Category: Uncategorised

MUNICH, 17/8/‘72

Ah, this takes me back. Not quite to ‘72. As that’s the year I was born. But to my mid- to late-teens, when I discovered The Mahavishnu Orchestra.

I’m a bit more reserved or circumspect about my enthusiasm for and admiration of these guys than I was ‘back in the day’, when the intensity of my love for them was akin to, albeit not quite on a par with, their own volcanic levels of energy and intensity.

I do still love these guys and their music. And perhaps at this early point in their career most especially so. This is basically their debut album Inner Mounting Flame, live.

Setlist 
Meeting Of The Spirits
You Know You Know
The Dance of The Maya
(Cobham solo) One Word
The Noonward Race
A Lotus on Irish Streams

Inner Mounting Flame
1) Meeting of the Spirits
2) Dawn
3) The Noonward Race
4) A Lotus on Irish Streams
5) Vital Transformation
6) The Dance of Maya
7) You Know You Know
8) Awakening 

That was the first album by them I got, as it happens. Prob’ off the back of hearing The Life Divine, a collab’ ‘twixt Santana – who I was already a huge fan of – and McLaughlin, from Love Devotion & Surrender.

Oh, those heady youthful days of emergent ecstasy! How naive was I?

LONDON, 25/8/‘72

This is the same band playing much the same repertoire. But the video and audio are slightly better quality. Hence the extra half star.

I love how the internet has made exploring music a lot easier. Watching a live Billy Cobham video, from Norway, in ‘74 (see below), I was as taken with some of the clothing as I was with the blisteringly intense post-Mahavishnu prog’ fusion.

I was also introduced to Milcho Leviev, a Bulgarian jazz pianist I’d not been aware of before. I’d heard him on recordings, but not been aware of him as an individual.

Turns out he was not only a sideman with Billy Cobham and co, touring and recording with the drummer during the seventies, but he also worked with trumpeter and composer/bandleader Don Ellis.

Trivia fans might be interested to know that track one of Don Ellis’ 1973’s Soaring album is a certain Whiplash, by saxophonist and composer Hank Levy… as used in, and indeed giving it’s name to, the 2014 ‘jazz studies horror’ film of that name.

Anyway, back to Haiku, also released in ‘73. It’s the kind of album that causes some, so called ‘jazz purists’, for example, to break out in sweaty or clammy hot n’ cold flushes, and all manner of other febrile eruptive ailments, wondering, ‘but… is it jazz?’

Who gives a good goddamn? My main criterion for music is, do I like it? Or put another way, does it move me, or in some way connect with me? And the answer with Haiku is, yes, in a mixed bag of ways.

Don Ellis is yet another character, or star, within the many galaxies of music, and jazz music within that, that I simply must explore more. I didn’t realise he was also a drummer, as well as a famed trumpeter and bandleader, composer, etc.

He’s done a lot of film soundtrack work. And is also known for composing and performing music in unusual time signatures, and what was once referred to as ‘Third Stream’ experimentalism. This last refers to bringing elements of the so called classical tradition to bear, on jazz and popular music.

As well as featuring Leviev, on keys, who I just discovered thanks to the Cobham concert footage, these two also share contributions from trombonist Glenn Ferris. And there are other notable and/or recognisable names, such as guitarist Jay Graydon, famed for his solo on Steely Dan’s Peg.

The above video captures a later Don Ellis group performing live at Montreux Jazz Festival. Holy guacamole! Seriously intense. The more I hear Don Ellis, the more I want to hear.

I definitely want to add Haiku to my music collection. Being totally broke at present that’ll have to wait. But in the meantime I can enjoy it via YouTube. Which is better than not being able to hear it at all.

FOOTNOTE

A rather sad coda to this post: I discovered Don Ellis died, of a heart attack, only a year after the above 1977 Montreux performance. He was only 44 years old! He seems so full of life in the Montreux footage. Rather ironically, for an artist who is so associated with unusual time signatures, it was his heart doing just that – irregular rhythms – that killed him!

Well, Teresa just told me she’d heard that Monty Don is retiring from his role as chief presenter of the BBC’s Gardener’s World.

He’s been stepping back gradually for quite a long time. So I guess we could all see this coming.

Teresa also told me Don is now 68. Funnily enough, as I type this she’s watching Rick Stein, who, now in his late 70s, is still going strong.

Having mentioned these two, it’s interesting, to me, with our family history of depression, to reflect that Monty Don has been very open about his struggles with the ol’ black eyed dog.

And… something I didn’t know – until today – Rick Stein’s father committed suicide, when Rick himself was 18.

Don has been very vocal in reminding us all how good gardening is, for both us as individuals, and the planet as a whole, on so many levels. Here’s a good quote from Don’s website:

The real importance of gardening is the empowerment that it gives people, however small or seemingly insignificant their gardens might be. It is surprising how liberating it is, if you can grow anything at all.

Yep, very true.

Of course Gardener’s World won’t be the same without Monty, and his garden, from which the show has been based for many years now. I for one will miss his very deliberately and conscientiously old-fashioned slightly patrician style.

Will he make the occasional return appearances? One can only live in Hope!

Whether I ultimately sell this amp, or keep it and use it, this little refurb job is good. The logo is, or rather was, very worn and battered.

Looks like this amp saw a lot of heavy action before I got it. I have the to confess I more or less haven’t used it at all. Shame on me!

I removed the plastic plate, masked it all, and then sprayed it black. I think with Rustoleum matt black? Left it a while to dry (actually encouraged that process a bit with a hair-dryer… feeling impatient!).

The ‘reveal’, aka peeling off the masking, is peculiarly satisfying.

One minor gripe is that I’ve left lines visible where I cut the masking. I could’ve either cut more accurately, or masked a different way; e.g. filled the recessed lettering with plasticene.

Oh well! You live n’ learn. And I’m happy enough with the way I’ve done it for the time being. It looks very nice n’ crisp. And it’s undoubtedly a massive improvement.

And finally, the two little Phillips head screws hold the logo plate in place, as it was before. Only now, looking so much better.

Very gratifying and highly satisfying!

After giving up on ever hearing this album, thinking it’d either got lost in transit or disappeared into a black hole in our home, Teresa recently found the CD. Still unopened, in its cardboard postal envelope.

So I’ve unwrapped it, and today, finally, played it. And, I’ll be dog-goned, it hasn’t disappointed. In looking for some info on it online, I found the following review. Normally I’d want to write my own. But this nails it:

‘A deeply pleasing sensation arises when terrific cover art not only fully delivers on the music, but also bears a distinct resemblance to it. Ryo Kawasaki’s 1976 jazz-funk album Juice is one such record.

Bright and refreshing like a piece of citrus, peel the skin back and you’ll find an electric fantasyland of traversing wires and circuits. Over the course of its seven tracks, the visually sci-fi-tinged world of Juice feels at once perfectly of its time, yet remains delightfully vital in 2022.’

Okay, so it’s 2024 now. But that’s as true now as it was in 2022. Ryo-san, and cohorts… we thank you!

The above is one of my favourite ever single frames by Hergé. It’s just perfect. It’s funny, dramatic, beautiful. I just love it!

Visual perfection. The clear line. Perfect compositional and colour balance. And a whole story and ethos, distilled into a single image. Breathtaking.

It’s funny, for me, now, thinking about Capt. Haddock’s penchant for whiskey. What part might his character have played, if any, in my own troubled relations with booze?

The funny drunkard is an ages old comedy trope. And a good and reliable one. But once one passes through the personal hell of severe alcoholism (or what passes for that in one’s own limited ways), it changes this perception.

Or is that Thomson and Thompson? There are subtle difference; moustache shape, exact form of buffoonery.

Snowy is a great foil for a Tintin. As is Haddock. And lots of other characters. Including Nestor, the unflappable manservant or valet, inherited from the unscrupulous Bird Brothers, along with Marlinspike Hall. ‘No, this is not Coutts, the Butcher’s!’ Ah, me. Simple pleasures.

We all know or occasionally meet folk like insurance salesman Jolyon Wagg. Boorishly assuming, in love with their own trite and repetitive anecdotes and jokes, and unaware when they’ve overstayed their welcome. And yet we tolerate them. Perhaps aware we may all have the potential to rub folk up the wrong way at times?

An intriguing character. Quite ambivalent in some respects. Whether running a South American country or moonlighting as a knife-throwing act, he’s manly, gruff, and not entirely of good moral character. A rogue and an adventurer. But… well, you know…

Hergé… what can one say? I can’t be bothered to even try here, right now, to be honest. I’m too exhausted. I’ll simply register my great admiration for and appreciation of his great body of work. A life well spent, no matter how tortured an artistic soul he might’ve had.

My interest in Colin Furze and his many activities, most especially his underground stuff, has lead me to the above video. So, I now know a very little about Radon. Which is more than I knew about it before. To learn more, you can read about it here.

Apparently (according to some sources) it’s the number one cause of death by lung cancer in non-smokers.

Thanks to this video I’ve also learned that there’s an online UK Radon map, where you can type in your postcode, and learn about Radon levels in your area.

It turns out that Colin Furze lives in a high radon concentration area. We, on the other hand (blue markers on maps), live in a very low concentration area. Phew!

And so it is that I learn of a new cause for concern. But also, mercifully, that it really need not concern us unduly. As we’re in a low risk area.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

I’m not posting this because I particularly rate it. I just find it interesting, as a kind of nexus for multifarious issues, from poetry and art, to race and identity, nationalism and compassion, etc.

For those who don’t get it, the misquoted title is a reference to Count Arthur Strong, a contemporary comic icon who I really love.

As my uncle Terry occasionally notes/laments, things like blogs are often quite shallow. However, I make no apologies for the degrees to which I take my interests; sometimes I dive deeper, others I don’t.

On this occasion this is really just a place for me to note the existence of the famed poem, not explore its many tendrils of potential meanings or interpretations.

There are a few good visual sequences in this episode. The iron ore train at the beginning is pretty impressive.

Titled, with their usual schoolboy humour, Sand Job (Seamen, Massive Hunt, etc.), this is rumoured to be, poss’, the last Grand Tour ever. Sad. So here’s to enjoying it, while it lasts.

Jeremy Clarkson has said on this show, in a previous Special (?), that he’s ‘never as happy as I am in a desert’. This episode takes place in Mauretania.

The trio drive their stoopid cars through a segment of The Sahara. In a kind of low budget partial Paris Dakar rally. As usual, I don’t really care about the vehicles. The fun is watching these clowns goofing around in exotic locations.

These ‘special’ style episodes are the best aspect of The Grand Tour. Mostly ‘cause they’re mildly interesting and mildly exciting travelogues. A welcome dose of no expenses spared globetrotting fun, quite attractive for the penniless sofa-bound traveller by proxy.

This episode has Jezzer fretting over Ebola (remember the Ebola-drome test track?), land mines, African war-zones, and the lack of alcohol in Muslim countries, such as Mauretania.

Hammond is his usual chirpy self, May his normal slightly clever slightly curmudgeonly persona, and Jezzer’s the big n’ beefy naughty public schoolboy, who simply refuses to grow up.

Frankly, they face better challenges in other episodes, frankly. This isn’t the best of The Specials. But it’s ok. And for me, with this show, that’s alright. So, kind of business as usual?

As well as beaucoup (or encore?) le desert, they visit towns and cities: starting in Choum, they visit Chinguetti (famous for its ancient libraries, and busily being gobbled up by The Sahara), Nouakchott, and very nearly get to Dakar… ‘and on that bombshell’, almost too literally, it all ends.

As a wee footnote, here’s a piece in The Independent about Jezza. It came up when I was trying to find which Special it was in which he said words to the effect of ‘I’m never so happy as I am when I’m in a desert’.

Clarkson would almost certainly be utterly contemptuous of the ‘tofu eating knit your own muesli’ vibe in the linked piece. And it is pretty awful and pathetic in some respects.

But it also touches upon genuine problems, re his loutish bully-boy ignorance, and problematic position as public figure, and therefore, to use the current parlance, influencer.

In trying to ready some of my gear for sale, I’ve been taking it out of storage, or, in the case of the Squier Strat I’m starting with here, off the wall, to check stuff, prior to selling.

In this instance I’m checking that the Roland Cube 15W guitar amp works. And boy, it does. It’s way too loud for me, at this juncture of my life. I needed plenty of volume, back when I took amps out for drum lessons. To play backing tracks through, and get over the volume of kids thrashing knackered old drum sets.

But I think now, I’m more inclined towards 5W!

Anyway, the amp certainly works. Nor is it too noisy in terms of unwanted crackling and background hum. I’d prob’ only ever use the clean channel, were I using this as intended, as a guitar amp.

But now I’m no longer teaching, nor doing any music whatsoever – and given I have several similar amps, all not being used – and I’m in desperate straits financially, it’s time to move this on.

I dursn’t crank it up, to try the various distorted tones it gives. There’s a switch to switch between a ‘clean’ channel, and one with four positions: overdrive, distortion, metal, metal stack!

There are also three tone controls, an aux-in, and ‘recording out’. So far a small amp it’s got a lot of features, and a wide variety of possible sounds and applications.

But back to the Squier Strat for a mo’: in order to test the amp I had to put a guitar through it. I got down the Strat, which I don’t think I’ve touched in about 3-5 years! And it was still almost perfectly in tune.

Compare that with the Mahalo soprano ukulele I’ve been trying to sell… that tunes up ok. But it won’t hold its tuning anything like so long. Indeed, it requires near constant adjustment to keep it in tune.

Chalk n’ cheese, eh?

Whilst I’m prepping stuff for sale, I like to clean it, test it (if need be), and carry out any minor repairs that might be needed.

With the Roland Cube amp, it only needed cleaning and testing. All is hunky-dory. She’s ready for sale.

My little Fender Frontman 15G, by contrast, whilst looking fine, and sounding ok, has one issue I need to sort; a phono input that partly broken. So… that needs fixing.

I also have this battery powered Hiwatt busking amp. Pretty much never used. I had this fantasy that I might busk funky loops, on guitar and bass, and then play drums. Here I am taking off the knackered badge, with a view to ‘refreshing’ it.