Hot Air

A few weeks late again, but I’ve just caught up with the new look BBC Jazz Record Requests. The former presenter, the laconic and languid Geoffrey Smith, has been shuffled to a midnight slot. I’d like to listen to his new programme because I know I’ll enjoy it even more than JRR… but midnight? The last time I was up at midnight was because of a weak bladder. So until I can figure a way to record the programme, I’ll give it a miss.

Alyn Shipton is the new presenter of JRR and presumably he’s been brought in to bring about changes. I’ve always enjoyed change but only when it brings an improvement. As far as I can hear, nothing much has changed with the music. So where are the improvements?

In my opinion, Alyn Shipton does a fair enough job. Mr Smith had a certain special flair and panache, though. He could read the script and make it sound as if he was ad-libbing. And what I really liked about him is that he didn’t just understand jazz - he understood the jazz lover as well. At exactly the right time (i.e. after each track) he would tell us who performed on it and when it was recorded, absolutely essential information for all aficionados.

Now if I want to know, for example, the name of the bassist on Eric Dolphy’s ‘GW’I must go on line and look at the BBC Radio 3 JJR website. I resent that because often I don’t have access to the internet when I’m listening to the radio. The entire experience is therefore marred. I’m not alone in this. Others suffer a similar sense of discographical deprivation.

Personally I believe capital punishment should be the penalty for anyone using the phrase "I have an idea for improvements." Ideas for improvement are the root cause of every ill in the world. And whereas the new look JRR hardly ranks alongside civil war or the abolition of the 11+, the sceptic will be forgiven for feeling that nothing good will come of this 'improvement' to my favourite programme on radio. So unfurl the banner - bring back discographies shall be my mantra.

Don't Get Around Much Anymore

After a silence of over a year, I feel the impulse to release the coiled spring within and catapult into verbal motion again. Perhaps this revitalised energy was prompted by a Twitter posting read to me by Mrs Dodman: I was going to look up the meaning of the word procrastination but I left it for another day. The iron cools too quickly; moss grows beneath my feet; my stone rolls once again. Here’s another stitch just in time.

The fact is I’ve recently become a card-bearing OAP, which means I now have a little over 15 years left to live. In a few days’ time a camera will be thrust into that intimate place where sunshine would originate were I able to do no wrong. The results could tell me whether or not I’ve miscalculated my mortal span on this azure globe. I hope whatever condition I have is kindly disposed towards my anatomy, for I’ve just discovered something exciting and new that I’d like to enjoy for many years. It’s called YouTube.

I know the website has been around for a long time but I’ve never really used it other than to watch a demonstration of how to assemble a bed in a Trigano Tribute campervan. Recently, however, I input search words such as “New Orleans Jazz Street” and – POW – what a rich seam of musical gold I’ve struck.

Here are four of my favourites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2rMXP_q2hs – an anonymous NOLA street band singing “Blue Spirit Blues.” I don’t like the word out of context, but ‘sexy’ is the only one I can think of to describe this girl’s incredibly rich voice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhH3FyRflWM&feature=related – The irrepressible Smoking Time Jazz Club of NOLA performing “When I Get Low I Get High.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ib_NkfuctA – a British representative: Stella Goodey singing “Hard Hearted Hannah” at the heartland of international jazz, Bracklesham Bay. She poached my words (see an earlier blog) so I hope she doesn’t mind my reciprocal link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbH3HJvh2N0&feature=related – Back to NOLA with Doreen’s superb clarinet playing on “Just a Closer Walk with Thee.”

What’s interesting is that all these latter-day jazz/blues stars are youngish (not a grey hair between them) yet they perform with an exuberance and empathy we’d expect of people discovering something entirely new – and the music has been around for a century or more.

I’m not qualified to say whether these stars are technically proficient in what they’re doing. In my view Jazz is more about enthusiasm, creativity and ardour than absolute command of the proponent’s chosen medium, instrument or voice. But I can say that these are eminently gifted musicians because they have the power to move and enthral. Or me at any rate and that’s good enough for me.

Bearing in mind the current debate about regulation of the internet, I hope our idiot politicians and pious do-gooders who are making capital out of trying to stifle the originality of the web will take a look at these four clips and realise just how damaging any form of censorship would be. The internet as a power for good far outweighs occasional risks.