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

My favourite Andrew Hill album.

Just finished........

Opened the morning with a repeat of "Anouar Brahem - The Astounding Eyes of Rita" which was the last album I played yesterday.   A fantastic album......

(1989)

One of my favourite albums from her to start off the late afternoon. 

Now Playing......

Andy Bey - American Song

Andy Bey (piano, vocals), Kiyoshi Kitagawa (bass), Dwight Andrews (clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, alto flute, soprano saxophone, tenor vocal), Vernell Garnett (flugelhorn, trumpet), Frank West (flute), Paul Meyers (guitar), Mino Cinelu (percussion), Geri Allen (piano), and Steve Davis (trombone, bass trombone)

A wonderful mello album, Andy has a very soothing voice.

Streaming from TIDAL.......

  Dr. John, the night tripper - Gris-Gris.

  A wee bit of hypnotic New Orleans magic.

Stevee_S posted:

(1989)

One of my favourite albums from her, to start off the late afternoon. 

One of my favourite Mary Black CDs along with The Holy Ground superb artist.

Pcd posted:

Stevee_S posted:

(1989)

One of my favourite albums from her, to start off the late afternoon. 

One of my favourite Mary Black CDs along with The Holy Ground superb artist.

She's touring Ireland with Jimmy McCarthy (writer of Ride On, Bright Blue Rose...) early next year, I'm thinking aboutflying over for a gig.

Eoink posted:

Pcd posted:

Stevee_S posted:

(1989)

One of my favourite albums from her, to start off the late afternoon. 

One of my favourite Mary Black CDs along with The Holy Ground superb artist.

She's touring Ireland with Jimmy McCarthy (writer of Ride On, Bright Blue Rose...) early next year, I'm thinking aboutflying over for a gig.

Thanks Eoink, good info'.

George Michael

Symphonica

Edward

(1993)

One more album from her before moving on, this is another that's well recorded and like PCD said (above) it's another favourite here. 

Vinyl. Just arrived, first spin, none of the annoying crackle I seem to get from a lot of modern albums. Damn they were a great live band!

   Joe Cocker - Sheffield Steel.

   One of Joe's finest, with Sly and Robbie in attendance.

Electric Light Orchestra

A New World Record - 24/96

Edward

Stevee_S posted:

(1993)

One more album from her before moving on, this is another that's well recorded and like PCD said (above) it's another favourite here. 

I’d tend to put Babes in the Wood as my favourite, for the sheer beauty of Bright Blue Rose, but when I listen to Holy Ground or No Frontiers it seems impossible to rank them behind anything, wonderful music mak8ng.

Mike-B posted:

Agreed Bert  -  I'm a big fan of American Song Book classics,  plus a big fan of Gregory Porter,  what's not to like ???

2nd opinion will be made with a significant other over a glass (or three) of a rich mellow red,  as mellow as Gregory's voice

HDTracks (USA)  24/96 WAV  (Deluxe edition  15 tracks 1hr 3m) 

 

Umm.....yes, I really like GP and the work of NKC. On some of the songs Gregory's wonderful voice is a little overwhelmed by the rather OTT big band and orchestral backing tracks, and Gregory has a powerful pair on lungs. Having said this there are some wonderful numbers on here. I am just listening to When Love Was King and it suits GP perfectly but then again he has already covered this number on Liquid Spirit. I probably need to give it another spin or two as it is a bit of a departure from GP's usual stuff and the arrangements will take a little getting used to.

Art Farmer - A sleeping bee.

From allmusic.com:

This Sonet LP finds Art Farmer with an atypical supporting group that includes fellow veteran Red Mitchell on bass, Latin percussionist Sabú Martínez, and several Europeans, among them guitarist Jan Schaffer and pianist Goran Strandberg. The opener, an easygoing take of "It Might As Well Be Spring," finds Farmer finally opening up in the closing chorus. Farmer's rich-toned flugelhorn interacts beautifully with Mitchell's imaginative bassline in the swinging take of "Come Rain or Come Shine," while the brisk bossa nova "Green Witch" is one of the more challenging charts on the date, with Farmer switching to trumpet. "A Sleeping Bee" is often played at fast tempos, but the hip-swaying, relaxed arrangement better showcases lyrical solos by the leader and Mitchell. This excellent record is long overdue to be reissued on CD.

Just time to fit in one side of this before my lift to the cinema arrives, as we’ve discussed above, joyous music from a great singer. Excellent sound quality from a pressing I bought somewhere around release. This album cost me £8.49 from HMV accord8ng to the sticker.

(1998)

A change of tack to these boys who I haven't listened to for a year or so. 

Agnes Obel - Aventine (Deluxe Version)  And for the second time today.  A special mention for this as it is the most played (over the last year) album I own.  I discovered Agnes Obel via the Citizen of Glass album released October 2016.  That was a good album and lead me to explore other works, but Aventine is something else.  I don't think I could really define why I love this album so much, but it seems barely a day goes by that I don't play at least some tracks from it, and that often leads to listening to the whole thing.  Now a year since I discovered it, I must have played it 100 times, and I don't think I will ever ever tire of it.  Strikes a chord like little else I have ever heard.  It is a masterpiece of the highest order as far as I am concerned.

John Lennon

Power To The People - 24/44.1

Edward

CBS vinyl

Why? It's Friday night and I'm on holiday.

steve

Sounding so realistic! Sonny Rollins 'The Bridge'

And now Stanley Turrentine 'Look Out'. Another great sounding hard bop album.

Don Henley

The End of the Innocence - 24/96

Edward

Now Playing.....

Beth Orton - Central Reservation

Taking another of Beth's albums out for a spin.....

Streaming from Tidal......

Notes from TIDAL:  On her stunning sophomore album, Central Reservation, Beth Orton slips free of the electronic textures that colored her acclaimed 1996 debut, Trailer Park, stripping her music down to its raw essentials to produce a work of stark simplicity and rare poignancy. With the exception of a pair of Ben Watt-produced tracks ("Stars All Seem to Weep" and a remix of the title cut), Central Reservation rejects synthetic sounds and beats altogether in favor of an organic atmosphere somewhere between folk, jazz, and the blues; the focal point is instead Orton's evocatively soulful voice, which invests songs like "Sweetest Decline" and "Feel to Believe" with remarkable warmth and honesty. It's a risky move creatively as well as commercially -- after all, the club culture was the first to champion Orton's talents -- but it pays off handsomely; for all its brilliance, elements of Trailer Park already feel dated, but the new material possesses a timelessness that recalls the best of Nick Drake or Sandy Denny, with a haunting beauty to match. And while much has been made of the melancholy that pervades her music, ultimately Central Reservation is first and foremost a record about hope and survival; its emotional centerpiece, the seven-minute "Pass in Time" (a spine-tingling duet with legendary folk-jazz mystic Terry Callier), grapples with the death of Orton's mother, but its underlying message of healing and perseverance is powerfully life-affirming -- her music hasn't merely discovered the light at the end of the tunnel, it's now bathing in it. ~ Jason Ankeny