What are you listening to and WHY might anyone be interested? (Vol. X)

Good choice with the Kenny Burrell Graham. I received my Music Matters copy this week which is superb. Which version is yours?

Steve

Some great tracks and nicely engineered. Graitt infact!

G

I picked this Classic Records reissue up this week. I have the first four LPs on CR which are excellent but this one is the first that is clearly better than the original first press.

Led Zeppelin II on plum label.

Original 1st press vinyl.

Good choice with the Kenny Burrell Graham. I received my Music Matters copy this week which is superb. Which version is yours?

Steve

Hi Steve.  It's a 2013 reissue by [Elemental Music] licensed by EMI, must say the SQ is superb.

Graham 

It's one of my top three favourite Jazz albums Graham and get's played on a regular basis. Alfred Lions of Blue Note said in a documentary I saw last year that it was his favourite Blue Note production.

..I wasn't so much a Krall fan, but by listening a bit more, it's quite fine - still prefer the likes of Cassandra Wilson much more.....

Went looking for some Trouble on this Good Friday. Found this CD which seems to fit the bill.

1st UK pressing...

Ozric Tentacles  "Sliding Gliding Worlds"  cd.

I picked this Classic Records reissue up this week. I have the first four LPs on CR which are excellent but this one is the first that is clearly better than the original first press.

Great album, Steve. When I was at school I absolutely adored Led Zeppelin and, apart from Yes, scarcely listened to anything else. Fortunately my tastes matured and expanded significantly (thanks in part to buying my first LP12!). Now, many years on, this is one LZ studio album which still gets an airing every so often. I even made up a playlist of this album from the 4 and 2 remaster sets so that I could stream it in its original order through the NDS, but although I tried to save it, it disappeared into the ether. Maybe Pagey put some occult curse on it to prevent copying! I'll just have to play my original vinyl or cassette copies...

Vinyl

As Oliver Nelson is known primarily as a big band leader and arranger, he is lesser known as a saxophonist and organizer of small ensembles. Blues and the Abstract Truth is his triumph as a musician for the aspects of not only defining the sound of an era with his all-time classic "Stolen Moments," but on this recording, assembling one of the most potent modern jazz sextets ever. Lead trumpeter Freddie Hubbard is at his peak of performance, while alto saxophonists Nelson and Eric Dolphy (Nelson doubling on tenor) team to form an unlikely union that was simmered to perfection. Bill Evans (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), and Roy Haynes (drums) can do no wrong as a rhythm section. "Stolen Moments" really needs no comments, as its undisputable beauty shines through in a three-part horn harmony fronting Hubbard's lead melody. It's a thing of beauty that is more timeless as the years pass. The "Blues" aspect is best heard on "Yearnin'," a stylish, swinging, and swaying downhearted piece that is a bluesy as Evans would ever be. Both "Blues" and "Abstract Truth" combine for the darker "Teenie's Blues," a feature for Nelson and Dolphy's alto saxes, Dolphy assertive in stepping forth with his distinctive, angular, dramatic, fractured, brittle voice that marks him a maverick. Then there's "Hoedown," which has always been the black sheep of this collection with its country flavor and stereo separated upper and lower horn in snappy call-and-response barking. As surging and searing hard boppers respectively, "Cascades" and "Butch & Butch" again remind you of the era of the early '60s when this music was king, and why Hubbard was so revered as a young master of the idiom. A must buy for all jazz fans, and a Top Ten or Top Fifty favorite for many.