Fresh ears

We were on holiday last week for half- term and, as so often when I have time off, I started to fret. What on earth was I going to write about in ‘Olden but golden’? Mrs Spencer gets very cross about this sort of thing. ‘If that’s all you’ve got to worry about, you can count yourself lucky,’ she said, before starting to grumble herself about her forthcoming ballet teacher’s exam.

But my problem was a real one —though, to be fair, so was hers. The fact is that for the past month, instead of unearthing new delights, I’ve been continually indulging my obsession for classic Blue Note jazz, which I wrote about last month. Ace guitarist Grant Green, organist supreme Jimmy Smith, the sublimely tuneful keyboard player and composer Horace Silver and the great drummer and bandleader Art Blakey have been my constant companions. Indeed I was actually listening to the tremendous Hip Hammond and Soulful Grooves compilation, one of the four Blue Note double CDs I recommended in the last column (you have bought them, haven’t you?) when our car broke down on the way to Dorset as the midnight hour approached.