Listening to Chris Potter Underground’s 2009 album: Ultrahang. It’s still a favourite! Chris Potter - tenor saxophone, bass clarinet
Adam Rogers − guitar
Craig Taborn - Fender Rhodes
Nate Smith - drums

The 2013 film, Romeo and Juliet, replaced much of Shakespeare’s language with Julian Fellowes’ inferior text - he felt the Bard is inaccessible without “a very expensive education”. Yet 1996’s Romeo + Juliet was hugely popular without patronising its audience. Zeffirelli’s 1968 film is my favourite.

Shakespeare’s ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ is a feast of dazzling wit and wordplay. I particularly enjoy the pleonastic verbosity of the schoolmaster Holoferness. Jeremy Brett is superb as Berowne in a 1960’s audio version available through Harper Collins which also stars Derek Jacobi and Geraldine McEwan

A philosopher’s zombie wouldn’t behave like you or me. Consciousness has no direct causal power but encoded experiential knowledge informs future behaviour. It amplifies certain stimuli precisely because there’s something it’s like to experience the stimuli. Stronger experience = stronger memory.

Shakespeare’s shortest play, The Comedy Of Errors, is a very funny madcap farce involving a pair of identical twins separated at infancy who, unbeknownst to each other, end up in the same place, triggering the snowballing chaos of mistaken identities to which the title alludes.

Of the 55 thrillers I’ve read this year, these 10 by #LyndaLaPlante have been the most enthralling and enjoyable and I’m looking forward to reading more. There are a further 4 books in the Jane Tennison series and a new Jack Warr novel due next year. Highly recommended!

@lyndalaplante.bsky.social

Are there any Charles Mingus fans here? He was the greatest Jazz composer IMO. These are my favourite Mingus albums:

Mingus Ah Um
Tijuana Moods
Oh Yeah
The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady
Mingus x 5
Let My Children Hear Music
Changes One
Changes Two

Olivier’s legendary interpretation of Richard III looms large and his 1955 film is still one of my favourites. David Troughton (whose father Patrick doubled Olivier in long shots) was superb in 1995 at the RSC and again in the Arkangel audio Shakespeare. I wish I had seen Anthony Sher at the RSC.

The malevolent Richard Duke of Gloucester first plans to usurp the crown in Henry VI 3. Benedict Cumberbatch was Richard in the The Hollow Crown series. I was disappointed that so much was left out from the Henry plays. A faithful big budget screen adaptation of the full cycle would be fantastic.

Margaret is one of the greatest female roles in Shakespeare. Introduced at the end of Henry VI Part 1 she’s a significant presence from Part 2 onwards. Julia Foster (Ben Fogle’s mother) played her in the 1983 BBC series and Janet Suzman played her in the 1965 BBC/RSC The Wars Of The Roses adaptation

Shakespeare’s minor tetralogy forms a thrilling epic saga. Henry VI Part 1 was actually written later as a ‘prequel’, possibly in collaboration with Marlowe. Jane Howell’s 1983 BBC TV productions remain the most faithful screen adaptations to date and were quite stylised and theatrical.

Thanks to britprogjazz.bsky.social for releasing this live 1973 recording of The Pat Smythe Quartet. The late Pat Smythe is my father-in-law and it’s wonderful to be able to add this album to our growing collection which includes his work with Joe Harriott and John Mayer amongst others.

Titus Andronicus is my favourite of Shakespeare’s Roman plays. Lucy Bailey’s superb 2014 Globe production really captured the dark humour too. Julie Taymor’s 2000 big screen Titus starring Anthony Hopkins is also a favourite. I wish I could have seen Brian Cox in the RSC’s reknowned 1987 production.

Franco Zeffirelli’s 1967 #TheTamingOfTheShrew starring Burton and Taylor is the only cinema version of this early #Shakespeare comedy. I think it’s one of the Bard’s funniest plays (along with Comedy of Errors and Merry Wives Of Windsor) but would a new big screen version ever be considered now?

#TheTwoGentlemanOfVerona is my least favourite #Shakespeare play due to its problematic denouement. There’s still much to enjoy though. I’ve seen and heard various productions but my favourite is the 2006 Arkangel audio play which is beautifully produced and acted with a lovely jazzy music score.