Exchanging e-mails with Gilbert about the 3 CDs that I have sent him. I think we are both quite surprised at how much material we have produced � and we are debating one specific tune from the current bunch � how it might be developed.

Robin�s new CD has arrived which I am really enjoying listening to � it goes back to some �folk roots � to use the term rather loosely � if you can count the 12th century as �folk� � maybe not. But at the same time has strong lyric content � often the writing is from a specifc stance. Anyway more of this when I have digested it more.

Yesterday I passed through Hounslow � the area where my sister was an archivist and about which she has written a lot of local history. Now its in the news as the home of the recent suicide bomber in Israel. Paul W mailed to say how depressing he found the state of the world at the moment. I mailed back suggesting that he looked at the News pages on www.kwase-kwaza.org. Not that this is all upbeat stories � but I have the sense of a dynamism in world affairs � not all of which is bad.

At the same time it is easy to immerse oneself in issues which are outside the current turbulence � like harmony say. I am thinking more about �conventional� chords than I have a for a long time � well I say conventional. Would you call a major triad with an added flattened second conventional � say C Db E G (from the bottom up)? My current thought is that this can be regarderd as as Eb dominant seventh . The Eb is missing of course but that is quite common in modern jazz voicings. It has the semitone clash between the seventh and the thirteenth (down an octave). The tritone between the Db and the G marks out as dominant and offers a chance of resolution. I am thinking of calling this chord a Jobim thirteenth as I first came across it in his Wave collection. If the E is raised ie taking the flat ninth to a straight one then it becomes what I would call a Hancock thirteenth.

Talking of thirteenths, the Tamla material has arrived. I have started reading through the collection of essays which has already offered a lot of good links through to the Detroit jazz scene. For example before he started on the Ford production line Berry Gordy was a jazz record retailer. One of the things that makes James Jameson stand is his use of extended dominant sevenths in his basslines � apparently � I haven�t found one yet but then I haven�t started looking.

I spent a lot of time looking at bebop transcriptions � for example what I now call "Miles 1954 post Detroit blues recordings and solos" (I am listening to JJ Johnson and Miles riffing behind Lucky Thompson on one such now) � and also some Parker heads � especially the middle eights from Rhythm change tunes which go through the cycle of the sevenths. I remembered I would try to work his riffs through every key � say learning a phrase and taking it up or down in semitone.

There is so much to say about the difference between Miles and Bird�s style of improvising. Its not just that Parker puts more notes in � but the line is often laid across the harmony in a very structured way � as it would be in a solo J S Bach line � the difference is that in Bird the harmony has more extensions. Miles is more selective . Sometimes the line is more about the exploration of a motif within a rhythmic framework � in other places the ratio of chromatic nores to chord notes is higher (and the total number of notes is generally lower).

James has mailed to say that eventually someone turned up at the airport to meet him � although it was not the radio DJ. It was a brother and sister in their late 20s who have a flat in a large housing estate in a Moscow suburb. They are looking after him and showing him round eg Red Square. I think he starts work next week.

I have been looking at the KK stats for April � just ahead of March which is OK as it is a slightly shorter month. The Dutch site forum.fok has been rocketing up the referring URLs. People from well over 70 countries have used the site which is quite encouraging as there are less than 200 countries in UN.

I have various mental thresholds � more than a 100 requests from country for example. This line has recently been crossed by Brazil Switzerland and Poland and New Zealand and the Czech Republic are almost there.

Reasons to visit www.kwase-kwaza.org today � something about Gabrielle Drake�s plans for the Bank Holiday. Oh I am a shameless hussy.