Nightingale

We're off to the smoke for a couple of days to catch up with the visiting New York contingent of the family, where we'll be swapping the veritable cacophony of birdsong that currently forms the soundtrack of our lives here, for the more general cacophony that is London.

A recently arrived and very welcome visitor to these parts is a lone Nightingale who has taken up residence in the tree across the lane, from where he flits back and forth to our chimney, charming all and sundry with his astounding range of whistles and trills. Bit of a show-off really.

Saturday Scratch #26 - Hugh Mundell

In the Summer of 1977, Hugh Mundell stopped in at the Black Ark studio to record two sides with melodica genius Augustus Pablo in the producer's chair, 'Why Do Black Man Fuss & Fight' and today's featured tune, 'Let's All Unite'. Both cuts were released as singles and would eventually find their way onto the following year's LP, 'Africa Must Be Free By 1983'.

Hugh Mundell wrote his own songs and was already a remarkably assured artist by 1977, all the more remarkable when you consider that at the time of this recording he had only just turned 15 years of age. A friend, the toaster Jah Bull, describes Mundell as '...a very young youth at the time but a very serious youth. When I say serious I mean he was like a likkle man, not a likkle boy.'

In October 1983, Hugh Mundell's house in Kingston was burgled and while the guilty party was caught and jailed, the perpetrator's brother later confronted Mundell on the street, shooting and killing him.

Previously on Saturday Scratch.

The Rolling Stones

It's only Thursday morning and already there are discussions about the possible contents of The Rolling Stones setlist at Glastonbury this coming Saturday. Really? Surely it will be a crowd pleasing hits set - and why shouldn't it be? I don't foresee any Springsteen-style fan requests, magic-markered on pieces of cardboard, being gathered up by Mick for impromptu consideration. Nor any odd, painfully obscure, rarities appearing in the running order for the satisfaction (sorry) of Stones geeks and completists.

All that being said, if the band should unexpectedly lurch into the following tune on Saturday evening, this correspondent's ears would certainly prick up.

Down By the River

After the ankle returned to full working order, following my little mishap in April, I initially restricted myself to walking only on country lanes and paths - good solid flat surfaces that presented little risk of another painful twist. Gradually though, I've carefully reintroduced a series of favourite local circular walks that wander off-road and down along the uneven surfaces beside the river.

There's one particular spot on the riverbank that I can't pass without at least pausing for a moment, though quite often I will stand there in silent contemplation for several minutes. It's a very simple outlook along a straight passage of what otherwise is a fairly meandering river, but for some reason it rarely fails to imbue me with a tremendous sense of well-being. If my camera is to hand, I'll invariably take a photo in an attempt to capture the moment - and fail to completely. For this reason I have dozens of shots from the same spot. Here's yesterday evening's effort, not bad, but you should've been there.

Bobby 'Blue' Bland R.I.P.

One summer evening in 1982, at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, I had the great good fortune to spend some time in the company of Blues royalty in the form of a triple headed concert bill that featured B.B. King, John Lee Hooker and Bobby 'Blue' Bland. The three giants played individual sets, Hooker, beneath a single spotlight, on a bare stage with just his guitar and stamping foot for company, while King fronted a large, gregarious, well-groomed band, though in truth, it was Bland I was mainly there to see. I'd recently become enthralled by a series of his albums from the 1970's, 'Come Fly With Me', 'His California Album' and, best of all, 1974's 'Dreamer', thereafter working my way backwards through his catalogue and discovering his, often majestic, Duke recordings of the 1950's and 60's.

At the conclusion of the show back in 1982, the three legends gathered on stage to perform a short series of songs together, to rapturous applause. The highlight of the evening came a little earlier for me though, when Bobby Bland led his own modest band through a terrific reading of 'St James' Infirmary'. Here, to mark his passing, is his sublime 1961 recording of the song.

Two more great Bobby 'Blue' Bland tunes are featured on these fine blogs, here and here.

Denis Jones

Denis Jones throws the Dick Van Dyke notion of a one man band out of the window and is surely some kind of technical genius, embellishing his songs with loops, pops, crackles and beeps created live and in the moment. Yet for all the inanimate gadgets and gizmos on display, a resolutely human heart beats at the core of his songs.

Jones hasn't added to his tally of two long players since 2010's 'Red + Yellow =' (available to hear with associated visuals here), this though, is an absorbing live reading of 'Beginning', the perversely titled closing track from his 2007 debut album 'Humdrum Virtue'.

James Gandolfini R.I.P.

Today we heard the terribly sad news that James Gandolfini, star of The Sopranos, one of the greatest TV series to come out of America, has passed away very suddenly at just 51 years of age. This evening i'll drink a glass of red in his honour, but for now I salute him with my morning espresso.