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;
Leftfield - Leftism 22 via Tidal
First impressions.... worth another listen.
I'm enjoying some vintage Suzanne Vega. Cracking stuff (sorry).
Gary Peacock Trio - Tangents. 24/96 flac. Recorded in 2016, released in August this year.
Gary Peacock - Double Bass, Marc Copland - Piano, Joey Baron - Drums. Cover photo by Elliot Peacock.
I've just listened to side one of Ommadawn, thinking it to be Mike Oldfield's finest hour, and thought I'd play this to follow. I'd clearly forgotten just how superb this is. If, like me, you'd ignored this album or simply forgotten about it, give it a spin. I'm actually playing the HDCD version ripped to NS01, streamed through NDS, but when those tubular bells come in, my goodness! Very enjoyable.
Justin Adams - Ribbons.
Latest album from the most wonderful Justin Adams.
More desert trance goodness, augmented this time round by the voice of Anneli Drecker, of Royksopp.
Here's part of the official blurb :
"Drecker's vocal contribution comes in the form of wordless sounds without literal meaning. She has a form of synesthesia, meaning
that she sees sounds as having specific colours, which made her a perfect collaborator".
Whatever, ................. the fact is that it's a stunning collaboration, and more than keeps up the high standards set by Justin thus far.
And the best bit? ....................... it's on Tidal, so what are you waiting for? 
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893): Viktoria Postnikova (piano) and Franco Trabucco (piano)
Starting on disc 7 (Eighteen Pieces op. 72) and working backwards...
It has been about a year and half now since I first became intrigued by Tchaikovsky. I mean really intrigued. To an outsider this may be interpreted as passionately obsessed. To be fair, it is more like now after more than half a century I finally realize that Tchaikovsky belongs right alongside every other great composer of solo piano music. And it is not like I ignored Tchaikovsky given the various concertos, chamber music, ballet music, and a small handful of 'famous' solo piano works that everyone knows but just that I have more than my plate full with the typical big solo piano composers (Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Schubert, Schumann, Debussy, Rachmaninov etc etc.) and quite frankly, not many people record Tchaikovsky's complete solo piano oeuvre.
So finally, the time is right to explore this completely and so to start is Franco Trabucco and Viktoria Postnikova. Another set that exists is from Michael Ponti which I will eventually get. Sadly, I think those are the only complete sets that I could find. Strangely, with the two 'complete' sets in hand it is funny that there is a small difference in what each considers complete. Some music on one and not the other etc. and vice versa.
After listening to the Eighteen Pieces from Op. 72 (plus a listen to the estimable Mikhail Pletnev in the same) one can appreciate the differences. First off let's just say that the Trabucco, an Italian, is a nice set but it is the most straightforward playing. I do appreciate this for reasons of this is helpful in listening to with a score just to learn the pieces. There is no messing around and everything is quite clear and straightforward. Sound is adequate but just doesn't feel natural to me for some reason. Pedalling is sparse and so you get a slightly dry sound.
Pletnev is just out of this world when it comes to creativity. Like Martha Argerich these artists are in a league of there own. They simply imagine what they want out of a piece and then somehow it comes out this way. Sounds pretty straightforward but ultimately this means that only Argerich or Pletnev can play like Argerich or Pletnev. As hard as you might try no one can really duplicate there unique views. Certainly, you can follow on the score but it is near impossible to recreate because the score is just a starting point for them.
So the Pletnev is the dream recording but closer down to earth it is nice to hear how mere mortals approach this music. It is nice to listen to because it is unreal but honestly way to fast in most cases. This leaves the only other Russian standing, Viktoria Postnikova. [note: I am quite seriously suggesting that maybe nationality matters when it comes to understanding a composer of your own nationality?].
What I hear so far is quite respectable with the only caveat being the recorded sound / piano sound can be quite variable. This set was recorded in the early 90's so it has some of the artifacts contained in the sound (ie. a little harsh/bright at times). If it were not for this little issue I would be 100% satisfied. I wish I could hear this in a nicely balanced recorded sound like that of the best.
Viktoria Postnikova is still of that generation which instilled some of the old ways of playing music. She studied with E.B. Musaelian and Yakov Flier. She won a special prize at the 1965 International Chopin Piano Competition which is the same one that Martha Argerich won first prize and a joint second place at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1966.
Overall though, as for the playing, I like her sense of rubato, warm tone, musical sensibilities, and vivid characterizations of this pure Russian music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqIgTP_SJ6k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHUIrB7dtAc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3HslEXxAyA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgFh8esCO0w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z7ugdigfPA
Difficult to appreciate but special....
The Gene Harris Quartet - Black and Blue. 1991 CD-rip.
1990 - Tidal...
Now playing......
Fly - Sky & Country
Mark Turner (soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone), Larry Grenadier (double bass), and Jeff Ballard (drums)
Continued exploration of the ECM Records catalogue..... Streaming from TIDAL.....
Notes from Tidal: Fly is a co-op trio of saxophonist Mark Turner, bassist Larry Grenadier, and drummer Jeff Ballard, who have played together off-and-on, individually with many other bands, and can easily be pegged in the vanguard of young and experienced post-to-neo-bop jazz stars of the 2000s. Turner carries the post-Michael Brecker tradition proudly in a more restrained mood, Grenadier is as solid a current day bassist as there is since working with Brad Mehldau, and Ballard's experience with Chick Corea or bassist Avishai Cohen, among many others, has seen him develop into a top five jazz drummer, in demand and via the scope of his playing. This is not a typical ECM recording, as it is more straight-ahead modern mainstream jazz, and not nearly the European classical esoteric or ethereal music the label is known for. There's real teamwork in executing this type of jazz that borrows from Blue Note label styles, John Coltrane, or Wayne Shorter, and moves the music forward without a serrated edge or overtly complex harmonic blowing. Each musician contributes a handful of compositions, with Ballard as the lead soldier in that department. "Lady B" is prototypical, rambling N.Y.C. Brecker Brothers/Steps Ahead 1980s neo-bop, his "Perla Morena" a Spanish tinged, spirited tune in 6/8 with the drummer's amazing, ever changing rhythmic patterns over Turner's even keeled tenor, and the title track is the most atmospheric ECM-like track, somewhat funky and dark via Turner's soprano sax. Clever stairstep phrases identify the even funkier "Elena Berenjena," a rocking hard bop with a contemporary side centers the spiky, modal "Dharma Days" á la Coltrane, "Anandananda" is a long free solo tenor to bass to jazz tango, and "Super Sister" moves forcefully and urgently with Grenadier's booming bass, strong but not brash jazz, all composed by Turner. "CJ" and "Transfigured" are penned by Grenadier, the former a very slow, reticent, but true to soul ballad, while the latter is free and languid, with Turner's soprano sax and bowed bass tones evoking a mood of trudging carriage and slowly evolving life. For a first go this is a very credible effort and hopefully not a one shot, from a band that is touring in support of the music, which hopefully can grow into the top drawer ensemble it can easily be. ~ Michael G. Nastos
Donald Byrd - Complete Live at the Olympia 1958 (with bonus tracks). 2 CD-rip. Nice band.
Donald Byrd - tr, Walter Davis Jr- p, Bobby Jaspar - ts & fl, Doug Watkins - b, Art Taylor, dr
Now Playing.....
Current Cover Original vinyl cover
Bill Frisell - In Line
Bill Frisell (electric, acoustic guitars), Arild Andersen (bass)
Continuation of the exploration of the ECM Catalogue....... Streaming on Tidal
I enjoy Bill's work quite a bit through a lot of different genre of music, through 5 tracks and this album does not disappoint.
Recorded August 1982 at Talent Studio, Oslo
Engineer: Jan Erik Kongshaug
Produced by Manfred Eicher
Review by Tyran Grillo on December 20, 2011
I had the great fortune of seeing Bill Frisell by his lonesome in the summer of 2009 at Northampton’s Iron Horse, where he employed a rather modest set of equipment consisting mainly of digital pedal delays, unfolding from one guitar a ghostly map of sound. This process of self-generation seems to have always been at the heart of his musical output, and no album approaches that feeling as intimately as In Line. His sound is so full that bassist Arild Andersen’s reverberating swaths of darkness reveal an inner voice of the guitar in “Start” and carry Frisell’s suggestive lilts to distant conclusions. Andersen’s role is not to be ignored, sharing as he does a sensual conversation with Frisell in “Three” and providing a tearful backdrop to “Godson Song.” Here, Frisell’s guitar also gently weeps, slithering under the bass’s watchful eye, ever at the edge of naivety. The intertwining electrics of “Two Arms” tighten like a finger trap into a wormhole toward “Shorts,” which recalls childhood with its unintended (?) allusion to “Three Blind Mice.” These brief flashes of nostalgia make their way carefully down the spiral staircase of “Smile On You” and out onto “The Beach,” a stunning soundscape for processed electrics that moves like a train through a tunnel and crests atop Andersen’s slithering harmonics. The title track steps out of the album’s default monochrome with the gamelan colors of its detuned acoustics. The more clean-cut leads take us farthest in a final blissful gasp.
Yet if we’re going to talk about bliss, then our lips must shape the word “Throughout,” which names the album’s most inescapable embrace. This piece would also provide the basis for Gavin Bryars’ heavenly 1986 adaptation, Sub Rosa. The chord progression itself speaks volumes and gives breath to the lead electric as it sings with all the restraint at its disposal.
Like an opera singer who cuts through all the trained vibrato now and then with that single crystalline note, Frisell’s phrasings tremble on a watery surface, glinting occasionally with the light of a distant sun. In that light is hope, and this hope one encounters ECM’s core philosophy of silence. If you only own one Frisell album, make it this.
Orchestra Baobab - Pirates Choice! 1982. 2 CD rip. A change of beat to ? Afro Cuban perhaps.
https://orchestrabaobab.bandca...album/pirates-choice
Now Playing......'
Anouar Brahem - Barzakh
Anouar Brahem (composer, Oud), Lassad Hosni (composer, percussion), and Bechir Selmi (composer, violin)
Moving forward with the ECM catalogue...... Streaming from NAS
Notes from the ECM Records Website: Recorded in 1990, Barzakh was the ECM debut of Tunisian oud master Anouar Brahem, and an album that immediately captured the attention of press and public with its gracefulness and authority. “Phenomenal…this is pure Arab music, without ‘world music’ frippery,” wrote Karl Lippegaus in Stereo. Brahem is joined here by Bechir Selmi, the sensitive violinist from the Musical Ensemble of Tunis, and percussionist Lassad Hosni, whose earthy frame drum and speeding darbouka would come to be important components of later Brahem recordings including Conte de l’incroyable amour and Astrakan Café. Beyond the improvisatory brilliance, Barzakh gave notice also of Brahem’s gift for writing arresting themes and luminous melody, as illustrated by “Raf Raf”, “Parfum de Gitane”, “Kerkenah” and other pieces here.
Initially published in April 1991, vinyl is reissued in October 2017 as audiophile 180g pressing.
Now Playing......
Fred Simon - Remember the River
Fred Simon (piano), Paul McCandless (bass clarinet, English horn, oboe, and penny whistle), and Steve Rodby (acoustic bass)
Streaming from NAS......
Downloaded from Naim records awhile back and love this album.....
John Fogerty. Revival. On CD from 2007. Good listen if you're a fan of CCR.
Rolling Stones. Lady Jane. On Russian Melody label vinyl from 1988. Great collection of Stones hits from '65-'66. It's a DMM pressing and has a good energy and vibrancy to the sound.
Curzon/Solti/VPO: Tchaikovsky PC1 -'58 rec.
Sensibly, if not academic, played out with no apparent faults throughout. Elegant orchestration yet retaining a nice pacing. Smooth ride but lacking in punctuation. Such a great recording yet this, too, does not have the fire and urgency of Horowitz/Toscanini '43 set.
The Best Of Spirit. On original vinyl from 1973. Been a while since I spun this classic compilation.