Talkmarkets article here:
http://www.talkmarkets.com/content/bonds/uk-readers-last-chance-for-a-guaranteed-inflation-beating-investment?post=126526
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Sunday, March 12, 2017
Sunday Music: A Change Of Pace, by Wiggia
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.
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.
Saturday, March 11, 2017
Germany may drive Greece, not to despair but into the arms of Russia
Germany's merciless pursuit of the Greeks for debt could turn Greek minds to a rapprochement with Russia.
The Germans are opposing a debt "haircut" and look to the IMF to do something else instead - http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-greece-germany-idUSKBN1650AX
"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
(htp for both links to Anonhq)
In addition to recent talk of a rapprochement between Russia and Turkey, last year Russky Mir was already predicting that the EU's economic squeeze will result in a partnership with Moscow (“GREECE CAN ONLY EMERGE FROM EUROPEAN DESOLATION UNITED WITH RUSSIA”, 19 June 2016).
A cover for discussions could be provided by fresh negotiations around the Burgas–Alexandroupoli pipeline, first proposed in the 1990s and far from dead; or the "Turkish stream" gas pipeline, an arm of which is to run into Greece.
Let's not forget that the Communists tried to take over Greece at the end of WW2.
What utter folly and blind greed, to make the Greeks suffer until they turn.
A modern-day Graham Greene would now be frequenting the cafés and restaurants of Alexandroupoli and Thessaloniki.
The Germans are opposing a debt "haircut" and look to the IMF to do something else instead - http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-greece-germany-idUSKBN1650AX
"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
(htp for both links to Anonhq)
In addition to recent talk of a rapprochement between Russia and Turkey, last year Russky Mir was already predicting that the EU's economic squeeze will result in a partnership with Moscow (“GREECE CAN ONLY EMERGE FROM EUROPEAN DESOLATION UNITED WITH RUSSIA”, 19 June 2016).
A cover for discussions could be provided by fresh negotiations around the Burgas–Alexandroupoli pipeline, first proposed in the 1990s and far from dead; or the "Turkish stream" gas pipeline, an arm of which is to run into Greece.
Let's not forget that the Communists tried to take over Greece at the end of WW2.
What utter folly and blind greed, to make the Greeks suffer until they turn.
A modern-day Graham Greene would now be frequenting the cafés and restaurants of Alexandroupoli and Thessaloniki.
Friday, March 10, 2017
Monday, March 06, 2017
Four months to go
Prince Charles: 100 months to save the world
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 .
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This year Judith Curry produced a lay overview of climate models for the GWPF. Among many other criticisms she wrote.
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.
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.
Sunday, March 05, 2017
MUSIC: Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, by Wiggia
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.
Blues March - Art Blakey and All Star Jazz Messengers (1982) from Wynton Marsalis on Vimeo.
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.
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.
Blues March - Art Blakey and All Star Jazz Messengers (1982) from Wynton Marsalis on Vimeo.
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.
Friday, March 03, 2017
Friday Night Is Music Night: A Celtic Miscellany, by JD
A selection of traditional music this evening:
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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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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