Jazz feast

Another damp grey day, but after lunch I made an effort to walk into town, and take photos of the latest changes to the layout of the public realm areas of Castle Street. The road closure still continues, although the sheltered dining area down the middle has now been removed. The carriageway has been narrowed, with one complete lane turned into a raised yellow coloured pavement extension on the side where there are several pubs. The same is happening in Westgate Street too outside licensed premises, so that chairs and tables can be laid out for outdoor drinkers. Indoors, everyone has to be seated, so making a properly delineated space where people can stand or sit in the street makes sense. Heaven help passing pedestrians.

This year's Winter Wonderland year end funfair has been relocated from the lawns in front of City Hall and the National Museum to the Castle interior and the open area in front. The grass is boarded over and cordoned with fencing, and there's a large bar/restaurant at the east end corner, all themed as an alpine ski village, with small chalets along the wall next to it, to provide sheltered dining and drinking spaces. It's all very nicely done. Inside the Castle are a selection of popular rides its been possible to make covid safe, plus a large fenced off oval with a raised walkway, which was intended to be iced over for skaters to use. A nice idea, but it failed understandably on health and safety grounds. Treating anyone who had an accident would be a nightmare in present circumstances for first responders.

I bought some packs of Christmas cards, then headed for home in the drizzle. I'm several weeks earlier in making a start on the annual round of festive greetings, although Clare was ahead of me by several days, and was ordering presents on-line when I got back. I began thinking about our annual family news letter, and spent the evening making a first draft, while watching music programmes on BBC Four. One was a contemporary re-take on the old Jazz 365 programme from the days of black and white 1970's TV telling the story of a British Jazz renaissance happening now, thanks to a community of young black musicians, male and female, mostly based in South East London. It was an amazing hour and a half of superb original music, innovative in combinations of style, cultural influences and use of instruments.

The music making was polished and adventurous, full of joyful energy. In the concert footage shown, the audience was on its feet dancing, participating with gusto, rather than still and silently attentive. It could have been a rave or a rock concert, and illustrates a big difference in the way jazz is appreciated today, and the audience for these performances are mostly teens and young adults. I recall reading an article on the new East London jazz scene a year ago. This is the first chance I've had to listen to the music. It was most impressive.

The programme following this was a documentary on the life and music of trumpeter Miles Davis told by several of his musical contemporaries, and using texts from his personal journal. So many pieces of his recordings played in between interviews I remember vividly, having heard them in my late teens at the home of our local scoutmaster, when I first became a fan of his. Love of Jazz ran in the family, even though we didn't have a record player that took LPs when I was growing up. When I was in Ibiza, Owain sent me a couple of Miles' albums in MP3 format, music unheard for fifty years. Tonight there was more of it, More joy, even though it meant going to bed later than usual.