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:
GregU posted: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)
A picture tells a thousand words - It is a beautiful album and you can find it on TIDAL & Spotify and highly recommend you give it a listen.
Anouar Brahem with Oud Barbaros Erköse (clarinet)
Lassad Hosni with darbouka Lassad Hosni with bendir
Now Playing......
Django Bates Beloved - The Study of Touch
Django Bates (piano), Petter Eldh (double bass), and Peter Bruun (drums)
Streaming from NAS........ Wife is a bit under the weather and off to bed so playing something soft and smooth on this Tuesday night.
Notes from the ECM Records website here:
British pianist Django Bates returns to ECM with one of his very finest constellations, the trio Belovèd, with Swedish bassist Petter Eldh and Danish drummer Peter Bruun, and an aptly named album, The Study of Touch. All three musicians are highly individual players, subtly challenging the conventions of the jazz piano trio. The group came together a decade ago when Bates was teaching at Copenhagen’s Rhythmic Music Conservatory. The shared work has included inspired reconstructions of pieces associated with Charlie Parker – a formative influence for both Bates and bassist Eldh - and in this new album, Parker’s tune “Passport” is set amid Django originals, and played with respect, contemporary sensibility and joy. Some of Django’s own tunes here – such as “Senza Bitterness”, “Sadness All The Way Down” and “We Are Not Lost, We Are Simply Finding Our Way” have become core pieces in Belovèd’s repertoire, continually remodeled by this trio of improvisers. Bates’ composing and arranging skills are much in evidence, along with his freewheeling, free-flowing virtuosic melodic sense. The terse, percussive edge of Petter Eldh’s bass provides momentum and drummer Peter Bruun details the music with an almost painterly touch. In the crowded world of the piano trio, Belovèd has developed a sound all its own.
Now Playing.........
Ghazal - The Rain
Kayhan Kalhor (kamancheh), Shujaat Husain Khan (sitar, vocals), and Sandeep Das (tabla)
Streaming on NAS........ Continuing on with some beautiful music....just brings a smile to my face when I listen, wonderful!
Note from ECM Record website here:
Beautiful, mesmerizing, thrilling and profoundly musical ECM debut by the distinguished Indian-Iranian ensemble Ghazal. Since its formation in 1997 by Shujaat Husain Khan and Kayhan Kalhor, long recognized as master musicians in their homelands, Ghazal has stunned audiences around the world with its unique music, which is comprised of improvisations based on Indian and Persian traditional repertoire. Their communicative power is in full bloom on this live recording from Berne, Switzerland.
Robert Plant. Band Of Joy. On CD from 2010. Plant's newest album, "Carry Fire", was a holiday gift last week. Complex and still digesting it. In the mean time this more familiar album is a fun comparison.
His first album as leader (rec. 1981). Really good.
Elton John. Live in Australia with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. On CD from 1987. It's been a long time since I spun this relaxing listen.
Rachel Podger - Bach: Art of Fugue
Maria Joao Pires - Bach : Keyboard Concertos BWV 1052, 1055, 1056
At times a bit too much in the face...
Sampled this one, interesting..
Now into this one...
Currently only available as an import as of Oct last year, no UK release date yet.
Paul Bley - Oslo concert
Recording of a great solo concert that Paul Bley gave in Oslo.
Released courtesy of Emi in Holland in 79 I think. Going through another old HDD.
Live recording from her first tour.
First time I ever saw magicians on stage with a rock artist.
Now playing.......
Jacob Young - Evening Falls
Jacob Young (guitar), Mathias Eick (trumpet), Vidar Johansen (bass clarinet), Mats Eilertsen (double-bass), and Jon Christensen (drums)
Streaming on TIDAL........ I have given this a listen awhile back and taking it out for another spin.
Review on ECM Records found here:
Considering the legion of Norwegian talents with whom Jacob Young has played, and of which he is one star in a constellation of them, it was perhaps inevitable that his sound should migrate over to ECM. Enter Evening Falls, the guitarist’s sensuous international debut for the German powerhouse following four albums on local labels. The Jacob Young Group, as it has come to be styled, finds him in the enviable company of trumpeter Mathias Eick, reedman Vidar Johansen (primarily on bass clarinet), bassist Mats Eilertsen, and drummer Jon Christensen. This who’s who of northern talent brings a wealth of history to the table, so that the lyrical results are not merely intuitive, but comfortable like worn-in denim.
That Young studied under Jim Hall and John Abercrombie is apparent in “Blue,” although one may also hear a bit of Bill Connors glinting off his rural edge. Young’s composing also spans territories, sounding one moment like a Tomasz Stanko ballad (check the brilliant, trumpet-driven “Minor Peace”) and for all at others like a dulcet etude (cf. “Falling”). The fluidity of his teachers shines through music that, although weighing little, is emotionally robust. There is warmth here, a love for life in all its colors seeping like rain through soil into all that follows. Eick connects the dots to another satellite reference—Kenny Wheeler, whose insightful laddering can be heard in the trumpeter’s nonetheless distinct soloing.
No one on this record, however, is as distinct as Young, who navigates ever-changing currents with the skill of an ancient mariner. Despite his acoustic penchant, he does plug in for a few tunes, notably “Looking for Jon” and “Sky.” The former skips by virtue of Christensen’s brilliant drumming and Eick’s clarion fluency, while the latter tune flies not like a bird but lilts as would a paper airplane thrown from a tall building. The effect is nothing short of profound. Even in the acoustic tracks, such as “Formerly,” Young’s playing shines with its own electricity. Either way, the dynamic checks and balances continue in “Evening Air,” in which Young draws bass clarinet and trumpet from hiding in a beauteous thematic braid. Guitar and bass play especially well off one another. Eick’s trumpet likewise flowers, while Christensen’s cymbals trickle in with the last rays of sunset.
In trio with Eilertsen and Christensen, Young carries the full weight of his compositions with the effortlessness of respiration. This nexus works in elastic, tactile fashion throughout, seesawing between Mediterranean reveries (“The Promise”) and slick turns of phrase. So synergistic is this core unit that it bears an album’s worth of weight in the web of its interplay. In light of this, Johansen’s contributions are more enigmatic but no less integral, although with one exception. His bass clarinet does wonders whenever it appears, charting the tailwinds of that which has preceded it, but on tenor saxophone he proves superfluous on “Presence of Descant,” of which Eick’s trumpeting leaves little room for embellishment. What this track lacks in a melodic frontline Christensen makes up for with masterful color, laying down a mood as few drummers can.