Still in the other world

The Rainfall Rescue project I mentioned recently is now complete. In a little under three weeks 65,000 pages of records dating from 1960 back to 1678 were digitised by an army of 16,000 volunteers. Each page contained up to a decade's worth of monthly readings for a particular gauge and , in all, 5.25 million observations were rescued. Quite a feat. Looking at my own stats I made 1061 classifications (a classification being either 12 monthly readings, or some location information, and the earliest year I was asked to process was 1682 . So I went way back!). To be fair some of those entries were blank if the year from a sheet I was asked to process had no readings recorded. Even so, I like to think I played my part. As I think I said before it is amazing what a bit of crowd sourcing can achieve (and of course Captain Tom Moore's exploit is another extraordinary example of that).

I miss the engagement in this project. I have found another one – Southern Weather Discovery – which is focussed on weather in the Southern Hemisphere and at the moment is asking people to digitise weather records made in New Zealand in 1939. Topical for me as I have just returned from a holiday in NZ. I've made my start on this project as I thought it would be interesting to see how many places I would recognise, and I am recognising quite a few, although the location detail is not so precise and doesn't offer the same opportunity as the UK records for heading off down internet rabbit holes researching places and people. So I don't think this project is going to capture my imagination in the same way.

The last time I was banging on about this (Rainfall Rescue) project I was back in the 1890s. It was at this point I got completely obsessed with one particular UK location identified on a Met Office sheet I was asked to enter. The gauge location was Cattistock Lodge at Cattistock in Dorest. Cattistock is only a few miles from Evershot, a village Mrs Darce and I spent a few days at on a short holiday a couple of years ago. It is possible we have driven past it. If you Google the Lodge you will quickly find a number of threads on a forum where people discuss and show pictures of derelict or semi derelict places. I am fascinated by derelict places myself. So that was enough to get me burrowing down the Lodge's rabbit hole!

As recently as 2011 Cattistock Lodge appeared to be in at least a half decent state of repair judging by Google Street View. However by around 2015 it was in a sorry state, and following the death in 2016 of an old lady who had lived there at least until the time of that Street View snap, and who may or may not have owned it, the place was finally sold last year and just last month a planning application was lodged to build a number of new dwellings on the site. Whether or not any of the existing Lodge can be saved as a part of that development I don't know but it would be a shame to lose a building which undoubtedly has a rich history. The earliest reference of its existence I have found states it was where The Cattistock Hunt was started by a parson in the mid 18^th century.

Late in the 1880s it started to be mentioned in rainfall records. Initially an A Chapple was making the recordings, but soon he was joined by a Henry Hamilton Palairet. The Lodge returned rainfall records until 1922. The end of the recordings coincided with HH Palairet's death and it seems no one then continued the job.

I have established HH Palairet was a Justice of the Peace, played cricket for the MCC and was a national archery champion. His son, Lionel, played cricket and amassed a prodigious number of runs for Somerset, holding their run scoring record until recently.

Although Palairet seemed to record the rainfall at Cattistock for many years between the 1890s and his death in 1922 he doesn't seem to have always lived there. Kelly's Directory 1895 lists him as of Cattistock Lodge, but the 1901 census states Edward Sitwell as the principal resident (and he returned the rainfall records in 1903). by 1911, and 1915, Kelly's listed a Major H H F Fagan as living at Cattistock Lodge. During this time Henry Palairet was listed in Kelly's as a Dorsetshire County Magistrate but he was residing at Norton Court, Pensford, Somersetshire. (His family had a lot of links to that area).

The next references I can find to Cattistock Lodge are from 1951. Detailed diary entries from a retired Royal Navy Captain, and latter day Reverend, lovingly (no doubt) transcribed by his grandson. The diaries are incredibly detailed and I spent more time than I really should have reading them. A fascinating insight into the life of an elder gentleman in 1950s England, they are a delight. He lived in a thatched cottage (a rather grand one) in the centre of Cattistock (it is still there, but not looking as “chocolate box” as it did 15 or so years ago judging by a few pictures I have found) and I have worked out that his mother moved into nearby Cattistock Lodge in the latter years of her life. There are a number of entries where he states they have tea at the Lodge. Whether the Lodge was still a private residence or it had become a hotel, or a nursing home or something similar I don't know.

As I said, and the above I think you will agree has clearly demonstrated, I have become obsessed with with this place, and the people who have been associated with it. Much too much time on my hands in these strange times.

I guess I could pursue more Kelly's Directory records, and Met Office records, to put more meat on Cattistock Lodge's bones (a place I didn't even know existed two weeks ago) but I really should move on!

Enough of this! It's time for some music. I can't believe I haven't featured Judy Roberts here before. She got a mention and a Youtube link back in 2009, but that is it. Talking of obsessions, I have always been mildly obsessed with her ever since I bought her album The Other World back in 1980. I love her brand of, often, latin tinged soul-jazz and, to be frank, I love her staring at me from the album cover in that seductive way even more (there, I've said it!). I won't expand any more on her career here now, she deserves her own dedicated post, which I will attempt do in the near future.

Here is the title track from that 1980 album. An appropriate title as I have been talking about ancient rainfall records, a Justice of the Peace who died more than a hundred years ago, and a retired Royal Navy Captain. Their worlds seem far removed from now, as in fact does our recent holiday in New Zealand and the pre-lockdown life we all led just a few short weeks ago.

Judy Roberts – The Other World 1980

More holiday notes; and RIP Sonny

As I said in my previous post, during our recent holiday opportunities for digging were limited but I did manage to hit a few stores and thrifts.

I had a couple of record shops in Boston on the radar but couldn't work them into the itinerary. As we worked our way up coast on a gloomy and rainy day, foregoing a stroll around Rockport, the first record store I visited was Mystery Train in Gloucester, MA. Mrs Darce and my daughter generously left me to my own devices for over an hour.

Mystery Train is a great shop which I only really scratched the surface of. Tim was a very pleasant host. When I said I was from the UK he asked whereabouts. When I told him it was Bristol he said he was currently reading Original Rockers and had I read it? I have – written by Richard King it is about his time working in Revolver Records in Bristol, and the shop's history. Revolver just happened to be my go to record shop in the the late 70s! Mystery Train has an extensive range of albums and a fair amount of little ones too. Apart from a few racks of “recent arrivals” all are arranged by genre which, with my limited time, suited me very well. I furiously sifted through the Soul and R&B 45s and gave the Jazz albums section a scattergun attack. But, as I said, to do the shop justice a few hours would be needed.

In attacking the Jazz section, knowing that time was limited, I decided I would target certain artists only. One of those is Sonny Fortune. Until earlier this year I had been unaware of him, but then I picked up a copy of his 1976 album Waves Of Dreams. It was so much more than I expected. Being released in 1976 I think I expected it to be a fusion album and maybe a tepid one. But it contains much in the straight jazz vein, Sonny's playing is terrific and it is very enjoyable. 

So Sonny has been on my radar ever since and I was happy to find two more of his albums at Mystery Train. 

What I have only just discovered is that Sonny Fortune died from complications of a stroke on 25/10/18. That just happened to be the day we were flying back home from our holiday, with two Sonny Fortune albums – Serengeti Minstrel and Infinity Is - in our luggage. Here are two tracks from Sonny, one from each of these two albums for you to enjoy. From 1977 and 1978 these albums do see Sonny moving into an increasingly funkier fusion setting, consistent with the times and his, then new, label, Atlantic. Where have I heard that before? I was left thinking on a few occasions on first listening to Infinity Is. None more so than on the track A Ballad For Our Times. On this album was Sonny simply being derivative? Or was he in fact laying down melodies and motifs that others would follow? Given that Sonny was a well accomplished, and respected, player I suspect it would have been the latter. As for A Ballad For Our Times, he must have simply been paying homage to an iconic track and album, I will leave you to identify which piece of music that is.

Sonny Fortune – The Afro-Americans 1977

Sonny Fortune – A Ballad For Our Times 1978

I was going to expand a little on Sonny's career here but in fact his recent obituary in the New York Times does that much more ably and concisely than I could manage.

RIP Cornelius “Sonny” Fortune 19/5/1939 - 25/10/2018.

The Feel It Advent-ure 2015 #20

Earlier this year, or was it last year? time goes so quickly nowadays, I had a run of listening to George Duke. My introduction to him had been back in 1979 when Brazilian Love Affair, that irresistible slab of jazz-funk crossed over into the discos. Until this year I had never really explored his catalog further. Faces In Reflection is one album of his I have picked up recently. Released in 1974 before the jazz brigade moved, seemingly wholesale, into more accessible jazz-funk and disco territory this album is very much for the head rather than the feet and is a very rewarding listen. 

George Duke - North Beach  1974

The 2013 Advent-ure #3

I have found myself listening to more and more jazz and jazz-fusion in recent months. I have blown hot on jazz more than once before in my life, so my desire for it may wane again but right now I can’t see that happening this time.

This renewed interest has been partly fuelled by some great albums picked up in charity shops and car boots this year. Here’s a case in point.

Caldera were a short lived group, active in the latter half of the Seventies, recording four albums.

The album I picked up earlier this year, “blind”, was their third “Time And Chance”. Their sound certainly carries influences from Return To Forever and Weather Report (who also found their way into my collection this year), with a strong Latin edge. Also, one track on this album – “Shanti” - could very easily have appeared on an Earth, Wind & Fire album, but that is no surprise really as Larry Dunn was involved in it. It was probably meant as the commercial “in” to the album. I’m going to go with a track that represents the latin tinged jazzier feel that is most prevalent on the album, the appropriately named “Mosaico”. 

I have noticed that the track times on the label do not match in any instance with those on the cover (the sort of minutiae that only a true vinyl addict would notice, I guess!) , all I can say is this one is 7 minutes long or thereabouts and is worth every minute.

Caldera – Mosaico  1978