Over the last week I've been listening to this 2011 cd by Tommy Smith and the Youth Jazz Orchestra.
Tommy Smith is one of, if not the, hardest working Jazz musicians in Scotland today. His encouragement of young Jazz musicians is a great encouragement to many and has resulted in many fine recordings.
Of special note on this disc I would mention the version of the Flintstones theme, which is filled with life and energy, surely the only appropriate way to cover such a ya-ba-da-ba-doo tune. The version of 'Take The A Train', the Billy Strayhorn/Duke Ellington standard is a highlight on the disc.
If you don't think you like Jazz try this disc and you will find you do. I would also encourage you, once you try this disc and discover Tommy's music look out for other discs such as Torah, and the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra Rhapsody In Blue Live and too many other Tommy Smith recordings to mention here.
Get the disc, enjoy the groove, love the music.
The Journey is the eighth album by Stuart Townend, one of the most popular Christian hymn writers of our generation.
Those who know his most recent albums:
2 disc The Best of Stuart Townend There Is A Hope Creation Sings
will be in for a surprise with this set. There are none of the loud electric chords, none of the easy to learn by average congregation songs that we've grown to know and love. This disc is indeed a journey, a journey into at times folk, celtic, cajin, roots styles of music. The style may be different but it's still worship.
The second track 'O my soul, arise and bless your maker' is a wonderful version of a track which appears on disc 1 of the Best of Stuart Towned. Given a lively, fresh make over this is a super track.
Then 'By Faith', which I awared worship song of the year 2009. Compare this version with that on Awaken The Dawn by Keith and Kirstyn Getty and you'll see the difference. Gone are the striden, marching beats of this confident song to be replaced with a happy accoustic rhythm which I don't think does justice to the song.
I like 'Vagabonds' and and 'You rescued us' and really enjoy the reworking of the old favourite 'It Is Well With My Soul'. The Celtic influences come out strongly on 'Christ Be In My Waking'.
All in all a good set, but different from previous discs.
Read what Stuart has to say about The Journey - here.
I've been listening to the new Tim Hughes album Love Shine Through and would recommend it to you all.
This set doesn't have the same energy as the live Happy Days disc, but the quality of the song writing and the music more than make up.
I especially like the thread running through the disc focusing about the 'name' - God's name, his name.
The opening track 'Counting On Your Name':
first line - 'My name is written on your hands' matches the chorus 'I'm counting on Your name'. My name and all that I am depending upon Your name and all that you are.
Mid way through, 'At Your Name [Forever]' we are encouraged to shout the name of the Lord, Yahweh, the endless name that deserves endless praise. And this song, co-written with the excellend Phil Wickham closes the set at the end of the disc.
You can't do better than meditate upon God's name and Tim's music will help you do this. So a big thanks to Tim, and everyone else - buy the disc and worship his Name.
At the Frenzy festival on 12 June i was able to go and hear Phil Wickham - a really great set of worship songs.
What struck my was the content of Phil's songs so often dealt with themes of heaven and glory, and my high trained heresy radar didn't go off once, unlike spending a whole week at the General Assembly. In general I find it rare that Christians talk about heaven without falling into some error or other, but Phil has managed it.
More importantly the songs are really good, full of energy and life. I would highly commend Phil and his music if you get the change to hear him. I picked up two cds, Cannons and Heaven And Earth. At present my favourite songs are 'Beautiful' and 'True Love' from Cannons and 'In Your City' and 'Because of Your Love' from Heaven and Earth (although all of Heaven and Earth is just great).
Tomorrow John and I are heading up to Edinburgh for two days of music and worship.
Tomorrow evening is the Heart for Haiti concert with Stuart Townend and Brenton Brown, and others. On Saturday we'll be at the final Frenzy festival.
The rest of our Ignite group at St Ninians are coming and I'm sure I'll meet up with lots of folks there.
I'm looking forward to spending some time with Ian and Jackie in Penicuik. A good time will be had by all.
When I remember I listen to Paul Jones' Radio 2 show on Monday night, 7 pm, web page here.
A few weeks back Paul had a two show session from Joe Bonamassa which was great. So I bought the new cd while on holiday at Easter time.
If you like blues, blues/rock, guitar music with a great beat, this is a good disc and a great sound. Well worth a listen.
Thanks to Paul Jones for pointing me in this direction.
Friday, 2 April 2010
I've been listening to this EST album today, Live at Hamburg.
EST = Esbjörn Svensson Trio, a Swedish Jazz trio who were one of the great Jazz trio's of the period 1993 to 2008 when Esbjörn Svensson tragically was killed in a scuba diving accident.
This is the Trio's second last album release, as the title suggests recorded live in Hamburg, only to be followed by their final recording Leucocyte.
The Trio have played together for a long time and that really pays dividends in their live work. Dan Berglund's bass is at times pounding, at others mellow and Magnus Öström's drumming is a wonderful thing of beauty. Esbjörn Svensson leads the Trio from the piano with wonderfully inventive runs and jumps around the key board.
If you want to listen to contemporary European Jazz I can't think of anywhere better to start. If you are just getting into Jazz try the Trio's 1996 disc EST Plays Monk, an easier way in.
Tomorrow is the day! The day to start downloading the Delirious? song History Makers.
There is a web site http://www.invadetheairwaves.org.uk/ with information on this campaign to have a Christian song at No 1 for Easter Sunday. The band have agreed that all the proceeds from the sales of this song are to be donated through Compassion Art to 16 charitable projects around the world.
You can download the song from:
iTunes
amazon
7digital
play
hmc
tescoentertainment
There are two versions, one live and one studio, you can download one of each and both will count towards the one chart position. So go on, especially if you've never downloaded a song before - download this one! And if you want a sneek preview here is a uTube clip ...
I've just been watching some programmes on Prog Rock on BBC4 (this freeview is great). I've been reminded just how fantastic this music is. If it ain't prog ... it don't rock!
Just in case you're not persuaded here is a clip of Yes playing 'And You and I' live at Montreux 2003, enjoy.
I've pressed shuffle on my iPod and here are the first ten tracks it selected:
1. John Coltrane ‘I Hear A Rhapsody’ Lush Life 2. Buena Vista Social Club ‘YTu Que Has Hecho?’ Buena Vista Social Club 3. Bruce Cockburn ‘Use Me While You Can’ Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu 4. Rick Wakeman ‘A Prayer For All’ Prayers 5. Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood ‘Sleeping In The Ground’ Live From Madison Square Gardens 6. Colin Towns Mask Orchestra ‘Strange Circus’ Nowhere and Heaven 7. Phil Cillins ‘I Missed Again’ Face Value 8. Norah Jones ‘Lonestar’ Come Away With Me 9. Queen ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ News Of The World 10. Bruce Cockburn ‘Open’ You’ve Never Seen Everything
Quite a jazzy selection, but on the whole not bad.What are the first ten your iPod picks for you?
I'm following up on a comment and suggestion from a good friend, who to protect the guilty, I shall call Ichabod (sniff, sniff).
On my earlier post on classic album covers, Ichabod noticed an ommission and has suggested the following:
I'm sure this is a good album (??), but not a classic cover. I had an album in the early 1970's with a considerably more classic cover:What a photo, what a team. There are all there, the Rangers greats from 1972:
The Royal Mail have issued a set of postage stamps featuring classic album covers - see here.
The idea is not that these are necessarily the best albums, but that the covers have an iconic status. I guess they must have agreed not to include Sergent Pepper.
I've come up with five, in no particular order.
1. Yes Relayer
Not the best Yes album, but one of the finest Roger Dean covers. Dean created a look for Yes albums which always made, and still makes, them stand out as a Yes album.
2. Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon
The Royal Mail are using Division Bell, but I think the minimalism and starkness of Dark Side has the edge. There is a connection between this vivid image the music presented on this classic album contained behind a classic cover.
3. Queen Live Killers
This cover portrays the energy and excitement of the Live Killers tour, I was fortunate enough to see the Live Killers tour in Glasgow in Dec 1979. One of the truly great live albums and the cover really lets you know that.
4. The Rolling Stones Only Rock 'n' Roll
Perhaps an unusual choice, but this image shouts Rolling Stones. The crowd, dressed in flimsy clothing all focused upon the images of the band, just reaching the bottom of that impressive staircase with its red carpet. A marvellous image for a 1970's rock band.
5. Led Zeppelin In Through The Out Door
The Royal Mail are using Led Zepplin IV (or whatever its called) on a stamp. I've chosen this cover as a classic example of big band whimsy. The first image shows the outer, brown paper cover (my copy didn't have the Japanese side bar), I think the idea was that this would be discarded to reveal the inner cover - but most people kept the whole thing in the brown paper bag. The inner cover is a sepia tone image of someone in a bar, like Rick's Cafe from Casablanca. This is another image that really goes with the contents of the album.
I found this quite difficult, it is hard to separate the cover from the music and so difficult not to pick your favourite albums and assume the cover is a classic. What would your top five be?
I've just found a free download from the Worship Central team - an unplugged set of six songs - you can download it here.
Worship Central // Unplugged is a brand new acoustic recording featuring Tim Hughes, Al Gordon, Ben Cantelon and Nikki Fletcher, available today to download for free. Songs include 'God of All', 'Glory in the Highest' and 'Remember' as well as a new arrangement of a classic hymn, 'On Christ The Solid Rock'.
The album was recorded in an amazing old church called St Peter's in the centre of Brighton, off the back of the 2009 UK tour, which saw over 8,000 worshippers gather across the UK. The Worship Central band for the recording included percussionists Ben Bryant (Worship Central) and Jez Wiles (Imogen Heap), cellist Squiff Wordsworth (We Play Parties), and Ben Cantelon (used to be in a boy band) switching between keys and worship leading, alongside Tim Hughes, Al Gordon and Nikki Fletcher.
Tim Hughes writes, "We are so grateful to everyone who has been a part of the Worship Central adventure in 2009, and we thought it would be fun to just get together with some friends, worship and give the recording away for free. Enjoy!"
The track listing is: 1 // God of All // Ben Cantelon 2 // On Christ the Solid Rock // Tim Hughes 3 // Remember// Nikki Fletcher 4 // I Love the King // Tim Hughes 5 // Glory in the Highest// Al Gordon 6 // Amazing Love // Tim Hughes
A list before Christmas. These are my ten of the best from this year over various categories and in no particular order:
1. Best CD.
Fred Drummond recommended this disc to me and I bought it at Keswick in the summer, it really is great and very highly commended.
2. Best project. I've really enjoyed getting involved in the biblefresh project with the EA and the Bible Society. This is a very exciting opportunity in 2011 to celebrate the bible in English and to engage others with the bible during that year. Check out the web site from Jan 2010 - http://www.biblefresh.com/
3. Most challenging book. I've got three books on the list. The first one is Red Mood Rising by Pete Greig and Dave Roberts.
I want to learn to pray like this, I want to live in that place where pray is not something I do, but how I live.
This is not a book to read and put down, you really should read it and allow it to challenge your life.
4. Best gadget. This is an old one. My 30gb ipod classic. I got it at Christmas 2006 and love it to bits. If only all gadgets were this useful.
5. Church law book. There are not a lot of contenders in this category, but even if there were, my friend Marjory's book would still come out near the top.
An analysis of Church State relations which offers not only a new reading of the 1921 settlement, the role of the covenanters and the Confession of Faith in the Church State question. But best of all, the idea of diaconal sovereignty, a servent exercise of sovereignty which is not about rights, but service.
6. Wii game. I tried for six months and both heirs, senior and junior, said together, that will be a rubbish game dad. When I bought Fifa 09 for myself I found I couldn't get near it for the two of them who decided it really was a great game. So it is, why would you want to up grade to Fifa 10? And for all you Rangers fans out there, it is worth it just to play Rangers and make Kris Boyd sprint for a whole game!!
7. Best song. At Keswick we learned the song, 'By faith we see the hand of God'. I enjoy singing this song and rejoice in all that it affirms.
8. Best Greek Grammar book. Again not a big category. But for all you Wenham students who want to take your Greek a bit further, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics by Daniel B Wallace is very highly recommended.
9. Best worship event.
In October, just a few days before senior heir needed his appendix removed, we went to the Worship Central tour event in Dunfermline. It was a great night and very challenging in the area of creativity and church life/ministry.
10. Best anniversary.
It was the St Ninians 125th, but the prize in this category has to go to John Calvin as we celebrated the 500th anniversary of his birth in July, with a cake and a book.
Janice Forsyth on Radio Scotland has been playing this single for the past month. The video of The Law performing Television Satellite is just great. I hope you enjoy it. Is this the best view of Dundee ever?
I'm sure this is a good album (??), but not a classic cover. I had an album in the early 1970's with a considerably more classic cover:
What a photo, what a team. There are all there, the Rangers greats from 1972:
