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

a great album, and to my earlier point much more tight playing...

Very Scandinavian, and rather good. 

Bruce Katz Band: Crescent Crawl

Out of the box before sundown on the Audioquest label:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2DFQsMAM10

RE first distorted guitar there was an early '60s album by I believe Chet Atkins that he did with a load of new electronic devices, that I seem to remember included distortion. Les Paul may have done some experiments too.

I think I heard that Dave Davies said he cut the cones of his amp speaker so that it had mechanical distortion.

What ever happened to the the day when something this good was "just" pop music?

And Marilyn McCoo - what a babe...

Feelin' rather 60s tonight...

Stray Cats. Built For Speed. On vinyl from 1982. The Stray Cats brilliant US debut, I just learned on Wikipedia that it is a compilation of their first two British albums. My copy is the EMI America pressing mastered by Wally Traugott and the SQ is excellent.

Yeah, she was hot back in the day, solo or 5th Dimension. Remember the variety show she and husband Billy Davis had in the late 1970's? A big deal for a black couple to have their own TV show in those days. I think Flip Wilson probably helped pave the way for them.

Haydn Sinfonia Concertante No.105: Karl Ristenpart/Chamber Orchestra of the Sarre

Nocturnes

Dipping my toes in Haydn again. He tend to be buried between Mozart and Beethoven. It is interesting that they took a lot from what Haydn was doing.

Easy-on-ear background music but very much enjoyable due to their lovely melody and light handed orchestration with a rhythmic flare.  

There are some interesting thing going on altho they never leave any particular strong emotional take away as Mozart or Beethoven's tunes. 

Bruce Springsteen. The Promise. On 2CDs from 2010. My first listen to these alternate and unreleased tracks from the "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" sessions recorded in 1977-78. High quality mixes. If you're a fan of The Boss and enjoy his "Tracks" release I suspect you'll like this album as well. Good stuff.

Pink Floyd. Saucerful Of Secrets (1968). On Capitol CD from 1990. My first listen to this album, so old is new for me here. Taken in perspective, the album is innovative, progressive, avant-garde for its time, yet still sounds quite fresh today. I like it a lot.

The River outtakes are due out 4th Dec.

The first major band I ever saw live in the 60's

I have now listened a couple of times and can't get friends with it...

When the single came out I was on holiday on the south coast with my parents. There was a jukebox in the local cafe & my sister & I played this incessantly. A wonderful record, along with Whiter Shade a real ground-breaker, and I still love it.

On CD:-

Frank Morgan  duets with pianists Kenny Barron, Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris, Roland Hanna, and Hank Jones gently reflect autumn colors just as well as they do spring flowers!

If you like Chris Jones, you will love these. 

Nick 'n Kylie, an improbable couple, and a truly wonderful song. If anyone hasn't heard it, do so. It's not often you'll hear Kylie singing lines like 'as he knelt above me with a rock in his fist'.  This is the CD single, with the title track taken from the equally marvellous Bad Seeds' Murder Ballads album. 

Paul Lewis plays Mussorgsky's Pictures, and Schumann's Fantasie. Great record.

EJ

Really enjoying this vinyl box set that arrived today.

Streaming | WAV

(1992)

One of my favourite albums from Metallica. It was a great concert that I thought worked unusually well with the SFSO thanks to Michael Kamen's vision, CD 1 of 2 for now.