Jazz and other Stuff

treeve

Major Contributor
Trying to find Jazz in the area of
Penzance, Penwith or the South West?
Most web sites of events are outdated,
or merely commercial pull-ins, with no real information.

I also enjoy modern ballet (Ballet Rambert, etc as well as spectacular Kodo (Taiko) [all very well getting a CD but the magic is the stage performance - saw them once, totally electric]. Giant temple drums, acrobatics, a sound that pentrates the body and stays with you for weeks. Also African and Jamaican dance companies.

On the Jazz front, this thread is for current and hopefully useful information.

Any news? Please add it in.
 
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tabtab13

Active Member
Jazz

I think they still have live Jazz over at The Tolcarne in Newlyn on a Sunday lunchtime. Been past there a couple of times and each time it's been the more mellow stuff as opposed to freeform - if that's the term - not a jazz fan myself.

Might be worth digging out your beret for a visit - or a phone call to find out more?
 

treeve

Major Contributor
Incidentally, my best choices are 66% 'West Country'; John Surman born in Tavistock, Andy Shephard born in Bristol [it was in Bath that I saw them perform].
 

treeve

Major Contributor
Acorn Theatre

Saw the excellent King of Prussia performed by the talented and expressive Kneehigh a while back.

Acorn website reveals all. Music and Theatre.
Season listings until April here ...
http://www.acornartscentre.co.uk/events-guide/download-brochure.html
Occasional Jazz performances.

Remembered the publication that covers 'events...
Time Out.
http://www.timeout.com/

Most entertainment websites in The West are very confusing.
I have found that two taiko bands are coming to Cornwall and Devon very soon. Just about to book seats for one or the other.

Local event listings are best checked out here
http://www.penzance.co.uk/tourism/index.htm?events.htm~main_pz
It has not yet been updated for 2010.
 
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CHILLYWILLY

Active Member
There was a very good club on the Barbican at Plymouth, live music with a selection of jazz, soul, blues etc. Mostly at weekends but well worth a visit.
 

treeve

Major Contributor
Jazz Plymouth

Thank you, found them.
Plymouth Jazz Club [at The Mermaid], my kindathing.
http://www.plymouth-jazz-club.org.uk/
but miles out in the outskirts
Mike Collier wites
'Plymouth Jazz Club puts on a mixture of styles although Trad/New Orleans predominates.
It is open of a Sunday only, so other than car, hire a taxi
of which there are plenty.
However if there is something that you particularly fancy, most of our clientele arrive in cars and I am sure that lifts could be arranged if we are warned in advance.'
[Phone numbers have been given.]


there is also a limited function at Exeter - Mama Stone's,
It is a live music venue that includes some jazz occasionally.
http://www.mamastones.com/

There is a list for 'West Country' Jazz venues/clubs at
http://www.spectrumsoft.net/jazzsw.htm
It is not necessarily complete or correct.
[The page was created 26th Jun 1995]

This site also offers listings.
It was written in 2005, so check out the venues.
A Voice for Jazz
http://www.jazzservices.org.uk/Default.aspx?tabid=180
 
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treeve

Major Contributor
Empty Air

So, I have tracked it down. The public perception of any genre or art form is as promoted by the media. Whatever is pumped out of the mincer at a newspaper is governed by one major factor, income. If it has no importance to them in terms of goodwill or income, forget it.
However we do have an unbiased media handed down to us with the grace and power of the great unfettered custodian of the pure. Well, that WAS the idea. The BBC.

Jazz Art Form is going through a period of high energy input and encouraging development of interest; up go the audience figures, totalling 6.6 million, an eighth of the artistically minded population.

Over the years, the BBC had been at the hub of promotion of Jazz.
YET since 1978 things have changed dramatically. Support has dwindled until the final blow of axing Jazz Awards and its annual Big Band Competition. Jazz on Radio now consitutes 3 % of its output. Radio 3 as a whole is heading for disastrously low numbers of listeners at 1.3%. Broadcasts are more often than not placed in some ungodly hour to be stifled by the sound of the midnight chimes.

The whole issue came to a 'head' 5 years ago, as a local BBC 'Boss' described a local Jazz broadcast as as a 'ghetto' programme, and it was axed; it was one hour every Sunday evening. Eversince the whole of the 'South West' has been utterly devoid of Jazz on the radio. In fact Mike Collier goes on to add that no commercial station has offered Jazz since Plymouth Sound in 1970. Well, if the programmes that are on offer indicate the level by which the BBC measure the audience - all I can say is that someone up there is being extremely rude to 'us down here'. We don't all go around dressed in hay smocks and sucking a stick of barley. The image thus projected by the small minded BBC is that no one likes jazz as it is something that only hippies and drop outs want. The fact is that there are many types of jazz. It is a highly complex art form. I enjoy all forms of music, but jazz is immediate and it hits direct into the soul. The order of Classical and the high art of the Great Organ is wondrous, but bring me a good plate of extemporisation now and then, keeps the brain active.

This is what BBC Radio 3 offer weekly.
Monday 2315-0100.
Saturday Jazz Record Library 1600-1700
Jazz Record Requests 1700-1800
Sunday Jazz Line Up 2345 -0100. Live groups.

This is nothing compared to the great concerts BBC used to host.

BBC can broadcast endless hours of music from the gutter (or was that ghetto), of sounds that have no quality or inspiration, endless hours of empty meaningless drivel. Incidentally I am not down on all 'pop music' It is that we need more performers like Avril Lavigne. She brings out the best in me. Real contact between pedal extremities and gluteus maximus. Yeah!!
 
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treeve

Major Contributor
Radio Stations

While on the subject of personal taste in entertainment,
the Internet has any number of websites with streaming radio.
See Post #16

Finding the DAB/VHS broadcast Frequency is difficult.
If you want to hear it via an actual Radio Receiver
you first have to know the area and the accurate name.

So
Here you are ...
http://frequencyfinder.org.uk/
Gives all current Radio station locations and powers.
Mostly set out with coloured maps on pdf documents.
 
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treeve

Major Contributor
51 Club

Trad Jazz.
The 51 Jazz Club of Cornwall opens every Sunday lunch-time at The Smugglers Inn St Erth Praze. Local and travelling bands. They also have sessions held in The Union Hotel, Chapel Street, Penzance.
I will try and find more details for this year.
 

treeve

Major Contributor
Ronnie Scott's

London's Hot Night Spot. Ronnie Scott.
This place is synonymous with jazz at its best.
The website includes FAQ, such as public transport.
http://www.ronniescotts.co.uk/
Not a 'cheap night out'.
Go on, give yourself a treat.
I intend to get down.

Can't remember all the bands, but there was Irakere and Maynard Ferguson
 
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treeve

Major Contributor
USB Internet Radio Player

Further to Post #11.
Just got Xtreme ... hit me with that dongle stick!
USB Internet Radio Player and Recorder

Picks up all internet radio references all over the world.
Thousands of them.
So ... over 700 jazz stations.
And the PC is now plugged into the HIFI System.

You can search by genre, or any other parameter, for that matter.

One strong tip, however. Do not start any audio system software such as a burner, while it is running. If it wants to open Windows Media, it will, or iPlayer. It also occasionally opens a separate Explorer Window, that uses Media Player. Use it, but if you do not let the Xtreme do the job, it can seize up the computer. It saves files as WMA. The conflict occurs with different software attempts to contact the web at the same time; the music being streamed, it does not allow other inputs easily, especially when recording to file.
 

treeve

Major Contributor
Suggested Listening

Anna Maria Jopek [that j is Polish 'y']
She will take you and calm your troubled brow with the smoothest Jazz singing ever. Mostly sung in Polish, but does sing in English.
An internationally acclaimed performer. She sings in perfect synchronisation with her accompanists, whether that be band, guitarist, percussionist. There are two albums of her thirteen albums that I do not yet have. Every one is a mystery unveiled, a new landscape to explore. She has 'even' performed with Sweet Noise. The latest album I have is 'id' gentle Afro-Arabic rhythms and harmonies; Branford Marsalis as a bonus.
Pure Dreamlands ....
http://www.annamariajopek.pl/en/index.html
As I write, I discover she has a new album in the stores .... Heaven.
 

treeve

Major Contributor
Announcements

Guitar Concert with Pete Berryman (Keith Marshall percussion) 7.30pm 5th February 2010, St Blazey Church
[free admission/collection] - curry after at home ....
http://www.peterberryman.com

TOMORROW [Sunday] Lunch time
Sancreed Swing
31 Jan 2010, 12:30pm at The Union Hotel
Chapel Street, PENZANCE
Jam with Le Gypsy Jazz Quintet
 
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