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The news in Latin

A bizarre and surprising feature from Radio 4's Today revealed that the Finnish equivalent of the BBC has - for the last 17 years - been broadcasting news in classical Latin. And not to a tiny audience, either. In fact, when Finland took over presidency of the EU and expressed it's individuality by posting its monthly reports in Latin, too, the Latin language version was read more widely than the French language version.

Veryan Weston's Quintet Of Uncertainty - a Jazz on 3 special

If you're interested in the place where small group composition meets free improvisation, and want to know a bit more about how the music's conceived and realised, don't miss tonight's Jazz on 3, featuring pianist Veryan Weston's international quintet. For this week's show, I sat in on the rehearsal process, took photographs, acquired a bit of sheet music and talked to all the musicians involved. It meant approaching the Jazz on 3 session a little differently, focusing on the process as much as the outcome.

For more information - including a line-up, more photos, some sheet music and an extra track - go here.

UPDATE: As I suggested above, this was a bit of an experiment, and we invited feedback from listeners. (Very) thankfully, it's in and it's almost all been good... suggesting there's interest in this kind of slightly more in depth look at the creative process. I'll be meeting with the Somethin Else Productions people soon to discuss ways of perhaps incorporating it into other shows. In the meantime, it's available via the BBC's Listen Again facility until Friday, October 13. Click this, press the "jazz" button, and find Jazz On 3.