Isomatic UK Weblog

I am a very lucky man, still very happily married after 42 years (see picture). Many men tell me how lucky I am to have such a lovely wife. I have just asked Selina what advice she would give to a young man contemplating marriage. Her answer was "Don't do it !"
Let me expand on this by saying that, in the likely event of marital breakdown, the odds are now so stacked against the husband that he will always emerge the loser. Even a pre-nuptial agreement appears to mean little in the UK. The politicians have gone so far to seek the female vote that the law discourages men from marriage. I have said in a previous post that the law also discourages the employment of women of child-bearing age. All this bias in favour of women is self-defeating.

Labels: Grumpy

After a long day at Bournemouth Court, where I was appearing as a witness, we drove directly to the Berrylands Hotel in Surbiton, to eat and see the Magna jazz band. Most of the regular musicians were absent, the line-up being Denny Ilett (cornet, pictured), Dave Hewett (trombone, pictured), John Elmer (clarinet, alto sax, vocal, pictured), Paul Sealey (guitar, pictured), Richard Lyons (string bass) and Rex Bennett (drums). They played amazingly well together, considering that they hardly know each other. Favourite numbers were:
'Strutting With Some Barbecue' in Bossa Nova Style, something of which Brian White would not approve;
'Back O'Town Blues', played mainly as an improvisation;
'Singin' the Blues', written by Sam Lewis, Joe Young, Con Conrad and J. Russel Robinson and recorded by Frankie Trumbauer and Bix Beiderbecke in 1927.;
John's feature, duetting with Paul, 'Avalon';
Paul's feature 'Stomping At The Savoy', Words & Music by Benny Goodman, Edgar Samson, Andy Razaf & Chick Webb.
As we were dressed for court, Frances was impressed that I was wearing a suit and tie. Peter Winn was absent so he did not have the disappointment of seeing Selina in trousers.

Labels: Jazz

This evening we saw the Mike Piggott trio with Nils Solberg and Peter Morgan, at the Cricketers in Horsell Birch, Woking. Once again this group provided fine swinging jazz with every number enjoyable and played inventively. I wrote down 16 favourite numbers, i.e. most of them, so I will just mention those we don't remember hearing from them in the past:
'Manoir De Mes Reves' by Django Reinhardt;
Nils' vocal 'The Frim Fram Sauce', composed by by Joe Ricardel with lyrics by Redd Evans and made famous by Nat King Cole;
Peter & Nils' duet 'The 5 O'clock Whistle', by Gene Irwin, Josef Myrow and Kim Gannon and recorded by Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller and Ella Fitzgerald;
Nils' vocal 'Chicken Rhythm', by Slim Gaillard.
I spoke briefly to Peter Morgan, the most creative bass player we know. He has a second web site in addition to the link above; Cowrie Bay.
Axel was back from California, providing plenty of amusement during the early period when we would otherwise be alone. We tried to interest him in various women but he is faithful to Dawn. Brian and Tony joined us later. Selina and Tony were having fits of laughter later in the evening; something to do with a fish dish being eaten at the table behind us.

Labels: Jazz

This evening we went to The Europa in East Molesey to see the Urban Gin House Band. The line-up comprised Alan Brock (trumpet, vocals), Mark Aston (tenor sax, trombone, pictured), Andrew Clancy (keyboard, pictured), Mike Bennett (bass) and Mike Knipe (drums). Our favourite numbers with these musicians were:
'There Will Never Be Another You', 'I Cover The Waterfront', 'Deed I Do' and, best of all, the improvisation 'UGH Blues', complete with impromptu vocal from Alan.
Guests were:
John Shepherd (trumpet), Tim Waites (trombone) and Francis (alto sax) playing ' Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got That Swing' and 'Out Of Nowhere'.
Fred Shaw (cornet), Roy Stokes (trombone), Francis (sax) and Aileen May (bass) playing 'I Want a Big Butter and Egg Man' and (with Fred singing) 'Black and Blue'.
Roland (tenor sax), and Peter Tallent playing 'Undecided'.
Francis with Mark playing 'Work Song'.
Unusually we had no keyboard playing in the breaks.

Labels: Jazz

This evening we went to Guildford's Odeon cinema to see the new Cohen Brothers film Burn After Reading. I thought it was the best Cohen effort since 'Fargo', my favourite still being 'Miller's Crossing'. Selina did not enjoy any of them; all too violent for her. This latest film introduces several story lines with different characters and gradually weaves them together in a mostly believable way. The exception is George Clooney meeting Frances McDormand; unlikely. Cosmo Landesman in the Sunday Times was very critical of 'Burn After Reading', proving again that this man's taste is completely opposite from mine. He was once married to Julie Burchill, which proves my point.

Labels: Film

Some people seem unable to accept that, to first second or third approximation, all UK enterprises are small. From the official statistics; distribution of enterprises by employment size band shows that 89.0 % had less than 10 employees, and 98.1 % had less than 50 employees. So-called large enterprises - those with 250 or more employees - accounted for only 0.4 %.

I cannot find a statistic for the number of really large organisations but even the FTSE 250 includes many that are not huge. I conclude that there are a few hundred at most, compared with millions of businesses in total (7 million ?). The percentage is therefore around 0.003 %

This disparity will increase as large companies shrink or disappear and many more small enterprises start up.

Labels: Grumpy

This evening we went to the Berrylands Hotel in Surbiton, for Brian White's Magna jazz band, with the standard line-up. The picture shows Alan Dandy playing a medley of two requests: Sigmund Romberg's beautiful 'Softly as a Morning Sunrise' and Fats Waller's 'Honeysuckle Rose'. Other numbers that we particularly enjoyed were as follows:
'When You and I were Young Maggie', originally a poem from Ontario by George Washington Johnson, imagining growing old with his fiancee Margaret Clark. Sadly, Maggie died on 12 May 1865, only 7 months after their marriage. James Austin Butterfield, set the poem to music in 1866.
'The Texas Moaner', by Clarence Williams, the first pairing of Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet on record. I would love to have that in my collection. The Magna band played it with great solos on cornet and trombone.
'Perdido Street Blues', by Lil Hardin; first recorded by Johnny Dodds and his New Orleans Wanderers in 1926.
'Clarinet Marmalade', by Larry Shields and Henry Ragas from the Original Dixieland Jazz Band.

Labels: Jazz

This evening we saw the Panama Cafe Orchestra at the Cricketers in Horsell Birch, Woking. The band comprised Dave Lowe (cornet, vocals), Richard White (clarinet, alto sax, baritone sax,
vocals), Chris Lowe (trombone, vocals), Graham Collicott (grand percussion), Chris Houslander (sousaphone) and Dave Griffiths (banjo).
The picture shows Graham's equipment, which he insists I do not call a drum kit. It is certainly a different set-up from that usually associated with jazz.

The band's first full number was 'Panama', which Chris insists on incorrectly calling 'Panama Rag' just to annoy me. Panama is a jazz standard, composed by William H. Tyers, published in 1912 and originally entitled 'Panama, a Characteristic Novelty'. The original tango or maxie rhythm is usually discarded in favour of 4/4 time but can still be detected in some versions, such as the early recording by Johnny DeDroit's Band. Some later generations (young lads like Chris perhaps ?) have confused it with Panama Rag, a totally different, rather obscure, ragtime number composed by Charles Seymour in 1904. This lesser known number was recorded by the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra and was reportedly played by Buddy Bolden when the tune was new. I rest my case, with due acknowledgment to Google, Wikipedia and all other sources.
Chris also thinks every blues must be of the 12 bar variety; wrong again. An eight bar blues is a typical blues chord progression, taking eight 4/4 bars to the verse. 'How Long Blues', 'Trouble in Mind' and 'Ain't Nobody's Business' are fine examples of eight-bar blues standards.
At our table were Brian Hicks, George Eatwell and Tony Aycliffe. Much amusement was generated by both waiters studiously avoiding George's imperious summons to serve him. I (quietly and politely) ordered the Cricketers' spare ribs for the first time. They were superb; tender, tasty and lots of them. I have suffered too long from the memory of dreadful spare ribs in Kingston; that restaurant did not survive.
At Tony's request, the young lady that Axel described as 'cute' has introduced herself as 'Jill'. Now that we have two Jills we have to distinguish them without giving in to the obvious old Jill and young Jill ! Axel should be back next week so will need to be updated with all this vital information.

Labels: Jazz

This evening we went to The Europa in East Molesey to see the Urban Gin House Band. The line-up comprised Alan Brock (trumpet), Les Dyos (trombone, pictured), Alan Dandy (keyboard), Mike Bennett (bass) and Eddie Kettle (drums, pictured).
Our favourite numbers with this line-up were:
'Buddy Bolden's Blues', composed by Jelly Roll Morton, vocal by Alan Brock;
'Meditation' played in Latin-American style;
'Million Dollar Secret', unknown to us but apparently composed by Helen Humes, who sang with Count Basie's band for 3 years;
Alan Dandy's beautiful feature 'Blues in the Night', (see last Thursday's post).
Guests were:
John Shepherd (pocket trumpet), Trevor Dockerill (clarinet) and Roland (tenor sax), playing 'Satin Doll' and, with Aileen May (string bass), 'Honeysuckle Rose';
Fred Shaw (cornet) and Peter Clancy (trombone) with Trevor and Aileen, playing 'I Wanna Little Girl' and 'Mandy, Make Up Your Mind';
Ray Lindsay (tenor sax) playing 'There Will Never be Another You' and 'Lover Man'.
Colin Lewry played keyboard during the breaks.

Labels: Jazz

This evening we went to the Berrylands Hotel in Surbiton, for Brian White's Magna jazz band, with the standard line-up. The picture shows Brian enjoying his vocal 'Dinah'. Other numbers that we particularly enjoyed were:
'Pleading For The Blues', origin unknown to me;
'Coquette', composed by Carmen Lombardo, Gus Kahn and Johnny Green, made famous in 1930 by Bix BeiderBecke;
'Weeping Willow Blues', written by Blind Boy Fuller almost 100 years ago and made famous by Bessie Smith;
'Blue Turning Grey', written by Fats Waller and Andy Razaff, then played by everybody;
'The Old Stack o'Lee Blues', commemorating the killing of Billy Lyons by Lee Shelton in 1895 ("Stack o'Lee he shot Billy........"), the 1928 version recorded by Mississippi John Hurt being generally considered definitive;
and Alan Dandy's great keyboard solo, Harold Arlen's 'Blues In The Night'.
Once again we suffered from talking during the last of these. Why can't they keep their mouths shut for just 5 minutes ?
The audience was surprisingly small, increasing our chances of winning the raffle. Sure enough, Selina (in the lucky seat) won second and third prizes, although she asked Brian to draw prize 3 again as she had already won.

Labels: Jazz

This evening we went to The Europa in East Molesey to see the Urban Gin House Band. The line-up comprised Alan Brock (trumpet), Bernie Holden (alto sax, clarinet, pictured), Alan Dandy (keyboard), Mike Bennett (bass) and Eddie Kettle (drums, in background of picture).
Our favourite numbers with this line-up were:
'My Romance' by Richard Rodgers, to which we danced;
'Tea For Two' composed by Vincent Millie Youmans, reminding me of Tommy Dorsey's 'Tea For Two Cha Cha' to which I danced in 1960 with my then dance partner Margaret, who did not fancy me;
Alan Dandy's beautiful feature 'Here Comes That Rainy Day', about which I know nothing.
Guests were:
Fred Shaw (cornet), Trevor Dockerill (clarinet) and Roy Stokes (trombone), playing 'Hindustan' and, with Fred singing, 'Up a Lazy River';
John Shepherd (pocket trumpet), playing 'C'est Magnifique' and 'Paper Moon';
Roland (tenor sax) and Peter Tallent (trombone) playing 'All of Me' and 'Black and Blue'.
Colin Lewry played keyboard during the break.

Labels: Jazz

This evening we went to the Berrylands Hotel in Surbiton, for the Magna jazz band, the line-up being Pete Towndrow (cornet, trumpet, vocal), John Elmer (clarinet, alto sax, vocal, pictured), Mike Pointon (trombone, vocals, pictured), Alan Dandy (keyboard), Richard Lyons (string bass) and Rex Bennett (drums). The evening passed very quickly because we were enjoying ourselves so much. Favourite numbers were:
'Lonesome Road', about which I know nothing;
John's vocal 'New Orleans', composed by Hoagy Carmichael;
Mike's vocal 'Tishomingo Blues', composed by Spencer Williams, who eventually moved to England, marrying Pat Castleton and settling in Sunbury-on-Thames (our thanks to Mike for pointing us in the right direction for this snippet;
John's feature 'Elmer's Tune' Words & Music by Elmer Albrecht, Sammy Gallop & Dick Jurgens Recorded by Glenn Miller, 1939;
'At The Jazz Band Ball', written by the original Dixielanders Nick La Rocca and Larry Shields;
Mike's feature 'God Bless The Child', written by Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog Jr. in 1939, first recorded on May 9, 1941;
and best of all, Alan Dandy's wonderful keyboard solo 'Heliotrope Bouquet' (bunch of pale blue flowers) written by Scott Joplin & Louis Chauvin in 1907 but with additions by Dandy as usual. We noted that Alan, in true jazz fashion, never plays anything the same way twice.
Frances amused us by saying that she had arrived before 'the boys' to which I replied "you mean your boys". Peter, David and Peter are big boys now !

Labels: Jazz

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Today we have been enjoying the 2008 British Marine Electronics Association (BMEA) Conference at the Southampton Novotel (pictured). The presentations were all good but we particularly enjoyed:
'Investing - the Ideal World' by Martin Hurll of St. James Place Capital, who boosted our flagging morale with respect to the financial crisis;
'Selling to the UK and USA' by Nick Heyes of Marine Electronic Services Ltd., who described in great detail the wonders of West Marine, only to provide the punch line that he found its Ts & Cs to be unacceptable.
In the bar Tamzin Matthew, legal and Company Secretary at the British Maritime Federation, explained how, as members, we can get free legal advice. She observed that we were not serious drinkers as we were sipping our wine so slowly. I explained that at 5.15 pounds per glass we felt obliged to eke it out until called to the dinner.

Labels: drinking, Eating out, Travel, Water power, Wind power

This evening at The Cricketers in Horsell Birch we saw the Phil Brown Swingtet (pictured), comprising Phil Brown (trombone), Lester Brown (trumpet, flugel horn), Mark Aston (Tenor Sax, Alto Sax, Clarinet), Ken Ames (guitar), Andrew Clancy (keyboard), Mike Bennett (string bass) and David Clancy (drums). The first half seemed over in no time, proving that time flies when we are enjoying ourselves.
Numbers we particularly liked were:
'Perdido', composed by Duke Ellington's valve trombonist Juan Tizot;
Improvised number 'Credit Crunch Blues', without much laughter from the audience;
'Blue Bossa', composed by Trumpeter Kenny Dorham;
'Mood Indigo', composed by Barney Bigard, to which we danced;
'In a Mellow Tone', a 1939 jazz standard composed by Duke Ellington, with lyrics written by Milt Gabler.
Peter Clancy (pictured) sat in on trombone for:
'Georgia on my Mind', to which we danced and 'I Get the Blue When it Rains', with (unusually) Peter singing.
For us the greatest number, just as we were leaving, was Mark's feature 'Over The Rainbow', by Harold Arlen with lyrics by E.Y. Harburg, written for the movie The Wizard of Oz.

Labels: Jazz

This evening we saw Righteous Kill at the Guildford Odeon. Robert de Niro was great and Al Pacino was even better. However, as a film I am not so sure; it is a hard one to judge. It was never boring and suspended any disbelief but was vaguely unsatisfactory.

Labels: Film

This evening we went to the Berrylands Hotel in Surbiton, for Brian White's Magna jazz band, with the standard line-up. The picture shows Alan Dandy at the keyboard with Brian's glass of beer in the foreground. All the numbers played were good but we particularly enjoyed:
'CC Rider Blues' first recorded, and copyrighted, by Gertrude "Ma" Rainey in 1924;
'Christopher Columbus', composed by Berry & Amos, made famous by the Fletcher Henderson Band;
'Oh Baby', about which I know nothing;
'Melancholy Blues', probably best known as a Louis Armstrong number;
and Alan Dandy's great keyboard feature, his own composition, 'Down by the River'.

Labels: Jazz