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

Classic Records 200g. No reason needed - it's always good to listen to:

Great live recording by Wes Montgomery.

Wes Montgomery - Guitar

Wynton Kelly - Piano

Johnny Griffin - Tenox Sax

Paul Chambers - Drums

Jimmy Cobb - Bass

Last year this (The White Stripes' Get Behind Me Satan) was released on vinyl for the first time. I got round to buying it the other week. This is my first play.

kuma posted:

Haim Ronen posted:

Kuma,

I am leaving it to you. Two pianos are a bit too much for me. The guy I am really interested in hearing is Yefgeny Sudbin.

Haim,

He was in Chicago in 2015 played Rach No.1. Did you go?

Unfortunately, he's not in next season's program.

Kuma, unfortunately I missed him. How was he?

Christian Scott - Ruler Rebel.  Newish release.  Tidal.  Quite a mix of classy jazz trumpet, electronic beats, African rhythms...

Jack Johnson - On and On

Gene Harris - Funky Gene's

Harry Manx - Mantras for Madmen

All discoveries from (or inspired by) this wonderful place.

Cheers all.

UK first press. Macca gets his synths out, records at home, plays everything himself and comes across a bit weird. Me likey.

Not had the time to check in for a few days. So just been catching up must say there has been some fabulous music posted recently..

HARVEY MANDEL Cristo Redentor (1968 first UK issue 10-track stereo LP the debut album by the psychedelic blues guitarist, who chalked up playing for Canned Heat, The Rolling Stones & John Mayall on his resume. Includes a mind bending version of Wade In The Water plus the Donald Byrd title track.

On CD:-

Sheryl Crow - Be Myself

It's the weekend  - Starting with something light, although every time i hear 'Ordinary World' i think of the Cafe scene  in Layer Cake... First seen at a Naim evening at my local dealer to demonstrate the surround abilities of the n-Vi 

Duran Duran - Greatest. 

Ripped up..

Public Image Limited.

The Flowers of Romance.

Kevin-W posted:

UK first press. Macca gets his synths out, records at home, plays everything himself and comes across a bit weird. Me likey.

I'd forgotten about this album. Had this a long time ago on Vinyl and really liked it. Off to Amazon i go....

Edit - Purchased. Thanks for the reminder Kevin 

Trying out another new release.  83 and still going strong.  Tidal.  

A + 3 | 24/96 WAV

(Today)

Half way through giving this its second play of the day and I'm sure all BBT fans will enjoy it, quite a lot of (various) strings involved which all work very well with the feel of the album. Good old fashioned / contemporary prog' 

Thelonius Monk Quartet - Straight, No Chaser.

Not a big fan of her first album but this one is really rather lovely. 

Imelda May - Life, Love, Flesh, Blood

A + 3 | WAV

(1986)

Another ripped replacement for my once lost collection, great album sounding very good indeed. 

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827):  James Ehnes (violin) | Andrew Armstrong (piano)

Violin Sonata No. 9 in A op. 47 'Kreutzer'

Violin Sonata No. 6 in A op. 30/1

It just felt like a Kreutzer kind of day.

Secondly, I have been behind in keeping up with James Ehnes and so I am starting with this wonderful newer recording and will eventually work backwards through the others.

It is worth reading the Guardian article  entitled Stephen Kovacevich at 75: his best recordings because it has some link a link to a video of his 1968 performance of Beethoven Diabelli Variations when he was known as Stephen Bishop. He is rapidly becoming my favourite pianist.

The Musical Critiscism interview with Kovacevich reports

'The "Diabelli" was the piece that made me love Beethoven… It has all the wild, tender, brusque, and introspective qualities of late Beethoven and then of course parody and comic energy too.'

It is with unequivocal clarity that Stephen Kovacevich discloses how vitally significant Beethoven's monumental set of 33 Variations in C major on a Waltz by Anton Diabelli, Op. 120 is to him. An astonishing voyage of pleasure, passion, pun and pathos, this work has been a steadfast companion throughout the pianist's career, not least at his UK debut at the Wigmore Hall in 1961 and in the highly-acclaimed studio recording for the Philips label in 1968.

Forty years on, the deeply personal connection that Kovacevich has with this piece has matured and strengthened, resulting in a fresh performance of powerful and poignant solemnity. Nowhere is this more vivid than after the bristly staccato chords of Var. 29. The ensuing three chapters of the work – all in the tonic minor – convey a cavernously sombre gravity distinctive to the great performances of Beethoven's late works. Kovacevich's scalic flourishes in Var. 32, which would likely emerge tersely from the hand of any ordinary musician, simultaneously sing to and plead with the listener. The seemingly insurmountable construct of tenderness and yearning that both composer and performer have completed at the end of this variation is then violently shattered by Beethoven's heroic fugal proclamation in E-flat major, performed here by Kovacevich with an irresistibly con fuoco mentality. It is nostalgia, however, which returns after this momentary eruption of triumph and defiance, as the pianist's magnanimous expressivity draws the listener into an distant aura of both reflection and longing.

CD - blue note 2004 : )

Keith Jarrett (Sapporo concert).