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snek merino kneewarmers

jazz on an autumn evening is something of an occupational hazard so to speak, this year's lagavulin sponsored islay jazz festival being my nineteenth in succession, always held around mid-september. its timing has occasionally led to some worrying moments for both musicians and attendees alike, with delayed ferries and at least one occasion of a cancelled flight from glasgow.

many of those years have seen (or rather, heard) me accompanying individuals several levels of musicianship above my own, but this apprenticeship has eventually allowed me to lead (at least, that's what it said in this year's programme), my own quartet for the past two years.

the set lists for both 2016 and this year have revolved round what may acceptably described as standards; the sort of tunes that many jazz musicians would dearly love to play, but a to-cool-for-school approach has them choose material a tad more adventurous. though this is partly down to limited musicianship on our part, it's also tailored to the appreciation of an audience that includes a greater percentage of locals than any of the others played over the three-day weekend.

what i'm blatantly inferring here is that jazz is hardly an acquired taste in this part of the hebrides.

this year therefore had our collective musicianship wrap its technique around a bill evans arrangement of the theme from m.a.s.h., duke ellington's take the 'a' train, dizzy gillespie's a night in tunisia (purely for the warmth, you understand) and my first attempt at max roach's famous solo drum piece the drum also waltzes. however, though not as a direct result of the incumbent season, we also played our expressions of errol garner's misty and kosma's autumn leaves from a cannonball adderley arrangement.

autumnal song titles do not, however, come alone. autumn brings with it certain climatic dictates, though it would not be stretching too far from the truth to state that the change in seasons has been scarcely noticeable this far west. to state it forcibly, summer has not been all it's cracked up to be. therefore visitors to the islay jazz festival have been greeted by a chill that certainly wasn't there last weekend. and by implication, those of us intent on the velocipedinal life have faced similar implications. or, to be quite frank, reality.

not unsurprisingly, such a drop in the ambient temperature resulted in a need to cover patches of bare skin that were once freely open to the elements. armwarmers, for yours truly at least, have been a summer-long feature, but the winter of discontent (to paraphrase only slightly) has brought me to accessorise with knee-warmers 'neath my bibshorts. but not just any old kneewarmers; in this case, a luxurious pair of merino kneewarmers from the wardrobe of snek's jonny hintze.

prior to the onset of summer (a little hebridean humour there), mr hintze sent me a pair of matching merino armwarmers which i dutifully reviewed with a positive note. these particular armwarmers have seen sterling service over the intervening months, including one of the stages to paris towards the end of july. though i have carped on about the iniquities of an hebridean summer, what cannot be denied is its relative mildness, one that has allowed the g.c. ristorante debbie's peloton to circumambulate the isle almost exclusively in bibshorts over the past few months.

but this weekend's drop in the mercurial height pretty much insisted that those snek merino kneewarmers be forcibly pressed into service. jonny hintze told me that he'd guessed at what might be the most appropriate sizes to festoon about my person; large might not have been the one i'd have chosen for myself, but in point of fact, both arm and kneewarmers in this size have proved to be highly effective. any fears i harboured about my knees looking akin to nora batty's tights were totally unfounded. and in dribbling precipitation swirled by a modest wind they proved not only highly effective, but remarkably efficient at shielding my legs from the fact that they were clad in clinging wetness.

i do like a quality pair of bib-threequarters; that would be my preferred mode of dress as opposed to kneewarmers which i often find to be a tad on the uncomfortable side. however, snek's size choice has perhaps highlighted that i have been misdirected all these years and that that purported discomfort was simply the manifest result of poor size choice. either way, if you have also been of the misapprehension that kneewarmers were not the coolest of choices (sartorially speaking, you understand), i think it likely that a pair of snek merino kneewarmers will convert you to the way of the jedi.

snek merino kneewarmers are available only in blue, in sizes small, medium and large at a retail cost of $72 (approx £54)

snek cycling merino kneewarmers

sunday 17 september 2017