I knew I could count on you guys for some fabulous suggestions! I will check these out. Thank you so much!

So just when the xmas fun is over and you're feeling draggy and hungover? Cool soundtrack to your spy guy crime detecting lifestyle.

Xmas tends to be a multi-week extravaganza thing with me. I don't hold anyone to a particular deadline.

But, I knew you'd been working on it, and I am very much looking forward to it.

But, I knew you'd been working on it, and I am very much looking forward to it.

I've been tooling around in the car with the Spy Jazz for the last month trying to weed out any duds and make sure it flowed from song to song. You wind up trying to parse the particular mood between "The Venice Affair" and "The Danube Incident" (sampled by Portishead for "Sour Times") vs. "The Ipcress File theme" and "Cutty Sark" (a John Barry piece that has that "Take Five" vibe you like).

Basically I decided to move more of the Bond stuff up towards the middle instead of letting it languish at the end of the mix. Also bunching up the lighter, more playful themes so you can go from "Casino Royale" to "The Avengers" to "Danger Man" plus modulating the super action cuts like "The Invaders" (cue from Man From U.N.C.L.E.) to "Our Man Flint" and then into the slinky guitar instro version of "Goldfinger." Like that!

Yeah, that's worth waiting for.

And yes, mixes need to be just right. Each song needs to flow emotionally and thematically into the next.

And yes, mixes need to be just right. Each song needs to flow emotionally and thematically into the next.

That's what I'm talking 'bout!

It's a little trickier with the spy mix than the crime jazz mix because by the mid-sixties there was a vogue for creating a soundtrack that had one strongly identifiable theme and then you would just arrange that same theme in a variety of different ways and at different tempos according to the scene. So you'd have the main theme with guitars and brass blasting. Then you'd play it with an electric harpsichord to indicate the chilly villain. Then you'd give it a lush bossa treatment for the seduction scene etc.

So when you do a mix like this and are basically trying to create a kind of soundtrack for a movie that's not there, you wind up with a bunch of Main Themes.

Whereas in crime jazz you've got seven or eight basic musical moods you need to hit: introductory main theme (like...Man With The Golden Arm, or Touch of Evil); hero arrives with much swagger and bassline (Peter Gunn, Richard Diamond); skulking music; villain's theme; slutty girl sax; "Requiem for a Sideman" type pieces - sad sax in a cityscape things; bongo action chase scene; evening nightlife music; fake rock and roll/twist/cha cha music for the nightclub.

Best of 2006

I won't be organizing anything into a top ten of any kind, I'm too disorganized for that. But music played a big role in many parts of my life this year, and I wanted to comment on some of what I've been listening to. Some of it isn't even from 2006. Some of it was released late 2005, but featured heavily in 2006 for me. Some of it may even be older than that, but it's what I listen to, and it gets included because I said so.

The first piece I want to comment on is actually an entire album. It's a choral/chant piece called Path of Miracles, composed by Joby Talbot and performed by Nigel Short and Tenebrae. I first heard one part -- the third movement, Leon -- one night on a local classical station. I missed the composer and title, but thankfully the station posts a playlist on their website. After hunting down the piece I wanted, I found it on iTunes and bought the whole album. I would have just bought the one piece, but thankfully the individual tracks were not for sale. The album blew me away.

Talbot was inspired to write the four movement piece while travelling the Way of St. James pilgrimage trail through Spain. Each of the four movements is named for one of the major sites along the trail -- Roncesvalles, Burgos, Leon and Santiago (the destination).

The piece is sung in a multitude of languages, including English, Latin, and Basque, and includes passages from meadival texts about the pilgrimage. The first movement, Roncesvalles, starts with and heavily features a Taiwanese singing technique called pasiputput, that uses an eerie rising glissando starting with the bass voices slowly rising in tone and volume. The remaining movements occupy more traditional musical space, but many exotic influences can be heard in the composition, which occasionally includes simple chimes and bells accompanying the voices.

Gorgeously recorded at the church of St. Bartholomew in London, it was originally scheduled to be performed and recorded on July 7th last year, but was postponed a day due to the bombings that rocked the city. The sumptuous acoustics of the church make for a profound listening experience, all the way through the end, which fades out not due to any engineering trick, but because the singers, repeating the phrase "Holy St James, great St James/God help us now and evermore" repeated over and over, walk out of the church while singing.

I've been listening to it nonstop while writing recently, as it is a highly stimulating piece that plays nicely in my headphones. Highly recommended.

Incidentally, I discovered a nice piece of trivia the Buffistas would appreciate. The composer, Joby Talbot, also wrote the score for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy film, including the wonderful "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish," number.

Question. How would someone go about visiting this buffistarawk thingie?

How would someone go about visiting this buffistarawk thingie?

I will answer you via the email.

Then I will check the email!