Butchers chops on speed

[Serial_Apologist]

Sat 5 Aug
5.30pm - J to Z

Jumoké Fashola with new and classic jazz. Plus guests, today featuring a chat with Cuban piano virtuoso Harold López-Nussa, who shares some of the music that inspires him and discusses his new album, Timba à la Americana, his debut for the Blue Note label. Plus live music from Liverpool vocalist Ni Maxine, recorded in May at the Manchester Jazz Festival.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001p7rr

12midnight - Freeness
Corey Mwamba presents free jazz and improvised music, including new releases from Belgian trio Dry Speed and British saxophonist John Butcher. Plus an improvisation by Robbie Judkins (zither, objects and effects) and Colin Webster (baritone sax), and free jazz from Norwegian rhythm section of Ingebrigt Haker Flaten and Paul Nissen-Love.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001p7sl

Sun 6 Aug
5.15pm - Jazz Record Requests

http://www.alynshipton.co.uk/blog

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001p7wh

In addition, Sat 5 August BBC2 devotes 4 hrs 20 mins to Tony Bennett, beginning at 9pm - but was he a jazz singer? Answers on a 10" Regal Zonophone 78.

[Serial_Apologist]

Scandalous as this may seem, I am beginning to think that J to Z could be reduced to an hour in duration, the selected tracks mostly being short and containing little that is attention-holding to justify having a 90-minute programme. With few exceptions (such as the Ornette track now on*) I tend to experience it as a generally pleasant nonedescript background to exchanging views on this forum, apart from the featured guest, who is always worth stopping to hear even when one finds oneself in disagreement.

*I didn't hear Jumoké announce this track but you recognise who it is straight away, don't you? - such an exception with this programme!

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I think it was "The legend of Bebop" from the Ornette Atlantic compilation, "Art of the improvisers". Haden bass, Blackwell drums. (Issued 1970s)

I rarely listen to this programme, just go straight to the post broadcast track listing. France Musique alternatively is a model of good jazz broadcasting, knowledgeable interviews and solid context without fawning. Listened recently to a four part series on/with Ahmad Jamal, could not be bettered.

[Jazzrook]

Here's Ornette's 'The Legend of Bebop' with Cherry, Haden & Blackwell in 1960.
It shone out from the rest of the dross played on J to Z:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=6KqkBxQXF8Y

JR

[Ian Thumwood]

I was intrigued enough by Bluesnik's post to explore the play list of France Musique. Granted there are documentaries about Jamal and Ellington but about 80 % mirrors the music programmed on J - Z. There would be absolutely nothing that would interest SA for example. There is loads of fringe stuff and the more contemporary bands actually look more
conservative than the BBC.

In my opinion J to Z just illustrates the staleness of the jazz scene today. Coupled with the dumbed down nature the magazine format, it is ideal for the Tik Tok generation.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Agree with you about staleness & superficiality generally, and not just in jazz, it's a hallmark of "our" culture, from the arts to politics. "Morbid symptoms" as Comrade Gramsci said. But I've just counted something like 35 programs on France Musique, most one hour, examining Sonny Rollins (as one example) from the Prestige days onwards, and replaying his concerts. All archived all accessable. True the Flip stand is more mundane and "fashionable" but that's their all day background. The evening live hour and the specific artist profiles are of far more substance.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

* the kind of thing Alyn did with the excellent Jazz Library series. Now no more

[Jazzrook]

* the kind of thing Alyn did with the excellent Jazz Library series. Now no more

'Impressions' with Brian Morton was also an excellent jazz programme which went the same way as 'Jazz Library'.

JR

[Ian Thumwood]

I thought Impressions was an exceptional programme but I just feel.it was fortunate to cover a very fertile period in jazz. The documentary series Jazz File was also a highlight but I wonder if 4he demographic has moved on and that there is no longer an appetite for intellectual coverage of jazz. I find that I have an issue with the presentation of J to Z plus I feel it does have a house style than makes it appear insincere and lightweight.

For me the barometer is the music requested on JRR which tends towards classic performances and also the contemporary UK scene which, conversely, mirrors some of J to Z. A lot of the vintage stuff is missing from requests and you wonder if many people listen to pre Be Bop these days. There was a conversation in our office yesterday about how variety of music across the whole of radio is restricted. I do not think the issue is unique to jazz.

In my opinion there is some very worthwhile jazz out there yet you really have to hunt it down to find it. The jazz getting the media attention is staggeringly safe and markedly more conservative than Wynton. The jazz I have tended to listen to gets featured on US websites although restricted in UK. You have to hunt to find it. Whilst programmes in the past from Humph through to Impressions were decisive in forming my taste, there is nothing of rest nature around these days. 1980s and 1990s jazz journalism seemed more informed and less of a box ticking exercise. More likely to celebrate a non binary jazz musician than the music they might produce.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I remember when Jazzwise interviewed McCoy Tyner and a large chunk of it was about his new trousers! Only so many repeat questions you can ask about Coltrane...

At that point I gave up.

[Ian Thumwood]

I rarely read Jazzwise these days and 9nly pick it up at Waterloo if I need something to read on the train when I go home from town.

I find some of rhe archived articles on the Jazz Journal website interesting and think I would probably be complaining back then too! So many of the judgements would be considered incorrect nowadays. It is funny how magazines have a house style which then gets marooned as fashions change. It was never a modish publication but you can see that misjudgements have not been unique to J to Z.

[Alyn_Shipton]

Ian says JRR "tends towards classic performances and also the contemporary UK scene", but that is what is being requested. As a team we try to represent the cross section if what is requested as fully as we can. Yes there will be some on this board who have asked for things that have not been played, but by and large what you hear is an accurate reflection of the range of requests we receive. So to hear more of a range of different music, write in, or encourage friends and fellow listeners to do so. One reason we "mirror some of J to Z" as I mentioned in a couple of recent episodes, is that people have heard a track or artist on J to Z they'd like to hear again, in full, or - in the case of an artist - something else they've done.

[Alyn_Shipton]

PS I concur wholeheartedly with Bluesnik on France Musique. They also play a great variety of classical fare that seldom gets an airing on Radio3, and I've pointed fellow presenters towards some of the composers and music I've heard on that station, and I'm glad to say in most cases that's led to their inclusion on R3.

[Serial_Apologist]

PS I concur wholeheartedly with Bluesnik on France Musique. They also play a great variety of classical fare that seldom gets an airing on Radio3, and I've pointed fellow presenters towards some of the composers and music I've heard on that station, and I'm glad to say in most cases that's led to their inclusion on R3.

I dare say I should look into France Musique sometime, given that with my other hat on I've often plugged modernish French composers seldom if ever broadcast on R3 here whose music would I believe appeal to a wide range of music lovers.

[Ian Thumwood]

Alyn / Bluesnik


I think that the ideal jazz coverage should include all aspects of jazz , not just the modish or contemporary. I do find it strange that people who profess to love jazz can be so partisan as to exclude idioms. Most fans are going to have blind spots that they do not like or whole areas of the music where they are ignorant. I would like to see the BBC cover all based and not just the magazine format of J toZ which dips a toe in the water of more vintage material. A lot of the newer styles owe a lot to the past and it is a shame that older recordings no longer have much of an audience. I love to listen to Fletcher Henderson as much as Henry Threadgill as it is odd to my ears that a lot of people to not appreciate these kind of extremes.

The music sought out on JRR to me underscores the fact that most jazz fans prefer jazz from within the mainstream or at least stuff which is immediately recognised as jazz. Where it varies I have noticed that a good proportion comes from requesters who had attended gigs. I might be mistaken but the impression I get is that a lot of stuff no longer related to new cd / downloads as was the case when I was discovering jazz in the 1980 s when JRR was along with Humph, how I did my musical exploring. Maybe this accounts for Joseph's enthusiasm for a narrow band of artists as opposed to a broader spectrum. I think the audience for jazz has changed enormously in the last 20 years and a programme like J to Z is indicative of this.

It is a bit sad as the main joy of music is broadening your horizons to discover things which were unfamiliar like Hadyn piano sonatas this past fortnight - the way he shapes ideas reminded me alot of Paul Bley. Only checked him out as I was bored whilst doing cist reports over one weekend in July in between TMS