[Steve999]

So...Sing Sang Sung - Big Phat Band popped up on shuffle; always enjoy listening to a big band arrangement that 'kicks it!'

Glad there are some people still performing this stuff. Used to listen to Goodman/Ellington/James/Basie/Miller/Rich/etc all the time on my Dad's system when I was growing up.

Started digging a little on some of their other tunes and came across 'On Green Dolphin Street'...interesting! I have several versions of this song -- all done by smaller jazz groups (trios, quartets). Definitely a change of pace for this song...at least for me.

Love that Big Phat jazz band! I'll definitely be digging a little deeper into them as well. And the Lyle Lovett! So how did I get from there to here. . . I remembered a Milt Jackson album called Night Mist that I thought was a big band, but in fact it was a sextet, and I remembered the song Night Mist Blues, and I've always had a soft spot for vibes, and there is a Lionel Hampton big band video up there, and another one of my favorite vibe players is Milt Jackson, so I did a google search, and here is Milt Jackson, live, in a quartet, on video, playing Night Mist Blues. I got to see him in real life exactly once. While the rest of the band is playing it cool, when I watch Milt Jackson's head and face and body language when he plays the vibes, it's like every last note he plays is a single very important thing. There's a really great piano solo in here too.

 

[GearMe]

Nice tune...like the vibes as well; not a lot of it out there.

Think that's Ray Brown on the bass...he's always playin' it cool

 

[Steve999]

Always loved Holst's The Planets. Great 20th Century classical music. A movie soundtrack that pre-dated movies!

Okay, so it didn't pre-date movies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_film

But I hope you get the point. It's way cool!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Planets

As you may well know, it kicks off with this, Mars: Bringer of War.

And no! It's not Star Wars!

 

[Glmoneydawg]

Always loved Holst's The Planets. Great 20th Century classical music. A movie soundtrack that pre-dated movies!

Okay, so it didn't pre-date movies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_film

But I hope you get the point. It's way cool!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Planets

As you may well know, it kicks off with this, Mars: Bringer of War.

And no! It's not Star Wars!

if you like rock and are curious about classical, this is a great piece of music to start with.

 

[taffy2207]

Not a song but all of George Lynchs' Solos from Lynch Mobs 'Wicked Sensation' Album. The thing I like best is Max Normans 'Nailed it!' face while George is letting rip (1:00+). George was mind blowingly good here and still is despite being 64 now. The vid isn't the best quality but it doesn't matter much, it's a reflection of a Guitarist in his prime. Even if you're not a Rock / Metal fan you should be able to appreciate the Artistry on show here :-



3 years ago, aged 61 :-

 

[GearMe]

...I've always had a soft spot for vibes, and there is a Lionel Hampton big band video up there, and another one of my favorite vibe players is Milt Jackson, so I did a google search, and here is Milt Jackson, live, in a quartet, on video, playing Night Mist Blues. I got to see him in real life exactly once. While the rest of the band is playing it cool, when I watch Milt Jackson's head and face and body language when he plays the vibes, it's like every last note he plays is a single very important thing...

Speaking of vibes, this one hasn't popped up on shuffle in a while; one of my favorite jazz tunes and a nice rendition by Milt and Oscar

 

[Steve999]

Love the Milt Jackson-Oscar Peterson version of On Green Dolphin street! I'll have to check out the whole LP. I don't know if I've ever heard Oscar Peterson play in such a restrained manner (for him) before! To me it's a great tune musically (the words not so much), one of my favorites.

I'm going to see Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1 and Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony this afternoon! I'm pretty psyched. I'm listening to the pieces before I go to the concert, as I nearly always do for classical.

The program is meant to feed off of the 1962 performance of these two pieces by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein with Glenn Gould on piano. The performing venue for the concert I am going to see this afternoon writes of the 1962 concert:

When he walked on stage on April 6,1962 to conduct what became one of the most controversial concerts in the history of the New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein took the unusual step of making a disclaimer from the podium and calling attention to the unorthodox interpretation of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 by the soloist for the evening, Glenn Gould. It was a moment that highlighted the conflict between two oversized artistic personalities, two highly individual interpreters who faced each other in a battle of musical titans. Bernstein pointed out that, “I have only once before in my life had to submit to a soloist's wholly new and incompatible concept and that was the last time I accompanied Mr. Gould.” The concert was a landmark in the history of the New York Philharmonic, of Glenn Gould’s career, and of Bernstein’s conducting. One month before Tchaikovsky began working on his Symphony No. 5, he outlined in his notebook a psychological scenario for its first movement: "[It is]... a complete resignation before fate, which is the same as the inscrutable predestination of fate ...." The Symphony No. 5 is a work of great emotional pathos, anguish, and introspection.” Brahms and Tchaikovsky, two of Bernstein’s favorite composers, share the stage in works of enormous emotional breadth and monumental musical scale.

Here's a recent version of Brahms' Piano Concerto No.1. The beginning is pretty spellbinding (they start playing about 40 seconds in, for those of you who are impatient). This particular performance is mesmerizing. If you are going to listen to the whole thing, be forewarned the first movement is 20-plus minutes and the whole piece is about 50-plus minutes. You might want to think about digging into it piecemeal the first time.

 

[Kammerat Rebekka]

Been following the audiomyths thread from the comfort of my mail lately...don't know why I didn't unsubscribe as I am a little tired of the discussion tbh. But I saw Steve's cry for music and thought I'd swing by and recommend some stuf I've been listening to lately.

Firstly, Anna von Hausswolff! This lady is like a female vampire on a variety of organs and keys - also the mighty church organ..yet the music it conjures up, together with her witchy vocals, is that of soaring almost menacing beauty, I find:


Calibro 35. Hands down one of the only contemporary funk bands that can hang with the classic greats. These Italians have zing and feel to them that just resonates with the prancing black panther inside me. Get down honey!:


Needlepoint. This Norwegian bands is perhaps not the most original sounding act out there, but I guess I just have a thing for the early Softs/Caravan vibe they channel in their music. Sound like a lost Canterbury gem from ca 1972:


Speaking of Norway, Major Parkinson made one of the most interesting albums the year before last with their wildly eclectic and imaginative Blackbox. Imagine a Gothic inspired 80s art rock dive straight back into The Wizard Of Oz soundtrack with everything from blistering rock bits to towering symphonic gestures - all delivered in crisp production and with the wholly unique Norwegian sailor like vocals of doom:

 

[bigshot]

That funk one is interesting, but I miss real strings. Old school funk always had pickup string sections that were recorded wet like an oil slick. Synths don't sound the same.

 

[Steve999]

A lot of the funk bands didn't use strings. But the oil slick string section effect was definitely a thing here and there.



Other old school funk bands never used strings, and having a really out of sight synth player was cool, and if you used strings it would definitely cause them to question your interplanetary funksmanship.

 

[Steve999]

It's a rare day when I buy a CD but I just did. This is something I only ever had on cassette. It's Kevin Eubanks before he was "Kevin Eubanks" leading the Jay Leno tonight show band.

As you can hear, he was scary talented even on his debut recording release in 1982. I bought the CD because I can't find it on Spotify or Apple Music or any of the streaming services for that matter. It just shipped from Amazon today and I'm excited about it. Looks like it's coming from Japan or England or something like that. It seems to be sold through foreign overstock outlets if I am guessing correctly. I can't believe this isn't in the streaming service catalogs.

Now I just need to decide what esoteric format or formats to rip it in when it arrives. It's overwhelming! And this is one way in which I feel a service like Apple Music or Youtube Music (assuming they provide a similar service to what Google Music was) has a lot of added value. . . you upload your stuff that they don't have and they keep it in the cloud for you to listen to or download elsewhere. With Apple Music, Itunes does it automatically for you. . . pretty sweet.

Anyway, hang on to your seats, scary talent below!!

 

[StandsOnFeet]

Here he is again--with another virtuoso:

 

[what?]

I have been experimenting with needle drops for a while, they are all i listen to these days...

link to a 'we transfer' file so you can have a listen, if you want ?

https://we.tl/t-1dsTxnpxZN

 

[Steve999]

I haven't posted enough country songs. Did I mention I like country music? I do apologize. There's nothing like a great voice and great singing in any genre. This should cheer everyone up.

 

[bigshot]

Here's an Holy Grail box set for classical music buffs... Furtwangler/BPO: Radio Recordings 1939-1945, I'd heard stories about high quality magnetic tapes of wartime era concerts by the Berlin Philharmonic under Furtwangler. But the tapes had been spirited off to Russia after WW2, and were locked up in an archive behind the Iron Curtain. Well, finally those tapes have made their way back to Germany and the BPO is releasing them on a 22 SACD set. I know that there's nothing here that really merits an SACD release, but they seem to have spared no expense in restoring these tapes and the result sounds fantastic. I just ordered a copy from the BPO directly. The price was pretty reasonable considering it's a 22 disc set. $230 shipped.

Here is the youtube trailer...


...and an article about how they captured and restored the recordings.
https://www.live-production.tv/news...istorical-berlin-philharmonic-recordings.html

...and the order page.
https://www.berliner-philharmoniker...ngs.html?___store=rec_en&___from_store=rec_de

Furtwangler is one of the greatest conductors who ever lived. He focused on a sophisticated tonal blend that made the orchestra sound like one massive instrument. Karajan followed that lead with the BPO in his tenure, but he never quite achieved the amazing sounds Furtie did. The other great thing about Furtwangler was his spontaneity. He would hear something in a performance that he liked and go with it, delving into aspects of familiar works that have never been revealed before. The one drawback is that Furtie never recorded in stereo, and many of his live performances were recorded under less than ideal quality. The opportunity to hear him conduct both live and in great sound quality is a dream come true.