And here is "Man with a Polish Wife"'s imagining...
Slowly, slowly the truth dawned. Well, that is, if you define slowly as a couple of minutes. It only seemed slow because time froze – flashbulb memory and all that. Nobody would ever forget the enormity of what was happening around them – Europe Day, May 9th, 2017 – the 67th anniversary of the Schumann declaration.
At precisely noon, bells rang out, chimes, hooters and klaxons, a cacophony of sound from all directions. Strategically placed devices covered the country – no-one was not in earshot. TV stations, computer screens and mobile phones all came to life. Phone conversations were ended, programs interrupted – the ring of stars displayed – then a smiling face….
"Dear subjects", pronounced President Blair, "today is a great day for all Europeans, our regional policy is complete, and the Dunkirk Treaty which we have just agreed is to be implemented with immediate effect. Henceforth England and English have ceased to exist, and I have the great privilege of saying these words for the last time, as of NOW it will be a criminal offence to use these words again – they have no meaning.
And, once this broadcast is over, peoples of Trans Manche, you will only communicate in French, peoples of North Sea you will only communicate in Danish, and peoples of Atlantic you will only communicate in Portuguese, not forgetting of course, our friends in Northern Periphery where you will now only communicate in Swedish.
What a day for Europe, our integration is complete, and I would like to pay great thanks to my fellow leaders, Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher, John Major and, you know, not forgetting the illustrious Gordon Brown, all of whom demonstrated great leadership in enabling previous Treaties, and now Theresa May, standing here with me today in her last act as your now ex-Prime Minister. I look forward to working with her in her new position as Secretary General of the United Nations – never was a person more suited to this role.
Congratulations to them, and congratulations to you my subjects for your co-operation and participation as you adjust to your new way of life. Detailed instructions have been downloaded to all your devices, and following this broadcast programs will run continuously to help you adjust. Common Law no longer exists, Code Napoleon now rules – you are free to do whatever you have been permitted to do.
By my grace you are all now permitted one drink this afternoon, to celebrate and toast your new leaders, and, you know, this wasn’t easy for me - persuading my Council of Ministers to agree to it, so come on, make the most of it.
Then, all males between the ages of 16 and 36 must report to your interreg capital by noon tomorrow for conscription – no exceptions. Please proceed to your nearest high speed rail hub for processing.
Félicitations! Tillykke! Parabéns! Grattis!"
The ring of stars suddenly replaces Blair's visage, an image of a bottle of champagne with cork popping at its centre.
"What are we going to do", John Bull mutters to himself, as he breaks out of his trance, and immediately starts to head home to be with his wife, his desk abandoned, his midday cup of tea going slowly cold - never to be drunk...
From “The War In The North” by Prof. Noah Williams, Monash
University Publishing (2nd edn, 2042)
"…The background to the conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean
was as complex as in the years leading up to WWI, and as full of dangerously
tempting opportunities for lower order players. Over a long time, Turkey’s
President Yildiz pitted greater Powers against each other with all the
wiliness of, and considerably greater resources than, Malta’s Dom Mintoff in the
1950s. For Turkey stood over the crossroads of history.
Following the destruction of the Highland Regiments at
Dnipro[i] (the
first moment when the use of battlefield nuclear weapons was seriously contemplated),
Europa resiled from its policy of progressive eastward enlargement and the
Ukraine was finally allowed to split into West Ukraine and Donbass, largely
along the linguistic and racial outlines that had long existed.
It seemed as though an uneasy but mutually beneficial balance
had been achieved. The abandonment of imperial ambitions in Ukraine allowed
Europa to redirect its attention southwards to the African littoral, and Moscow’s
now-heavy protection around the Soyuz and Blue Stream pipelines in Donbass was
not only a safeguard for Russian economic interests but also insurance for
Europan consumers against terrorist disruption to their energy consumption.
However, the Odessa Treaty also tightened the Russian hold
on the Crimea and the eastern end of the Black Sea. To the infrastructure built
up at Sochi under the cover of preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympics had
been added similar developments further up the coast at Novorossiisk and Anapa,
while under another pretext (guarding the projected South Stream Pipeline, a
project that was never definitively cancelled but remained on the back burner) the
port at Sevastopol had also enjoyed considerable improvement. The surreptitious
nuclear hardening of certain underground buildings at all four sites had been
carefully noted by the West, but without public comment.
The situation became unstable when Russia started to strengthen
its links with Greece. As in Blair’s Britain, the Greek economy had been hollowed-out
after joining the Eurozone. Irrecoverably in debt and suffering massive
unemployment and the withering of essential public services, Greeks remembered
that they had nearly installed a communist government a century before, and
warmed to the approaches from the now-nationalist but also socially-sensitive Moscow
regime. There had been talks about a spur from South Stream through Greece,
headed off by Europa and a nervous US State Department, but the alternative Trans-Adriatic
Pipeline (TAP), though it ran to Thessaloniki via Turkey, was bringing gas
from Azerbaijan, which was part of the nascent Eurasian Economic Union sponsored by the
Russians. The cafes and hotels of
Thessaloniki prospered as foreign agents developed their contacts and spied on
each other.
Less obvious, yet for that reason possibly more effective, was
the de facto intelligence hub of Alexandropouli, 300 km to the east and correspondingly
closer to the Turkish border and the Sea of Marmara, in turn the gateway to the
Bosphorus and Black Sea. Then there was the listening station built at Mount
Athos under the feet of the Russian monks of Panteleimenos, which President
Putin visited in 2006 and again a decade later. It was rumoured in intelligence
circles that some advanced short-range weapons had also been assembled and stored
there. A CIA joke was that one could see Spetsnaz boots under the Orthodox
robes.
Amid these clandestine manoeuvrings President Yildiz saw a
chance for his aggrandisement. The
rapprochement between the Greeks and the Russians had enhanced the importance
of Turkey in bottling up the Muscovite genie. Russia had limited Turkey’s military
ambitions in Syria in the mid-2010s but was less interested in the migrant flow
through Turkish territory. These unfortunates, some fleeing conflict zones and
others the poverty of Pakistan, Afghanistan etc could be weaponised. The 1951 UNHCR
Refugee Convention required signatories to offer shelter to refugees in the
first safe land to which they came. Europa was now one country, and under
pressure from the US State Department had conferred associate status on Turkey.
Yildiz realized what this meant: since the Convention did not specify where
within that land they had to be accommodated, refugees could be forwarded en
masse to anywhere in Europa.
Berlin was reluctant to accept a further influx into the
sub-territories of Germany, France, Bulgaria etc because of the political consequences,
not least the rise of right-wing and secessionist parties. However, the
impoverishment of Britain that had already resulted in the sale of the Channel
Islands to secret consortia of billionaires meant that Westminster was prepared
to accept responsibility for “Yildiz’ sheep” if money were provided for the building
of facilities and crucially, the creation of employment for the local
population.
The money would come from Europa and would not benefit
Istanbul - but that was not what Yildiz wanted. He wished to eliminate the expatriate
Opposition who had been given sanctuary in Britain. Threatening an unlimited
number of trainloads westward via the Bosphorus Express and Channel Tunnel, he secured an
agreement to issue Europan Arrest Warrants for the return of the dissident
Turks in sealed trains. The British police forces were unhappy and made
representations to the National Government, but were overridden by a Presidential
decree from Holzhauer.
Had it ended there, in Western shame and the blood of hundreds
of innocents, the Continent would not be the wasteland it is today. But unsuspected
by almost everybody, Yildiz turned out not to be merely a secularist: the Mahdi
planned to go to Damascus…"
[i]
This led to another attempt, this time near-successful, at secession from
Europa by the Scottish National Party-led Government in Holyrood. Berlin’s
response was the forcible replacement of the Sturgeon administration by
Mackintosh’s Coalition. Lacking any support from the Nationalists, the Coalition quickly
proved unable to maintain its authority locally and capitulated to the
reintroduction of regional rule from Westminster.
The proposed new-style pound coin is publicised on the day of UK Chancellor George Osborne's Budget speech to Parliament.
The 12-sided design resembles the pre-decimal brass threepenny piece first issued in the reign of Edward VIII. The resemblance is more than physical, as we shall see.
Before 1937, threepence coins had always been based on silver, but the silver content reduced over the years and the coin eventually became inconveniently small. Why? Inflation, the curse of the twentieth century.
This year marks the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War of 1914-18. The Daily Mail's purchasing power calculator [Sackerson: try BoE now!] shows that one pound in 1915 was equivalent to £87 today. Coincidentally, under the old coinage system, there were 240 pence to the pound, or 80 "thrupenny bits". So a modern pound coin is worth much the same as a WWI threepenny bit.
The Chancellor introduced his Budget with the words, "Our country still borrows too much. We still don’t invest enough, export enough or save enough. So today we do more to put that right. This is a Budget for building a resilient economy. If you’re a maker, a doer or a saver: this Budget is for you. "
Actually, it's still not one for savers. I'm on Day 647 of my attempts to get my MP to ask questions in Parliament about NS&I Index-Linked Savings Certificates. All I've had so far is substandard, ill-informed guff in written answers from three different Treasury ministers (see right-hand sidebar on the Money blog).
In Cockney rhyming slang, the "threepenny bits" stands for "the shits". Funny how all these things link up.
______________________________________________
Charles Rennie Mackintosh is an icon of design - his style is unmistakable and his name synonymous with art nouveau.
Born in Glasgow in 1868, Mackintosh had a prolific output of work throughout his life across many spheres, from designing some of the most influential architecture of the 20th century to creating a whole new language of interior décor in everything from stained glass to textiles, from art schools to high backed chairs; but Mackintosh is little known as the gifted painter that he was.
Painted between 1922 and 1923, 'Cyclamens' breaks with Mackintosh's iconic stylised designs, being a vivid yet realist piece that looks more like oil than its true medium of airy watercolour. The giveaway of this painting's origin is the artist's delight in pattern and surface design, the rich swathes of crimson backdrop here resembling a Mackintosh textile swatch. The piece is a melting pot of organic abstraction, even the cyclamen leaves contorting with pattern until reality is reasserted by the stark white blooms. The deep background makes the pure petals shine like silver on a dark Scottish winter night, yet the picture was painted in southern light, Mackintosh having fled from Glasgow to London.
It seems there may be a deeper, symbolic meaning to what appears to be simply a decorative still life... Mackintosh was part of a group of likeminded artists and designers in Glasgow known as 'the Four', the others being the designer Herbert McNair and the artist sisters Margaret and Frances Macdonald.
'Sleeping Princess' by Frances Macdonald 1909 - image: Wikipedia
The group were bound together not only by work but also in their personal relationships, Margaret becoming Mackintosh's wife and Frances marrying Herbert McNair. Also named the 'Spook School' for their eerily elongated style, their use of Celtic imagery bled into their paintings and decorative style, drawing from the natural world like botanists.
Within the wider association known as the Glasgow School, they were also part of a slightly larger circle called “The Immortals”:
Left:
Charles Rennie Mackintosh surrounded by Frances Macdonald, Agnes Rayburn,
Janet
Aitken, Katherine Cameron, Jessie Keppie and Margaret Macdonald.
Right: Herbert
McNair and Mackintosh in front of the 'Immortals' c.1893
(c) Glasgow School of
Art archives
The swooning virginal petals of Mackintosh's cyclamens remind one of 'the Immortals' as they appear in early photographs, languorously nymph-like in Edwardian white dresses set against open Scottish fields. The petals of the two upper cyclamens touch as though in reluctant parting, like the hands of Janet Aitken and Katherine Cameron.
The year before 'Cyclamens' was painted Frances Macdonald, Margaret's sister had died. Her husband Herbert McNair was distraught, vowing never to paint again and burning most of his wife's work. Looking at the piece in this context, one wonders if Mackintosh might have been alluding to the loss of Frances from the Immortals - cyclamens are one of the few plants to flower during the cruelest months of winter, defying cold death with their white buds, and signalling new life. The Four's delight in Celtic imagery and symbolism allows room for such an interpretation, especially bearing in mind Victorian flower language, where cyclamen means resignation and 'goodbye’.
Detail of 'Cyclamens', 1922-23 overlaying 'the
Immortals' (Glasgow School of Art archives) c. 1893
However, another farewell may be intended. 'Cyclamens' was painted two or three years after Mackintosh’s final unrealised designs for studios in Chelsea, his last completed commission having been six years earlier with the dark, jazz-age remodelling of 78 Derngate, Northampton. Perhaps it is not so much an allegory of the lost immortals, of Frances' death and McNair's dissolution, but instead the end of Mackintosh's prolific career and artistic vision. The parting touch may be a symbol of Mackintosh's defeat, closing the door with sadness on his past magnificent success before moving to the South of France, living there in poverty for the last of his days and never realising another large-scale project.
We can only guess at the enigma of Mackintosh's true meaning in this piece, knowing only that it's decorative allure is not as elusive as its symbolism. 'Cyclamens' brings Mackintosh's career to its crescendo as both artist and designer, with a creative output that could never die, like the dancing cyclamen blooms and the beaming eyes of 'the Immortals'.
Left to right; Textile designs, stylised daisies,
purple on black, c1922; 78 Derngate, Northampton, 'Faded Roses' watercolour
1905 (c) The 78DerngateNorthamptonTrust - see http://78derngate.org.uk/for more
_______________________________________________________________________________ Sackerson adds - David Walsh, Assistant Manager at The Charles Rennie Mackintosh House, says: "This is our Centenary Year and we have a special exhibition "Charles Rennie Mackintosh & The Great War" - ( 78derngate.org.uk/whatson , ) - the largest display of Mackintosh design in England, until 29th April. If you or readers are able to visit, a warm welcome awaits."
The first of what would be considered modern jazz recordings featuring a lead trumpet would be during the period ‘49 to ‘51 and featured Kenny Dorham, Fats Navarro, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis. The Davis album Morpheus, Whispering Down was his first of many for the Prestige label and only his second as leader, the beginning of a long influential career.
The Trumpet or Cornet was always the front line instrument in early jazz and ditto here in the early days of modern jazz, not so much nowadays with the saxophone more prominent in most groups.
For a start we have the wonderful soft lyrical style of Fats Navarro, this is a ‘47 version of a tune he was always associated with:
Fats was a pioneer of the be bop style and after a touring start to his career where he learned the ropes he settled in NY. His career was short as was his life despite success with many big bands, becoming a life long friend with Mingus and playing with Charlie Parker amongst others. Given poor health, TB, a weight problem and the inevitable drug addiction of that period of time he died in 1950 at the age of 27.
Much longer lived and a flag waver for jazz of all kinds world wide was one of the other founders of be bop Dizzy Gillespie, his puff cheeks and 45 degree trumpet horn became a trade mark that was instantly recognised everywhere plus a personality that meant he was in much demand.
His style was not an easy one to emulate and few did but his influence was enormous both on the trumpet and be bop. Davis, Navarro, Lee Morgan, Clifford Brown right up to the modern day were all influenced by Dizzy who himself took much from Roy Eldridge and then over layered it with his own harmonic complexity. Born in 1917 he went on to have a sixty year playing career, he saw it all and played with all during his life; a true jazz great.
This recording of A Night in Tunisia is as good a showcase of his skills as any available on download sites. The tune, a Gillespie composition, was written by him whilst with the Earl Hines band in ‘42. Around that time he had this to say about the evolution of modern jazz….
Gillespie said of the Hines band, "People talk about the Hines band being 'the incubator of bop' and the leading exponents of that music ended up in the Hines band. But people also have the erroneous impression that the music was new. It was not. The music evolved from what went before. It was the same basic music. The difference was in how you got from here to here to here ... naturally each age has got its own shit".
Miles Davis along with Gillespie could occupy several pages on their own and I may come back to a better tribute to them later if demand requires. Davis epitomises “cool jazz” from his earliest work; that easily recognisable style was instantly recognised whether live or on record over a five decade period. He embarked on several changes of direction during those years including flirting with rock and funk fusion, African rhythms and electronic technology. Much of his later work had a rather dubious connection to jazz and many stalwarts of the genre deserted him, yet his fusion album Bitches Brew was a huge commercial success as was much of his rock tinged music and certainly brought him more universal appeal and income.
You can make your own mind up about those later years, but regardless he remains one of the pillars of be bop and a great innovator as well as a superb trumpeter.
His early years are somewhat fragmented so as this is not a Miles bio I will skip through his early fifties period when he played Europe and France in particular as many black musicians did, being relieved of the racism back home they often stayed, and his association with the actress Juliette Greco whom after he split from her he blamed for his subsequent depression and four years of heroin addiction .
Back in the states ‘56 saw the release of the album “Birth of the Cool” and cool jazz was launched, a style he would successfully be associated with for some years.
At the same time in those early to mid fifties several albums of importance were released on Prestige and later Blue Note that firmly put him in the vanguard of hard bop. Using slower tempos and a less radical approach it was his first step away from cool jazz as well as be bop.
Here is an early Miles playing a masterful version of So What. From the opening chorus it could only be one musician. This was tremendous trumpet playing and what all jazz lovers wanted to hear from Miles.
And this from ‘64 On Green Dolphin Street with John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Jimmy Cobb on drums and Bill Evans on piano, not a bad line up !
I will return to Miles at a later date.
Clifford Brown “Brownie” was another with a short life in music and on planet Earth: he died in ‘56 at the age of 25 after a car accident yet still left a legacy of four years of recording and a lot of influence to many who followed including Donald Byrd, Booker Little, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard and more lately Arturo Sandoval. His composition Daahoud became a jazz standard.
Daahoud is here performed in ‘54 by “Brownie” and the Max Roach quintet.
Lee Morgan achieved fame through his album “Sidewinder” a sort of cross over album, a theme he toyed with and indulged in for some time but he went back to Art Blakey where he is fondly remembered as one of the stars of the Jazz Messengers at that time. He is another who left this mortal coil far too young at the age of 33, not drugs this time, though he was an addict, he died of his injuries when his long term girlfriend shot him at Slugs Saloon where he was playing and he bled to death as the ambulance could not get there in time owing to adverse weather conditions!
Sidewinder:
Freddie Hubbard is another from that era that found fame and recognition after joining Blakey's Messengers in ‘61 replacing Lee Morgan. He left Blakey in ‘66 and started to form his own groups and developed his own sound, distancing himself from Morgan and Clifford Brown, and he was a sideman on several very important albums during the sixties.
His early seventies albums, Red Clay brought him commercial success and acclaim but his later seventies albums were slated for their commercialism. This is a 1970 recording from the album Straight Life, Mr Clean with a stellar line up shown in the credits.
Whatever one does when putting something like this together it is as said before inevitable that many just as worthy are left out, many will be featured in further episodes with groups bands etc so will not be totally forgotten, but the likes of Chet Baker, Art Farmer, Donald Byrd, Don Cherry etc etc should be here but space does not permit.
However one or two others I will include to bring the section more up to date. Tom Harrell is one of my personal favourites: born in ‘46 makes him positively adolescent in the general scheme of those on here yet has been around some time, he started playing trumpet at eight and joined Kenton after studying at Stanford University and receiving a degree in music composition. He toured with Kenton that year, ‘69 and joined Woody Herman for the following year and then Horace Silvers quintet from 73 – 77 during which time he made five albums with them. He joined or played with various bands until he joined Phil Woods in ‘83 through to ‘87. He made seven albums with Woods and many others with various groups and a few as leader in his own right but it was after leaving Woods that his own groups came to the fore.
His latter years have shown his skill as an arranger composer more and more and many ventures outside the strictly jazz only world have involved chamber music and ensembles with classical tones, and as an arranger Harrell works in many different genres including classical. Naturally I prefer the earlier jazz work and this more current number, Miles Davis's Milestones in 2011:
Many who know of modern jazz will wonder why I have not finished with Wynton Marsalis or Arturo Sandoval.
The latter is not in my HO truly a jazz trumpeter despite his incredible technique; I have been, and I may be wrong, but I never heard anything I could truly say fits in with my view of what jazz is. Probably my loss but there you go.
As for Marsalis, he is another who has run the full gamut of genres but much of his work does not again fit in with what you could really ascribe to being jazz. He certainly did in his earlier days but very little of that is available on video. However he can’t be really left out as he is one of today's leading lights in music - education, arranging and everything else, so I did find a video that in all honesty is only a bit part for Wynton but gives a wonderful excuse for showing the Jazz Messengers and Art Blakey at Antibes in 1980 with Wynton on trumpet in another reincarnation of the Messengers line up:
I show a personal bias with Marsalis, a wonderful technician who can play in almost any genre, and does, plus his teaching and arranging skills. He has it all, yet for me rarely holds my interest, why I cannot explain, it is just the way it is. Anyway, not to be hasty and upset his legions I include a final item by him, the piece and personnel are in the credits:
"France’s premier seen-them-here-first festival, Transmusical de Rennes sweeps through the genre spectrum from rock, pop and folk to RnB, hip-hop and electronic music, picking up cartloads of gems year after year."
This first painting is a copy of Goya's "El Quitasol" which I did more than thirty years ago. I used Winsor & Newton oil paints and, as you can see, the colours are clear and vibrant. It is about A4 size on canvas-textured paper suitable for oil painting. It has been stuck to the wall with blu-tack for the last twenty years!
Obviously I am nowhere near as good as Goya but I am pleased with my effort and it is surprising how much you can learn just by copying one of the masters.
As stated previously, real life tends to get in the way and I was drawing and painting intermittently and then, with a bit more spare time, I was able to paint on a regular basis with some expert tutelage to help me along the way.
This time I was using watercolour paints and eventually settled on Van Gogh watercolours in tubes because, once again, it gave me the vibrant colours. (W/colour in tubes can also be applied more thickly, which I like to do now and then)
Here's a sample. It is 8" x 6" - most watercolour paintings are small scale, I think the largest pads I have are 15" x 11". If you want to know how I did the highlights on these oranges, it was done with a few dabs of gouache which is basically opaque watercolour paint.
Eventually I started to use acrylic paints as well as continuing with the watercolours. Acrylic is like oil paint but with the pigment bound in plastic (polymer) instead of oil. The advantage is that it is quick drying and the brushes can easily be cleaned in water without too much effort. Quick drying is a disadvantage also in that any paint left on the palette dries and, unlike oils, cannot be revived.
But the colours of acrylic paint are very bright and their introduction commercially in the 1950s brought a lot of new colours including iridescent and pearl and interference colours made by adding powdered mica to create unusual shimmering or reflective visual effects. (In earlier times gold leaf would be used in painting religious icons which, in flickering candlelight, would have produced similar effects.)
I have used mainly Liquitex or Winsor & Newton acrylic paints and here is a sample. It is on 8" x 8" canvas and thanks to Cherie for providing the photograph.
Eventually I came back recently to using oil paint once again. But there was something wrong this time. The colours didn't seem to be as bright as they used to be and mixing colour from the tubes they very quickly lost their sheen, becoming 'muddy' and unsatisfactory. Didn't know why until I was told that manufacturers were saving costs by reducing the amount of pigment and replacing it with some sort of filler, usually magnesium silicate. So I looked at other paints on the market and got hold of some Old Holland oils and these proved to be excellent, saturated colours I think is the right description. These little mini masterpieces are all on 2" x 2" canvases using Old Holland paint.
But Old Holland paints are not available locally and I have given up trying to buy things from the internet. It takes far too long to plough through page after page and getting a sore finger going clickety click. In reality, it is much quicker to use a catalogue and fill in the order form and post it off but the world is mesmerised by the novelty of technology and brains are now redundant. I knew that Michael Harding oil paints were available locally because I had seen them in the shop and, from what I have read and heard, they are reputed to be the best oils on the market endorsed by the likes of David Hockney and Howard Hodgkin.
On YouTube I found some demonstrations of the MH oils; this is the colour amethyst.
Very impressive so I have bought a few tubes of MH paints and have been trying them. They are indeed very good and vibrant colours. I will have to get used to their different characteristics but so far I like them and the first result is here which is also an 8" x 8" canvas -
Just a note on the colours: The background was originally indian yellow and the trees were done in pthalo blue. After a couple of days I decided it wasn't quite right, the yellow was too strong so I covered it with cadmium yellow mixed with titanium white and a wee bit of the indian yellow to give it some warmth. Then I muted the blue of the trees by going over it loosely with pthalo blue mixed with unbleached titanium. Much improved.
Not bad for a first attempt and it is currently being framed after which it will soon be hanging somewhere on my crowded walls.
I'm still learning, this is a never ending process. When I am 100, if I get that far, I might eventually know what I am doing!
Now you are probably wondering why I am so keen on bright, vibrant colours. That's easy, they remind me of heaven! That is not as daft as it sounds because throughout history most if not all religious and spiritual traditions make great use of colour in festivals and often in daily life for exactly the same reason, to remind them of heaven.
In Revelations 21 in the Bible, John describes the new Jerusalem* thus: "And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.... And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass."
The whole city is made entirely of precious stones, all glittering in 'the light'.
It is only the puritans of all creeds who want a monochrome world devoid of colour, of decoration, of ornament; all colour and life and joy removed.
*Sackerson notes: also described in the heartbreaking mediaeval poem "Pearl" - see translation here from l. 985 onwards: http://www.billstanton.co.uk/pearl/pearl_new.htm
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Now that Len Deighton's "SS-GB" alternative history thriller has been screened, I'd like to challenge readers to write an outline for a different alternative history.
Imagine that PM Tony Blair had succeeded in getting the UK to ditch the pound in favour of the Euro; and some years later, the Council of Ministers finally completed its metamorphosis into the Cabinet of a new country called Europe, with a single President as its head, able to issue directives like the US President.
What (plausibly) could you see happening?
You could write it as an extract from a thriller, or as an entry from some future history book or encyclopaedia.
Shall we say, length 400 - 1200 words and a deadline of 29 March 2017 (when Article 50 is set to be triggered)?
Entries submitted as comments to this post, then reposted on 29.03.17 , as a celebration - other than that, copyright remains the writer's. Or put it on your own blog/site and let me know so I can post a link to it.
A rummage through the archives for British musicians since the forties in modern jazz produces a mixed bag of results. On the home front the list is fairly well spread since that date and encompasses instrumentalists and vocalists.
The difficulty comes when reviewing those who made it on the world stage or at least became recognised in the USA , recognition there being the open sesame to world fame if not riches.
Those that made it across the pond are a relatively small band which is not surprising as breaking into a music scene as a jazz musician in the states is never going to be easy when they have so much home grown talent in what has now become a niche market.
George Shearing, Sir George after being knighted at the age of 87 in 2007, was a Battersea-born Londoner. Born blind to working class parents he was the youngest of nine, and he started to play the piano at the age of three. A pub in Lambeth was his first gig and after a relatively short spell he emigrated to the USA in ‘47. Influenced by Fats Waller and Teddy Wilson, his style was almost immediately successful and he formed his own group with Buddy de Franco and then formed the George Shearing quintet.
Two hugely successful singles of his own compositions, Lullaby of Birdland and September in the Rain guaranteed a career as performer and composer for the decades to come. He also had more than a passing interest in classical music and performed with several orchestras, along with TV appearances and playing with a long list of of musicians including Mel Torme with whom he won two Grammys, and later toured with Torme in the UK, a true international star and a rarity in the jazz world.
Some of his appearances were somewhat formulaic simply because his status would demand it but he was a true jazz musician at heart with a huge appeal.
Tubby Hayes also cracked it in the states, the most accomplished all round musician we have probably produced in modern jazz, a true multi instrumentalist. He was one of those whom you put an instrument in front of and he just played it, from vibes to flute but best remembered as a tenor sax player to most.
I had the pleasure of seeing Tubby live at the old Ronnie Scotts and at the Manor House pub by the tube station of the same name in north London where jazz artists appeared on many Sunday nights.
He started out with Kenny Baker in ‘51 and soon joined various British big bands of the period including Ambrose, Vic Lewis, Roy Fox , Parnell and then formed his own octet in ‘55. In ‘57 to ‘59 he played as joint leader with Ronnie Scott in the Jazz Couriers, a fondly remembered period; an invitation to play at the Half Note club in NY in ‘61 cemented his credentials over there and he played with many across the pond luminaries and returned again to the states in ‘62, ‘64 and ‘65 when he played at Shelly Manne's Mann-Hole in Los Angeles.
Back in the UK he formed his own big band and appeared on TV in his own series and also appeared in several films as well as being a much sought after session musician.
The sixties heralded a music revolution. Jazz suffered as a consequence and Tubby felt the impact along with many others so he toured abroad as London venues had changed their musical tastes. At this time he was in a rather painful story of drugs, difficult and personal relationships (he was married twice) and there are some anecdotes. A partner of his helped him access drugs. All created a very muddled and confused last few years, his health rapidly declined and he had breathing problems that stopped all playing at one time. He then had a heart operation that was successful but a second in ‘73 wasn’t and he died in Hammersmith hospital at the age of 38.
Looking back it seems scarcely possible that so much had been put into those brief years. Much of his catalogue went missing and items became rare and collectible. I am fortunate to have a couple in my collection.
Here he is with Jimmy Deuchar on trumpet and introduced by Humph in ‘65:
"Humph": Humphrey Lyttleton was a self taught trumpeter and almost everything else throughout his long career as musician, composer, arranger, band leader, TV show host, radio ditto and raconteur extraordinaire and columnist plus; he even designed his own house in Hertfordshire. His privileged background reads like a chapter from Tom Brown's Schooldays and is worth a trip to Wiki for that alone.
He started out in music with a trumpet influenced by Louis Armstrong and his early years were in the blues tradition of traditional jazz, but he moved to mainstream in the sixties and by the end of his playing career could be said to have moved into a gentle form of modern jazz )my interpretation !) so he merits being here.
Above all Humph had style, be it with words or music, and is missed in all the professions he touched.
His personnel changed much over the years and he toured to sell out crowds everywhere. He also introduced Canadian singer Stacey Kent to the UK, Elkie Brooks sang with the band on several occasions and he even toured with Helen Shapiro in the nineties.
A small aside was that he hated telephones, a trait he shared with my late father who would disconnect the wires if he thought anyone was going to call him.
Here he is with Elkie:
Vic Feldman certainly cracked the American jazz scene, this was seen as important at the time as all American jazz artists had an inherently superior status attached to them.
Feldman was a musical prodigy, a young talent who became a world known pianist and percussionist and whose vibe playing became a trade mark despite the fact most people thought he was a better pianist.
Feldman came from a musical family and he played in a trio that had his brothers as the other partners for awhile. He went to work in the USA in ‘55 and on return while at his club Ronnie Scott suggested he emigrate to the USA; he did in ‘57.
He worked with Woody Herman at first and then Buddy de Franco, and then formed his own group on the West Coast that included the talented bassist Scott la Faro who was tragically killed in an auto accident aged 25. He played with various bands and groups including Miles Davis who asked him to join his group full time but Feldman said no, preferring the occupational safety of studio work as opposed to touring.
Settling in LA he specialised in film TV and session work and worked outside the jazz environment with the likes of Frank Zappa and Steely Dan.
Here with Scott la Faro and playing both piano and vibes.
During and after the forties big bands still held sway at the top of the music scene here and in the states, we had several big bands during this period but one stood out head and shoulders above the rest: Ted Heath. A tenor saxophonist himself at an early age he switched to trombone.
He actually started his musical career with his brother and three other musicians busking outside London Bridge station and on local streets. Heath was spotted and asked to join Jack Hylton's band; his lack of experience meant the gig was short lived.
He then played with various bands and rejoined Hylton in the late twenties and then a residence at the Kit Kat club followed, where he was influenced by touring American bands like Dorsey.
In ‘28 he joined Ambrose where he learnt to be a bandleader and his trombone playing developed the style he became famous for. Geraldo's orchestra followed during the war years and during this time a Heath composition “That Lovely Weekend “ was produced and the royalties he received from its success allowed to him to form his own band. It followed the American line-up style and was influenced by Glenn Miller; success followed touring with Lena Horne and backing Ella Fitzgerald. He became a huge hit and had long runs at the London Palladium.
1956 saw Heath make the trip to the states for a tour that was not only a sensation but cemented his standing in the jazz pantheon of great bands.
The 50s were the peak of his fame with a huge recording output and European tours. He carried on through the sixties and was still having chart successes in the states. In ‘64 he collapsed on stage in Cardiff with a cerebral thrombosis and though he recovered it was to all intents the end of his career. He died in ‘69 aged 67.
Here they are playing their version of Lionel Hampton's signature tune “Flying Home”:
John Dankworth did the reverse, playing at an early stage in his career in the States, playing the Newport jazz festival in ‘59, the band performed at the Birdland club in NYC and he shared the stage with Duke Ellington with whom he had a life long association. At this time Cleo Laine became the band's singer and he married her in ‘58. His biography is long and deserves a separate read so a link is the best way to access his history and the legacy he left: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dankworth
He was also a composer wrote many theme tunes for TV and films including the “Avengers”. This is a video at the end of his career and sadly his life, back playing in the States with Cleo:
There are/were many others who had an influence on the British jazz scene but few who made an international career or impression. There is a flaw in my selection: Humph was never an international success, though he did record in the states with Sydney Bechet in ‘49, but his all round presence in playing, talking about and presenting jazz was a huge part of the music's promotion and for that alone he deserves his place.
Tonight's music offering is a celebration of all things Irish!
Some Guinness was spilled on the bar-room floor when the pub was shut for the night. Out of his hole crept a wee brown mouse and stood in the pale moonlight. He lapped up the frothy brew from the floor, then back on his haunches he sat. And all night long you could hear him roar, 'Bring on the goddam cat!'
This is a song written by Dominic Behan who also wrote the more famous McAlpine's Fusiliers. Both songs were inspired by the many thousands of Irishmen who came to the UK in the post war years to help with "Building up and tearing England down"
A long time ago I spent a couple of years working for Wimpey and they did indeed have a lot of Irish working for them and they would all tell me that Wimpey was an acronym for We Import More Paddies Every Year!
"A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, on the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."
- James Joyce, 'The Dead'
So far we have had a taste of drinking and singing and dancing and death; another great passion among the Irish is horse racing and at this time of year there is the annual (temporary) emigration to England for the Cheltenham Festival, a week of racing at its best. Irish trainers and jockeys will, once again, win most of the races!
Their number one jockey at the moment is Ruby Walsh [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Walsh ] and he is such a legend that Christy Moore has written a song about him -
And here is Ruby Walsh's father, Ted Walsh a famous jockey in his day and now a very successful trainer, telling a very funny story about how he met Prince Charles when they both fell at the same fence in a race many years ago-
The Irish... Be they kings, or poets, or farmers, They're a people of great worth, They keep company with the angels, And bring a bit of heaven here to earth
To get away from the obvious superstars of jazz I thought a change of pace was called for, a window of opportunity to show something outside the mainstream, and a chance for different instruments to shine.
Our own Victor Feldman was a vibes player though I preferred him as a pianist, a more than accomplished musician who made the grade in the states and lived there he even was a sideman for Miles Davis, and our other star of the same period multi instrumentalist Tubby Hayes played vibes along with almost anything you threw at him, I will spotlight Hayes on another occasion as being almost certainly our greatest jazz performer, he deserves a bit more than a single showing.
In many ways Lionel Hampton was the leading vibes player in most people's eyes. After forming his own orchestra in 1940 his signature tune “Flying Home” was THE vibraphone classic. As well as the vibraphone Hampton was a pianist drummer and actor and bandleader. They don’t make 'em like that any more.
Anyway the vibes player here is Terry Gibbs. Born in 1924 and still with us, he played with nearly all the big bands of the era: Dorsey, Rich, Goodman, Bellson , Shavers, Woody Herman et al, plus his later big bands in his own name were up there with the best.
Here he is at 87 performing “You Go To My Head”….
Terry Gibbs also gives us another performance, with a now rare chance to see a clarinettist at work, not uncommon in the Goodman era but much less so nowadays, and this one is as good as they get: Buddy De Franco, with a storming rendition of “Air Mail Special” this from the Johnny Carson Show in ‘82 - two for the price of one.
The Hammond organ has really been exploited for its value in blues and all genres of rock to good effect, in jazz much less so, Wild Bill Davis was probably the earliest Hammond player in Jazz and Jack McDuff and Jimmy Smith in the sixties, Smith was a huge success and his Blue Note albums sold like rock albums and he deserves a place on here in his own right, but I am going to give you Larry Young who with the Blue Note album Unity featuring Woody Shaw on trumpet, Joe Henderson tenor sax and Elvin Jones on drums. This album from ‘66 is considered to be Young's finest work; judge for yourself on “Zoltan”:
Stephane Grappelli born in 1908 founded the Hot Club de France in ‘34 with Django Rheinhardt and became a regular into old age on radio and television with his jazz violin. Here he is live in Warsaw in ‘91 playing How High the Moon - he never seemed to lose it, did he !
A more modern exponent of the amplified violin was Billy Bang, here with the haunting “Rainbow Gladiator”. Billy who died in 2011 was another who played to the end. Though the enthusiasm was always there the direction of his music changed and I preferred the earlier work.
When the French Horn is mentioned in a jazz context Julius Watkins is the name that invariably comes up. He made the niche his own with some delightful works, with his sextet here “Garden Delights”. Watkins played with many of jazz's luminaries including Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Kenny Burrell, the list is endless, but his music endures. This number is from his Blue Note album of ‘55.
The harp is not an obvious jazz choice and this lady Dorothy Ashby pioneered its usage, “There's a Small Hotel” from her 1958 Hip Harp album could be treated as a curiosity, but it shouldn’t be, this is the real deal.
Frank Wess was a saxophonist and flutist with the Basie band for many years and despite extensive solo work will be best remembered for his Basie years and indeed on this number, “The Very Thought of You”, the Basie influence can be heard in his own band, but that is hardly a bad thing is it !
There have been other appearances by rare or unusual instruments in a jazz context, all of the nine different saxophones, bass clarinet as used by Ellington’s orchestra at his ‘47 Carnegie Hall concerts, various brass including tuba multi string guitars and others like the odds and ends that Roland Kirk seemed to keep finding and using to good effect. Most were one offs or novelties, even the harmonica found a niche and a good one with Larry Adler.
An example where many rarer instruments are included on one album is Woody Shaw's 1978 “Rosewood”, all to great effect as the album won the Downbeat readers poll for the album of the year; on there are flugelhorn, soprano sax, flute, piccolo flute, bass trombone, electric piano , congas and harp, fabulous album and no novelty value, just great music.
"Bavarian Finance Minister Markus Soeder called for a tougher stance in negotiations with Greece, suggesting Athens should only get fresh aid from its lenders against additional collateral such as cash, gold or real estate" - http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-greece-esm-regling-idUSKBN15Z0JE
The Prince of Wales is to issue a stark warning that nations have "less than 100 months to act" to save the planet from irreversible damage due to climate change.
Gosh, we now have only four months left till doomsday. Are we worried? Is anyone worried? Was anyone ever worried? Worried enough to do something?
A key feature of the catastrophic climate narrative is how so many people in the public arena are induced to make predictions of doom. Alarming celebrity briefings must be distilled from scenarios created by climate models, but we have known for a long time that climate models cannot make long-term predictions of future climate states.
In sum, a strategy must recognise what is possible. In climate research and modelling, we should recognise that we are dealing with a coupled non-linear chaotic system, and therefore that the long-term prediction of future climate states is not possible.
IPCC Working Group I: The Scientific Basis, Third Assessment Report, Chapter 14.
In February 2016 climate scientist Dr. John Christy presented testimony to Congress demonstrating how climate models grossly exaggerate and overestimate the impact of atmospheric CO2 levels on global temperatures .
There are valid concerns about a fundamental lack of predictability in the complex nonlinear climate system.
Yet Prince Charles must have been firmly convinced that his climate predictions were scientifically plausible, likely to happen and not liable to be derailed by that fundamental lack of predictability. As far as one can tell he remains convinced to this day.
Let us move on from Prince Charles to Thomas Kuhn. It’s a substantial jump but I’m sure we can cope.
To the extent, as significant as it is incomplete, that two scientific schools disagree about what is a problem and what a solution, they will inevitably talk through each other when debating the relative merits of their respective paradigms. In the partially circular arguments that regularly result, each paradigm will be shown to satisfy more or less the criteria that it dictates for itself and to fall short of a few of those dictated by its opponent. There are other reasons, too, for the incompleteness of logical contact that consistently characterizes paradigm debates. For example, since no paradigm ever solves all the problems it defines and since no two paradigms leave all the same problems unsolved, paradigm debates always involve the question: Which problems is it more significant to have solved? Like the issue of competing standards, that question of values can be answered only in terms of criteria that lie outside of normal science altogether, and it is that recourse to external criteria that most obviously makes paradigm debates revolutionary.
Thomas S. Kuhn - The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962)
If Kuhn was right, then perhaps we should ask a few questions based on criteria that lie outside of normal science altogether. Why did Prince Charles claim that we are doomed when the IPCC stated quite clearly that the long-term prediction of future climate states is not possible? He is not a celebrity poseur and does not appear to be virtue-signalling.
Who briefs him and with what object? Why does he still seem to believe that we are doomed? This is the kind of criterion we should focus on – the politics of manipulated behaviour.
Whilst being able to appreciate their ability along with the double bass, I have never really warmed to drum solos any more than double bass solos, their job is to hold the rhythm in place for group or band.
In the big band era drum solos would provide an interlude with the likes of Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich showing their mettle in front of their own bands, all very showbiz, but great drummers in their own right though there were many of the elongated solos that matched marathon dancing and had me reaching for off switch or legging it to the bar.
As with all there are exceptions, for me Art Blakey stands out as not only a supreme master craftsman but also someone whom one hears in all his groups yet never intrudes, his drum solos being simply an extension of that amazing drive he pushed all his groups along with.
Born in 1919 he started as so many of his contemporaries with big bands, in his case Fletcher Henderson then Billie Eckstine and then went on to work with be bop founders of Monk Parker and Gillespie. In the mid fifties he founded the Jazz Messengers with Horace Silver the pianist but the group over the years became known more for the nurturing of new found talent and the list was impressive. It included Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Wynton Marsalis, Lee Morgan and Bennie Golson.
Blakey had a hard upbringing, losing his single parent mother shortly after he was born and being raised by a woman family friend who took in him and his siblings for some time but it was a period of little hard facts.
His early career is also somewhat muddied although he did start as a pianist, switching to drums in the thirties but who he played with and when is a bit fragmented to say the least during the period up to his big band appointment, and even after that he went and lived in Africa for a couple of years and converted to Islam whilst there. It was suggested that he as with many other black musicians at the time used Islamic names to circumvent the race laws that prevailed in many states at the time, though it seems he forgot all that shortly after return, a sort of George Harrison moment.
Horace Silver left the Jazz Messengers after the first year and Blakey added his name to the group where it remained until his last appearance in 1990; he died soon afterwards of lung cancer.
His was a hard bop group when it started out and despite all the reincarnations with his steady stream of new talent this driving style with a blues undertone remained.
This classic is from ‘58 with Lee Morgan on trumpet Benny Golson on sax and Bobby Timmons on piano.
The above quintet was the quintessential Jazz Messengers and the most remembered, it stayed as a quintet for most of its life though an earlier 17 piece big band had the Messengers name and luminaries such as Hank Mobley, Clifford Brown and Jackie McLean played with them.
Below from the “Big Beat” album on Blue Note is The Chess Players; not only on this album is Blakey's unrelenting driving style showcased but it also contains one of the finest trumpet solos in modern jazz by Lee Morgan.
And from the same album It’s Only a Paper Moon, again showing the drumming style of Blakey in all its glory and another tour de force by Morgan.
In ‘61 Blakey added the trombone to his group and it became a sextet, here at Nurnberg in Germany in ‘88 his young band once again show why the Messengers were so popular around the world.
An even bigger group in an “All Stars” tour in Japan in ‘82, giving Curtis Fuller on trombone a chance to shine, an instrument Blakey included for much of the Messengers' life yet rarely seen in modern jazz combos. The number is Blues March written by by Benny Golson who is on tenor sax with Wynton Marsalis on trumpet.
Mosaic was a big success as an album for Blakey and the Messengers recorded in ‘61 live at the Village Gate. It had a slightly different personnel in Freddie Hubbard , trumpet and Cedar Walton piano.
Here we have Children of the Night.
Still bringing on young talent: Reflections in Blue, a ‘78 recording and Stretching the number recorded in the Netherlands in ‘78 with……Valerie Ponomarev (trumpet) Robert Watson (alto sax) David Schnitter (tenor sax) James Williams (piano) Dennis Irwin (bass) Art Blakey (drums)
Blakey's discography is enormous, there seems to be almost no one he has not played with or backed. He played with Thelonious Monk at the beginning the middle and end of his career and Monk despite having the hugely talented Dannie Richmond on drums for a very large part of his career always placed Blakey in the No.1 slot.
Art was certainly someone who enjoyed life, even if the drugs of the period played their part, he smoked heavily drank and loved food, plus with four marriages and several long time relationships it could be said he stretched the phrase bon viveur to the limit.
I finish with something that is short, it is only part of the number being played and as for the rest who knows where it is, but it shows Blakey in Africa at a Jazz Fesival in ‘87 near the end of his career, still more than capable and with a big band that are really having a blow, featuring Woody Shaw on trumpet and Herbie Hancock on piano, a Night in Tunisia.
Woody Shaw deserves a mention in his own right. Considered by many to be the last great innovator on the trumpet, he was born with perfect pitch and a photographic mind considered to be way ahead of his time; it was a loss to jazz when he died young, his ending is from his biography:
By the late 1980s Shaw was suffering from an incurable degenerative eye disease and was losing his eyesight. Details of the accident are unclear, but on February 27, 1989, Shaw was struck by a subway car in Brooklyn, NY, which severed his left arm. Shaw suffered complications in the hospital and died of kidney failure on May 10, 1989. He was 44 years old.
JD's curtain-raiser is a traditional Irish song, "Siúil a Rún" (Go, My Love) sung by Nolwenn Leroy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvkSrG69yeo - but unfortunately not embeddable; to give an idea of it, a different version by Clannad is given below:
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