I have rather hurriedly put together this blog posting to advertise THIS Wednesday 26 May session featuring one of the leading UK vocalists Tina May singing with the Dave Cottle Trio. Last year at the Mumbles Jazz and Blues Festival they gave an absolutely superb concert, if tonight's gig is of the same ilk it will be a pity to miss it for the sake of £10 entry, doors open at 7.30 show begins at 8.30 I imagine there will be a good turnout so get there by 8pm. I can do no better than copy my blog entry following last years event, but would caution that saxophonist Mornington Locket will not be part of the line up.
I regret recommending Simon Spillet's concert at this years Jazz and Blues Festival, not because it wasn't good, it was, but because it required an acquired taste for very fast bop music. Simon played tenor at the speed of Charlie Parker's alto, even Dave Cottle on keyboards was surprised by the pace, in fact after the very first number he jokingly held his hands up to show his fingers were dropping off. I remember the learning curve I went through when determined to get to grips with Charlie Parker's music on LP. I am a strong believer in the value of getting to grips with any difficult arts form with an enthusiastic following, eclectic tastes if you will.
FROM MAY 2009 BLOG
The apple is in the foreground but the light green behind is Elm in flower (not yet leaf). Dare we hope it will continue to defy the beetle which killed off the majority of these beautiful trees.This photo could have been taken in May 2010
MUMBLES MOSTLY JAZZ and BLUES FESTIVAL May 2009
Who would have been aware of music let alone an important new departure for Mumbles and Swansea. We walked along the sea front from West Cross on Sunday and saw hardly any sign of such an event. The one poster tied to a signpost in the square did acknowledge the festival with pictures of some of the main attractions, but absolutely nothing gave a schedule of four days of concerts, not even the time, location, price and where to buy tickets. Nor was there any sound of music or any sense of festival, though there were times when it sounded like the venue of a motorbike rally. Tickets and details it appeared were available from the Tourist Office, but the Tourist Office is closed on Sundays.
Yet we already had tickets for the festival marquee, purchased earlier from Jazzlands in Swansea, to one of the most enjoyable concerts we have ever attended, everyone we spoke to seemed of the same mind. Jazz is the one arts idiom in which Swansea has shone during my forty years here, this concert was amazing.
Tina May sang beautifully with a style reminiscent of Cleo Lane. Tina stage managed the event so joyfully that she got the very best from her supporting four piece band, mostly interweaving her singing with solos from all the instrumentalists and the drummer Dave Owm. They were improvising on well known standards up to Duke Ellington's time.
Like her tenor saxophonist Mornington Locket is a top British jazz star and nothing surpassed the duet between her voice and his sax towards the end of the concert, passing by even her duet with bassist Alun Vaughan which showed off her low register, plus songs with recital accompaniment from Dave Cottle on the keyboards - a skill I have never heard from him before. The Dave Cottle trio (keyboards, bass guitar and drums) are the backbone of weekly Jazzlands concerts, and they emphasised how lucky we are to have them here in Swansea.
DINGHY SAILING
I already have six or so members expressing interest, Eddie tells me there will be four Comet Trio (training dinghies) boats plus two Flying Fifteens (keel dinghy which will be nearer to a sailing cruiser experience!). He also stressed that no-one will be expected to do things with which they are unhappy, this is a fun event let me know if you are interested.
Eddie Ramsden, a member who helps organise our UK Olympic Team on behalf of the RYA (Royal Yachting Association) is offering to organise a taster day for our members this summer at Llangorse lake near Brecon.
They would use Comet Trio boats (which he described to me as being like the better known very stable Wayfarer training boat. Three members would sail together in a boat with a trained instructor on board. Eddie would arrange the event to suit, probably a midweek day from 10am in July or August, with the probability of being able to change date given an unsuitable weather forecast. He tells me there is a basic clubhouse for changing but that picnic lunches would be the order of the day - hard to think of a nicer place without walking into the mountains. Buoyancy/life jackets would be available but no-one is expected to capsize though there could be some spray, so you would be expected to bring a change of clothing.
Anyone interested should reply to the blog alert but please change the subject of the email to Sailing so that I can easily sort through the replies. Once I have a dozen interested we will attempt to get maximum agreement on the date, so please advise any dates you will definitely be unavailable in July/August .
FAMILY HISTORY (VIRTUAL)
A new departure for Swansea U3A is the whole idea of virtual groups, ie one existing in cyber space like this blog. To learn more about it and understand the type of help available please access the Swansea U3A website on
http://www.u3aswansea.org.uk/
Anyone with topics for other virtual groups should contact me.
A new “Virtual Group” called Family History (Virtual) has started, based at our website which you can access from the Group Activities page. The Family History website is written particularly for U3A members by members who have direct experience of carrying out such research, and is designed to be used by newcomers to Computing or Family History.
It shows you how to use the FamilySearch website to trace your ancestors and as an example traces Winston Churchill’s ancestors back 800 years. If you are not as illustrious as Churchill the best you can hope for with your ancestors is Henry V111’s time.
There are guides to several other websites including Genuki which has lots of historical details of almost every town and village. You could see what it says about your favourite places.
The writers of our Family History website, whose contact details are given on the website, hope to expand it based on what members say they would like to see there.
A NEW CAMPUS FOR SWANSEA UNIVERSITY
(I am pleased to publish this 'rant' from Jill Govier which expresses disquiet not unlike my own.)
I ought to count to 303 before writing this rant, but just travelling home from the lecture today will have to do so. We heard from our president, Professor Richard Davies, about the exciting developments at Swansea University, the new build by the sea on old BP land, generously donated by that multi-national. The vice-chancellor showed a first design presentation, prepared by architects, which was functional, yet pleasing, innovative, seemed to inhabit the space well, with a jetty and sail motifs, which have also been used in the main campus designs.
He had his audience thinking about the interior space of this new build – how for his generation and certainly ours, the unthinkable was being contemplated; rooms surrounded by white boards, wireless everything, very likely not even a library, because in this world of global communication students can access so much more information and opinion swiftly through their I Pads/phones.
Prince Charles comes into the story now somehow, even Professor Davies didn’t sound too sure in what capacity, doesn’t like the design, BP bring in new architects on the royal nod, and voila, smaller enclosed pods were revealed, mostly built round central courtyards, a good idea being that the buildings are tiered for the purpose of absorbing and deflecting the prevailing South Westerly winds. We’ve lost the jetty, but that looked rather decorative and right in the firing line of those same winds.
It was when our speaker showed pictures of images, which could inspire the fuller design that I began to get worried. Welsh cottages, the J sheds before renovation, rows of Victorian poky buildings, Singleton Abbey, appeared, images suitable for and indeed used in Poundbury, and Cefn - a town landscape designed to fulfil Prince Charles’ ideas of architectural sustainability. This is a charming concept for a village but surely not for a state of the art University, built on a stunning dramatic site.
Swansea has become an exciting city for modern architectural design usage. The University has the beautiful building next to the Taliesin, and the first Life Science building. By the Tawe, look at the innovative designs of the Technium and others in the regenerating SA1 district, which we were told would eventually link up with the new University site. What we were shown was Toy Town. I felt that Professor Davies was deeply disappointed in the outcome, but obviously could not comment in such a public arena when someone else is pulling the strings, but I both can and will.
Jill Govier
----------
It's not so long ago following the Swansea Assembly run by National Theatre Wales that I was commenting on the lost opportunity to build iconic modern buildings in Swansea and Cardiff, namely the competition winning designs for the Literature Centre here and the Millenium Centre in Cardiff. Surely if ever a project was crying out for iconic modern architecture it is Swansea University's Science and Engineering new campus. That is intended to be a world leading endeavour not a bit of retro!
No comments:
Post a Comment