'Queen Victoria' agaves in the "Desert Electric" sound & light show, Phoenix, 2018. The Jazz Club in my village withered on the vine, but a couple of residents meet for a Listening Pleasure session once a month or so. The topic this month is 'Fruit'. A few songs came to mind immediately, a few more…Read more Desert Electric
fusion
Mail Order Quarks
This Quark is far too handsome to be on mail order, I think. What the skibidi is this? An American band called French TV offering Star Trek characters by mail order? No, it's just a tongue-in-cheek title for a 10-minute musical composition constructed in the Zappa mould. It's one of those slightly zany flights of…Read more Mail Order Quarks
Emergent
Who's emerging from the Gordian Knot? Emergent is the second album by Gordian Knot, a band with a fluid line-up assembled by Sean Malone in 1998. Malone was an exceptionally accomplished multi-instrumentalist, proficient on bass guitar (fretted and fretless), Chapman Stick, guitar and keyboards. He was the American equivalent of the UK's Steven Wilson. As…Read more Emergent
Vertú
Vertuous living in Chaucer's England The meaning of 'vertú' is not clear to me. According to the first entry that comes up in a Google search, it's either "knowledge of or expertise in the fine arts" or "the good qualities inherent in a person or thing". Or it might just be an old spelling of…Read more Vertú
The New Normal
There's an important prerequisite for readers of this post: you must have a Good Sense Of Humour. You will need to take track titles such as Stroboscopic Fennel, Bach Stabber and Stupid Pop Song in your stride if you are going to enjoy this latest collection of prog/fusion pieces from Trifecta. We met Trifecta in…Read more The New Normal
Blood In The Water
Ian Anderson, Al Di Meola, Leslie Mandoki, Richard Bona In 1992, László "Leslie" Mándoki, a Hungarian drummer and producer, started his Soulmates project. The original line-up was: Ian Anderson (flute, vocals), Jack Bruce (bass, vocals), Al Di Meola (guitar) and Leslie Mandoki himself (drums, vocals). That's plenty to justify a post in these pages. But…Read more Blood In The Water
Fragments
If you live in the U.S. or Australia, you may be familiar with the word 'trifecta'. It's a type of bet in which the punter predicts the first three finishers in a horse race, in the right order. But this Old Man is not interested in horses or gambling and, anyway, here in the U.K.…Read more Fragments
Malice in Wonderland
The malicious Queen of Hearts It seems to me that almost all committees are dysfunctional. As soon as you get more than 3 or 4 people together round a table, opinions fly across the room in all directions, and the substance of the discussion dies in the crossfire. In theory, the meeting comes to a…Read more Malice in Wonderland
Solstein
Viking sunstone 'Solstein' is the Norwegian for 'sunstone', a birefringent form of calcite. It may have been used by the Vikings for navigation in mediaeval times, although that idea is still little more than speculation, as this article on the Wikipedia wiki explains. "It permits the observer to follow the azimuth of the sun, far…Read more Solstein
The Fusion Syndicate
Inside the tokamak There are no prizes for guessing why I have chosen this 2012 album to grace the pages of the Crotchety Man blog. Just look at this partial list of artists: Billy Cobham Mel Collins Larry Coryell Colin Edwin John Etheridge Jerry Goodman Gavin Harrison Percy Jones Theo Travis Rick Wakeman And that's…Read more The Fusion Syndicate
Crotchety Man 