What gig would you like to hear repeated on J-Z ?

[Ian Thumwood]

Thinking about the fact that the recent J-Z featured a concert recorded last year, I was wondering just how far back J-Z would be prepared to go to feature previous gigs from the BBC archive. There used to be regular jazz concerts broadcast in full in the 1980s and I have the CD of Gil Evans' last UK concert which stemmed from such a programme. I love this record as I was actually at this gig.

I would be fascinated just how far this archive goes back. Could this not be made in to a new programme or at least a regular feature on J-Z. I think most jazz fans would prefer to hear old concerts of some of the greats of jazz as opposed to, say, the woeful acoustic set by Dinosaur. ( A low point for me.)

[Serial_Apologist]

Well that's a tall order! But you're right Ian, and one suspects, or at least hopes, that the BBC has kept most if not all of its invaluable archives from broadcasts over the years, some of them among my favourite recordings.

So to kick thinkgs off I would nominate Kenny Wheeler's wonderful broadcast on Jazz on 3 from the Bath Festival from May 2002. In that line-up was the ever supreme satisfier John Taylor, the too often overlooked Chris Laurence on bass, Adam Nussbaum on drums and, for this particular gig only I think, the American violin virtuoso Mark Feldman. Kenny Wheeler's acute sense of the right people to work alongside overcame my initial misgivings about Nussbaum, whose in-tuneness with the music and the band, distinct from people we've been spoilt by such as Tony Oxley and Peter Erskine, becomes clearer and clearer as the session proceeds. Kenny's sombre "3000" - "written for the next Millennium" - comes over especially moving with the hindsight that Kenny had but a year and a half left to live.

[Ian Thumwood]

I would like to hear the Don Cherry "Nu" gig again but also recollect hearing a concert by "Oregon" that was played sometime in the 1990s. I went to hear them on that tour when they played Winchester Theatre Royal. It was a gig I was really looking forward to and went along with my Dad and my mate Dave who has the same kind of taste in jazz as me. In my family this concert became notorious because my Dad was shocked that Trilok Gurtu did not pkay a traditional drum kit and he was sat on the floor playing his tabla. Part of the fun of going to gigs with my Dad was that they seemed to provoke one of two reactions. In the case of John Scofield and the Charlie Mingus big band, he was forced at admit that the music was really, really good. With others, they provoked a negative response. I think Willem Breuker was a negative one but Oregon was deemed the worst and always got singled out for the drummer who sat on the floor which was perceived as some kind of tacit reflection of not being real music! I thought Oregon were terrific !

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Charles Fox from 1960-something, presenting the Joe Harriot Quintet live in the studio, a half hour program that made a very big impression - and a long lost tape recording. More "recently", Jackie McLean at the 1997 Cheltenham Festival with Cedar Walton etc. Although I do have this on tape. .. somewhere.

[Tenor Freak]

Another one with Adam Nussbaum, this time Mike Brecker at Bracknell '87. Can't remember all the band but it included Joey Calderazzo (brother of Gene) on keys. (Mike Stern on guitar?)

[Serial_Apologist]

Another one with Adam Nussbaum, this time Mike Brecker at Bracknell '87. Can't remember all the band but it included Joey Calderazzo (brother of Gene) on keys. (Mike Stern on guitar?)

Correct. And Jeff Andrews on bass guitar. Brecker was particularly effective on the Ewi, dare I say? Was lucky enough to have been at that session in the main tent, and to have a cassette of the subsequent broadcast. Happy, happy days - chilled lager in the house, warm real ale in the beer tent, "You were here before me"; and where one could trip over Charles Fox sweltering in a grey three-piece suit and make that a pretext for a chat - always friendly, that man. That's me cheering the loudest at the end.

[CGR]

Thinking about the fact that the recent J-Z featured a concert recorded last year, I was wondering just how far back J-Z would be prepared to go to feature previous gigs from the BBC archive. There used to be regular jazz concerts broadcast in full in the 1980s and I have the CD of Gil Evans' last UK concert which stemmed from such a programme. I love this record as I was actually at this gig.

I would be fascinated just how far this archive goes back. Could this not be made in to a new programme or at least a regular feature on J-Z. I think most jazz fans would prefer to hear old concerts of some of the greats of jazz as opposed to, say, the woeful acoustic set by Dinosaur. ( A low point for me.)

Great idea. But I doubt if anyone at the BBC really cares about jazz.

[Serial_Apologist]

Great idea. But I doubt if anyone at the BBC really cares about jazz.

Alyn's "at the BBC", isn't he??

[Tenor Freak]

S-A

I was there too, my one and only visit to Bracknell before it folded. A real shame, it was a fine day. The day I saw John Carter and Bobby Bradford in the improv room.