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

Dark Star  "Twenty Twenty Sound"  

Black Sabbath  "Masters Of Reality"

listening to both, quite short, albums on cd.

I know you can't read it. It's Tour De Force - Stars Of Bop - Gillespie, Stitt, Winding, Monk, McKibbon, Blakey and Cafa. Moon Records - I.R.D. Milano. I was 23  i was gifted with this great vinyl. Now i have the cd on. Funny how it has been recorded in france, cd made in italy, sent to usa, and back on my floor after 25 years. For only 12 €s.

John Hiatt

"Dirty Jeans And Mudslide Hymns"   (2011)    SP

Great music, for Reading à boom and for just lijstenwinkel...

Colleen's solo album was one of my favs from last year.

Sorry dutch spell check. I meant of course that this music is great for more than just the background for reading a book ....

Must sound superb on vinyl.

Genesis of course, Foxtrot

Sorry, can't be bothered to go turn the computer on to find the album cover - it can't be done from an iPad. 

Bonnie Raitt

"Slipstream"   (2012)  SP

Fantastic and highly individual performance of Kinderszenen. His mug shots aren't getting any better, though - he must drive a Bimmer and shave with Gilette.

Cheers,

EJ

Have a few of their albums.  Very good band! 

Hi Joe,

I bought it, but haven't had a chance to sit down and listen to it.  Will need to pop it into the car, I think. 

I'll post back once I have. 

Best regards,

Pat

Hawkwind  - DOREMI FASOL LATIDO -   on c.d.

some night time listening turning volumes of sound

Fred Simon

Remember The River

Great music and a True Stereo recording

Tackling on Mahler's 7th.

Like any Mahler program, it takes a several repeated listen to grasp what's going on.

John Mellencamp. No Better Than This. On 2 LPs from 2010. Recorded using a single mic and portable recorder, the songs are warm with a genuine charm.

Golden Earring. Moontan (1973). On the MCA reissue vinyl from 1974. This album impresses me every time I play it. 

Sergei Rachmaninov:  Evgenia Rubinova (Piano)

My love of the music of Sergei Rachmaninov knows no bounds.  Like all great composers before him, this music takes you back to a time of nobility where dreams of idealism, love, and beauty existed. Hardly understandable topics in todays cold and blighted world where selfishness and deception reign supreme. 

Evgenia Rubinova states that:

"My intention is to reveal multiple levels of meaning in Rachmaninoff's music: unadorned simplicity, melancholy sadness, the joy of spring awakening, cold distance, wit and humour, the sound of bells, the music's total absence of self-pity, its noble character, sensibility, variety of colours, generosity: all in all, the various larders of Rachmaninoff's own personality.

 

Rachmaninoff's music, despite some erroneous opinions, is masterfully composed in a truly independent style.  At times, certain motifs intentionally recall Chopin, Mendelssohn or Tchaikovsky, but all such resemblances are only surface deep."

I think the following quotes by Rachmaninoff also are very telling:

"I go for a long walk in the country.  My eye catches the spark of light on fresh foliage after showers, my ears the rustling undertone of the woods.  or I watch the pale tints of the sky over the horizon after sundown and they come - all voices at once."  (Rachmaninoff, 1909)

 

"Music should, in the final analysis, be the expression of a composer's complex personality. ...A composer's music should express the country of his birth, his love affairs, his religion, the books that have influenced him, the pictures he loves.  It should be the product of the sum total of a composer's experiences."  (Rachmaninoff, 1941)

Alongside Rachmaninov's Preludes and Etudes I would suggest the Moments musicaux fit perfectly right between these two pillars.  It has taken me a lifetime but I now hold this set of music high up in my list of great and important music to me.  Rachmaninov was only 23 years old when this music was first published.  An incredible feat considering the musical complexity and depth this music is capable of.

The B flat minor Moment musical has been my highlight piece in the past year since getting this recording.  Rubinova opens in a fashion you won't hear any else being capable of.  If is so unique in that she captures the haunting beauty and the hesitations from the start seem so justified.  To me, the piece is a musical representation of a dream.  Maybe it was the result of a long walk in the country and is the musical representation of countless ideas and visions?

The majority of the Preludes, Etudes and Moment musicaux are written in minor keys.  No wonder I find this music so enchanting, full of dreams and ideas, emotion and life.  The music is so full of meaning, symbolism, and childhood memories.  This is the very antithesis of the academic viewpoint with all the air sucked out of it and dead and lifeless yet flapping like a flag in the wind about rules and pompous style that matters to no one who is interested in music.

Erroll Garner : Plays for Dancing

1955 12" 6 eye mono reissue LP from 10" release from 1953.

All upbeat groovy tunes:

Original 10" cover:

On Original  1971 Vinyl

This is probably Garner's most *famous* album: 'Concert by the Sea' 1955 live recording.

If you could go pass a bootleg grade poor recording, this is one of the greatest jazz live performance and get the gist of who Erroll Garner's about in this one record.

Wacky chord progression, hamonisation and sharp rhythmic accents with touch of Debussy and Bach, you've got Garner.