Lifespan

Well, I'm beginning to wonder. I had prepared a delicious meal of lightly smoked salmon fillets, English asparagus and Jersey Royal new potatoes served up with Hollandaise sauce for the asparagus and whey butter on the potatoes. Glasses filled with a delightful Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, accompanied with compliments from my wife for another tasty dinner. I finished my meal with some wonderful Brin-de-Paille soft cheese and a glass of Mondelli Chianti Riserva.

Time for a Double Chocolate Mocha and a dram of 10 YO Jura single malt. Perfect. Awash with hubris I decided to tackle the dishes, the washing up, whilst my wife indulged her passion for "Casualty" on BBC1. I told her I would be 'plugged in' to music whilst I performed this domestic duty and got stuck in to Pat Metheny's album 'We Live Here'. Soundmagic earbuds are astonishing, terrific bass, no roll-off on the top notes, amazing stereo separation. I stood at the sink with my head nodding and my feet tapping. Dishes done in no time.

I needed to 'phone my mate Graeme so I went off in search of my iPhone, still listening to Pat Metheny. I found the 'phone case but no 'phone. I looked upstairs in the bedroom, in the lounge, in the dining room, in the kitchen - still unconsciously nodding my head to the fantastic rhythm of Pat Metheny. 'Best track coming up', I muttered to myself as the edge of panic set in over the whereabouts of my iPhone. 'Damn it', I thought, 'I had better use the landline to ring it, that'll locate it'. Better switch Pat Metheny off though before I do.

I dug in my shirt pocket and pulled out...... my iPhone, connected to my Soundmagic earbuds....

I shrugged it off, laughed to myself and took another loading dose of Vitamin B Complex. And took another look at 'Lifespan', the UK's leading health magazine, to see if it can help me remember that I listen to music on my F***ING iPhone!

 

Classic fM Hall of Fame 2014

Like 1000s of other classical music lovers I tuned in to Classic fM over the Easter weekend and enjoyed four days of people's favourite classical pieces as voted for by the public. The list of 300 pieces is eclectic and encompasses such composers as Holst, Vaughan Williams, Einaudi, Beethoven and Grieg. The scope of this annual event is unsurpassed by any other musical chart and I enjoy participating every year.

And so it was with a great deal of delight that I purchased today the 4CD set containing 42 tracks selected from the original 300, at Sainsbury's, for a bargain £7.99 (around $13.00). The recorded quality is superb and the pieces that came first and second are included:

1. The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams here played by Nicola Benedetti and the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Andrew Litton
2. Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.2, 2nd Movement, with Vladimir Ashkenazy on pf, and the London Symphony Orchestra under André Previn

Whilst I have most of the composed extracts as full recordings on other CDs and mp3s this collection is a sheer delight to listen to. I recommend this collection without hesitation to all music lovers. CFMD34 on the DECCA label.

Madeleine Peyroux - Smile

I love Madeleine Peyroux's rendition of "Smile" taken from her album 'Half The Perfect World'. Hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

The Blue Room

The Blue Room is the latest offering on CD from Madeleine Peyroux. Brooklyn and Paris-bred with a New Orleans pedigree, Peyroux is an artist whose eclectic musical mix makes for magnificent story-telling. This outstanding album is in part an homage to Ray Charles and his "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music" albums released in the 60s.

Madeleine Peyroux's delicate phrasing with that breathy inflection is so reminiscent of Billie Holiday. Peyroux has a unique ability to deconstruct a lyric and melody and stitch it back together in her own arrangement that leaves me spellbound. For me, this is her finest album by far. She includes timeless classics and makes them her own with her jazz, country and blues influences.

Madeleine covers Charles' "Take These Chains From My Heart' with an upbeat tempo and just makes it sizzle, with strings arranged and conducted by Vince Mendoza. She includes gems like Warren Zevon's "Desperadoes Under The Eaves" and Randy Newman's "Guilty" - a heartbreaking slow tempo number that Peyroux gives new depth to. Her resurrection of a wonderful and obscure Buddy Holly song "Changing All Those Changes" is breathtaking.

The album is produced by Larry Klein and engineered and mixed by Helik Hadar and was recorded at THE VILLAGE RECORDER, Los Angeles, CA and Market Street, Santa Monica, CA. The album artwork photos were shot at The Blue Room - the oldest bar in Burbank, California.

Every song on this album depicts the genius of Madeleine Peyroux, a songstress of sublime talent:

• Take These Chains From My Heart
• Bye Bye Love
• Changing All Those Changes
• Born To Lose
• Guilty
• Bird On The Wire
• I Can't Stop Loving You
• Gentle On My Mind
• You Don't Know Me
• Desperadoes Under The Eaves

I have played this album three times today and this lady can bring tears to my eyes with her approach to the material. This is an album that is letter-perfect but coursing with blood and as comfortable as an old pair of shoes.

Madeleine Peyroux reinvents everything she touches.   

Rochester - loved by Dickens

In 1998 Rochester in Kent lost its city status owing to the outgoing council neglecting to appoint ceremonial "Charter Trustees" to continue to represent the historic Rochester area, an error not even noticed by the council for four years until 2002. Rochester stands at the lowest bridging point of the River Medway about 30 miles (48km) from London.

Rochester was a city loved by Charles Dickens. Anyone who's ever thumbed through the likes of Oliver Twist, David Copperfield or The Pickwick Papers will know that the landscape and people of 19th Century Kent provided rich pickings for Dickens.

The town is home to a number of important historic buildings, the most prominent of which are the Guildhall, the Corn Exchange, Restoration House, Eastgate House, Rochester Castle and Rochester Cathedral. Many of the buildings in the town centre date from the 18th century or as early as the 14th century. The chapel of St. Batholomew's Hospital dates from the hospital's founding in 1078. 

With my interest in the county of my birth I have started to collect books about "The Garden of England" and have found www.abebooks.co.uk  to be an excellent source. I purchased "Rochester: A sketch in pen and verse" by MALCOLM JOHN here, published in 1977 by John Hallewell Publications.

It includes a selection of verse by the author accompanied by prints based upon sketches drawn by Katherine Kimball in 1912. Katharine Kimball was born in New Hampshire. After studying at the National Academy of Design she went abroad to continue her studies, not in Paris, whose academies were still largely closed to women, but in London at the Royal College of Art. She pursued her career in England, exhibiting between 1906 and 1940 at the Royal Academy and the R. E. (the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers), of which she was elected an Associate. Her art was influenced by her admiration for the work of James McBey. As with many talented women artists of her pioneering generation, information about Katharine Kimball is hard to come by, although her work is in the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the Boston Museum of Fine Art, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Bibliothèque d'Art et d'Archéologie in Paris. Many of her etchings show scenes in France.

I have also tracked down a book entitled "Dickens' Rochester" by John Oliver at Abe Books. I shall look forward to reading it.

Shedding the Shed - Part 2

I have had a particularly busy day today. I could put it off no longer. Clearing my garden shed of 27 years of detritus including rusted implements, old bathroom tiles, broken storage containers, warped MDF shelves and not forgetting the numerous woodlice that crawled out of every nook and cranny, the snails that had attached themselves on every available surface and of course, the spiders. Six heavy duty bags of 'stuff' were dispatched to the municipal tip. What remains will be stored under a tarpaulin on the patio in readiness for Phase 2.

Phase 2 requires a logistical approach to dis-assembling the incumbent shed. My good friend Graeme has been coerced to help. This event is planned to take place on the 11th June when Ros and I will have returned from our vacation in Copenhagen. A local tradesman is booked to carry away the various panels of this dis-assembly. So far so good, if all goes to plan.

A builder friend has agreed to then lay a solid concrete base ( a level concrete base) to accommodate the new shed, which should be delivered and assembled on 27th June by Skinner's Sheds. So, the base has to be laid soon after the 11th June. One can only hope for clement weather.

That is the plan - to have a robust, shiplap tongue and groove shed installed by the end of June. Somewhere I can sit with a good book and a glass of beer and watch the nature in my garden. Sad, I know, but I am rather excited about having a new garden shed...

We Live Here

This is the title of a Pat Metheny Group album recorded in 1994. It has the best first four track thread of any album I know.

Check this out if you enjoy jazz funk guitar and accompaniment. Play it loud if you are driving the open road or indeed if you are relaxing with a glass of something in your garden. It is timeless music to enjoy and just make you feel good.

One of my top 10 albums of all time! Download from iTunes. Love it!