Carpets and jazz...

Playlist
Van Der Graaf Generator – The Box (Disc 1)
Cloudland Blue Quartet – Acoustic Deeperdown
Magellan – Symphony For A Misanthrope
The Bad Plus – Motel
Reid Anderson – Dirty Show Tunes
Reid Anderson –Abolish Bad Architecture
Cloudland Blue Quartet – Five Acoustic Songs

Started the day listening to more Van der Graaf Generator whilst surfing the net and catching up on blogs. On e-bay, I bought Dream Theater’s last album, inspired by a review I read on a site I found (http://www.studiomlive.com/) whilst searching for info on VDGG...

I re-listened to the CBQ “Acoustic Deeperdown” with fresh ears this morning and it actually sounds quite good – could be a release? Compiled a five song “demo” from this, to send off re a possible Fringe gig...

We had breakfast as we waited for the arrival of the carpet – anytime between 9 and 1 they said....

Anne watched the Hearts DVD, “Glorious”, while I listened to some new CDs which the postie delivered from e-bay:-

Magellan – Symphony For A Misanthrope
The Bad Plus – Motel
Reid Anderson – Dirty Show Tunes
Reid Anderson –Abolish Bad Architecture
Reid Anderson – The Vastness of Space

The carpet men arrived around 10:30 or so and, within an hour they had done their job and left....

And so the huge task of putting everything back into the room started – initially with the building of the sofa bed, which we placed in the middle of the floor and added things around it. We decided to leave around a third of my CDs downstairs, which frees up some space and left two walls entirely free...

But there’s still loads of stuff to be accommodated and we agreed to go back to Ikea tomorrow to get some “nice” shelves and more, “nicer” storage boxes for all my nonsense – my problem is I hardly ever throw anything away – our attic is full to overflowing of old pieces of equipment and tons of pieces of paper with scribblings on them....

Maybe what I need is a super fast scanner so I can scan all my old stuff and take it all to the dump?

At 4pm we watched Germany’s destruction of Sweden in the first of the knock out games at the World Cup – I bet England were mighty relieved on the evidence of this game that they managed to scrape to the top of their group and avoid the Germans....

Then Doctor Who – probably the worst episode of the two new series so far – but it looks like the Cybermen will return next week for the first of an end of series two parter...

At 8, we started watching Argentina v Mexico – 1-1 after just 10 minutes and looked to be shaping up for a cracking match – but I had said to my “step-second-cousins”, John and Billy Fleming two weeks ago, that I’d be along to see them tonight playing with Tommy Smith’s Youth Jazz Orchestra at The Lot in the Grassmarket...

“A band of the most talented young Scottish players of today, handpicked and directed by Tommy Smith. With a repertoire that ranges from Basie and Ellington to Mingus and Gil Evans, this is a band that revels in precision ensemble playing and bristles with good young soloists.”



The band of just over twenty kids aged around 15-22 were quite brilliant – what a refreshing change to see young people using their talents instead of being sullen wee bastards who just annoy everyone with their chav/ned-like ways....

Stand out players for me were the rhythm section of drums, bass, guitar and piano, with the drummer and bassist playing almost continuously. The rest of the band featured both at the start and end of each piece and while taking extended or sometimes short solos mid number...

There was also a young vocalist who’s off to Berklee soon for a music scholarship – he was good – but, as I’ve said before – there is NO place in jazz for vocals....

Over two and a quarter hours, I think they only played about eight numbers with sometimes up to a dozen solos in each one...

A great night’s entertainment....

Back home, Anne did not reveal the Argentina v Mexico score and so I watched the highlights on ITV (I think their advert breaks are actually longer than their match highlights!!) – 2-1 to Argentina after extra time with a superb goal from Maxi being the difference between the teams...

And so my two favourites, Germany and Argentina will meet in the Quarter Finals...

Highlight of the Day : The superb skills of the Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra