Brilliant evening of poetry at the Harlequin: Habitation, a @longbarrowpress.bsky.social collective reading. Poems by Angelina D’Roza, Steve Ely, Pete Green, Rob Hindle, Chris Jones & Fay Musselwhite. Such very distinct voices, woven together beautifully.
Yes! Every re-watch of that film is rewarding but that first time... I remember sitting in the cinema for 10 minutes after the lights went up because I was so overwhelmed.
Catching up with Jazz Record Requests. Some gorgeous tracks - Ken Peplowski's clarinet version of Duke's exquisite Single Petal of a Rose, Tim Garland & Geoffrey Keezer's Out of Towner (Ralph Towner tribute), & Bill Evans' Blue in Green. Plus Nina Simone kicking ass as always with Work Song.
Asha Bhosle music night, kind of. Cornershop's lovely album, When I Was Born For The 7th Time, featuring of course Brimful of Asha. Asha Bhosle, she's the one that keeps the dream alive.
They've suddenly gone into White Christmas - perhaps that would make perfect sense if I was watching the movie rather than just listening to the soundtrack.
I can't wish you out of the zone, in case somehow or other that means Forest drop back in... But I suspect we're both going to be going through agonies for the rest of the season & frantically doing the calculations till it's mathematically certain one way or the other...
Asha Bhosle music night. Raksha, a 1982 spy film and another R D Burman soundtrack, with Asha on all but one track.
Music night is now Asha Bhosle night. Starting with Madhosh, a 1974 film with music by R D Burman (Asha's husband) and she's on all the tracks, a couple of duets with Kishore Kumar, one with R D himself.
Music night. Another vinyl rescue, Parliament's Trombipulation, from 1980. I was just thinking it was going to be a bit samey when it changed gear - enjoying this track, Long Way Around.
Music night. If 2 (released 1970). A gem, retrieved from the mouldy cellar. The cover is a bit manky but the music isn't. I can't recall how I came by this, I've had it since I was in my mid-teens. Possibly my first venture into prog jazz rock. Lives up to my fond memories.
Music afternoon. Alice Coltrane, Transcendence, from 1977. Harp & strings, plus chanting to Hindu devotional hymns. Beautiful & meditative.
Personnel mainly Gong - Daevid Allen, Didier Malherbe, Gilli Smyth & Pip Pyle, plus William Burroughs on vocals on 1 track and a Sam Wyatt aged 5 on another. Hedayat on guitar, vocals, keyboards plus 'cosmic-hedayat-rumble and cut-ups'. Fille de l'ombre is rather lovely.
Music afternoon. Totally random selection: Dashiell Hedayat's Obsolete, 1971. Sleeve notes instruct: play as loud as possible & listen when 'as stoned as impossible'. I'm afraid I can't comply with either, but did nudge the volume up a bit, even if there's nothing I can do about the other thing.
Music afternoon. Janacek String Quartets 1 (Kreutzer) & 2 (Intimate Letters), performed by the Janacek Quartet. Saw a wonderful performance of 2 last year at the @musicintheround.bsky.social Ensemble 360 Chamber Music Festival, combined with readings from said letters.
Apparently the album was also a big influence on Bjork's Vespertine
Music afternoon. Toumani Diabate & Ballake Sissoko - New Ancient Strings. Kora duets, inspired by their respective fathers' album, Ancient Strings, & recorded in Bamako in 1999. For the late Andy Kershaw, whose broadcasts helped to popularise Diabate and so many other African musicians worldwide.
Music afternoon. Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk. Recorded 1958, a one-off session for Atlantic. Described at the time as 'mighty good jazz', with which I concur heartily. I also like the word 'angular' as a description of Monk's style.
Current reading, plus the latest Slow Horses, Clown Town, on Kindle. Re-reading the Camus having seen Ozon’s rather brilliant film of this yesterday.
My next music night will also be honouring Asha Bosle, whose dulcet tones featured on so many Bollywood movie soundtracks. I'll also give that Cornershop track another play.
I imagine next week's Jazz Record Requests will be featuring lots of Mike Westbrook, which is fine by me - there's nothing by him in our collection, oddly, but whenever I hear his stuff on JRR I find it at the very least interesting. I should do him justice, albeit posthumously.
Music afternoon. Jazz Record Requests - my highlights were Rodney Whitaker's Visions of the Past (feat. Wynton Marsalis), Sonny Rollins' Pent Up House, Oliver Nelson's Stolen Moments, Joe Locke's Elegy for us All, & Reinhardt & Grappelli's improv on Bach's Concerto in D Minor.
Yesterday’s music
Music night. Latest acquisition, Family Band's eponymous album, recorded 2020. Saw them live last week at the Lescar & wanted more.
According to Paul Morley, they were a cross between Feelgood & Henry Cow. Not hearing as much of the Henry Cow in these tracks, but I do relate to Morley's other comment, that their music is 'studded with awkward holes and sharp corners' & I like that.
Music night. A random pick from the CD collection: Gang of Four - The Peel Sessions Album, released 1990. I don't remember listening to this lot very often, & these tracks don't sound at all familiar (they're mostly from the first album, Entertainment!). Loving Andy Gill's guitar.
Wow, this album hasn't lost its power over the years since I last heard it. I'm still in love.
Music night. Had a hankering for some Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, so now listening to Gorky 5, their 5th (obvs) but the first one I heard, and I fell in love with their sound, Euros Childs' voice & the penultimate song on this album, Hush the Warmth, which is one of the most beautiful songs I know.
Music afternoon. A bit of a change of mood - East of Eden's second album, Snafu from 1970. I only knew them through Jig a Jig (released in the same yr as this) - actually a prog/folk/jazz band & really rather enjoyable.
Music afternoon. More Herbie. 1969 album The Prisoner, dedicated to MLK who was murdered the year before. A much bigger cast list: Johnny Coles, Garnett Brown, Buster Williams, Joe Henderson, Albert Heath. Williams wrote a couple of the tracks, the rest are Herbie.