What are you listening to and WHY might anyone be interested? (Vol. XIII)
Posted by: Richard Dane on 01 January 2017
2017 has arrived today, so time to start this thread afresh.
Last year's thread can be found here;
Ferdinand Fischer
Good but also not overwhelmingly good...
Chet Baker and Paul Bley - Diana.
Very nice, relaxing, album by Chet Baker adn Paul Bley.
From allmusic.com:
Chet Baker recorded at every opportunity during the last decade or so of his tragic life, with widely varying results due to his drug addiction. But this surprising duo session with pianist Paul Bley is one of his better efforts from this period, focusing primarily on standard ballads by top composers. Bley's playing in the mid-'80s usually was freer in nature, but he willingly plays more mainstream backing for the trumpeter. Baker's tone adds to the poignant air in a rather deliberate interpretation of "If I Should Lose You," with Bley playing beautiful, sparse chords behind him. The duo gels nicely in a midtempo setting of Sonny Rollins' "Pent-Up House," while Baker's "Skidadidlin'" is a low key, bluesy number. Baker sings "You Go to My Head" in a thoughtful manner. First issued on LP, the CD edition added a warm extended performance of Richard Rodgers' "Little Girl Blue" that obviously was omitted at first only due to time restrictions.
WAV CD Rip. The Band, Rock of Ages. One of the finest groups in rock history playing live, in the best form of their lives, backed by an Allen Touissant arranged world class horn section blowing up a storm, working their way through their catalogue of great songs. It's got to have a shout as the greatest live album of all time. This is the later extended edition with a lot of additional numbers including one of my favourite live performances of Like A Rolling Stone, with his Bobness guesting and slurring it like he means it, the original was brilliant in its own right, nice to have the extras as a freebie. One of the albums that makes me argue with myself, the greatest vocalist in the Band was obviously Richard Manuel, no it was Rick Danko, hang on, what about Levon Helm, rinse and repeat. But no doubt in my minn it's up high in my list of all time great recordings.
Interesting music for this instrument.....
Sharon Robinson - Everybody Knows
Because I want to wind down from a stressful day and this fits the bill perfectly.
......after a long listening session with Goldfrapp (which was quite nice) next up
Charlie Haden and Antonio Forcione - Heartplay
A simply beautiful album, love it! This will be another album that will be down-loaded in the high res format.
seakayaker posted:......after a long listening session with Goldfrapp (which was quite nice) next up
Charlie Haden and Antonio Forcione - Heartplay
A simply beautiful album, love it! This will be another album that will be down-loaded in the high res format.
I agree the Heartplay album is wonderful. I purchased it on vinyl, but sadly I received a particularly noisy pressing. It looks like it was used for ice skating practice!
But the music is delightful; I might just have to buy it again as a download too.
osprey posted:
I think you are the first person on this forum other than me to admit to actually playing this album. If you have it on CD you also get it backwards and at half-speed... Lovely!
Volume 1, Love Songs, from this superb box set, which I can highly recommend.
It's been a hard day, so I hope nobody will mind if I relax with a nice glass of Hibiki Harmony and a well-crafted Beatles LP. On 1970s Japanese vinyl, so:
Kevin-W posted:It's been a hard day, so I hope nobody will mind if I relax with a nice glass of Hibiki Harmony and a well-crafted Beatles LP. On 1970s Japanese vinyl, so:
Not minding here at all Kevin apart from the Hibiki Harmony which I am envying you!
Kevin-W posted:It's been a hard day, so I hope nobody will mind if I relax with a nice glass of Hibiki Harmony and a well-crafted Beatles LP. On 1970s Japanese vinyl, so:
My favourite Beatles album. Must play it again soon.
MDS posted:Kevin-W posted:It's been a hard day, so I hope nobody will mind if I relax with a nice glass of Hibiki Harmony and a well-crafted Beatles LP. On 1970s Japanese vinyl, so:
My favourite Beatles album. Must play it again soon.
Should have, I'm rather partial to an occasional drop of Japanese malt myself 
Sarah Jarosz - Undercurrent
Why? No particular reason. I just like it.
Gene Harris - At Maybeck
This is rather good. Just Gene on the Joanna.
Oh and as Kevin was good enough to bring back the Sid avatar, the least I could do was to join him.
This is my first avatar so don't be too hard on me. I am sure I will improve.
nigelb posted:Oh and as Kevin was good enough to bring back the Sid avatar, the least I could do was to join him.
This is my first avatar so don't be too hard on me. I am sure I will improve.
Love the avatar, hyuk hyuk hyuk. 
UK first press vinyl. The Floydian keyboardmeister's 1978 solo outing has some "nice" playing (especially from Rick himself and guitarist Snowy White), and a couple of reasonable instrumentals, but overall, it's a rather timid affair, and playing it now reminds me why I hardly ever listen to it.
This is one of my favourite Charles Lloyd albums. Some of his sax playing sounds just like singing.
Really enjoying this tonight
Black Sabbath, Headless Cross, WAV Rip from an original 1989 CD.
Not exactly your go to Sabbath album, but I think this is pretty good. You just need to turn it up a bit compared to modern CDs.
nigelb posted:The Steeldrivers - The Muscle Shoals Recordings
Haven't listened to this for a while. If you like a bit bluegrass and some superb musicianship you might like to give this a go. Best of all, the wonderful Chris Stapleton is lead singer and guitar on this one. Nuff said.
Nigel, I see you have joined forces with Kev on the Sid James avatar tribute band wagon. What a Carry On...