[Dixielandjazz] Larkin Coltrane Barnes

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

I was giving a young lady some advice about her studies a long time ago, and one of her options was Philip Larkin -- about whom some lecturer had written a blurb for students -- and this blurb was all about his bringing out the misery of life..... etc. 

This might raise questions about whether he listened to or needed to listen to Coltrane. 


I confess I have my own additional Scottish reasons for not having been amused by "... the unmistakeable sound of the bagpipes. 'Scotland is represented?' we asked..." in a memoir of a long ago recent visit to the Newport Jazz Festival. The "we" should be recognisable as Stanley Dance's.  The instrument being played was soprano saxophone. Long, long ago. 


Which reminds me that I was telephoned by a German academic after a feature on Larkin's funeral on German TV news.  The Herr Professor wanted to know who'd been playing the soprano he heard on the film clip. 

Which is why I subsequently gave him a John Barnes LP as a Christmas present. 

Admirable tenor player John, for all the other horns he plays. Why don't we talk about him?


all the very best,
Robert