Made the transition...

I finally made the jump - over onto the new blogger... so far so good... There will be a slight backlog of posts this week due to sheer exhaustion - and other activities - recording tomorrow some demos for a friend and some family stuff... hopefully the show will be back on the road soon enough... apart from the usual, there will be a short review of last Friday's gig at the Pack Horse that venerable/scruffy venue on the edge of the Artist's Quarter in God's Little Acre... one of my favourite acoustic/folk aggregations (of which there are not many, let it be said...) Gren Morris and Sam Stephens. (Link to my review of their gig last year is here... In response to my review of the recent Pete Morton gig, someone commented: 'Based on your photos, however, I'm worried that his gig appears to have taken place in a broom closet.' Here's a photo from last Friday - which displays some of the informality of the Pack - whose present organiser Mr Marmion has continued running the Owld Place in the anarchistic, freewheeling tradition of its glory years ( coupled to his own innate sharpness about the game which has enabled it to survive against the odds). This is from the other end of the long room - under the clock. Not exactly a broom closet - just resembles one from certain angles. Someone is coming through the door...














To keep the music going... here's a track from 'The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady,' Charles Mingus's wild, sprawling masterpiece from 1963. I had a request for this so dug it out of the pile - enjoy. 'This is... one of the only jazz albums to have liner notes written by a clinical psychologist...' (From Robert Spencer's review here...). Cool...
This is CD track four, which gives the last sections from the original album... smearing, sensuous saxes and muted brass a la Duke - but given the wrenching spin to the side that Mingus's own genius perpetrated on his hero's influence. And the 'Spanish Tinge' to the fore - Jay Berliner's flamenco guitar ripples and hacked strums - alternately delicate and brutal. Rhapsodic piano, a recurring flute-led section that reminds me of generic sixties tv themes for some reason -Charlie Mariano - who throughout the whole album is probably the top soloist... Amazing, beautiful ensemble colourations, accelerando, ritardando - those beautiful games with stretching time... so many riches, so little time tonight (stretched or otherwise)...

...also... apparently YouSendIt is flashing up the following message when attempts are made to download last week's mp3's:

'File sender has exceeded his or her download limit.
The file cannot be downloaded at this time because the sender of this file has exceeded his or her download limit.
The sender has been notified by email. Please feel free to contact the sender of this file as well.'

Not sure what this is about - maybe just a temporary blip, but feel free to contact me, as they say - I can always upload them again on another site if necessary...



Charles Mingus
( Rolf Ericson, Richard Williams (tp) Quentin Jackson (tb) Don Butterfield (cbtb, tu) Jerome Richardson (fl, ss, bars) Dick Hafer (fl, ts) Charlie Mariano (as) Jaki Byard (p) Jay Barliner (g) Charles Mingus (b, p) Dannie Richmond (d) ).
Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Track Four
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