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

Porcupine Tree - Signify. Another stunning album from this absolutely brilliant band

Emerson Lake & Palmer [Original recording remastered, Original recording reissued [CD]

Niggy Tardust - The Inevitable Rise and Liberation

Fred Hersch plays Jobim

Arrived in today's mail.  First cd to be played. 

Getting into the Saturday Spirit with Herbie...

Disc no.1...

Herbie Mann & Sam Most Quintet

Sam Most flute

Herbie Mann flute

Joe Puma guitar

Jimmy Gannon bass

Lee Kleinmann drums

Recordings NYC 12 & 17 October 1955

Flute Flight

Herbie Mann flute alto

buddy Jaspar flute

Tommy Flanagon piano

Joe Puma Guitar

Eddie Costa vibes

Wendell Marshall bass

Doug Watkins bass

Bobby Donaldson drums

Recorded 21st March 1957 Hackensack NJ

Real Gone Jazz (4 x CD box-set) © 2012

Listening to the Toccatas. No one plays these works like Angela Hewitt, this box set deserves a medal!

Cheers,

EJ

One that you are going to struggle to find unless you know Tonefloat.

The CD arrived just now - and it's really rather good, even on a pc headset.

Steve Wilson works on several tracks, a classic only ever available on vinyl until now.

Impossible to pigeon hole this music - you do need to hear it to decide.

I'll try and work some words for it later..

Early visit to Record Store Day. Worth it to get this on Vinyl.

Easing into the morning with this. 

Hybrid SACD.

Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for my Halo

On CD, first listen

Das Rheingold, recorded live by Decca in stereo, in 1955. It was a second golden age of Wagner singing, and most singers are captured at the considerable height of their powers. In terms of interpretation, there are other earlier and contemporaneous Rings to challenge this one, but none even approach the sound quality.

Cheers,

EJ

Earlier this morning from Disc 2:

Partita in D minor BWV 1004

Sonata in C major BWV 1005

Partita in E major BWV 1006

On vinyl. They were an amazing band at this point - shame they didn't do more really - but I guess that's the nature of chaos:

This is a 12'' single. I was playing the B-side which is Wild Rover and Leaving of Liverpool. Fabulous stuff - does sound like they just played the songs in a pub and the sound engineer turned up....

1984 vinyl.

Confessions of a resident Luddite...

A fascinating exploration of the "King of Instruments."  One record with 110 different examples of various pipe organs from 1390 to the mid 20th century to give an idea to the importance of sound and the differences that exist within.  The complimentary essential highlight is the large, informative booklet which resembles a small chapter in a textbook from the world of organs.  With many technical drawings and photos of the many famous organs as well as essays on the subject reflects back on a time when, well, without offending anyone, many things were just done better.  Yes, one could stream this and read a million times more information off the internet but the experience is a lifeless and soulless without any character resulting in very little satisfaction at the end of the day.  I can touch and hold this and spend hours with someone who is very real despite that this is from 1969.  These days everyone has the capability to know everything (just google it) but is an expert in nothing.

One wise quote from Mr. Biggs is, "Technologies of our age do not benefit everything they touch."  While I no doubt enjoy many of our modern day technologies and conveniences too, I cannot agree more with this statement.  Some things do get better with time once things develop to a point but other things have already peaked centuries ago and we have to realize it will never get any better than it was.  We have to journey to the past to experience it and appreciate what we have lost.

Talking of chaos.... was chuffed when I finally managed to find a copy of this on vinyl:

Shame that they did not make this double vinyl so that you get the three extra tracks that are on the CD version....

Energizer 

Playing this pristine copy of Joe Jackson's Big World  (the 3 sided album) I found yesterday complete with 12 page booklet, for £5. An absolute bargain IMO!

Vinyl 

An early recording of Claire-Marie Le Guay - one of my favourite pianist these days.

The importance of France Liszt and what he did for keyboard cannot be underestimated.  He followed a direct line from "The School of Czerny" who of course was a student of and directly influenced by Beethoven.

There were many sides to Liszt.  If you listen to his music you certainly can hear a lot of his public side.  In general, his music / life follows the path of a young virtuoso, then the lover / hedonist of his middle period and followed by his late period of reflective solitude and searching for answers to life.  He joined a Fransican order and lived in a monastery just outside of Rome.  From the start though, he definitely was a charismatic figure and fit the role of probably the first "rock" star with woman fainting at feet.  For a period, in concert life Liszt had to give the people what they wanted.  For instance, virtuoso renditions of Opera paraphrases etc. were very popular and sought after in the day from the concert going public.  The Transcendental Etudes were a reflection in the race of who could write (and play) the most technically difficult music.

In private though and amongst his inner circle of closest friends and artists, Liszt was simply a keyboard omnivore.  He played everything: Bach, Scarlatti, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and all romantic composers.

The Pearl Fishers, not as well known as the composer's Carmen but just as entertaining. The famous duet is performed here by John Aler and Gino Quilico, and good as they are, they aren't Jussi Bjoerling and Robert Merrill. But they're not far behind, and Aler's big aria is particularly beautifully done. Michel Plasson recorded many relatively obscure french operas for EMI, and this is IMO his most successful effort.

Cheers,

EJ