Archives for January 2011

My favourite part of any month is always its end, when I can look back on the best new album releases of the past few weeks and present a selection of them here. And it's a pleasure to report that January 2011 has been another fine start to a year, following a crop of 12 months ago that included These New Puritans (NME's album of the year), Vampire Weekend, Beach House (a favourite at 6 Music), Four Tet, The Magnetic Fields and Lostprophets.

The big surprise of January 2011 has been the return of Diddy, with a concept album that's not only ambitious in design but packs enough big-name producers and guest vocalists into its credits to supply the Billboard 100 with its contents for the next four years. While they're with Puff, someone somewhere is missing out on a number one single. For instantly impressing when a too-many-cooks approach has scuppered so many other hip hop heavyweights, it's worthy of its pick of the month place. Will it be one of the defining albums of 2011, though?

Editor's Album of the Month

Diddy - Dirty Money - Last Train to Paris

(Interscope, released 24 January)

Recommended by: Fearne Cotton, Tim Westwood

"A deeply ambitious journey into the mind of a hip hop titan comprising lengthy epics, a plethora of superstar guests, expensive-sounding beats from big-name producers, a fixation with the difficulty of loving someone through the prism (and prison) of a massive celebrity ego? No, it's not Kanye West's last LP, but Diddy's surprising new project. And as its final notes ring out, you feel like giving its many and varied cast a standing ovation as they take a bow."

Read the full review and listen to previews

The Best of the Rest

British Sea Power - Valhalla Dancehall

(Rough Trade, released 10 January)

Recommended by: 6 Music Album of the Day, Marc Riley, Late Show with Stuart Bailie

"Mixing the sort of luminescently sinister ballads that have stood the band in good stead throughout their career with chaotic, colourful smears of guitar rock that break with the sepia tones of 2008's Do You Like Rock Music?, this is an album that sees BSP continue their stately, unruffled progress."

Read the full review and listen to previews

Watch the video for Living Is So Easy on YouTube

Wire - Red Barked Tree

(Pink Flag, released 10 January)

Recommended by: 6 Music Album of the Day, Marc Riley

"Wire's 11th studio album is 40 minutes of gorgeous nothings, full of intricate curlicues of sparkling Colin Newman guitar and synth given beef by the surging rhythms of Robert Grey aka Gotobed and Graham Lewis. They Wire alternative guitar music better than any young British band you can name."

Read the full review and listen to previews

Listen to the track Please Take on YouTube (no video; contains language which may offend)

Adele - 21

(XL, released 24 January)

Recommended by: Radio 2 Album of the Week, 6 Music Album of the Day, Fearne Cotton

"21 is simply stunning. After only a handful of plays, it feels like you've always known it. It will see Adele become an even greater award magnet come the end of the year, leaving her contemporaries for dust. Genuinely brilliant."

Read the full review and listen to previews

Watch the video to Rolling in the Deep on YouTube

The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar

(Atlantic, released 24 January)

Recommended by: Zane Lowe, BBC Introducing in Wales, 6 Music Album of the Day

"The Big Roar is huge: a roller-coaster of an album driven on by urgent, accelerating grunge riffs and punchy pop melodies. The Joy Formidable's template is simple. They create a basic melody and build it upwards into an irresistible, molten-lava crescendo. As with Muse, it's almost unthinkable that this band only has three members."

Read the full review and listen to previews

Watch the video to Whirring on YouTube

How to Dress Well - Love Remains

(Tri-Angle, released 31 January)

Recommended by: Rob da Bank

"This is really something new - lo-fi electronic RnB, ghost-soul muzak with added murk, sung by HTDW lynchpin Tom Krell in an agonised, androgynous falsetto as though from the other side. It's like hearing R Kelly in hell, or Fleet Foxes if they'd grown up on a diet of Ralph Tresvant and Al B Sure!. Love Remains is an exquisite album-length disquisition on memory and desire, love and loss."

Read the full review

Watch the video to Ready for the World on YouTube

The Decemberists - The King Is Dead

(Rough Trade, released 17 January)

Recommended by: Another Country with Ricky Ross, The Late Show with Stuart Bailie

"The scaled-down (for them - these things are relative) arrangements ebb and flow, as Neil Young-ian harmonica and mandolin anthems and sing-along gypsy stomps are hushed by delicate, gorgeously melodic meditations with simple guitar accompaniment. It is, simply, a thing of beauty."

Read the full review and listen to previews

Listen to the track Down by the Water on YouTube (no video)

Fujiya & Miyagi - Ventriloquizzing

(Full Time Hobby, released 17 January)

Recommended by: 6 Music Album of the Day

"A curious hybrid of time and place, Fujiya & Miyagi's insistent grooves owe much to the pulsing motorik of 70s Germany - Can and Neu! especially - but their taut white funk and skinny beats jiggle somewhere between 80s New York clubland and early Human League. In a just world, they'd be the new lords of the dancefloor."

Read the full review and listen to previews

Watch the video to YoYo on YouTube

Find all previous Editor's Pick articles here

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Hello again,

Guitars take over the schedules this week as BBC Four celebrates Mark Knopfler and last year's excellent Story Of The Guitar series.

Enjoy;

Thursday 27 January - BBC Three

2615 - 2710: Music, Money & Hip Hop Honeys

Repeated: BBC Three - Monday 2615

Nel Hedayat investigates the controversial world of music videos and meets the girls who dream of dancing in them. Nel spends time with girls who are on the path to success, but also learns about the dark side of an industry where dancers chasing fame can leave themselves open to financial and sexual exploitation.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00x1wz7

Friday 28 January - BBC Four

1930 - 2030: Mozart at the Proms

Two memorable performances of Mozart concertos from the Proms in 2006, the year which marked the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth, played by two outstanding soloists. A teenage Julian Bliss deftly delivers a virtuoso display in the Clarinet Concerto and American pianist Richard Goode gives an insightful performance of Mozart's dramatic Piano Concerto No 23. Accompanying both soloists is the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jiri Belohlavek.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00y2w0v

2030 - 2100: Transatlantic Sessions

Folk musicians come together in what have been called 'the greatest backporch shows ever'. Iris DeMent and Phil Cunningham are among the performers. There is also a piping duet from Scotland's Fred Morrison and Ireland's Michael McGoldrick with backing from Donal Lunny.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0080w4g

2100 - 2200: Mark Knopfler - A Life in Songs

Repeated: BBC Four - Sunday 2330

Mark Knopfler talks about how these songs have defined him and how they have been influenced by his own life and roots. It features previously unseen photographs from his personal collection and comprehensive footage spanning his career from a struggling musician playing in pubs in Leeds in the 1970s, to the record-breaking success with Dire Straits and his current world tour as a solo artist.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xz0zx

2200 - 2310: Later… Presents Mark Knopfler

Repeated: BBC Four - Sunday 2430

Jools Holland introduces a one-off studio session from Dire Straits lead singer Mark Knopfler. Featuring songs from his debut solo album Golden Heart, plus Dire Straits hits like Sultans of Swing, Brothers in Arms and Romeo and Juliet. Guests include Irish musicians Dónal Lunny, Máirtín O'Connor and Liam O'Flynn, Louisianna slide guitarist Sonny Landreth and Nashville steel guitarist Paul Franklin.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00y38fc

2310 - 2410: Guitar Heroes at the BBC

Repeated: BBC Four - Sunday 2545

Compilation of 1970s BBC performances on shows from The Old Grey Whistle Test to Sight and Sound by such luminaries of the electric guitar as Carlos Santana, Mark Knopfler, The Edge and Peter Green, as well as acoustic masters like John Martyn, Pentangle and Paco Pena.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dzzv2

2510 - 2615: Imagine - Story of the Guitar - In The Beginning

Alan Yentob embarks on a three-part personal journey to discover how the guitar became the world's favourite musical instrument. Beginning with the rise of the acoustic guitar, the series takes him from an ancient Middle Eastern ancestor of the lute, to the iconic guitars draped round the necks of Bill Hailey and Elvis Presley and beyond. Featuring interviews with Bert Weedon - the man who taught Britain to 'Play in a Day', Pete Townshend, Bill Bailey, flamenco player Paco Pena and classical guitarist John Williams.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dyhyt

2615 - 2715: Imagine - Story of the Guitar - Out of the Frying Pan

As the guitar turns electric, music is changed for ever. The world's first electric guitar had nothing to do with jazz or blues, but Hawaiian-style music and was known as the 'frying pan'. Yentob continues his investigation from the blues of the Mississippi to the guitar wars of the 1950s, when the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul were battling for supremacy.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dzzv4

2715 - 2815: Imagine - Guitars - This Time it's Personal

In the final programme of the series the guitarists talk about how they find their own sound, and how the guitar has changed their lives. Since its invention, the electric guitar has unleashed a seemingly inexhaustible sonic invention among guitarists.

Featuring Muse'sMatt Bellamy, who turns out to be following in his father's space age footsteps, Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath, who talks about the invention of heavy metal, David Gilmour from Pink Floyd, Pete Townshend (Perhaps equally famous for smashing guitars), Johnny Marr from the Smiths on 'the mother of all riffs', Slash and The Edge from U2 among many others.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00f3564

Watch more exclusive interviews from the Guitars series on our Story Of The Guitar website

Wednesday 2 February - BBC Four

2300 - 2400: Shanties & Sea Songs with Gareth Malone

Gareth Malone travels Britain's coast to explore our hidden history of shanties and sea songs. In Portsmouth he meets a devoted shanty singer, before continuing on to Tyneside and the Yorkshire coast, where the Filey Fisherman's Choir are determined to keep the tradition alive. He gets an insight into the songs of the Herring Girls in Gardenstown, Scotland, while in Whitby he meets Kimber's Men.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s97c0



Next week; Proms, Peter Green and Eric Clapton.

Take care of yourselves

Rory

Hello again, 

Short and sweet this week, we've managed to compact the talents of Mozart,Iron Maiden, Bruce Springsteen and Thin Lizzy into one night on BBC Four.

Enjoy;

Friday 21 January - BBC Four

1930 - 2030: Mozart Uncovered, Symphony No 40 in G Minor K550

Conductor Charles Hazlewood rehearses and performs some of the key works featured in the BBC series The Genius of Mozart and analyses them in more detail. Mozart's Symphony No.40 in G minor, K550 is examined by Hazlewood and his specially-formed period orchestra, the second of Mozart's three last great symphonies written in an extraordinary burst of creativity in just six weeks.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074q3y

2030 - 2100: Transatlantic Sessions

Folk musicians come together in what have been called 'the greatest backporch shows ever'. Paul Brady hooks up with Scottish chanteuses Eddi Reader and Karen Matheson and a few others in a performance of his song, Rainbow. Also featured are Iris DeMent in a rare appearance in the UK, joining Joan Osborne and Bruce Molsky, with the instrumental talents of Sharon Shannon on accordion and Russ Barenberg on guitar.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00809fv

2100 - 2200: Legends - Thin Lizzy - Bad Reputation

Repeated: BBC Four - Sunday 2330

Affectionate but honest portrait of Thin Lizzy, arguably the best hard rock band to come out of Ireland.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xln7l

2200 - 2355: Iron Maiden - Flight 666

Repeated: BBC Four - Sunday 2430

A film that documents the first leg of Iron Maiden'sSomewhere Back in Time world tour, which took them 50,000 miles around the planet playing 23 concerts on five continents in just 45 days.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00r5ylv

2355 - 2450: Classic Albums - Black Sabbath - Paranoid

The second album by Black Sabbath, released in 1970, has long attained classic status. Paranoid not only changed the face of rock music, but also defined the sound and style of heavy metal more than any other record in rock history. The result of a magic chemistry which had been discovered between four English musicians, it put Black Sabbath firmly on the road to world domination.

This programme tells the story behind the writing, recording and success of the album. Despite vilification from the Christian and moral right and all the harsh criticism that the music press could hurl at them, Paranoid catapulted Sabbath into the rock stratosphere.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vlq0y

2450 - 2620: Bruce Springsteen - The Promise - The Making Of Darkness On The Edge Of Town

Thom Zimny's film, The Promise - The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town, explores the three years it took to make Bruce Springsteen's fourth studio album, 1978's Darkness on the Edge of Town. Zimny's film is driven by in-depth interviews with Springsteen, the E-Street Band and producers Jon Landau and Jimmy Lovine and features extensive black-and-white archive footage of the process from the time, shot in Springsteen's home studio and at New York's Record Plant.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xk78m

2620 - 2720: Bruce Springsteen - The Darkness Live 1978

Hot on the heels of the release of their classic fourth studio album, Darkness on the Edge of Town, Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band went on the road with renewed hunger and are captured here playing the songs from the album live in 1978 in Houston, cementing their reputation as saviours of rock 'n' roll.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xxn1l





Next week; More Mozart, guitars and Mark Knopfler.

Take care of yourselves

Rory

There's a running theme of fish and chips in my blogs it seems!

When we took Paolo Nutini back to Paisley, for the first of our Radio 2 In Concert specials shows in artists' hometowns, I told you of how the team enjoyed fish and chips courtesy of Paolo's family.

I remember sharing a fish and chip supper with a BBC OB crew and the Manic Street Preachers on what must have been one of their first ever Radio 1 Roadshows back in the early nineties!

Well here we are nearly 20 years on and we're going away again with them now, back to where they all started with Radio 2 In Concert at Blackwood Miners' Institute for our second hometown live show on Thursday 27th January.

During the day the band will be taking us around their Blackwood so that we can get a real sense of where they're coming from.

Nicky Wire promises to take us into his Dad's shed as it turns out that that was the location of the first tentative Manics band rehearsals.

We'll take Radio 2 In Concert listeners to the theatre where the band used to play and where, in those very early days, apparently they got very drunk at the pub next door.

JoWhiley will discuss songwriting with the band in the bar at the Miners' Institute and if you have a question for them you can email to us at [email protected]

Then we're with the band live on the night on Radio 2 and you will also be able to see them online from 9 performing at the Miners' Institute. Make a note and you can see it again on the Red Button from the following evening.

I'm told this will be the first time that they have played at the the Miners' Institute together as The Manics but nobody's told me whether fish and chips will be on the menu again!

Jeff Smith is Head of Music, BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6 Music

Watch the Manic Street Preachers perform live at Blackwood Miners' Institute on the Radio 2 website from 9pm on Thursday 27 January.

While the album highs of 2010 are still visible in the rear view mirror - find our writers' and recommenders' favourite discs of the year here - the time has truly come to press onwards: into 2011, and all the great, good, so-so and deeply rotten releases to come.

Where better to start a preview of what's forthcoming* with something that's already on shelves. British Sea Power have followed-up their Mercury Prize-nominated album of 2008, Do You Like Rock Music?, with Valhalla Dancehall (review), a collection that furthers the Brighton group's singularly skewed take on pop-rock songwriting. Fellow big-hitters in the indie world, White Lies, release their second album Ritual (review) on 17 January. The successor to their chart-topping debut, To Lose My Life, some might say it's more of the same - bleak, but packed with massive choruses. And some might also say that if something's not all that broken, why fix it.

January is also the time when the first acts listed in the BBC Sound of 2011 come out to play with their debut collections. Brian Eno-feted songstress Anna Calvi's eponymous set (review) will jostle for attentions when it's released at the same time as White Lies' latest, while Brightonian gothtronica trio Esben and the Witch wait until the end of the month to issue their Matador-released 10-tracker, Violet Cries. Both suit the seasonal gloom fairly excellently. Crossing-over dub-stepper James Blake releases his much-anticipated debut on 7 February - expect high-scoring critiques - and lo-fi rockers Yuck drop their self-titled 12-track debut two weeks later.

Other Sound of 2011 artists breaking cover in the first few months of the year include Clare Maguire, with Light After Dark released on 28 February; New Zealanders The Naked and Famous, whose Passive Me Aggressive You earns a UK release on 14 March; and The Vaccines, who step into the commercial light a week later with the two-fingers-up-but-tongue-in-cheek title of What Did You Expect From The Vaccines gracing the packaging of their first long-player.

Rockers are well catered for during 2011's opening months - Californian punk legends Social Distortion unveil Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes on 17 January, and also coming this way from across the Atlantic are new discs from ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead (Tao of the Dead, early February) and a long-awaited comeback from Walter Schreifels' Rival Schools, whose new set Pedals arrives a decade after their acclaimed debut. Larger venues will shake to new tunes from Foo Fighters, who reportedly finished their seventh studio effort on 3 January, and Jane's Addiction - expect both to release their latest wares this side of the summer festivals. Another US act to have completed their latest LP is Limp Bizkit, but the nu-metallers' Gold Cobra collection is yet to receive a release date. Keep eyes and ears open, too, for a new album from The Mars Volta - still a work-in-progress, but expected this year. Or might there actually be an At the Drive-In reunion instead? Personally, I know what I'd vote for.

Closer to home, and domestic acts Architects (The Here and Now, 24 January), Funeral for a Friend (Welcome Home Armageddon, 14 March), Mogwai (Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will, 14 February) and Lower Than Atlantis (World Record, 4 April) all have new really-rather-heavy sets on the release slate. But should those ears be in need of something a little less raucous, there's plenty of shiny pop forthcoming, too. The most immediately notable is Adele's follow-up to her superb debut, 19 - a collection of barrelling barroom stompers and tear duct-tickling ballads, 21 is released on 24 January. Another Londoner due for a return in 2011 is Estelle, but exactly when third album All of Me is going to see the light of day is not clear - work began on the follow-up to 2008's Shine back in 2009. And - if we're really, really lucky - we might just get a new disc from a certain Amy Winehouse. With second album Back to Black rather fading in the memory, released as it was back in 2006, it's time (surely) for the queen of British soul to return and cast all pretenders aside. Last summer its release date was said to be this month - if we see it by the end of this summer, it'll be a result.

Fans of Sound of 2011 winner Jessie J will have to wait until June for her debut album - but an American superstar who the Essex singer is quite clearly influenced by, Lady Gaga, will release her second album a little sooner. Born This Way will explode across global charts in May. Similarly likely to cause countdowns the world over to go into spasms of superlatives, the twin kings of contemporary rap, Kanye West and Jay-Z, release collaborative album Watch the Throne later this year. It's said to be dark and sexy - and it's sure to sell by the skip-load. The pop world will also bear witness, over the next 12 months, to new records from: Avril Lavinge (Goodbye Lullaby, 7 March), Britney Spears (title TBC, March), Alexis Jordan (Alexis Jordan, 7 February), Sara Bareilles (Kaleidoscope Heart, 21 February) and The Wombats (This Modern Glitch, 11 April).

We're not quite through, yet. A few crackers are coming up. Not least of all a new album from R.E.M., Collapse Into Now - the Jacknife Lee-produced 15th album from the enduring Athens, Georgia outfit is scheduled for 7 March. And there's also a new disc soon to drop from New York's coolest exports of the last decade, The Strokes - word on the internet grapevine is that the five-piece's fourth album will be released on 22 March in the US, so expect it in the UK a day earlier. More big names from the USA releasing big albums in 2011 include: Dr. Dre (yes, Detox is really coming, really - hopefully - in February); Lupe Fiasco (Lasers, 7 March); Beastie Boys (Hot Sauce Committee parts one and two, the latter preceding the former, probably in the spring); Fleet Foxes (no release date, but working titles have apparently included Deepwater Horizon and Slaughternalia - apparently); Bright Eyes (The People's Key, 21 February); Diddy - Dirty Money (Last Train to Paris, due in the UK at the end of January); and Lil Wayne (the prison-term-delayed Tha Carter IV, expected sometime before the end of 2011).

Finally, a handful of British acts return to the fray in the coming weeks with new selections sure to win a place in the hearts of their many fans. PJ Harvey's Let England Shake, released on Valentine's Day, has been three years in the making and represents a departure from the introspection of 2007's piano-driven White Chalk (in other words, expect noise). Indie-folkers Noah and the Whale will look to make up ground lost to Mumford & Sons in 2010 with their third long-play set, Last Night on Earth, which lands on 7 March. Jamie from The xx has remixed all of Gil Scott-Heron's I'm New Here album, and the results - titled We're New Here - are to be revealed on 21 February (it's bleepy and twitchy and ever-so-slightly great). The Human League release their first studio album for 10 years, Credo, in early March; though Gang of Four will have gone 16 years between studio albums when seventh LP proper Content is released on 24 January, so what's a decade, really?

Sorry, just two more names: U2 and Radiohead. They're fairly popular, right? Too right, and both are expected to release new albums in the next 12 months. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm all previewed out. If what you're waiting for isn't mentioned above, tell us about it by posting a comment below.

(*Do please note that this is incredibly far from an exhaustive list, and that release dates are subject to change.)

Hello again, 

Another week of music themed delights for your viewing pleasure. Highlights this week come from Bruce Springsteen, Dave Brubeck and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. 

Enjoy;

Friday 14 January - BBC Four

1930 - 2030: Mozart Uncovered

Conductor Charles Hazlewood rehearses and performs some of the key works featured in the BBC series The Genius of Mozart and analyses them in more detail. Mozart's Symphony No 39 in E flat major, K543 is examined by Hazlewood and his specially-formed period orchestra. This was the first of Mozart's three last great symphonies, written in an extraordinary burst of creativity in just six weeks.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074q3f

2030 - 2100: Transatlantic Sessions

Folk musicians come together in what have been called the greatest backporch shows ever. Jerry Douglas demonstrates his Grammy award-winning dobro skills and other highlights include Eddi Reader with Tim O'Brien, Julie Fowlis with Donal Lunny and Darrell Scott backed by Karen Matheson.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007zmn2

2100 - 2200: The Godmother Of Rock n Roll - Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Repeated: BBC Four - Sunday 2345

During the 40s, 50s and 60s Sister Rosetta Tharpe played a highly significant role in the creation of rock & roll, inspiring musicians like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Little Richard and Chuck Berry. She may not be a household name, but this flamboyant African-American gospel singing superstar, with her spectacular virtuosity on the newly-electrified guitar, was one of the most influential popular musicians of the 20th century.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xf8k7

2200 - 2300: Hugh Masekela - Welcome To South Africa

Repeated: BBC Four - Sunday 2445

South African musician Hugh Masekela celebrates his 70th birthday and reflects on his career in performance and interview, from first picking up a trumpet in the 50s through the apartheid years, exile and stardom in America, his return to South Africa on Nelson Mandela's release, and concluding with his vision of the future for his country.

The programme also features performances from his 70th birthday concert at the Barbican in London in December 2009, where he was joined by the London Symphony Orchestra, their Community Choir and guest South African singers.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s6bln

2300 - 2400: Roll Over Beethoven - Chess Records Saga

Repeated: BBC Four - Sunday 2545

Chicago's Chess Records was one of the greatest labels of the post-war era, ranking alongside other mighty independents like Atlantic, Stax and Sun. From 1950 till its demise at the end of the 60s, Chess released a myriad of electric blues, rock 'n' roll and soul classics that helped change the landscape of black and white popular music.

The film reveals how two Polish immigrants, Leonard and Phil Chess, forged friendships with black musicians in late 1940s Chicago, shrewdly building a speciality blues label into a huge independent worth millions by the end of the 1960s. Full of vivid period detail, it places the Chess story within a wider social and historical context - as well as being about some of the greatest music ever recorded, it is, inevitably, about race in America during these tumultuous times.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vv0zz

2500 - 2600: Arena - Dave Brubeck - In His Own Sweet Way

Three young men who emerged in the 1950s - Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Dave Brubeck - not only captured the public's imagination, but in their own unique way determined the evolution of jazz as we know it today. Of this triumvirate, only Dave Brubeck remains. As he approaches his 90th birthday in December 2010, he is set to play New York's legendary Blue Note jazz club.

This Clint Eastwood co-produced documentary tells Brubeck's personal story, tracing his career from his first musical experiences to the overwhelming success of the Dave Brubeck Quartet and the iconic status he and his varied forms of musical expression have achieved.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wbp64

Saturday 15 January - BBC Four

2100 - 2230: Bruce Springsteen - The Promise - The Making Of Darkness On The Edge Of Town

Thom Zimny's film, The Promise - The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town, explores the three years it took to make Bruce Springsteen's fourth studio album, 1978's Darkness on the Edge of Town. Zimny's film is driven by in-depth interviews with Springsteen, the E-Street Band and producers Jon Landau and Jimmy Lovine and features extensive black-and-white archive footage of the process from the time, shot in Springsteen's home studio and at New York's Record Plant.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xk78m

2230 - 2330: Bruce Springsteen - The Darkness Live 1978

Hot on the heels of the release of their classic fourth studio album, Darkness on the Edge of Town, Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band went on the road with renewed hunger and are captured here playing the songs from the album live in 1978 in Houston, cementing their reputation as saviours of rock 'n' roll.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xxn1l

2330 - 2430: BBC Four Sessions - Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen makes a departure from his rock 'n' roll superstar persona, singing the songs made famous by Pete Seeger in the 1950s. Backed by a hootenanny-style 18-piece ensemble including horns, fiddles and accordion, he performs songs from his album We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074sjm

Sunday 16 January - BBC Three

2630 - 2725: Music, Money & Hip Hop Honeys

Repeated: BBC Three - Tuesday 2620

Nel Hedayat investigates the controversial world of music videos and meets the girls who dream of dancing in them. Nel spends time with girls who are on the path to success, but also learns about the dark side of an industry where dancers chasing fame can leave themselves open to financial and sexual exploitation.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00x1wz7

Monday 17 January - BBC Four

2100 - 2230: Elgar - The Music Maker

The composer of Land of Hope and Glory is often regarded as the quintessential English gentleman, but Edward Elgar's image of hearty nobility was deliberately contrived. In reality, he was the son of a shopkeeper, who was awkward, nervous, self-pitying and often rude, while his marriage to his devoted wife Alice was complicated by romantic entanglements which fired his creative energy.

In this revelatory portrait of a musical genius, John Bridcut explores the secret conflicts in Elgar's nature which produced some of Britain's greatest music.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vv0zx

Next week; Mozart, Thin Lizzy and Iron Maiden.

Take care of yourselves

Rory

I've taken some time out of my day job at BBC Radio 1 to produce this year's BBC Sound of 2011. As someone who gets unreasonably excited by new sounds, this project has been a gift in seeing what other music types are loving and feel excited by for the forthcoming year. My job has been sourcing other's opinions on what their favourite new acts are in the form of votes, resulting in the longlist of the BBC Sound of 2011 and then delivering the information to key people for broadcast, as well as organising video shoots and interviews.

The BBC love and support new music in lots of different ways - through radio play, putting artists on playlists, bookings on programmes, BBC Introducing and sessions. The BBC Sound Of 2011 is another facet which shines a light on new talent. My first job was to refresh and review the list of contacts to ensure we had the key influential writers, DJs and bloggers and a wide range of opinions. The ensuing spreadsheet and votes were protected in Spooks-style secrecy, which were counted and cross-checked with some senior BBC figures to ensure my maths hadn't been distracted in any way!

In tandem with collating the list of favourites, I worked with different programme makers on a variety of networks, from Zane Lowe's team on Radio 1, to Victoria Derbyshire's team on 5Live and music news and programming on 6 Music, as well as speaking with Press and entertainment news teams to keep them across how the list has been shaping up. Also, for the first time, the BBC Sound of 2011 has a new home at bbc.co.uk/soundof2011, so I have been sourcing content and performances with Rory, master of all things BBC Music and online.

Working closely with George Ergatoudis, BBC Radio 1's Head of Music and Matthew Shaw, Assignment Editor for BBC Entertainment news, our aim was to have a variety of content about each artist in the Top 5 - some filmed content, a written article, a BBC Radio 1 performance and an interview with one of the BBC Radio 1 or 1Xtra DJs who championed them. The highlights of these films were made into the BBC Sound of 2011 Red Button TV show. By filming content in James Blake's bedroom and going to the studio where Jessie J writes and records her material hopefully we have provided an early introduction to these artists and how they have reached this point so far.

It seems everyone loves music lists, or at least has a view on them - ever since Nick Hornby hit the nail on the head in 'High Fidelity', there's something wonderfully compelling about music opinions. Hopefully there are a few artists which have been brought to the fore and allow discovery of new sounds for the new year.

Watch interviews and session performances by this year's top 5 plus profiles of the 15 strong longlist on: bbc.co.uk/soundof2011

Watch clips of the final five artists at: BBC Music.

Philippa Aylott is the Producer of BBC Sound of 2011.

Hello again, and happy new year.

Some early 2011 Music TV highlights below, more to come over the course of the next twelve months.

Enjoy;

Friday 7 January - BBC Three

1900 - 2000: Doctor Who at The Proms

Doctor Who returns to the Proms with a new show hosted by the stars of the series - Karen Gillan (aka the Doctor's companion Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (aka Rory Williams) and featuring a special guest appearance by Matt Smith (aka the Doctor).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tq7bh

Friday 7 January - BBC Four

1930 - 2025: The Genius Of Mozart Uncovered

Conductor Charles Hazlewood rehearses and performs some of the key works featured in the BBC series The Genius of Mozart and analyses them in more detail. Mozart's Piano Concerto in D Minor K466 comes under the microscope, performed by the renowned Dutch fortepianist Ronald Brautigam and a specially-formed period orchestra.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074q2q

Watch clips from The Genius Of Mozart season on the BBC Music Showcase

2030 - 2100: Transatlantic Sessions

Folk musicians come together to make music in what have been called 'the greatest backporch shows ever'. This edition features Paul Brady, Karen Matheson and Joan Osborne.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007yyss

2100 - 2200: Classic Albums - Tom Petty - Damn the Torpedoes

Repeated - BBC Four - Sunday 2340

The third album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, released in 1979, has long been regarded as a classic, demonstrates the musical and songwriting virtuosity of a great frontman and his amazing backing band. A mix of rootsy American rock 'n' roll and the best of the British invasion, of jangling Byrds guitars and Stones-like rhythms, Damn he Torpedoes was the album that took Petty into the major league and re-defined American rock.This programme tells the story behind the conception and recording of the album and the transformation it made to the band's career.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00x7chg

2200 - 2245: Tom Petty - Rock Goes To College

Repeated - BBC Four - Sunday 2535

Pete Drummond introduces Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in concert at Oxford Polytechnic in 1980.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00phv9m

2245 - 2645: Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers - Runnin' Down A Dream

Peter Bogdanovich's epic portrait of one of America's great heartland rock 'n' roll bands. The film uses extensive interviews with the band and friends like Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks and Rick Rubin to chart their stubborn, independent-minded and often highly-successful journey towards the present day - breaking up occasionally, stopping off with the Traveling Wilburys, various Petty solo outings and periods backing the likes of Dylan, but fundamentally sticking together as one of America's greatst live and recording rock 'n' roll bands.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00scr6s

Saturday 8 January - BBC Four

2230 - 2350: Gracie!

Singer and comedienne from Rochdale, Gracie Fields was the nation's darling. Beginning on the cusp of World War II and at the phenomenal peak of her career, this heart-breaking love story tells of Gracie's relationship with Italian-born Hollywood director Monty Banks and its staggering repercussions.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p1p41

Sunday 9 January - BBC Three

2430 - 2525: Music, Money & Hip Hop Honeys

Nel Hedayat investigates the controversial world of music videos and meets the girls who dream of dancing in them. Nel spends time with girls who are on the path to success, but also learns about the dark side of an industry where dancers chasing fame can leave themselves open to financial and sexual exploitation.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00x1wz7

Sunday 9 January - BBC Four

2100 - 2200: Still Folk Dancing After All These Years

Young Northumbrian folk-singing siblings Rachel and Becky Unthank take a journey around England from spring to autumn 2010 to experience its living folk dance traditions in action. They lead us through the back gardens and narrow streets of towns and villages from Newcastle to Penzance to discover the most surprising of dances, ceremonies, rituals and festivities that mark the turning of the seasons and the passing of the year.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wgrtr

Next week; Mozart, Hugh Masekela and The Boss.

Take care of yourselves.

Rory