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;
Fine energetic Rollins with a ‘cameo’ from Miles Davis...on piano (I know).
G
2010 - Tidal...
Jimi Hendrix - First Rays of the New Rising Sun - CD (1997) Oxfam £3
This CD better reflects the music he was working on at the time of his shock death in 1970. My first album of his work. Trying a DC1 instead of Chord Clearway digital. Impressed by the added depth it brings. It add coherence and beauty to his almost frenetic playing.
You will need to turn the volume down an hour with the DC1 compared with other cables!
Phil
A splendid two-CD collection of the great man's work. The perfect antidote to a dismal, grey and very wet Sunday afternoon.
My favourite Billy Joel ripped from a first pressing of the first commercially produced cd.
Sounds mighty fine. The addition of the 555PS really showing its worth in sorting the busy, flattish mix, into something with some depth.
G
Back (close) to the ECM roots, again with Kenny Wheeler - Gnu High
i remember this record to sound very bright, almost unpleasant to listen to, in the old days. Old age hearing deterioration is not always a bad thing. 
Haim Ronen posted:ECM-less
My therapist could not recognize me lately, finding my disposition so much more relaxed and adventurous, noticing also that I had stopped carrying the large magnifying lens and tweezers. He wasn't able to put his finger on the cause for this major improvement in my state of mind until I mentioned that in the last month I have been taking a complete break from ECM recordings..
Starting the morning with Bottesini's ravishing Grand Duo:
But, but... this (ECM sobriety) is also the last step of a possible therapy ladder. What if also this fails ?
Now Playing.......
Chely Wright - Lifted Off The Ground
Streaming on TIDAL...... I had put this in the queue recently after seeing it mentioned in this forum. Through a few tracks now and Chely has grabbed my attention, very, very nice!
Note on TIDAL: In the late 1990s, Chely Wright had number one singles and Top Ten albums. After releasing 2005's excellent Metropolitan Hotel on the independent Dualtone, she vanished. In the intervening years, Wright endured a personal crucible that drove her to write in order to remain sane. Songs came furiously, demanding to be written. Wondering where these songs were taking her, she cold-called Rodney Crowell, whom she barely knew. After an initial meeting in which she played him her songs, Wright dropped demos into his mailbox, and insisted he email her comments on them. Eventually, Crowell gently coaxed her to make Lifted Off the Ground for Vanguard, which he produced. This period also resulted in her memoir, Like Me, published on the day of this release. Crowell's production is simple yet elegant. Performer and producer focused on getting this beautifully articulated, brutally poignant, 11-song cycle across as directly as possible. Wright, once regarded as a singer and performer, has become a songwriter of consequence here. The set opens with “Broken,” where her protagonist addresses a lover with the same trust issues she is plagued with: ”Why can't you just believe in me/Not everyone is the enemy…I'm wagin' war up in my head/Last time I loved it nearly left me dead….” Acoustic guitars with a bassline pushing them are accented by a drum kit and a Fender Rhodes, which lilt around her lyrics, letting them reveal themselves airily. “Notes to the Coroner” is an uptempo tune that addresses what might once have been a real possibility. Woven electric and acoustic guitars, popping bass patterns, and subtle drums underscore her lyrics' chilling details of the protagonist's demise as a B-3 paints the tag lines. More sarcastic than morbid, it still comes from an enormous ball of pain. Things get even darker on the haunting “Snow Globe” before they begin to transition. First, there's self-doubt expressed on “Like Me,” before the desire for another state of being asserts itself on the rocking “That Train.” “Damn Liar” moves through anger, as country and rock meet the blues in an infectious melody. That theme is echoed in “Object of Your Rejection,” though the grain of Wright's voice has changed: she's squarely looking at and confronting her offender with acceptance, and this is reflected in the melody and tempo. “Shadows of Doubt” closes the set with a steely resolve that is grounded in humility and an honest vulnerability. Lifted Off the Ground is easily the most harrowing and lovely recording in Wright's catalog. Crowell's ability to guide songs rather than helm them aided her in accomplishing the most difficult task an artist can encounter: complete reinvention. Wright has succeeded in spades. ~ Thom Jurek
GraemeH posted:
OK, I’m playing the ‘...Are Guitarists’ set. It really is magnificent and well worth tracking down.
Superb Telarc recording too.
G
I've got quite a few Telarc jazz recordings but I always feel they were recorded at too low a level and need to be turned up above the norm.
Impressed with Gilles Peterson. Rare Brit jazz compilation.
Clive B posted:joerand posted:
Emmylou Harris. Wrecking Ball. On HDCD from 1995. Continuing my all-female vocalist listening session tonight. First listen and I'm very impressed. An artistic and explorative album from Emmylou with an overall haunting sonic, yet not dark. Great cast of supporting musicians. As for the SQ, well this is an early HDCD mastering and it plays a bit "hot" in my room, especially with bass and kick drum which appear over-cooked with excessive compression. OTOH, Emmylou's vocals come across as favorably raw - quite immediately present in the room. A beautiful voice less adorned with production aftermaths than on other recordings of hers I own.
OK, five hours later maybe, but I think I'll join you on this one. I haven't played this for ages, so it's like a rediscovery for me. Beautiful voice, which I think has improved with the years.
For me, this is Emmylou's best album which benefits from some very good song choices and a distinctive sound from producer, Daniel Lanois. In fact, it is one of my all time favourite albums.
The Staple Singers - Bealtitude : Respect Yourself.
A class soul album from a hugely underrated vocal group .................. sure, we all know the songs, .................... if not who was singing
them, at the time, on the car radio.
Part of the Stax 24 bit Remasters series from Concord Music, and well worth the listen.
Playing that Toussaint compilation has really got me in a Noo Orleans kinda mood... so here's one of the great man's most famous production jobs - their first album from 1969. On 1980s vinyl. Funky!
Bart van Oort - French Nocturnes
Following [@mention:69004037454627179] and putting on disc 6 of the Blue Note box. Yummie. Blue Note and Village Vanguard have been my favorite live venues for recordings (and one life concert I was blessed to attend at the Vanguard)
Take Me To The River - A Southern Soul Story 1961 - 1977.
Started off the evening with The Staple Singers ^ , so continuing with this 3 CD boxset from Kent records, and which tells the story of
where it all really began, in the studios of Stax, Volt, Goldwax and many more of the small independents.
Highly recommended. 
2004 - Tidal...
S/h original viynl
Why? I needed something ;aid back and instrumental.
steve
Ben Monder - Amorphae
partly to hear the wonderful Paul Motian, again. I miss his contribution to the music and concert world. Must be one of the most quiet and unpretending drummers the world has had. When he played, I was reminded of the trees you heard (although you thought you heard a storm) or that moment on a mountain bike, where the sound pattern of the big wheels on a piece of asphalt make perfect sense with your driving. Or the stuttering of an old 911 engine, sitting in your back and waiting to be rev’ed
Michael Chapman, Fully Qualified Survivor on 1970s UK Harvest vinyl. A great album from an unfairly underrated singer-songwriter-guitarist. I thought I had the previous album, Rainmaker (it's bucketing down here in South London) but I don't.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR5mmNsSn_E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWM5-Nv0miA
Stefan,
I will respond to you later but I cannot fail to notice that you immediately posted 3 ECM discs, just to spite my humble post.