Tag Archives: jazz

FIELD TESTING THE THEORY

It is a funny thing, the vinyl hunter-gathering lifestyle. Although I have a number of tasty records in transit from exotic locations world-wide (all right, you got me; from the US and UK), the prospect of a record fair last Sunday was too good to miss. A leave pass negotiated, off I trotted, returning home a […]

KEITH IN KÖLN

A gentle four note phrase hovers, a small colourful bird on the wing, leading, beckoning, from bush to branch. It is still, early, a breath of dew on the lawn where lines of cut grass betray yesterday’s mowing. The bird trills as the light brightens, slowly at first. The melody becomes more insistent. Then the […]

NOT SUCH A COOL YULE

The first half of 1977 was spent sitting in my room. It wasn’t locked; I just couldn’t find many reasons for leaving. Other than one friendly human being, companionship came in the form of books and records. The small but diverse vinyl collection included a selection of the popular progressive music of the day, some […]

MATI AND THE MUSIC [PART TWO]

This article is the second part of a feature on the album covers of artist Mati Klarwein. The first part is entitled More Than Abraxas. The life of a peripatetic artist is one of change and blending influences. Mati was a great traveller and enthusiastically soaked up images of culture and mythology from the many countries […]

NICE SAMPLE, JOE

Sunday was a lovely day in Melbourne. A little early haze then some Spring sunshine. We played family football in the park – soccer and Aussie rules as befits a child of mixed parentage – then back home for lunch on the back veranda. For the first time since Winter, I opened the window and […]

TIME OUT IN PLEASANTVILLE

A couple of evenings ago Ms Connection and I wanted to collapse onto the couch for a bit of screen time togetherness. As it was a week-night and we’ve found that anything too exciting disrupts fragile sleep patterns, it was agreed that something gentle and preferably funny was the order of the night. So I […]

JAZZ DAY

A Mundane Day In The Life … Saved by its Jazz Soundtrack Last night I drank too much red wine. It was the wine’s fault, not mine. Rich and deep, it warmed my veins and got inside my head. This morning its oak and tannins were hanging around my system in a fuzzy sand-papery way […]

ART CRIMES IN FRANKFURT

Fourteen years is a pretty long sabbatical in anybody’s language, yet that’s the elapsed time between Donald Fagen and Walter Becker winding up Steely Dan after 1980’s Gaucho and reforming the band to tour in 1994. A recording of that tour duly appeared as Alive in America which all self-respecting Dan Fans rushed out and […]

OH! OH! HERE HE COMES

Every shop has a selection of permanent fixtures. Not the cash register or the window dummy but those stock items that sit. Then get dusted. Then sit some more. Bentleigh Sounds, the record and electrical goods store where I worked for a good part of the 70s and early 80s was no exception. Although I […]

TRANSCENDENTAL (NEW) MUSIC

Josef Zawinul wrote the melody ‘In a silent way’ after visiting his Austrian family for Christmas. It is a wistful, almost folky melody that you can hear on the composer’s self-titled 1971 album. But more famously and influentially the tune became the title for a 1969 album that indicated a far-reaching change of direction for […]

THE ART OF TEA

The on-line forum is a strange beast. Often it is a series of blokes (the record collector groups are almost all male, you know) taking turns at “show and tell”. The bargain of the century, my latest rarity, the best, the worst; there is no real dialogue or any genuine discussion but there is lots of […]

VINYL HUNTER-GATHERER GOES FORTH

In these parts the financial year begins on 1st July. A good time for fiscal resolutions and for a vinyl addict with fast diminishing storage space and finite resources to ponder stemming – or at least reducing – the flow. The original idea was to have a purchase-free month. Catch up with some listening. Cleanse […]