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;
1971 - Vinyl - UK first pressing...
Gotta give it to Rodders. That's a great album!
After the 2 Carla Bley ECM trio discs with Shepard and Swallow, now the wonderful The Lost Chords with the miraculous addition of Paolo Fresu - a worthwhile listening universe himself !
Beethoven String Quartet #7 (Razumovsky #1), Alban Berg Quartett . I think my NAP500, DR’d in April, must have just made a leap in performance of some kind. This is sounding just amazing...
And inevitable: Paolo Fresu - Incantamento
one of Five (hence the big 5) exceptional records. I am afraid I have to go through all of them. Damn !
Sublimity to go with a diminishing light and the fresh white stuff outside:
Jimmy Page / Robert Plant - No Quarter.
Final one of the evening, yet another "new" / "old" favourite ............ Percy & Page re-do some Zep choons, largely acoustically, with
some Middle Eastern influences chucked in ............ stunning album, especially this, the "red cover" remastered version.
Nighty night 
- Clive B posted:GraemeH posted:
Immersed in this.
G
This was one of my best 'discoveries' of 2017, Graeme. A great album IMO.
One of the finest Santana albums, if inspired, try others of the same period, Welcome and Borbolletta.
Bob F
Bf56 posted:
Immersed in this.
G
This was one of my best 'discoveries' of 2017, Graeme. A great album IMO.
One of the finest Santana albums, if inspired, try others of the same period, Welcome and Borbolletta.
Bob F
I also "discovered" this album this year - got it for $5 at Big Lots - feel very fortunate to have snagged it.
This woman...thatvoice...
And as a sort of natural segue way from Ella:
Now Playing.....
Fred Simon - Since Forever
Fred Simon (piano), Paul McCandless (soprano saxophone, oboe, English horn, bass clarinet, duduk), Steve Rodby (acoustic bass), Mark Walker (drums, percussion).
Streaming on NAS....... Received in the mail this afternoon, ripped to NAS. I did get quite busy for a good portion of the day, now back to some soothing & relaxing music to finish the day! Simply beautiful......
Review by John Kelman on All About Jazz found here:
A pianist of rare compositional lyricism, it's remarkable how one event in Fred Simon's life has led, almost inescapably, to the present. Touring with woodwind multi-instrumentalist Paul McCandless in support of the Oregon co-founder's Premonition (Windham Hill, 1992), the keyboardist found himself onstage with Pat Metheny Group bassist Steve Rodby and soon-to-be-Oregon drummer, Mark Walker. That tour ultimately led to Simon's Remember the River (NAIM, 2004), an intimate chamber jazz affair featuring Rodby and McCandless. With that trio still intact, Simon now aims for more propulsive territory by introducing Walker to the mix.
With the more ambitious Since Forever, Simon's lost none of his capacity for detail, or for shaping melodies that linger, long after the performances are over. His attractive and accessible writing hints at quintessentially American composers like Aaron Copland and Charles Ives, especially on "Simple Psalm," where Walker's turbulent drumming and Rodby's unshakable pulse create a surprising context for Simon and McCandless' rubato duet; clearly, some of Since Forever's most innovative and evolutionary moments. There are also unmistakable markers that place him along the same general continuum as PMG and Oregon. The dark, arpeggio-driven "Even in the Evening" orbits around Ralph Towner's distinctive vernacular while, despite a completely different instrumental focus, it's easy to imagine the Midwestern vibe of "I Know You Know" as part of the PMG repertoire.
McCandless, armed with a bevy of instruments ranging from soprano saxophone and oboe to bass clarinet and duduk, remains one of the contemporary music's most impeccable multi-instrumentalists—a true master of all who never loses sight of the music, creating improvised motifs as inevitable extensions of the writer's preconceived themes. Simon is something of a reluctant soloist; self-admittedly, considering himself a composer first and foremost, although his consistently fine playing—his best to date, in fact—is in no way overshadowed by his better-known band mates. He may not be as overtly virtuosic, but on pieces like "Same Difference," a profoundly resonant duet with McCandless, he's equally evocative, and just as inspired.
Despite rarely soloing, Rodby's voice is essential to the sound of PMG. Here he's afforded more space; like Simon, however, he trades overt technicality for the perfect note, the ideal phrase on tunes like the quietly bold "Way of Seeing." Walker demonstrates both strength and understatement, creating a roiling underpinning to the bright and deceptively climactic "What's the Magic Word?," whose dramatic peak is only exceeded, two songs later, by the episodic closer, "Beginning/Middle/End," where Simon sums up many of his concerns, from the painfully beautiful opening and up-tempo, backbeat-driven middle section, to its slowly building, march-like ending.
If Remember the River was an album of grace, charm, and dignity, then Since Foreverrecaptures those same qualities but ups the ante with a stronger rhythmic force and more advanced group interaction. A beautiful, True Stereo recording, it's sure to be a sleeper hit of 2009—an album of impassioned sensitivity, more expansive dynamics, and even clearer narrative arc.
Green Day. Insomniac. On CD from 1995. in the mood for some fast-paced punk-pop-rock. Crank it up as far as you dare late at night and Katie bar the door.
Tony2011 posted:
1971 - Vinyl - UK first pressing... Gotta give it to Rodders. That's a great album!
Absolutely! A masterful fusion of rock, folk and blues. Sadly, seems to be one of those forgotten gems in the annals of great rock albums.
The Doors
L.A. Woman
Released 1970
Vinyl
On CD:-
Sara Watkins - Young in All The Wrong Ways
Good old Glen Moore. A shame he left Oregon, but here you go. Grand Duo recording with David Friesen: Bactrian
Started this morning with a not so well known composer...
Now some easy accessible jazz...
Jeremy Denk - Bach partitas 3, 4 and 6
John O'Conor - Field: Piano concertos 2 & 3
(2016)
A collection of Yardbirds' BBC sessions from around '65 to '68 that includes a few short interview clips from the time.
Sonny Boy Williamson & The Yardbirds - Live at the Crawdaddy Club, Richmond, 1963.
Someone mention The Yardbirds?
Great live album, with Eric in attendance, rather than Jeff Beck, as shown on the cover
dave marshall posted:
Sonny Boy Williamson & The Yardbirds - Live at the Crawdaddy Club, Richmond, 1963.
Someone mention The Yardbirds?
Great live album, with Eric in attendance, rather than Jeff Beck, as shown on the cover
The Crawdaddy Club where they started and were in residence every Sunday for about 10 months and the club where the Stones started rolling. 