Thursday 25th

The high-pitched ka-mate ka-mates at the end of that movie clip are a world away from the chest-thumping throat-slitting war dance of the modern era.

My chosen Miles Davis recording would be ‘On Green Dolphin Street’. It’s the Kind Of Blue quintet with Bill Evans on piano. I had the tune for many years as the first track on the ‘Someday My Prince Will Come’ […]

I had to search it, Clegg right?

Paging Dr. Freud!

I’d take Miles, cos in taking Mr. D I’d also get Coltrane, Bill Evans, Herbie, Wayne, Ron and Tony, Joe Z, Chick and Jarrett, McLaughlin and Cobham, Holland and DeJohnette, Marcus Miller, Cyndi Lauper and Scritti […]

Just a great song – here, with a full band

It says here: Named after the Roman goddess of love, the Mound of Venus is a fleshy area found at the base of the thumb on the palm. It represents our desires, passions, sensuality, and emotional nature. The size, […]

Don Juan could have been the natural follow-up to The Hissing Of Summer Lawns. In fact, the exotic instrumentation of tracks like ‘The Tenth World’ and ‘Dreamland’ have their origins on Hissing. Dreamland was […]

Good list, thanks. For Ry, I would have chosen his solo on Lipstick Sunset. The perfect solo. How about Manny Charlton? Woke Up This Morning or This Flight Tonight And I know there’s not much love for TTB on […]

Porter, good call. Always loved his work with Dr John, especially the Desitively Bonaroo album. Tower of Power took the JB template and funked it up to the max.

Nice bit of slapping there. Which brings us neatly to Mr Thunderthumb himself, Mark King. No Level 42 here, though. This was MK’s only contribution to Nik Kershaw’s album The Riddle. You’ve probably never heard […]

No such list complete without some ‘Nard

Worth a listen just to hear Kirsty say some of Malcolm Tucker’s choicest jibes.

Yes mate, not even his main instrument. Love his playing though. Was listening to ‘Diary’ just yesterday.

A few more worthy of mention: Victor Feldman Chick Corea Herbie Hancock Lyle Mays Laura Nyro Aretha Franklin George Duke Ralph Towner Michael Omartian

My other current favourite act is Sons of Townhall, a marvellously fun acoustic duo with some of the sweetest songs I’ve heard for ages.

In the house and given time to listen I’ll invariably go to my vinyl collection, which is 99% 60s and 70s, 0.9% 80s and 90s and 0.1% 21st C. In the car, it’s a different matter because I keep all my new music on […]

(BC is second left, I’m on the right) 12 years ago (I think it was) we had our very first NZ Mingle, in the corner of a pub in Auckland city decked out as a library. Me, BC, Fraser and a couple of other guys who, […]