Driving home I heard D Bowie�s Ch Ch Changes and thought what incredible piece it was � how you could hear the Macca heritage but how it had broken free of its influences. I also caught part of Craig David�s new single � my children can�t stand that I find him interesting and indeed bought the first CD - but I have to say that on first hearing it reminded me of Prince which in my world is a strong endorsement. Paul W says that he thinks he has listened to Nick.

Then � to point me further in that direction - as I was parking near Tesco�s out of the blue on BBC Radio Leicester came magically over the airwaves the 1965 Paul Simon produced version of Blues Run the Game sounding utterly new minted and glorious. I can still play a version of this � mine comes from watching Bert Jansch play it in 1966 and 1967. This made me think of Tony Reif who runs a jazz label in Vancouver and who I haven�t heard from in a while. He is something of a Nick Drake completist and I offered to listen to my vinyl of the Jackson album and check out some obscure point about the version of the words on one of the Drake home tapes � which I havent�t done. There is also a thread hanging loose in that murky area surrounding a certain �Dr Robert� who went out a key moment with a close friend of Sarah � who came to lunch yesterday � they trained as nurses together and she went on to share a flat with the father of the bassist of Fellthru who appear on the Plundafonix CD. Anyway for her recent 50th birthday I gave her a copy of Serious Music with a White Hart bebop bonus track � which might be a pretext to dig deeper � something Tony R is keen to do. Anyone who wants to hear the White Hart band can find it in www.kwase-kwaza.org in a Forum called the birth of the blues. There�s a nice version of Robin doing been Smoking Too Long there as well.

And then when I got in and started to cook I put on a good compilation album and first up was Dave Douglas, the downtime jazz polymath who does it to Schoenberg . Tony recorded a whole album of Dave Douglas quite early in his career. He also has a band which includes a regular member of the Meredith Monk band � all of which impresses me a lot. If I was in his situation I would go with the unfolding action on my label but I suppose life isn�t that simple. Tony has a very acute critical sensibility.

Peter mailed me an mp3 taken from the stereo MD recording he did of Cleveland on Saturday night � about 20 secs at high resolution. Steve the pianist had been worried that the piano was too French � to prove his point he played some of Bill Evans off Kind of Blue which I have never seen done before � just like that. We agreed that a far Eastern grand would have more crack. Anyway somehow on this recording the piano has some nice sharp transients which suits the opening of the first Schubert song down to the ground � like playing it on a Telecaster. I thought it sounded better than what I remember of the performance although I have to say I was sitting at the back of the hall at that point. My aim is to get an EP�s worth of tracks out of a programme of around 15 songs and to try and get that out say for �5 or �6 as a Christmas stocking filler while memories of the concert are still fresh.

Peter and I spend a long debating the best path from the MD recording to WAV. My aim is to hand the WAV over to Ciaran and one of his recording engineer friends to master.

Somehow during the course of the day a further Short Story has appeared. Its is a trio with Gilbert�s guitar, a Dhorn soprano sax and a fretless bass part. I am rather pleased with it at the moment � but as Robin explained you can never tell when its going to turn into dross. It is light and mercurial threatening atonality but ending up in C. Talking of Bill Evans I think the bassline is slightly Scott le Faro who played bass in the genre defining trio which followed his involvement with Miles. Its currently in a state where I cant quite tell whether to leave it alone or not.

I attended the first Management Meeting in the new job. I have got to say I found it slightly unusual but I suppose all organisations are different.

Cooked myself a beef Balti curry, sliced beef a red pepper and some courgette and a naan � Balti was invented not far from here apparently. There�s some left for tomorrow night. I must book myself a hotel in Manchester.