Be Honest! What are the last 5 pieces of music you listened to? And Why?

John C - you were right!

After a lengthy search I found THREE jazz records in my collection. AND I LIKE THEM.

1. Jazz at the Pawnshop
2. Duke Ellington - Unknown Session on CBS Standard record
3. Duke Ellington - Unknown Session on CBS Masters Contemporary Series

Ok, I never listen to the second one, because the third one is such a better recording. OTOH, the first one comprises two discs, so that still makes three jazz records!

Mrs D thinks this means I can drop the 'ignorant' part of my self-inflicted description.

Cheers

Don

Don, great news! I'm sure Mrs D loves this voyage of self discovery. Who knows what unsuspected truths are about to surface? Everyone loves Duke Ellington ofcourse. Someone once told me or I read somewhere that the unknown sessions Duke Ellington LP was a favourite of Grahams HIFI years ago as system checking or Lp 12 test disc.

John
Mullet audio

"Putting you in touch with your own inner music"

John C,

Someone once told me or I read somewhere that the unknown sessions Duke Ellington LP was a favourite of Grahams HIFI years ago as system checking or Lp 12 test disc

Now I remember why I bought the record. It took quite a search and the 'Masters' version was found in Essen (Germany).

The 'test' track that they tended to use was Mood Indego.

Just put the clock back 20 years!! (before CDs - YYYeees!!)

Cheers

Don

So - Peter Gabriel (LP)
Herja - Joni Mitchell (CD)
Kid-A - Radiohead (CD)
Granada - Granada (CD)
Anja Garberek - Still Waving (CD)

Stephen

Depressed,so paid a visit to Portabello Road.There's quite a wealth of nice virgin vinyl 180 gm re-issues out at the moment...

Eddie Boyd (with Fleetwood Mac)- 7936 South Rhodes

Damnation of Adam Blessing-same

Kak-kak(180gm has far superior sound to previous Epic release)

Paul Butterfield Blues Band- East West

Mars Bonfire - Faster than the speed of life (original)

Met,I can't help with Shetlandpony's picks as I've never heard of any of them either.And who's Madonna?

Eddie Boyd was a Mississipi Delta bluesman who moved to Chicago and cut a few excellent albums(if you like rollicking blues piano)The LP with Fleetwood Mac is typical Chicago/Brit blues, Peter Green's playing especially sympathetic to Boyd's.

Kak featured Gary Lee Yoder(formerly of Oxford Circle,later of Blue Cheer)and is a minor league San Franciscan psych rock gem,with a sound reminiscent of Moby Grape & Quicksilver.The original album is now quite rare as it sold poorly when released.The group only recorded the 1 Lp before they split.Some people consider it over-rated.Personally I love it!

Damnation of Adam Blessing were a Cleveland acid-rock band who released 3 highly under-rated(IMO) LP's full of that great heavy guitar sound atypical of the very late 60's/early 70's, with some great vocals as well.I highly recommend the 1st album. Arkama have done a great job of the re-issue including a nice gatefold sleeve.Goody!

Mars Bonfire (Real name Dennis Edmonton) was in The Sparrow-the band that evolved into Steppenwolf- and probably retired comfortably as he wrote 'Born to be Wild', although his version is rather less powerful(and not as convincing) as his former bandmates version.He went solo after the Sparrow disbanded and released this LP on Columbia.It's sound is softer than that of Steppenwolf, leaning more towards pop-psych, but features some nice melodies- although you sometimes wish he was a better singer-His voice is rather thin. An interesting obscurity with half of the tracks making it a worthwile purchase.

Hope that helps to de-humble!

You guys need a good taste transfusion! :-)

Beethoven Sym #2, Japanese CD, Szell, Cleveland Orchestra (thanks, Eric)

Bartok, Cto for Orchestra, Reiner, Chicago SO, pink Victrola LP

Strauss, Also Sprach Zarathustra, Reiner, CSO, pink Victrola

Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique, Beecham, French National Radio Orchestra, EMI CD

Same, Davis, Concertgebouw, Philips LP

in your listening- 5 classical pieces in a row!?!

need variation? Naah - all anybody needs is big orchestral pieces.

Sorry for the quick response - I need to get some Tcahikovsky or Mahler going.

Regards.

Phil

Mozart - Violin Concerto No 4 (Itzhak Perlman & James Levine with the VPO)

Bruckner - Symphony No 6 (Sergiu Celibidache with the Munich PO)

Stravinsky - Fireworks (the 1946 Stravinsky conducted version)

Faure - 13 Barcarolles

Beethoven - Bagatelles Opus 33 (Artur Schnabel)

RUSH HOUR SOUND TRACK - VINYL
visited Atlanta
MARIONETTES ON A HIGH WIRE - BAIKA CARROL - CD
read the review
ACRES OF SPACE - DUB SYNDICATE - VINYL
Thunder Dub coming to EMP
UJUMBE - SAM MAPANGALA - CD
Sam rocks
IS THIS IT - THE STROKES - VINYL
they wish they rocked

Back again.....

1. Coldplay (CD) - some bonus disk that came with my brothers Coldplay album. It has Sparks, Careful Where You Stand, See You Soon and a great acoustic version of Yellow.

2. JMJ - Zoolook (Vinyl) - had it when I was younger. Freaky is a good description but I had to laugh because it took me 2 tracks to realise my TT was on 45!

3. Ian Brown - Music of the speres (CD) - a short but good album from the ex Stone Roses guru. Not fussed on the album before called Golden Greats (ummm yeah right).

4. Starsalior (vinyl) - good but is it really "that" good. Maybe it's one of those growers?

5. David Gray - LIVE (DVD) - freaking awesome! If you need a reason to get DVD player and a reasonable 5 channel set-up, this is it! There's just something here that makes you go wow! Now if someone can tell me how I can copy the audio channel to a CD I'd be a very happy man.

Enjoy. Jay

Prophesy -- Nitin Sawhney... Wonderful vocals from some Arabic babe & great beats

Gold -- Ryan Adams.. This guy makes me sick, early twenties and already written over a dozen great songs, this his best yet

Here be Monsters -- Ed Harcourt... Interesting in places, overwrought arrangements at times

Jubilee -- Grant Lee Buffalo... wonderful

The Clash -- London Calling... do I need a reason?? Never with this one

LUCINDA WILLIAMS - ESSENCE (Check the bass out on this)
JONNY LANG -WANDER THIS WORLD
ROD PICOTT - TIGER TOM DIXONS BLUES
NEAL CASAL - FADE AWAY DIAMOND TIME
TRISH MURPHY RUBIES ON THE LAWN

Having spent an exhausting day battling the elements whilst trying to reclaim the garden back from the wild,I found myself on the sofa cuddling up to a nice middle-aged bottle of Glenkinchie..

Lee Morgan - Sonic Boom -Great Lineup - Why this never saw an earlier release I don't know-David Newman is in fine form.

Donald Byrd - A new perspective - Again, an excellent line up and an unique sound

Curtis Amy & Dupree Bolton - Katanga - I love the sound of this album- some great hard bop but also tender in places

Fleetwood Mac - Then Play On - The transitional album-you can hear Peter Green starting to lose it which adds to the excitement of the tracks.

Tim Buckley - Blue Afternoon - My favourite album of Buckleys-fine gentle ballards which he approaches with great restraint-barely a Yodel to be heard

Last night and this morning have proven fruitful.

Beethoven - Flute Sonata (listening on the radio while I write this.)

Vaughn Williams - String Quartet No 2 (Maggini Quartet)

Beethoven - Piano Concerto No 3 (Artur Schnabel and Malcolm Sargent)

Dvorak - String Quartet No 5 (Vlach Quartet Prague)

Chopin - Scherzo No 1 (Ashkenazy)

Reading Todds posting makes me realise just how ignorant I am about the whole field of Classical music. It's not that I don't like the Classics, it's just that I'm at a loss at where to start.I do own a limited number of CD's(the obvious Beethoven & Bach) and a few compilations but I really don't know where to begin.I'm all the more confused due to the number of different recordings of the same titles.Can anyone offer some advice for a heathen trying to educate himself?

Mr. von Zipper, I will work on a list of suggestions and post them separately.

Nick, the Maggini record mostly for Naxos, and are one of the finest quartets working today, IMO. Generally, they seem to focus on British music, but they have recorded other repertoire. I have their complete cycle of Britten's quartets on Naxos and recommend them highly. The Vaughn Williams disc actually just won a Gramophone Award and are superb. The sound quality is top notch. And their Szymanowski on ASV is something to marvel at.

Ok and again...
Smile by the Jayhawks
Love and Theft by the Bob
Leftism....Leftfield (all time classic)
Uncut magazine sampler cd.....covers of Beatles songs by various artists (largely bollocks)
Essence by Lucinda Williams (total genius)

redeye
its friday nite and all is gooooood!!

Redeye,
Have to agree with that uncut freebie, If you can't cover a tune without embellishing it with some of your own style, don't bother covering it at all.(I think only the Junior Parker version of Taxman was worth the inclusion).

The last couple of Uncut sampler CD's have been pretty good, with a nice spectrum of music - a good way to discover new bands who would otherwise slip by unnoticedand a nice reminder of some you have forgotten.

Sarah McLachlan - Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
John Coltrane - Giant Steps
Kinesis - Worship Yourself
Faithless - Outrospective
The Beatles - One

All on the silver stuff.

Steve

Radio 3 is indeed the way to go, especially if you can get a good aerial and a naim tuner: you'll be amazed at how good radio in Glorious naim-o-Scope(tm) is (makes other tuners sound like, errrr, radio).

And not only is it a great way/place to discover classics, it's a great way to find out more about jazz and world music too. Late Junction, Mon-Thur at 10:15 IIRC, is a truly wondrous programme for anyone with catholic tastes.

As for those last 5 and why...
Fin de Siecle by Divine Comedy, 'cause a friend lent it to me and said "you'll love this", and she was right;
Cassanova, also by DC, because I liked FdS enough to visit Fopp and buy both it and this;
Me'shell NdegeOcello's "Peace Beyond Passion", as having bought and liked "Bitter" last year it seemed a natural thing to get, which was a good call;
Janacek's "Intimate Letters" string quartet, another loan which I would probably like, and did (a lot), and has now been ordered;
Stew Cutler's "Insignia", bought with the ongoing "it's on naim, it's probably worth a listen" plan. And it is indeed, a good guitar/bass/drums jazz disc, a little Bill Frisell-ish.

Pete.

The current 5 on the floor near the CDX are:

• Stockhausen - Hymnen (the man who invented electronica and god knows what else).

• Mogwai - 5 track tour only CD (its excellent, but you can't buy it unless you let them blow your eardrums out at a gig first).

• White Stripes - White blood cells (possibly lives up to the hype).

• Miles Davis - Kind of blue (I'm reading Ashley Kahn's excellent book about it).

• The freebie that fell out of The Wire magazine when I opened it (always worth a spin, you only get them if you subscribe).

Tony.

Son House - Delta Blues (because I heard the spine tingling John the Revelator on the radio on Saturday)

Wayne Shorter- Etcetera (because Wayne is God)

Joe Harriot - Freeform (Redial) (Joe Harriot was a genius from the Caribbean but living in London in the 50s and 60s who developed his own form of avant garde jazz in Britain, apparently independently and simultaneously with Ornette, then went on to invent Indo-jazz fusion 40 years before the recent Nitin Sawney etc). This reissue is a revelation.

Ornet te Coleman Trio - Live at the Golden Circle Vol 1 (This is this so wonderful, so great.. and has anyone ever worn a better wolly hat?)

Booker Ervin - The Blues Book (perfect, and one of those immaculate Prestige heavy vinyl pressings)

John.

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The Partridge Family - Sound Magazine
starting the evening off well with some excellent 70s bublegum

Archies - This is Love
continuing with the 5th and best album from Mr Ron Dante and his studio maestros.

Teen Machine - After School Special
Updating to the present for the bubblegum offshoot of Fuzzbubble, They've nicked all Sweet's riffs, borrwed Gary's drum beats and added some California sunshine

DAF - Alles Ist Gut
After all that sweetness, lets darken it down with some classic electro. Hot, sweaty and very very sexy.

Einstürzende Neubauten - Halber Mensch
Continuing up the German path, with some nice industrial noise to finish the evening and to send me to sleep