Jazzy D's Soul Notes

Another day of mixed weather. It started overcast and then up till midday it turned out.to be very sunny and mild.
So I made the most of it by taking a bus to the city centre. I brought some wine for the evening dinner. We are having lasagne tonight. I also had a beer at Spoons North Street Brighton.
Bro is generally coping well under the circumstances.

Well, it started a sunny day but now it has clouded over. I feel that we could have rain today. As far as I am aware, we did not have rain yesterday although it was forecasted.

I was waiting for a piece of furniture to arrive but that did not happen due to other circumstances. However, I did have a good chat with Dawn midday in the common room where I had cooked my pizza for lunch. Join the Hat popped in because his daughter gave him some red wine which he does not drink, saw me, and asked if I was interested in a bottle of red, to which I confirmed, and this started drinking from one of my wine glasses after I consumed my pizza.



A couple of CDs dead cheap arrived today. A Sea Symphony by the great Vaughan Williams and Smetana's Ma Vlast.




Music is the best solution to settle a savage heart. Music is universal and every dictator or tin pot crazy should listen to music because maybe they will be better people, hopefully.

Another fine sunny autumnal day. However, much cooler than yesterday but still a lovely day to be out and about. Most of the morning was spent hoovering ad cleaning. The fly problem is less problematical now.

So I decided to enjoy the afternoon in town and pick up some items from the supermarket. More large mushrooms, stir fry veg, olive oil, cheese, and specific spices as well as a fresh mashed potato pack for a quick bean and mash filler. Yep, I am trying to keep off meat.

In the end, I decided to have a slouching day once all the cleaning was done.

A few recent goodies arrived in the post - mostly jazz CDs.

These are the recent finds -







Oh yeah, and the evening is ending with a vino.



Salutations!

Well, what a lovely day it turned out to be. After a slightly cold morning, the afternoon was quite warm. Warm enough to sunbathe. In fact, I had my lunch and a bottle of wine outside soaking up the sun.



Lunch was three sausages, mash potato and peas.

A very satisfying day.

Despite being cool we did have some sunshine today, but not warm enough to say it is spring just yet.

I pooped out early to the local store to get some food and wine. Lunch was chicken roast with stuffing washed down with a very nice Spanish Rucio Blanco Vino.

I had won a fifty-pound gift certificate to Amazon from an online forum I took part in. So guess what I did - get some music - and these arrived today and yesterday in different packages via the Marketplace.

Elliott Carter - Chamber Music (Arditti String Quartet)
Brain Ferneyhough 2 - 4th String Quartet etc (Arditti String Quartet)
Morton Feldman - Durations / Coptic Light (CPO)
Shostakovich Symphony No.13 "Babi Yar" (CBSO/Okko Kamu) (Chandos)
David Murray octet - Hope Scope (Black Saint)
The Hypeion Schubert Edition Vol. 12 (Hyperion)
David Sylvian - Secrets Of The Beehive (Virgin)
Julius Eastman - Unjust Malaise (New World 3CD)
Mordant Music + COI - Misinformation (BFI DVD)

So yes, I have been busy listening to all this music.

Sold another four items via eBay as well. Posting tomorrow.

Well, it has stopped snowing with just a thin layer on the ground and yet more is expected - apparently.


I have been listening to the almost three hours of Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues.



Lunch was bangers and mash with a twist of meatballs in red wine gravy.



Washed down with a pinotage red wine.

Last night I watched the complete six episodes of Fate - The Winx Saga on Onion Play as well as the fifth episode of WandaVision. Has anybody else with watching WandaVsion either on Disney or Onion Play? I think it is a brilliant series.

Afternoon and after some more of Dmitri - I will head towards Poland and Karol Szymanowski. I played the two violin concertos yesterday and will listen to the opera King Roger today. I recently acquired a four-CD set of this underrated 20th-century post-Romantic composer and according to David Hurwitz of Classics Today, the best recording are the Simon Rattle ones.




I might even start a re-read of this book.





I rate the 24 preludes and fugues as high as any of the J.S. Bach ones.

It has been a mellow day of mostly lazing around.

I did pop into town midday to get some food and a bottle of wine again. I then had some very tasty vegan steaks on savoury pepper and tomato couscous bed.



I then listened to some BBC Radio 3 - the classical station - to find that I was also listening to programmes on world music, soundtracks and jazz. It has become less stuffy music wise and the evening are a delight with music that I can simply say is avant-garde.

So, I played that wonderful new Jeff Parker album, Suite For Max Brown, but just at 40 minutes, sound way too short lol. If you want to expand your definition of jazz this is a good starter.

Another excellent book came in the post, second hand and cheap - "American Composers".




Interviews are with John Cage, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Laurie Anderson, Harold Budd, Glenn Branca, George Crumb, Lou Harrison, Alvin Lucier, Robert Ashley, Terry Riley, Michael Torke, Pauline Oliveros and Lamonte Young. All very relevant modern composers and hence this paperback is worth looking out for. Some like Cage and Budd have passed away now but their music lives on.

Meanwhile, I am having an evening with Scott Walker and his four albums beween 1969- 1970.



It may come across as pop or easy listening but these four albums are divine - recognised by Wire - and back in the day were ignored by the buying public. They also include some of the best Jaques Brel songs ever.

I shall put a music post on later.

Today's word seems to be rather hedonistic , but it fits lol.

sybaritic

[ˌsɪbəˈrɪtɪk]
ADJECTIVE
fond of sensuous luxury or pleasure; self-indulgent.
"their opulent and sybaritic lifestyle"
synonyms:
luxurious · extravagant · pampered · lavish · self-indulgent · pleasure-seeking · sensual · voluptuous · hedonistic · epicurean · lotus-eating · libertine · debauched · dissolute · decadent · unrestrained · fast-living

Yeah, man. It is an aspect of me I guess.

Enjoying a fine bottle of Merlot at the moment.




Plus, I also luxuriate in jazz music.

There could be an end in sight with this heat as it was a bit breezier but still very humid. I recorded a still high 29C in the garden this afternoon.
I did my supermarket shopping this morning and picked up some wine to go with my food.



Salmon and haddock chunks on a bed of brown rice.



i also tackled some Wittgenstein.

Then had a siesta.

Despite the inclement weather there was an occasion for some serendipity in that a recent book recommendation resulted in a sale. That does not happen often. Anyway, I digress. I was in town this afternoon just perusing and killing time. The main reason was that I needed to post a CD I sold on Discogs. As I walked through East Street to West Street the Cancer Research chazzer was still the only charity shop open and thus I wondered in. I came out with a couple of paperbacks for a pound each of which one could be relevant for tomorrow. Tomorrow is Canada Day.




The Dawkins book was found in a box outside a house with a notice saying "Books please take for free. Nothing lese was that interesting. Dawkins is an adamant promoter of evolution against the non-scientific religious folly or idea of creationism.

This is why , like Dawkins, I frown on creationists with disdain. I really had heated arguments with one LJ religious blinkeredness geezer who was an amazing bibliophile which ended up with him banning me from his journal. Oh well, let them fester their own myopic visions and denial that we evolved from apes.

Anyway, I am enjoying a second bottle of Barefoot Shiraz red vino this evening. I listened to Cypress Hill's excellent Black Sunday CD and one by Nick Drake , and about to listen to some classical. You know by now how eclectic I am.