[Len Upton]

<div>Most of you will remember Malcolm McDowell, and his part in A Clockwork Orange (1971) directed by Stanley Kubrick. Two years later, McDowell appeared in the Lindsay Anderson film O Lucky Man, quite an obscure film, especially in North America. Also not much remembered is Alan Price, original keyboardist in The Animals. O Lucky Man is one of my very favourite movies, not only for the soundtrack, but for the movie overall. At around three hours, the movie follows erstwhile coffee salesman Travis (Malcolm McDowell) through many adventures and mis adventures through northeast England. Well worth watching, it is available on YouTube for your watching and listening pleasure.</div><div>
</div>Alan Price – O Lucky Man! – YouTube

[Len Upton]

You want my love, you want romance; There’s things you gotta do before you get a chance…..

[Len Upton]

One only has to go back in time, to 1974, and watch ABBA do Waterloo, to see how Eurovision has become a mega example of style over substance. Isn’t Eurovision exactly what MLT’s Make Show all about? No wonder they took off to Scotland for a few days while the puppet masters took over Liverpool for one their big money hullabaloos.

[Len Upton]

The Epstein Theatre is where I’d like to see MLT live. I’d even travel halfway across the world to do it. It’s a classy theatre, and predictably they have their own website. You can see the room from the audience side of things.

[Len Upton]

Ah yes, the virtues of vinyl. The size and physicality of the 12-inch disc. The cover, and frequently the artwork. Its very human scale, in an age of miniaturization. And I think you have to admire the technology, the very grooviness of it, which began in the 1920’s, and progressed over the decades to such precision. Essentially a heat press, cranking out records by the millions, with hardly ever a bad run. (There was a YouTube video here on the chat line a short while ago illustrating the process). RCA advertised their process as micro groove, and they weren’t kidding.

Vinyl is alive and well here with me, along with (lots of homemade) cassettes, and a number of cd’s. Not looking for, or adding anything particular these days, except sometimes serendipitously, and usually jazz. At the moment though, I seem to have misplaced my copy of Exile On Main Street.

One thing about jazz fans is that, unlike rock and rollers, they usually handle their records with kid gloves. So even at garage or estate sales, it’s quite common to find vintage vinyl in good to excellent condition. My most recent acquisition is a Gerry Mulligan Quartet, “What Is There To Say?” from 1959. Yes, there is surface noise, but almost no ticks or pops.

Which reminds me: One of my main music sources over the long term has been the public library. Way back in the day for vinyl, and more recently, for cd’s. Recently I noticed in the catalogue, a Charlie Watts Big Band which I must check out. Charlie’s passion, when he wasn’t being dragged around by the Strolling Bones, was jazz. Unlike long ago Club 27 member Brian Jones, Charlie managed to live to a ripe old age, as are his surviving band mates. Remarkable!

One thing about used vinyl is that it’s now available all over the place, from a dollar or two, to quite substantial money for new and/or vintage pressings. Recently, at a collectors show, I happened to see a copy of Their Satanic Majesties Request, the Rolling Stones brief foray into psychedelia. This is the one with the 3D picture cover, which I’ve had since the album was first released. The vendor was asking $135. What other treasures might I have that I should be aware of? Should I contact my insurance agent?😀

What’s On The Table is always a lot of fun, and there are a number of old farts who are well acquainted with the albums Mona and Lisa come up with, and who are likewise happy and amused at their enthusiasm. Sometimes we get a glimpse at their other albums on a side shelf, and think yeah, those are good ones, too! Play those! Anyway, they’re keeping the tradition going. It doesn’t look like vinyl is going away anytime soon.

[Len Upton]

Indeed. I only received the email in the final hour of Friday GMT, although by chance I first saw the video on Facebook, in the last hour of Thursday, Mountain Standard Time

[Len Upton]

Thanks Jung: Yes, the woman in the video clip definitely has a wee treasure. As mentioned, my other passion is vintage/antique postcards. While The Beatles are not one of my main themes, I do keep my eyes open for Liverpool cards, such as St. Peter’s Church (where John and Paul first met), the Liverpool Insitute, and Penny Lane, places that already existed from before the Beatles era.

From biographies I’ve read, the “boys” were active correspondents with family, friends, and as we see, with fans. Ringo released a book in 2004, Postcards From The Boys, and Olivia Harrison’s biography, Living In The Material World (2011), includes an illustration of a postcard of the Friar Park gatehouse (described as The Lodge), which would date to the earlier resident, the eccentric sir Francis Crisp.

Ah yes, there are many avenues down the rabbit hole, should one wish to go there.

[Len Upton]

It was apropos Jung, that should make mention of postcards. Alongside my attention to MLT, I have, for almost thirty years, been seriously enamored over vintage/antique postcards. I can confirm that they can be wonderful little windows into the past. My own collection, which spans the years from 1900 to around 1950, have had messages on the back that not only say “having a wonderful time….. wish you were here”, but that also make reference to births, deaths, fires and floods (sound familiar?) travel plans, Halley’s Comet (1910), and the 1918 flu pandemic. Postcards in the early twentieth century were the Facebook of their day. Adults and children alike, collected them in albums, gave them away, exchanged them, and yes, mailed them. Nowadays you can sometimes find them at antique and collectable shows, thrift stores, and garage sales.

[Len Upton]

Ha! Very clever! And yes, one of the best of the classics, on both counts.

[Len Upton]

Thanks Dave for the Barbara Dennerlein link. I, too, am a jazz guy, but I hadn’t heard of her. The links were very impressive. In turn, have you heard Joey De Francesco, who died just last August. Also a jazz B3 player. Wikipedia shows he played with a large who’s who from the jazz world, including Diana Krall, and Van Morrison.

[Len Upton]

Thanks David. To my knowledge, I wasn’t in editing mode, except I tend to make a lot of typos, which I go back and fix at the end.

[Len Upton]

What’s with all of this gobbledeegook. I tried to delete it and it wouldn’t delete.

[Len Upton]

Hi Daryl. Your description of the high-end sales demonstration was tres amusant and the presence of wine there quite appropriate, and also analogous to the analogue versus digital debate. At some point it becomes subjective. When it comes to the analogue/digital debate, I’m agnostic and/or ambivalent. If I run across an old jazz record in pretty condition, that’s as good as its ever going to get. I’m not about to go on a deep search for its cd reissue. Of course, we all want to hear what’s there, but there are a whole lot of factors between the recording process, and our ears, including your event experience, and your budget.

One of those items that is both first and last in the equation, and that is speakers. In fact, they’re kinda critical. 😄 long time ago, before cds, I needed a pair of speakers. Due to space constraints they needed to be compact, ie. But I like bass, so there was a challenge. At the time, and even today, I think one of the best songs to test speakers is the Gypsy Queen, which follows Black Magic Woman on Santana’s Abraxis album. Beautiful bottom end, great guitar, and lots of Latino percussion. Wants to be played pretty loud. Eventually I found some economical speakers, (the brand is now lost to history), which worked well until they didn’t. Pushed them too much, and too often.

The comparison with wine is quite applicable. There’s a lot of wine out there, and most of it is pretty good. But you have to drink some of it to know what you like. Just not too much, too often.

• This reply was modified 3 years ago by  Rudolf Wagner.

[Len Upton]

Well Jung, that was a terrific documentary. YouTube never ceases to amaze, and if Papa Rudi is monitoring these posts, and all the tangents they can take him on, he won’t have time to play his new treasure.

I’m really glad that there was major mention of both jazz man Jimmy Smith, and R n’ B player Booker T. Jones. While I really don’t mind a lot of the prog rock, some of it is, to put it mildly, over the top bombastic. I guess that’s the theatricality part of it. To my great regret, I missed a Booker T Soul Review concert only a few weeks ago. By all reports, it was great, and included both vocalists, a horn section, and of course, the subject of this topic, a B3 player of great renown. Church music by any other name. I had thought, naively, it would be all instrumental, and not that great. Wrong! In any case, YouTube to the rescue. There is a very nice version of Booker T. Jones and one of his major classics, Green Onions, Live From Daryl’s House. Lot’s of others too, but the sound is very good on this one.

[Len Upton]

Well Jung, as the saying goes, “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing!’ And who better to expound on the topic than Wynton Marsalis. More than anyone else, Wynton has probably been the most successful at mastering both the european and the afro musical narratives. It would appear that Mr. Ludwig just about got there. Some would argue he did get there. It would have been interesting if he had been around another 100 years, and heard the likes of Art Tatum, for example.

I, too, have a preference for piano jazz. Solo, or small groups. Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Dave Brubeck, or Eliane Elias. It’s all good. I don’t play, so I guess part of it is watching fingers do what mine could never do. I guess we’re still on topic. Pianos are a percussive instruments. Hammers on strings!