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

GraemeH posted:

Katz, Fagen, Becker & Vela...I’ve always loved this and it still sounds fresh today.

G

Love that album.  Must dig out my vinyl copy.

Alley Cat posted:

GraemeH posted:

Katz, Fagen, Becker & Vela...I’ve always loved this and it still sounds fresh today.

G

Love that album.  Must dig out my vinyl copy.

I also like this album, but every time I play it, my wife complains she’s singing out of tune.

Basia - On Broadway (Live).

By coincedence wife complains she also sings out of tune.

(Listened to this this afternoon when she was out shopping)

seakayaker posted:

Now Playing......

Anouar Brahem - The Astounding Eyes of Rita

Now Streaming from NAS.......  Enjoy this album from Anouar quite a bit, I also enjoy the poems of Mahmoud Darwish for whom this album is dedicated to.

Note from ECM Records: Delightful new project, assembled by Tunisian oud master Brahem with producer Manfred Eicher. Combination of bass clarinet with oud suggests a link to Anouar’s “Thimar” trio, but this East/West line-up often feels closer to the more traditionally-inclined sounds of “Barzakh” or “Conte de l’Incroyable Amour”. Klaus Gesing, from Norma Winstone’s Trio, and Björn Meyer, from Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin, are both players with an affinity for musical sources beyond jazz, and they interact persuasively inside Brahem’s music. A dance of dark, warm sounds, urged onward by the darbouka and frame drum of Lebanaese percussionist Khaled Yassine. The album is dedicated to the memory of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.

Also listening to this now, on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Nice.

Hungryhalibut posted:

winkyincanada posted:

Hungryhalibut posted:

This is such a good album, and probably one of his best. 

Whilst I agree that it's a great album, PTSA is better, in my view.

Maybe. I really like The Boatman’s Call as well, and of course the wonderful Murder Ballads. The man is something of a genius. 

Agree, of course. Nick is genius. I would have loved to have been cool enough to go see him with The Birthday Party when I was younger. His long-time sidekick, Warren Ellis is also an astounding musician and composer. Probably the best rock musician I've ever seen live. My teenage boys are really digging MB. (My wife simply can't stand Nick.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwK0zNapt14

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvDG_Ud9aFg

Now Playing......

Cara Dillon - Upon A WInter's Night

Streaming on Tidal.......  A little holiday music on this Sunday evening!

Now Playing.......

Cara Dillion - Sweet Liberty

Streaming on TIDAL.......    A sweet voice and music, very enjoyable this Sunday evening.  

Thanks for the recommendation JAMES N!

Haim Ronen posted:

sjust posted:

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:

https://wn.com/giovanni_bottes...e_bass_and_orchestra

But, but... this (ECM sobriety) is also the last step of a possible therapy ladder. What if also this fails ?

The smart people here will tell you to upgrade your system to the next level to get closer to the music and I say just open a window for some fresh air, that is without letting Motzi out..

Don't you ever get the feeling that everything at the ECM house is micro managed? The meticulous sound, the artful art work, even the music during which the musicians are doing their little intricate things without ever breaking a sweat? Perhaps the label is managed too closely by a single person who definitely creates a particular dominant intellectual mood that you cannot shake off. What I am missing is some spontaneity. 

That's me. I have been listening to too many ECMs lately, not unlike eating too much chocolate, so I am opting for just a little break and a glass of water. 

Regards,

Haim

For similar reasons I had seen myself putting down a fully equipped SLX camera gear, and replace it with an SX-70 Polaroid Camera, to chase the true Destillation of an image, decades ago.

Or publicly discussing here, whether a bathroom radio or crappy car stereo can have the ability to bring me closer to the music than my CDS3/552/300 (and then decided it can).

Johnny Cash “Unearthed” has often driven me to tears (!), although the recording conditions and often the results were poor, compared to some of the effort that was possible with big money productions.

“Texas camp fire tapes” or “Trinity Sessions” are more examples where the music excels the recording conditions and makes them irrelevant.

there is recordings in the ECM catalogue that sound crap or contain crap music. Maybe even many.

much of it, though, to me is a fine balance between (often minimalistic) music and artist setup and respectful recording. The silence that is captured beteeen the notes is one of the finest that has entered my ears. More often than not do I raise my eyebrows when listening to the likes of Ralph Towner, Charlie Haden, Egberto Gismonti, and countless others, that have been given a platform of respect to capture  their sadly mortal lives into immortal music. Doing so with the (subjectively) best possible effort is something I value with Manfred Eicher. He has dedicated his life to nothing else,  continues to drive another 100,000 miles in his rotten Volvo (ok, I may be exaggerating, here...) from gig to studio to production, etc.

so... no SX-70, no bathroom radio, but many hours of musical pleasure for me. When ECM starts to produce boring music to my ears, I will drop them.

The Beatles. Beatles For Sale (1964). On the original CD release from 1987. I'm demoing a HP amp (and various ICs to it) and it's really drawn me towards listening to familiar, vintage music. Despite how well I know this recording, it's amazing how eliminating the room-effect leads to a completely different listening perspective. Notably, McCartney's bass lines are so much better discriminated via HPs. Discovering plucks in his playing I've never heard before. New WOW factor from a much played 53-year-old recording. Exciting stuff going on between these old ears.

This is indeed light and breezy..

Now Playing.......

Antonio Forcione & Sabrina Sciubba - Meet Me In London

Sabrina Sciubba (vocals), Antonio Forcione (guitar, nylon string guitar), David Mantovani (bass, electric bass, fretless bass and synthesizer horn), Malcolm Creese (double-bass), Adam Glasser (harmonica), and Bosco DeOliveira (percussion)

Something smooth and easy this Monday morning....... This album is quite beautiful.

Streaming from NAS........

Marc Minkowski - Schubert complete symphonies.

On Vinyl

Now Playing......

Chely Wright - I Am The Rain

Streaming on TIDAL.......   Great voice, lyrics, and music, really enjoying Chely's albums.......

Article from Rolling Stone date July 2016 here:

Chely Wright, who has been largely out of the music spotlight for the past five years, will release her first new album since 2010. I Am the Rain, due September 9th on MRI/Sony, is the follow-up to Lifted Off the Ground, the LP she released in conjunction with her memoir Like Me, which detailed her struggles as a closeted lesbian in the country-music industry.    

The new album was recorded with Grammy-winning producer Joe Henry last fall at the iconic Sunset Sound studio in Los Angeles. It features guest appearances from Emmylou Harris, Milk Carton Kids, and the producer of Wright's previous album, Rodney Crowell, who co-wrote "At the Heart of Me" with Wright and Henry.

The recipient of ACM's Top New Female Vocalist honor in 1995, Wright has now recorded eight studio albums. I Am the Rainwas funded in part by a record-breaking Kickstarter campaign. When all was said and done, the LP was the number one most-funded country music Kickstarter project to date. It also ranks as the 11th most successful music campaign in the global benefit corporation's history.

Wright, who also chronicled her coming-out in the award-winning Wish Me Away documentary, married Lauren Blitzer in 2011 (before same-sex marriage was legal across the entire U.S.) and gave birth to the couple's twin sons in 2013. She and her family currently reside in New York City.

While the material on I Am the Rain finds her opening and exploring a new musical chapter, one that is certainly closer to the all-encompassing Americana format than contemporary mainstream country, the Kansas-born singer continues to adhere to the assertion that she is, at heart, a country artist.

"I had somebody ask me, 'Why don't you just go pop?'" Wright tells Rolling Stone Country. "I said, 'That's not me. I don't want to be a pop artist. I want to be an artist that can be 60 years old sitting on stage at the Ford Theater at the Country Music Hall of Fame telling stories and singing songs that would be appropriate for a 60-year-old woman. I mean, we all want to be Emmylou Harris or Loretta Lynn, don't we?"

On Vinyl

1974 - vinyl - US pressing...

Nick Hakim. Green Twins.

My go to album right now.

 Pushes all buttons and then some more.

recorded a little on the hot side. If your system suits - turn it up & enjoy  .

Philippe Herreweghe - Bach: Motets

Allmusic.com:

In this exemplary recording of six Bach motets Philippe Herreweghe leads Collegium Vocale Ghent(an ensemble that includes both singers and instrumentalists) and ten soloists in performances of exceptional finesse and elegance. That's no easy task given the dense contrapuntal textures that characterizes several of the motets written for double chorus and orchestra. It takes great skill to keep the music, in a movement like the opening to "Singet dem Herr ein neues Lied," from turning into a murky undifferentiated stew of busyness, but Herreweghe keeps the sound open and varied. One crucial element is the absolutely pristine intonation and pure tone of the singers, which makes the harmonies clear and distinct. Herreweghe's graceful shaping of the phrases creates the sense of overlapping waves rising and falling rather than a monolithic wall of sound. The choruses' discipline in their precise observance of producing matching vowels is another factor that allows the intricacies of the music to come across as clean and well-defined. Although it is scored it for the same forces, in Komm, Jesu, komm Bach works with gleaming, transparent textures, where the felicities of Herreweghe's leadership and the refinement of the soloists, choruses, and orchestra are even more clearly in evidence. His attention to the emotional content of the piece gives the music a powerfully yearning warmth that, in spite of the large number of performers, feels intensely intimate. The engineers deserve much credit for creating such a carefully balanced aural environment, where details pop with amazing clarity and the sound is at the same time warm and enveloping. This is a release best experienced on a sound system that provides optimal separation and definition. Highly recommended; these are performances that should delight and dazzle fans of Baroque choral music.

If I would be in this form at my 90th birthday I would sign immediately...

Menahem Pressler - A 90th Birthday Celebration - Live in Paris with Quatuor Ebène
Antonín DVOŘÁK (1841-1904)
Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81, B.155 (1887) [38:07]
Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Piano Quintet in A major, D.667 ‘The Trout’ (1819) [37:39]
Menahem Pressler (piano)
Quatuor Ebène (Pierre Colombet (violin); Gabriel Le Magadure (violin); Mathieu Herzog (viola); Raphaël Merlin (cello)); Benjamin Berlioz (double-bass)
rec. live, 7 November 2013, Salle Pleyel, Paris, France
ERATO 2564 625964 [75:39 & DVD: 116:30]

To celebrate the 90th birthday of Menahem Pressler the Quatuor Ebène was invited to join him in concert at the Salle Pleyel, Paris on 7 November 2013. A founding member and pianist of the Beaux Arts Trio the German-born Israeli/American pianist became established as one of the world's most distinguished and honoured pianists. To mark the event Erato recorded the concert. With the CD they have issued a DVD which adds to the CD's Dvořák and Schubert Quintets performances of four excerpts from Schubert’s Winterreise and Die Forelle with Pressler accompanying tenor Christoph Prégardien. The Quatuor Ebène also perform the Andantino from the Debussy String Quartet. To conclude, Pressler plays the Chopin Nocturne in C sharp minor, Op. posth.

The first work is Dvořák’s Piano Quintet in A major Op. 81. Buoyed by the great success of his fifth visit to England in 1886 Dvořák the next year completed this substantial and joyous work. In the quicker movements Pressler and the Quatuor Ebène perform with great vitality and joie de vivre. Evidently based on a ballad that originated in the Ukraine the Dumka is beautifully performed. I love the playing of the mournful viola melody and the way the group convincingly communicate an undercurrent of melancholy. Steeped in Bohemian folk-music in the Scherzo, a Furiant, the quintet gallops along with sheer vivacity. My first choice Dvořák’s Piano Quintet, Op. 81 for some years has been the evergreen 1962 Vienna account from Clifford Curzon and the Vienna Philharmonic String Quartet led by Willi Boskovsky. Theirs is classic chamber-music playing of the highest quality and has been digitally re-mastered on Decca. Another version I often play is the stunningly vital performance from the Leipzig String Quartet with Christian Zacharias. It is beautifully recorded too in 2003 and can still be found on MDG Gold.

Schubert’s ‘Trout’ Quintet, D.667, unusually scored for piano, violin, viola, cello and double-bass is one of the most glorious works in all chamber music. It was likely written in the summer of 1819 not long after the composer’s return to Vienna from teaching Count Johann Karl Esterhazy’s two young countesses at Zseliz then in Hungary, now Želiezovce, Slovakia. The score is thought to have been commissioned by Sylvester Paumgartner, a wealthy local patron also an amateur cellist. He it was who suggested using a theme and set of variations on Schubert’s own song Die Forelle (The Trout) D.550. In the accomplished hands of Pressler and his fellow musicians the delightfully vivid opening Allegro vivace truly sparkles. The intensely songful Andante feels wistfully reflective and the concise Scherzo personifies warm summer joy. This is followed by the Andantino an engaging and wide-ranging theme and five variations. After a slightly reserved start the judiciously paced Finale develops into a lyrical outpouring of blissful emotion. Remarkable throughout is Presser’s eloquence and gloriously crisp articulation. There are a considerable number of competing recordings of Schubert’s ‘Trout’ Quintet. The one I have played most often is the one by Frank Braley, Renaud Capuçon, Gérard Caussé, Gautier Capuçon and Alois Posch recorded in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 2002 on Virgin Classics. Another favourite is the evergreen account played by pianist Clifford Curzon and the Vienna Philharmonic String Quartet led by Willi Boskovsky. Curzon and the string players are on their finest form with highly polished playing, captivating expressive eloquence and tremendous lyricism.

A real bonus on the DVD is the performance of four pieces from Schubert’s epic Winterreise for voice and piano, D.911. These are sung by the German tenor Christoph Prégardien accompanied by Menahem Pressler. Winterreise is widely acknowledged as Schubert’s supreme contribution to the Lied. It was in 1827 that he composed the song-cycle in two parts, each containing twelve songs and all setting the German poet Wilhelm Müller. It seems remarkable today that when Schubert’s circle of friends initially heard Winterreise it received a very mixed response with a number considering the cycle much too gloomy for enjoyment. Here at the Salle Pleyel, Paris the partnership of Prégardien and Pressler is an inspired one with both relishing every note. It is frustrating that Prégardien and Pressler didn’t perform the whole cycle on the night. Prégardien provides exceptionally sensitive and refined singing with clear diction. He is expressive yet in a rather understated manner. Finally Prégardien gives an attractive performance of Die Forelle the short song from which Schubert used a theme for his set of variations in the fourth movement of the ‘Trout’ Quintet. Next the Quatuor Ebène plays the third movement Andantino from Debussy’s String Quartet from 1893. It’s a most lovely performance with the Ebène knowing just how much emotion to blend with the writing’s refined textures. The final item on the DVD is Pressler’s delightful reading of Chopin’s beautiful Nocturne in C sharp minor, Op. posth. Composed in 1830 this is sometimes called the ‘Reminiscence’ and Pressler's playing is elegant and quite gracious.

A perfectly matched collaboration Pressler and the Ebène are in outstanding form in both the quintets. Their playing is a watchword for refinement and character. Pressler’s part is truly inspired especially for his unshakeable sensitivity and captivating lyricism. These quite stunning live performances are lent additional frisson by the occasion of Pressler’s ninetieth birthday. On both the CD and DVD the sound quality has been engineered to a high standard with an especially satisfying balance between piano and strings/voice. The DVD includes a film of Pressler thanking the Ebène for performing with him and also giving a very short talk about his life in music. The booklet essay titled ‘Menahem Pressler - The venerable prodigy’ concentrates solely on the ninetieth birthday celebrations with nothing about the works played. Worthy of praise on the DVD is the picture quality of this LGM Télévision production directed by Sébastien Glas. The footage is agreeable and has been shot using judicious camera angles in a way that doesn’t detract from the music.

On vinyl. From the new complete (7LP) Otis Stax-Volt mono box set, which I bought today. Sounds really good!

Turned up just a wee bit past 11