What are you listening to and WHY might anyone be interested? (Vol. XIV)
Posted by: Richard Dane on 31 December 2017
On the eve of a new year, it's time for a new thread.
Last year's thread can be found here:
(1982)
Just fancied listening to this old prog' classic.
Not an album I rate highly in my Van the Man collection.
(1977 | 2016)
Dipping back five years earlier for this one that's been given the higher res MFSL remaster treatment.
Now Playing......
Teitur - Poetry & Aeroplanes
Streaming on TIDAL........ Listening to something new in the new year, taking a mention from JEROEN20 and taking Teitur out for a spin.
My album of the year 2017. Absolutely brilliant. Cracking jazz/funk/soul/album. Virtuosic, beautifully produced and full of humour.
CD
Mainly traditional folk songs and tunes
(2012)
I don't usually listen to this style of electronica / Berlin School in the evening its more of an early morning listening preference but its getting a play and sounding good now.
Now Playing........
Tord Gustavsen Trio - Changing Places
Tord Gustavsen (Piano), Harald Johnsen (double-bass), and Jarle Vespestad (drums).
Streaming on TIDAL....... I have been enjoying Tord's music lately and taking Changing Places out for a second spin.
Note on ECM Records: Introducing a new piano trio from Norway. Tord Gustavsen’s young group, already making waves in the Far North – where “Changing Places” has soared into the pop charts – is telling new stories within the framework of the jazz tradition. This is music that sings, at once gentle and robust. The songs Gustavsen writes sound like standards-in-the-making: lyrical, immediately memorable songs, songs of an appealing freshness, yet sophisticated in their involvement with the melodic line. And the trio improvises, with flair and originality, inside their structures.
I was lucky enough to witness Pat Metheny (here on 80/81) in concert, and it was an unforgettable event. Long ago. This is one of his first records and A long time favorite and dear to my heart.
This is an excellent album from the wonderful Rachel Podger. Should anyone think of getting it, I bought it from Qobuz; it’s considerably cheaper from them than from Channel Classics’ own website.
On CD:-
Strawbs - The Ferryman's Curse
Almost logical sequel to 80/81: American Garage. Always loved the cover !
Traditional New Year fare. To be honest, I’ve always struggled with the 9th, preferring any of the others (ok, maybe not the 1st or 2nd!), but I think I’m now getting there with the 9th. Partly because improvements to my system are helping it make more sense - especially the choral last movement - but also the discovery of this tremendously well-judged Abbado/BPO performance. Cant believe I managed to snag my pre-loved copy a few months ago for £1 in a local charity shop !! 
Now Playing.......
Pat Metheny - 80/81
Pat Metheny (acoustic guitar and electric guitar), Charlie Haden (acoustic bass), Jack DeJohnette (drums), Dewey Redman (tenor saxophone), Michael Brecker (tenor saxophone)
Streaming on TIDAL....... Going with the mention from SJUST and taking Pat's 80/81 out for a spin.
Review on ECM Records website found here:
With 80/81, Pat Metheny took one step closer to his dream of working with The Prophet of Freedom (a dream he finally achieved with 1985’s Song X), and what better company than Coleman alumni Charlie Haden and Dewey Redman, both fresh off the boat of Keith Jarrett’s newly defunct American Quartet and both welcome additions to the extended Metheny family. Along with the technical mastery of reedman Mike Brecker and drummer Jack DeJohnette, plus a dash of post-bop spice, the result was this still-fresh sonic concoction. The atmospheres of the opening “Two Folk Songs” invite us with that expansive pastoralism so characteristic of Metheny. This makes Brecker’s highly trained yet raw stylings all the more marked, bringing as they do a sense of presence that explodes into a million pieces. Metheny’s benign sound catches at the threshold of perfection with every turn of phrase, allowing Brecker fiery bursts of abandon. DeJohnette throws on a log or two with his rocketing solo, while Haden wipes the slate clean with shadings of his own. Metheny shows off his unparalleled command of two-string harmonies, fading on a lightly skipping snare. This feeling of perpetual motion lingers throughout the title track. Content in sharing the revelry, Metheny relays to Redman who, though he may not fly as high, emits no less intensity in his groove. “The Bat” gives us a minor-keyed shadow of “I’ll be Home for Christmas” before diving headfirst into Coleman’s “Turnaround.” This trio setting boasts inventive melodies and a plunking solo from Haden. “Open” is, suitably enough, the freest track on the album, emboldened by trade-offs between Redman and Brecker, while “Pretty Scattered” dances more lithely with John Abercrombie-like exuberance. A ringing high from Metheny laser-etches this track into our memory. Balladry abounds in “Every Day (I Thank You),” one of his most gorgeous ever committed to disc. This is music that grins even as we grin, and shines through the darkest cloud of a Midwestern storm. Metheny ends alone with “Goin’ Ahead.” This breath-catching piece works its farewell into our hearts with every suspended note, effortlessly walking the beaten path of all those souls who have traveled before, so that those yet to be born might know where they come from, and to where they might return.
Like much of what Metheny produces, 80/81 is wide open in two ways. First in its far-reaching vision, and second it its willingness to embrace the listener. Like a dolly zoom, he enacts an illusion of simultaneous recession and approach, lit like a fuse that leads not to an explosion, but to more fuse.
Rush - Hemispheres [SACD]
released 1978
Now Playing........
Anouar Brahem Trio - Astrakan Cafe
Anouar Brahem (oud), Barbaros Erköse (clarinet), and Lassad Hosni (bendir, darbouka).
Streaming on NAS....... Time for an evening cup of tea and some of Anouar Brahem's soothing music.
Note on ECM Records website here: Tunisian oud virtuoso Anouar Brahem counts as one of ECM's most important 'discoveries' of the last decade. After his highly successful trans-cultural recording 'Thimar', he returns to a more purely Middle Eastern music on 'Astrakan Café', with the trio that has been his first priority for several years. The improvisational exchanges between Brahem, clarinettist Barbaros Erköse and percussionist Lassad Hosni are exceptionally fluid, and the atmospheres that they create by turns mysterious, hypnotic, dramatic...
seakayaker posted:Now Playing........
Anouar Brahem Trio - Astrakan Cafe
Anouar Brahem (oud), Barbaros Erköse (clarinet), and Lassad Hosni (bendir, darbouka).
Streaming on NAS....... Time for an evening cup of tea and some of Anouar Brahem's soothing music.
Note on ECM Records website here: Tunisian oud virtuoso Anouar Brahem counts as one of ECM's most important 'discoveries' of the last decade. After his highly successful trans-cultural recording 'Thimar', he returns to a more purely Middle Eastern music on 'Astrakan Café', with the trio that has been his first priority for several years. The improvisational exchanges between Brahem, clarinettist Barbaros Erköse and percussionist Lassad Hosni are exceptionally fluid, and the atmospheres that they create by turns mysterious, hypnotic, dramatic...
Interesting. So...What are those instruments? (I know what a clarinet is)
Come On Come On. Mary-Chapin Carpenter. On the original CD from 1992. In the odd mood for some swinging country music tonight. This is a perfect album for that.