seemingly forsaken spots such as Sheppey … a fragmentary panorama of traumatic, half-remembered history, personal and national.'' -- Boyd Tonkin, TLS

''Thorough, discerning, compassionate.'' --Max De Gaynesford, The London Magazine

Uwe Johnson

Another mild autumnal day with November just around the corner. Well, eight days hence that is. As for my neck of the woods, I have been slouching in bed – bad habit I know – reading the current LRB – that is The London Review of Books – to the uninitiated. It is a fortnightly publication which I sometimes purchase but not as regular as The Wire. There is a fascinating review of a book on Uwe Johnson who was resident in Sheerness and a regular drinker at one of the pubs there.

Johnson was born in Kammin in Pomerania (now Kamień Pomorski, Poland). His father was a peasant of Swedish descent from Mecklenburg and his mother was from Pomerania. In 1945 the family fled to Anklam in West Pomerania and in 1946 his father died in a Soviet internment camp (Fünfeichen). The family eventually settled in Güstrow, where he attended the John-Brinckman-Oberschule from 1948 to 1952. He went on to study German philology, first in Rostock (1952–1954), then in Leipzig (1954–1956). His Diplomarbeit (final thesis) was on Ernst Barlach. Due to his failure to show support for the Communist regime of East Germany, he was suspended from the university on 17 June 1953, but he was later reinstated.
Beginning in 1953, Johnson worked on his first novel, Ingrid Babendererde, which was rejected by various publishing houses and remained unpublished during his lifetime.
In 1956, Johnson's mother left for West Berlin. As a result, he was not allowed to take a normal job in the East. Unemployed for political reasons, he translated Herman Melville's Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile (the translation was published in 1961) and began to write the novel Mutmassungen über Jakob, published in 1959 by Suhrkamp in Frankfurt am Main. Johnson himself moved to West Berlin at this time. He promptly became associated with Gruppe 47, which Hans Magnus Enzensberger once described as "the Central Café of literature without a capital"
In 1974, Johnson, his wife, and their daughter moved into a 26 Marine Parade, a Victorian terrace house overlooking the sea in Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, Southeast England. Shortly afterward, he broke off work on Jahrestage, due partly to health problems and partly to writer's block. However, his ten years in Sheerness were not completely unproductive. He published some shorter works and continued to do some work as an editor.
In 1977, he was admitted to the Darmstädter Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung (Darmstadt Academy for Speech and Writing). Two years later he informally withdrew.
In 1979, he gave a series of lectures on poetics at the University of Frankfurt, published posthumously as Begleitumstände. Frankfurter Vorlesungen.
In 1983, the fourth volume of Jahrestage was published, but Johnson broke off a reading tour for health reasons. He died from hypertensive heart disease in Sheerness on 22 February 1984
Now we have this wonderful biography of the writer and editor -



It is already on my wants list.

These are just some of the plaudits for the book -

''A masterful modernist history, and Patrick Wright's most important book, bringing Europe to England by showing it has always been here, at a moment when too many want to believe something else.'' - David Edgerton


''An astonishing chronicle of the great German author Uwe Johnson, who moved to Sheerness, Kent, in the 70s.'' - Helen MacDonald

''To repeat: this tidal book, reaching into everything and then withdrawing to show what is left behind, is a triumph.'' - Neal Ascherson, author of Black Sea

''A model portrait of person and place, a kind of cultural and literary geography that never fails to fascinate.'' --Kirkus Reviews


''A huge achievement: a comprehensive portrait of a place and a person, and the best book about Brexit that’s yet been written.'' -- Jon Day, White Review Books of the Year 2020

''A glorious rabbit hole of a book ... a longue durée portrait, from the 17th century to Thatcher, of a single location on the edges of British national life.'' -- Nicholas Dames, Public Books

''Wright plays both the anatomist and the elegist for the blighted modernity of seemingly forsaken spots such as Sheppey … a fragmentary panorama of traumatic, half-remembered history, personal and national.'' -- Boyd Tonkin, TLS

''Thorough, discerning, compassionate.'' --Max De Gaynesford, The London Magazine

Book 58 - Edward Connery Lathem "The Poetry of Robert Frost"

Edward Connery Lathem "The Poetry of Robert Frost" (Henry Holt and Co.)





Deep, meaningful poems and phrases describe this book in a nutshell. The poems are written beautifully.

Many poems and phrases in this book are melancholic, lugubrious, and optimistic, teaching life lessons throughout the book that inspires me to this day. These poems and phrases exceed today's media, explaining in a few, powerful words about war, and life choices. Robert Frost has a specific style of writing, using animals and nature to show deep symbolism. He does this in such a subtle way and surpasses what I believe his writing to be. Though other poets have done more of that style that I enjoy specifically more, his writings are classics, and always bring my spirits up.

Overall, a great book, though not everyone's cup of tea. The poems are beautiful in their own ways and should be recognized more than it truly is at this point. I highly recommend this book, especially to those who are going through a rough time or feeling down. His optimistic, moving words will inspire you, just as they have I so read some Frost. It is a great book to dip into.
|

Book 58 - Edward Connery Lathem "The Poetry of Robert Frost"

Edward Connery Lathem "The Poetry of Robert Frost" (Henry Holt and Co.)





Deep, meaningful poems and phrases describe this book in a nutshell. The poems are written beautifully.

Many poems and phrases in this book are melancholic, lugubrious, and optimistic, teaching life lessons throughout the book that inspires me to this day. These poems and phrases exceed today's media, explaining in a few, powerful words about war, and life choices. Robert Frost has a specific style of writing, using animals and nature to show deep symbolism. He does this in such a subtle way and surpasses what I believe his writing to be. Though other poets have done more of that style that I enjoy specifically more, his writings are classics, and always bring my spirits up.

Overall, a great book, though not everyone's cup of tea. The poems are beautiful in their own ways and should be recognized more than it truly is at this point. I highly recommend this book, especially to those who are going through a rough time or feeling down. His optimistic, moving words will inspire you, just as they have I so read some Frost. It is a great book to dip into.
|

Book 59 - Charles Rosen "The Classical Style: Haydn, Beethoven, Mozart"

Charles Rosen "The Classical Style: Haydn, Beethoven, Mozart" (Faber & Faber)




The issue of why Mozart is a stranger in our messed-up, impatient, overstimulated world, and why we need to approach him on different (musical) terms than the armour-plated ones we use to navigate our daily lives today if we are to appreciate what makes him so special. For me, the works which garner most unanimous appreciation have perhaps been the tougher, more dramatic ones: Beethoven 5 over Beethoven 4 or 6; Brahms 4 over Brahms 2 or 3; Verdi Requiem over Don Carlos, Othello or Falstaff; Stravinsky Rite of Spring over Petrouchka, Agon or Symphony in C; Mahler 2 over Das Lied Von Der Erde or Kindertotenlieder. This muscular power we seem as a society to tend to prioritize is not Mozart's way. All of those works, whilst supreme masterpieces, deal with extremes above all. Nothing in Mahler 2 or The Rite of Spring is moderate. We are a society of extremes, too. Pieces that operate at a more human scale can be lost in this. But Mozart always operates at this scale, even in his mightiest works. Mozart is not a composer of extremes. He is a composer of the middle. His music, like most Enlightenment music, but more so simply by dint of its extraordinary quality, traverses those subtle, intimate regions where small shades of meaning can mean so much, like furtive glances across a room. The reason we love his operas is that they are so full of complex humanity; the reason we particularly love his wind music so much, and also his piano concerti, is because they replicate this vocal dialogue in an instrumental form. The patient unfolding of, say, the Oboe Quartet - in which everything happens twice, question-answer, unfolding gracefully, calmly, every part seeming to listen to every other, to support, discuss, move forwards, but always constructively, with every small detail mattering, as do small details in civilized speech - is one example of countless others in which Mozart does this. To appreciate Mozart we need the patience to follow its logical, balanced unfolding and the concentration to follow the rhetorical inflections and subtleties of its melodic and harmonic details.

We are very fortunate that the genres the two greatest composers of the classical period - Haydn & Mozart - excel in are exactly complementary. While Haydn excels in the symphony, string quartets, piano sonatas & religious music, Mozart's greatest achievements are the operas & piano concertos.

Both composers have had their Primers in the gloriously entertaining and instructive Wire magazine - and this I do have a decent collection of both of these masters of classical music. The major gripe I do have about this hefty 500 page plus tome is that it is a somewhat dry academic tone with way too much musical notation for the uninitiated.

Book 59 - Charles Rosen "The Classical Style: Haydn, Beethoven, Mozart"

Charles Rosen "The Classical Style: Haydn, Beethoven, Mozart" (Faber & Faber)




The issue of why Mozart is a stranger in our messed-up, impatient, overstimulated world, and why we need to approach him on different (musical) terms than the armour-plated ones we use to navigate our daily lives today if we are to appreciate what makes him so special. For me, the works which garner most unanimous appreciation have perhaps been the tougher, more dramatic ones: Beethoven 5 over Beethoven 4 or 6; Brahms 4 over Brahms 2 or 3; Verdi Requiem over Don Carlos, Othello or Falstaff; Stravinsky Rite of Spring over Petrouchka, Agon or Symphony in C; Mahler 2 over Das Lied Von Der Erde or Kindertotenlieder. This muscular power we seem as a society to tend to prioritize is not Mozart's way. All of those works, whilst supreme masterpieces, deal with extremes above all. Nothing in Mahler 2 or The Rite of Spring is moderate. We are a society of extremes, too. Pieces that operate at a more human scale can be lost in this. But Mozart always operates at this scale, even in his mightiest works. Mozart is not a composer of extremes. He is a composer of the middle. His music, like most Enlightenment music, but more so simply by dint of its extraordinary quality, traverses those subtle, intimate regions where small shades of meaning can mean so much, like furtive glances across a room. The reason we love his operas is that they are so full of complex humanity; the reason we particularly love his wind music so much, and also his piano concerti, is because they replicate this vocal dialogue in an instrumental form. The patient unfolding of, say, the Oboe Quartet - in which everything happens twice, question-answer, unfolding gracefully, calmly, every part seeming to listen to every other, to support, discuss, move forwards, but always constructively, with every small detail mattering, as do small details in civilized speech - is one example of countless others in which Mozart does this. To appreciate Mozart we need the patience to follow its logical, balanced unfolding and the concentration to follow the rhetorical inflections and subtleties of its melodic and harmonic details.

We are very fortunate that the genres the two greatest composers of the classical period - Haydn & Mozart - excel in are exactly complementary. While Haydn excels in the symphony, string quartets, piano sonatas & religious music, Mozart's greatest achievements are the operas & piano concertos.

Both composers have had their Primers in the gloriously entertaining and instructive Wire magazine - and this I do have a decent collection of both of these masters of classical music. The major gripe I do have about this hefty 500 page plus tome is it is a somewhat dry academic tone with way too much musical notation for the uninitiated.

Jazz Thang

More jazzy grooves for your earlobes -

Ian Carr's Nucleus ‎– Roots (1973)

00:00 - 09:24 roots
09:24 - 14:19 images
14:19 - 18:20 caliban
18:20 - 21:42 whapatiti
21:42 - 26:18 capricorn
26:18 - 29:42 odokamona
29:42 - 37:26 southern roots and celebration

Bass Guitar – Roger Sutton
Design – Keith Davis (3)
Drums – Clive Thacker
Engineer – Roger Wake
Guitar – Jocelyn Pitchen
Percussion – Aureo de Souza
Piano, Electric Piano – Dave MacRae
Producer – Fritz Fryer
Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Flute, Flute [Bamboo] – Brian Smith
Trumpet – Ian Carr
Vocals – Joy Yates


The Soft Machine - Facelift (Live in Paris, 1970)

The quintet version of the band, captured at the Theatre de la Musique on March 2, 1970 for France's Pop Deux tv show. Featuring the short-lived line-up of Lyn Dobson and Elton Dean-reeds, Hugh Hopper-bass, Mike Ratledge-keyboards, and Robert Wyatt-drums, this was towards the end of Lyn Dobson's tenure, as he left by March 15! The show was broadcast in two 30 minute segments and the picture and sound quality are both excellent. The only drawback is tht there is fake applause at 'inappropriate junctures', mostly done to hide the edits that had to be done to take a band who played long songs in a continuous set and turn this into two 30' segments. Every Soft Machine fan needs this.

Charles Tolliver - Compassion

Charles Tolliver : trumpet
Nathen Page : guitar
Steve Novosel : bass
Alvin Queen : drums


ENJOY

Just Wondering

What book are you in the middle of right now (or just finishing up)?

What's the weather like there? Are you loving it or not so much?

What company do you despise?