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

Political Correctness? Still challenging but good stuff.

On vinyl:-

Great live, hope to be seeing them next month.

Vinyl Mercury 1969 British blues with T.S. McPhee and Dave Kelly.

Article in this months Mojo mag made me dig this one out.

Playing "lucky Dip" on Spotify,

Look what popped up.

Very enjoyable.

New to Jazz.  So some recommendations I was given and the first is this. Any more would be greatly received...I am told that the ECM label is a good place to look at. 

Now this one on the Grado SR 80i Headphones

Preordered this on vinyl from Amazon.de last week based on seeing it in Jazzwise. Looking forward to it. 

poncusfocus, nothing more fun than recommending great jazz albums. Love Supreme and Bitches Brew are actually tough place to start. If you liked them, you're in for a great ride. If not, there's a lot more accessible places to start. And then by all means, get back to them.

If you want vinyl, check out the Music Matters releases on 45 RPM. They are working their way through all of the great Blue Note titles. Also, Analogue Productions (just google them) are reissuing other Blue Notes, Verve and Impulse. Expensive, but amazing sound quality. 

On CD, you can't go wrong with some of the Columbia Miles Davis collections: Miles Davis & John Coltrane, The Complete Columbia Studio Sessions, Complete Miles and Gil Evans. You can get all of these new or used for reasonable $. I like them as they include complete albums as well as outtakes. His Prestige releases - Workin', Cookin', Relaxin' and Steamin' are very good intros to jazz and real classics

Of the top of my head, a few other must haves: Gil Evans' Waltz for Debbie, Cannonball Adderley - Something' Else, Modern Jazz Quartet - Django or Live at the Jazz Inn, a personal favorite is Dave Brubeck's Live at Newport.

Living jazz artists I love include Jason Moran ("Ten" is the best new jazz album I've heard in awhile), Bill Frisell, Don Byron, Jack DeJonette, Ambrose Akinmusire, Jonathan Redmond, Branford Marsalis and Pat Metheny. Right now, I'm listening to his fantastic Day Trip / Tokyo...on vinyl, in the best LP packaging ever - trifold with full artwork and a CD thrown in.

Why?  Well, I find this music fascinating and I also marvel at just how many possibilities there are (which is the whole point of this music).  Take a straightforward comparison of Prelude 1 in Book 1 between Pollini and Hewitt.  The music is so straightforward yet so profound.  Everyone knows this piece so it is a good example to illustrate.  It consists of just 35 bars of music. Normally, this Prelude is played as broken chords but you can get a wonderful sense of the harmony if you just play the 35 solid chords and allow the sound to decay before playing the next.  You can change the harmony by voicing the chords or play each chord perfectly balanced.  Played as broken chords you can also play everything very much one note equal to the next or you can play with the patterns and bring out different harmonies.

What is interesting is that if you listen in an unfocused manner one could easily not hear too many differences between the two recordings (or anyone else for that matter).  For example, if you listen as background music while you are reading or talking to someone over dinner.  Listening closely one can eventually pick out the subtle differences.  

The piece is in 4/4 time meaning four beats to a bar and in our case with 16 distinct notes (4 x 4) played per bar.  The bass note is played on beat 1 & 3 and held down in its entirety.  The next bass note comes immediately after and is held only until the next main bass beat is played.  Thus, everything played against this creates the different harmonies or possibilities.  Everything played with the right hand only is held for one semiquaver (and so it relates to what is immediately below it only).

With Hewitt, I hear the focus on two elements.  She emphasizes the two bass notes that are held and sustained for two beats each per bar.  It is the constant sustain.  The other thing I notice is that she has a large overall view of the piece with huge arching phrases.  With these two elements she creates the interest and a very musical approach.  Behind this is the constant semiquavers except on the beats 1 & 3.  Here she plays these fairly unemotionally and very precise like the ticking of a very fast clock.  So against this one feels the rhythm of Ta da . . . . . . Ta da . . . . . .   (the dots meaning 1/4 of a beat).   The Ta is the strong beat and played on its own and is the only note not to have any other existing harmony to play against.  What Hewitt does makes perfect sense where harmony and shape guide our ear.  

On the other hand, Pollini only emphasizes the first and third beat in the bass.  In first listens it seems that he is only presenting an unemotional straight reading but the more you listen you soon become aware of a very different approach.  For the first 4 or so bars it is so subtle that one can easily miss it but then slowly and clearly it unfolds.  Then a new sense of rhythm incredibly develops and it comes from the strong bass beat on beats 1 & 3 and a snappy, rhythmic focus on the highest notes of each bar.  Essentially it is the same note repeated 4 times per bar.  In effect, he creates a rhythm of Ta . . . . da . . . d Ta . . . . da . . . d     Once you have this locked in your perception it is mesmerizing and hypnotic.  To me the piece takes on a different meaning altogether different from Hewitt's more angelic take.  His is more angular or even jazzy.

This is just a small illustration to show how interesting classical music is or can be (at least for myself).  It also shows why one recording is usually never enough.  Unlock the puzzles and you will see that everyone can be right in a way even if the viewpoints are totally contrasting and do not immediately make sense to you personally.

Regards,

Doug

Max Richter - Infra

180g Vinyl

Wow. Thank you for this after listening to John Coltrane - A Love Supreme and Miles Davis - Bitches Brew I liked them from the off especially the Miles Davis. It's totally mad the different styles of music on that not what I expected at all. You have given me loads of music to look out for so once again thank you for the response. I have a few more ready to play so will post them later.

Picked this up on Monday and what a great album this is. I recommend this to all the Naim Forum.

Now back to the Jazz and another great album. What have I been missing.

This again ,Great story telling ,I can't see everyone liking her vocal style ,but give it a go! It's on Spotify.

 ECM is a wonderful Jazz and Classical label ! 

Picked this up secondhand

Had forgotten how good this is, on vinyl.

LP2 take 2 and sounding even better!!

Followed by some earlier PT