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;
Final one for this afternoon. Smooth 
Gregory Porter - Liquid Spirit
Now Playing......
Damien Rice - My Favorite Faded Fantasy
Continuing on with Damien........
(2013)
This epic live radio broadcast captures ZZ Top at the very cusp of their worldwide success, recorded [live] during the East coast leg of their 1980 breakthrough tour at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey.
Herbie Hancock - The piano
Allmusic.com:
Recorded after the funky fusion of Head Hunters, Thrust, Sextant, and other electric albums, and before the dawn of "Rockit" and more commercially viable and hip-hop-oriented material, Herbie Hancock took time out in 1978 to touch base again with his piano. Recorded completely solo, this set was issued only in Japan as the truly awful Feets, Don't Fail Me Now was issued stateside. A curious set, the first half of the album features Hancock playing jazz standards in truly elegant and restrained fashion. His treatments of "My Funny Valentine," "Green Dolphin Street," and "Someday My Prince Will Come" -- all tracks he performed as part of the Miles Davis Quintet -- are elongated, morphed, and beautifully woven together as a suite. The latter half of the recording is comprised of four tracks, "Harvest Time," "Sonrisa," "Manhattan Island," and "Blue Otani," all of which are originals. These pieces are concerned with Hancock's preoccupation with the piano as a solo instrument. They are composed as formalist treatments that are extrapolated upon at several different junctures, or "turning points," within them. They embody notions of classical music à la Anton Webern, blues, Erroll Garner's lyrical phrasing, and Bill Evans' harmonic sensibilities. They are, in sum, inseparable from one another and are usually performed as a suite. This is a stunning triumph for Hancock, and it's too bad that the album has never been issued in the U.S., as it would undoubtedly be a popular addition to his vast catalog. About the closest one can come are the tracks from here included in The Herbie Hancock Box. Maybe someday.
UK first vinyl press, from 1981. I haven't listened to this in decades. I need to visit it more often - it's actually one of their more interesting records...
(2001)
Some TC while I get on with some cooking.
A wonderful Soup starter while I cook a Roast Beast Sunday Dinner.
Now Playing.......
Jakob Bro - Ballardeering
Jakob Bro (guitar), Paul Motian (drums), Bill Frisell (guitar), Lee Konitz (alto saxophone), and Ben Street (bass)
Love the album - Streaming from NAS
Review on All About Jazz can be found here:
Throughout the process of recording Balladeering, Danish guitarist Jakob Bro was followed closely by filmmaker Sune Blicher, who documented the sessions, which took place at the famous Avatar studios in New York, capturing the poetry of the music in pregnant images. A recurrent motif in the movie is musicians engrossed in listening, and this particular framing also finds its way into the photos by Robert Lewis that grace the album, becoming a metaphor for the music itself and the spirit of creation.
More than anything, Bro could be termed "a listening musician." He creates his poetic compositions as open structures that invite interpretation. It is Bro's special gift that he is able to make music both melodically enchanting and not locked in predefined patterns.
The opener, "Weightless," is an example of how a simple melodic guitar figure is expanded and transcended into a translucent texture of sounds, with drummer Paul Motian's feathery touch working around the complex tapestry of guitar lines created by Bro and fellow guitarist Bill Frisell.
On "Evening Song," legendary saxophonist Lee Konitz joins the quartet and plays with a tone that seems to embody the beauty and pain of a lifetime, while "Terrace Place," with its mild dissonance and melancholy mood, finds the musicians speaking in a unified language where the guitarists' bended strings and loops are complemented by Konitz's circular blowing and Ben Street's elegant, almost invisible, bass patterns.
Balladeering is a true artwork, which brings out the best in the Participants; Konitz has not played better in some time. The album, however, is not about individual brilliance, but rather a proof of jazz as a listening art form that invites the unexpected and transcends egos. Such beauty is only possible if the compositions do not limit the potential of the music. Here, all possibilities are kept open and the result is a music that is infinitely rich in its democratic beauty.
Another LP rescued from the mis-filed archives of oblivion. UK second press vinyl.
Slim68 posted:A wonderful Soup starter while I cook a Roast Beast Sunday Dinner.
Lovely! Maybe some Gazpacho to finish and make for an unusual desert?...
(2013)
2 x LP - nation records ltd. © 1994 : )
Some great tracks here beyond ‘Start me Up’...’Slave’ a particularly grungy favourite. The first press cd sounds fine too. The recent 555PS addition sorting the complex mixes into music very nicely.
G
^ I've liked it but it's seriously time you heard the vinyl 
Christopher_M posted:^ I've liked it but it's seriously time you heard the vinyl
Had it when the album came out but haven’t spun the black stuff since 1989.
G
An album I've liked for some time. It shouldn't work but does. But more importantly it was the album through which I discovered Alison Krauss so I will always have a soft spot for it.
A new discovery for me. I have a few of his albums, and this one is very good too.
A nice bit of 'Frapp to end the day.
Goldfrapp - Felt Mountain
Downbeat but powerful electronica from the former Cabs man. On orginal 1994 UK double vinyl.
james n posted:Next up on the Melco is an album that i've not listened to in years. Still good.
Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill
Wife 2 had a copy of this (which she took with her when she left) but I found her miserable whining got on my nerves after a while. Morisette's that is..mind you, on reflection...
steve
nigelb posted:kevin J Carden posted:nigelb posted:Bill Withers' - Greates Hits
I normally avoid 'Greatest Hits' albums but I have had this for donkeys years and thought I would give it a whirl.
Absolutely brilliant!! Wow I am enjoying this. The 555 DR I am trialling transforms this album.
Trialling Nigel? Really? Sounds like a ‘prising from fingers of my dead body’ situation to me...
Still in negotiations. Not with the dealer but with my darling wife. Actually she asked what the empty Naim box was doing on the floor. Bless her, she hadn't noticed the 555 in the Fraim as it is identical to the SuperCap and the 250 below it and she never made a count of the black boxes in play. So I summoned the courage from somewhere and broached the dreaded subject of a 'possible' acquisition. She said if we ever get divorced, the HiFi (or rather what I spend on it) would be the cause. I laughed nervously. As they say in Brussels, the talks continue…...
Blimey! Oh well, only a box I guess...
Just time to squeeze in this one. Continuing with Alison...
Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
Debussy string quartet. Amazing . Wish he’d written a few more!
A recommendation from our Stefan who visited the here briefly today without posting. I am very thankful for the honest- good friendship maintained beyond the forum boundaries.