'Round Midnight

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  • kernelbogey
    Full Member
    • Nov 2010
    • 5881

    'Round Midnight

    Saxophonist Soweto Kinch picks jazz from all eras and around the world, with a special focus on new British artists. Monday to Friday, with live sessions and guests, and undiscovered talent from BBC Introducing.

    As a confirmed insomniac, and not really a jazz enthusiast - this is my first post here! - I notice that there's no thread on this programme titled just with its name. I've dipped in occasionally and been impressed by Soweto Kinch's presentation: a great radio voice, authoritative knowledge and a non-culty language. I almost wanted to create this thread not on the Jazz Bored, to attract non-jazz listeners to the programme.

    I fell into last night's programme and Esperanza Spalding tallking about her music and others', on my way to TTN: as someone whose jazz experience consists largely of repeated plays of my Acker Bilk EPs when I was 15, the conversation was interesting, even though I knew almost none of the names they referred to.
  • Old Grumpy
    Full Member
    • Jan 2011
    • 3693

    #2
    Agreed - Soweto is a very good presenter and plays some interesting tracks. Last night's programme was particularly good.

    Comment

    • Serial_Apologist
      Full Member
      • Dec 2010
      • 38184

      #3
      I agree, however last night's 'Round Midnight was a step up on previous episodes, largely down to the wonderful open personality of Esperanza Spalding. I think the main problem with this programme is that not enough information is given on the music, musicians and bands, unlike jazz programmes in the past, where you were usefully encouraged as to where they came from, fitted in to the scene, the times and music in general, and so on. It's "nice" () being told how wonderful this music is on general musical aesthetic grounds, which is what we mostly get, but I keep on asking myself, who are these people? What criteria distinguish the good but routine from the outstanding and ground-breaking? Where are the main and subsidiary lines of where the music is going, in relation to where it has been if necessary? Please just tell us before or after the track is played instead of the tacit assumption that we're expected/assumed to check any or everything up on the internet! And if jazz is a music that by its nature changes and evolves if it is not to stagnate and become musically, sociologically, historically and politically irrelevant, how, which of, and in what ways are the people featured contributing to sustaining the music and its relevance? We had a bit of that in Worby's mid-Prom Braxton talk; the trouble is that the way he went about his referencings were so divorced from their 1960s criteria-informing sources that the talk would have been meaningless to most contemporary listeners who have not followed the music for decades (like many of us have!) and offered in a glibly dismissive offhanded manner that suggested oh well, who really cares about all this intellectual stuff anyway?

      Comment

      • kernelbogey
        Full Member
        • Nov 2010
        • 5881

        #4
        Great to have your comment, Serial!

        Your crit of the programme is that of all of us of Radio Three in 2024, no?

        I am a jazz generalist - the jazz equivalent of the listener who likes The Lark Rising, Mahler 5 Adagietto, Beethoven 5 I etc etc...!

        Actually, to be more fair the detail you long for would have helped me with last night's [A]round Midnight, since all the names mentioned by Esperanza and Soweto were just that to me - names, most of them unknown to me previously.

        Because I can tolerate this dumbing down does not mean it's the right choice.

        Producers and Mr Sam, please note!

        Comment

        • eighthobstruction
          Full Member
          • Nov 2010
          • 6527

          #5
          ....what I glean from Serial (I have not listened recently - I gave up because it was such poor musak jazz in general)....is that what we have here is weak sauce....
          bong ching

          Comment

          • Quarky
            Full Member
            • Dec 2010
            • 2684

            #6
            Given the apparent constraint of fitting in seamlessly between Night Tracks and Through The Night, I think Soweto is doing very well. I did note Kevin Legendre kicked off the other night with a rousing big band number with some powerful drumming - out of order I felt, it certainly woke me up!

            Muzak unfortunately a disease prevalent throughout Radio 3, but there are many gems, for example Mahalia Jackson singing Come Sunday with Duke some nights back.

            Comment

            • Serial_Apologist
              Full Member
              • Dec 2010
              • 38184

              #7
              Originally posted by Quarky View Post
              fitting in seamlessly between (,,,)


              Ain't what jazz is supposed to be about, surely??

              Comment

              • Ian Thumwood
                Full Member
                • Dec 2010
                • 4361

                #8
                I am so busy at the moment I has missed nearly all of this programme. Not watched much TV either as there no longer seems the time to do anything either due to work or arranging rhe wedding. The play list mystifies me as I have not heard of about 75 % of the artists. I try to keep abreast of some contemporary jazz and just find that the play list for Round Midnight does not feature the kind of jazz I listen to.

                I think that JRR is a good barometer for what the audience for jazz really is. I do wonder if the new programme is for a much younger demographic.

                Comment

                • Ian Thumwood
                  Full Member
                  • Dec 2010
                  • 4361

                  #9
                  Wondered if anyone else had noticed that Jogn Kelman of All About Jazz. I felt that he was a genuine bloke in my correspondence with him. He was a big ECM fan....something we had some friendly debates over.

                  Comment

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