General Ramblings (Not the Military kind)

Progress report on the Humphrey Lyttelton "Best of Jazz" postings

Since the latest government recommendations for those in the "At Risk" category is to isolate from contact with others, I've become a bit of a recluse, but though most would think, "Ah more time to post more jazz"  this is not really true, there are so many changes to the lifestyle here that have to be considered and endured that everyday tasks are taking more time than normal, even simple things like shopping, now involve more planning, ordering online, keeping in touch with family and friends via skype to receive and give help to those less fortunate, arranging deliveries and finding places to store 2-3 months of food and supplies, the logistics of the whole exercise are quite time consuming, I expect it will become the "norm" in the end, at least for many months to come.

Now to Jazz... All these Humphrey Lyttelton programs are recorded on digital tapes (DAT) the recordings are in real time (One hour long each) they all require listening to, some rewinding to note the odd missing phrases and remove the less relevant parts like BBC program adverts and clips, finally digitising into MP3 format. Some of the tapes have suffered damage in the fifteen years they have been stored, these parts often have to be re-played/ re-recorded or edited in the digital mode, this means conversion to wave file is required, and subsequent re-conversion back to MP3, all this takes time, quite often the simple 1 hour program can consume more than 2 hours to complete, then the upload to the blog and further editing to all titles, artists and other information, so it's not as straight forward as many might think, certainly more time consuming than simply ripping a CD, scanning the covers and finding a suitable review on "all music" or "Discogs" to post with it.

This is why there is not a constant flow of new posts, the work takes time, and  it has to be fitted in with my new Isolated lifestyle. If you consider that ALL this music is dependent on one of two DAT players continuing to work, both of which are 20+ years old. The current exercise is to record all or as many as time and working devices allow to digital files so that multiple backups can be made, I am currently working on the 2004 set as well as posting what of 2005 I have found in the archive box.

There will be gaps in the postings in all the years, life went on all those years ago, both my friend and I used to make frequent trips to Australia, sometimes together, so there was no one here to press the buttons, hence if anyone has any of the missing dates in what ever format, copies would be welcome, you can always comment on any selected post, as indeed you could if you appreciate any of the material you have enjoyed listening too, comments are always welcome, sadly so few ever appear, in fact I often wonder if anyone is actually listening to the shows? my list of followers has not increased in ages, despite the references on google searches rising up list.

Gonzo March 2020