Everyone seems to be away or flat out busy. I expect the next two days to be pretty flat out.

After work I went to what used to be Dillons to hunt down an AS level Physics text book James needs for revision. No luck - but I did get a new book on Dylan - The Nightingale's Code by John Gibbens. It is quite something - very literate and a long time in the writing. Seems to be on the same track as Robin's entry on the artist's construction of a persona ie "Dylan". It starts in the mid 18C and brings out the elements in Romanticism which link to the subsequent interest in folk art. Some very interesting points on Ballads (which James is rather reluctantly studying) and on the Ancient Mariner - so obviously a forefunner of Dylan style writing. Simple song form, a story of an isolated individual and his apocalyptic experiences. There is a site at www.touched.co.uk which I haven't yet looked at.

Listened to On The Corner many times. I eventually got the textbook in Blackwells. They also had a book devoted to the electric Miles which I hadn't seen before and which I nearly bought. I read the section on OTC - it seems Buckmaster wrote some of the tracks, plays cello on it and had been supplying Miles with tapes of Stockhausen beforehand. OTC is now generally seen as the most prescient album from this difficult period.

I think it was 1971 at the RFH that I had a front row seat for a Miles band playing hyperjazz funk. Michael Henderson was on bass, Chick Corea and Keith Jarret on keys. I especially remember Jarret playing like a man possessed. Maybe as I get older this memory will come back with ever more clarity!

The book also had some material about an argument between Bill Laswell and Teo Macero. I have a lot of time for Laswell - I saw him in a 4tet at the Barbican which had J Zorn on saxes F Frith on gtr and a demon death metal drummer. Good clean fun from the NYC downtown scene. BL has done a remix of selected Miles material and this itself has stimulated a subsequent remix CD. I have both and am pretty sympathetic. Apparently on the release of the first remic BL made some disparaging remarks about Macero. To me this seems so arrogant and disrespectful to the man who produced some of the most important albums of the 20C. But I will listen again to the remix to see if I can hear what he is getting at.

I was thinking about these remixes anyway and the one which has been done of Steve Reich material. Blackwells also had the collected musical writings of S Reich which I also managed to resist. I can come back to this. Reich explains why he thinks it was time to move away from indeterminacy. Even so I think there are some common threads between early Reich and the tape works and (say) OTC which has some Minimal structural elements including strong repetition or the smooth surfaces of In A Silent Way. There was a good phrae I read somewhere about Minimalism being hermetic under its simple surface.

Window shopped in Macari's which had a very interesting collection of Fender junior guitars - a USA made Lead 2 from the early 80s for �680. It looks pretty like a Duosonic and this is a good price for the UK. There was also a part original Mustang from the late 1950s for less than �1000 and a Squire Bullet for less than �100. A second hand Japanese Strat was on sale for �280 - which is of course more than you can buy a new one for in Tokyo.

There is quite a good Miles site with downloadable fragments from the major albums - 8 bit mono 22hz WAVs are one the formats. Slightly tricky to handle but not unusable. Once on the Amiga I sampled a note - Miles with harmon mute in the late 1950s and used that as thelead voice in a piece. I thought that was pretty near the knuckle. I would rather I had more time over the next two days to dig deep.