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

Jethro Tull - Crest of a Knave

Released 1987

Wanted to listen to the brilliant track - Budapest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCvK0ZysfJ0

Now Playing.......

Carla Bley - Trios

Carla Bley (piano), Andy Sheppard (tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone), and Steve Swallow (bass).

Streaming on NAS......   Playing Carla Bley while getting ready to go out for dinner!  Life is Grand!

CD 1 .  Johannes Brahms - Die Klavierkonzerte - Emil Gilels - Berliner Philharmoniker - Eugen Jochum.    Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor.

Gil Evans: Out of the Cool.

I've been listening to this for most of my adult life - released in 1961 - and it never fails to delight.

Florestan posted:

naim_nymph posted:

Hey Doug, 

nice writeup!

would you like to swop your double DG set of Ludwig for my 5CD Sony/RCA of Frédéric C ?   

Debs

Debs,
Gee, 5cd's for 2?   Umm..... NO.

You almost had me there with your outrageously generous offer but as it turns out I already have this 5CD set of Chopin.  Only difference is that mine has a different cover and that is probably why my sounds better 

Actually, I would agree with you that this set isn't the ideal for recorded piano perfection but it is still a long way from the worst I have.  None of the big labels tend to get it right (in my opinion) and that includes DGG, Sony, RCA, EMI, Hyperion, Chandos etc.  They have a house sound ideal and only occasionally does a miracle happen where a certain recording engineer rises above this and gets more of the fundamentals correct?

I would say that this RCA Chopin set comes in at a little lower than the typical average sound meaning it is a far way from perfect but not the worst.  I would say DGG, Philips, Decca are about in the middle of the pack.  It usually matters though who is in charge of the recording though.  You are lucky at least you got yours for a very reasonable price!  What you got is a typical 1990's - 2000's recording.  I think many smaller labels have been putting out some nice recordings over the last decade or so.

There is a more complete set of Kissin with the broader collection. For me it was beneficial to get that one even while I had already Kissin including the Chopin set.

Howard Shore

The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring - CDRip

Movie soundtracks don’t get any better than this, outstanding.

Edward

1965 - Vinyl - UK (mono) pressing...

The xx. (white cross on a black background, I think their first).

Playing very quietly on a peaceful, gentle morning. Heaven. Work later.

After listening new "All melody" need more music by Nils Frahm. 

"Spaces" was recorded in different locations during two years and sounds great.

1985 - vinyl - UK pressing...

Ruby Braff with Dave McKenna

• Bass – Al Lucas
• Drums – Buzzy Drootin
• Piano – Dave McKenna
• Trumpet – Ruby Braff
• Guitar - Sam Herman

1978 - vinyl - UK pressing...

Beethoven

Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor“  - CDRip

Edward

1979 - UK pressing...

'Relayer' by Yes, being played over the hotel system in the restaurant in a hotel in Sri Lanka!

Now Playing........

Diane Krall - All for You (A Dedication to the Nat King Cole Trio)

Streaming on NAS........   What can be finer than Diane singing Nat King Cole, .....sweet!

Great stuff !

Now Playing.......

Dine Doneff - Rousilvo

Dine Doneff (double bass, tabla, guitar), Takis Farazis (piano, accordion), Kyriakos Tapakis (oud, mandola), Pantelis Stoikos (trumpet), Dimos Dimitriadis (alto saxophone, flute), Antonis Andreou (trombone), Kostas Anastasiadis (drums), Slava Pop'va-Evdoxia Georgiou (voice), Lizeta Kalimeri (voice), Martha Mavroidi (voice), Lada Kandarjieva (soprano), Elena Ginina (soprano), Elitsa Dankova (mezzo), and Irina Gotcheva (alto).

Streaming on TIDAL......      Something new listed in the ECM Catalogue and taking it out for a spin. After reading the following description of the album on the ECM Records website, it interested me enough to want to give it a listen. Having listened to the first couple of tracks, and not understanding a word, I find myself enjoying the music and voices. Telling a story........

From the ECM Records website: 

Macedonian composer/multi-instrumentalist Dine Doneff (or Kostas Theodorou, his Greek citizenship name) presents his Balkan-Jazz Folk Opera – Rousilvo. Heavily influenced by the culture of his homeland, Doneff, creates a musical fabric through open dialogue among the members of a septet. A polyphony of seven women’s voices, interspersed with extracts from numerous authentic field recordings, complete a narration of expanding rhythmic and melodic forms.
Rousilvo is the old, Slavic name of the village of Xanthogeia, in north-western Greece. The village’s name, and its Slav-Macedonian speaking community, fell victim to the policy of the Greek state to forcibly “Hellenize” the land and its people. At the end of the Greek Civil War (1946-49) most of the women in the village were left alone for the rest of their lives; their husbands either killed or exiled. Since 1986 the village has been uninhabitated as a result of long-lasting social marginalization.
Ten compositions, alternating with location recordings of the surviving elderly residents of the village (sometimes singing, at times narrating their stories) salvaging and transforming a treasure trove, an elegy, of a vanishing poetry.

I am having Blues withdrawal symptoms as I have hardly played much so far today. So here goes.