[Andolink]

Alessandro Stradella: Motets-- Benedictus Dominus Deus; Crocifissione e morte di N.S. Giesu Christo
Gerard Lesne, countertenor
Sandrine Piau, soprano
Il Seminario Musicale/Gerard Lesne
 

 
J. S. Bach: Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord-- No. 6 in G major, BWV 1019; No. 5 in F minor, BWV 1018; No. 4 in C minor, BWV 1017; No. 3 in E major, BWV 1016
Monica Huggett, baroque violin
Ton Koopman, harpsichord
 

 
Max Reger: Violin Sonata in E minor, Op. 122
Hansheinz Schneeberger, violin
Jean-Jacques Dünki, piano
 

 

[Sorrodje]

 

[randerson07]

 

[Oregonian]

As much as we strive to find the best listening setup, this thread proves to me we also strive to find the best music.

This is not the best recording I've ever heard, but it's definitely some of the best music I've ever heard.

All of the songs are great, but I particularly enjoy Deacon Blues.

My back to the wall

A victim of laughing chance

This is for me

The essence of true romance

Sharing the things we know and love

With those of my kind

Libations

Sensations

That stagger the mind

I crawl like a viper

Through these suburban streets

Make love to these women

Languid and bittersweet

I'll rise when the sun goes down

Cover every game in town

A world of my own

I'll make it my home sweet home

I'll learn to work the saxophone

I'll play just what I feel

Drink Scotch whiskey all night long

And die behind the wheel

They got a name for the winners in the world

I want a name when I lose

They call Alabama the Crimson Tide

Call me Deacon Blues

May be my favorite album ever. Aja title track, with Steve Gadd playing the drums, is amazing, and when you exercise the woofers on the various drum solos , sound incredible. That song, on vinyl, was the first I played on my Spec system when everything was hooked up. An experience I won't ever forget. The album played I bought new back in the mid-70's so not only nostalgia crept in but the power of an immense power amp pushing Klipsch 3.2's at the time made a smile plastered on my face. Thanks for triggering the memories.

 

[Byronb]

 

 

 

[Silent One]

 
 
As much as we strive to find the best listening setup, this thread proves to me we also strive to find the best music.
 
This is not the best recording I've ever heard, but it's definitely some of the best music I've ever heard.
 
All of the songs are great, but I particularly enjoy Deacon Blues.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

 
My back to the wall
A victim of laughing chance
This is for me
The essence of true romance
Sharing the things we know and love
With those of my kind
Libations
Sensations
That stagger the mind
 
I crawl like a viper
Through these suburban streets
Make love to these women
Languid and bittersweet
I'll rise when the sun goes down
Cover every game in town
A world of my own
I'll make it my home sweet home
 
I'll learn to work the saxophone
I'll play just what I feel
Drink Scotch whiskey all night long
And die behind the wheel
They got a name for the winners in the world
I want a name when I lose
They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
Call me Deacon Blues

 

I love this LP! An easy thing to do considering some of the cats I enjoy listening to were brought in as studio musicians.

 

[Kheadfi]

Here I am watching the sunset, after a beautiful spring day, sipping a Carlsberg listening to this beautiful album. Life is good!
Quote:

 "Sometimes you find what you are not looking for and that is especially true for the music on this album. The music on After Silence crossed my path, by meeting people or visiting places, events taking place or just materializing in my mind, but the one unifying factor for all 11 compositions is that they appeared after a moment of silence. 
Silence is the most important part of my music making. 
Silence is there, foregoing every first note I play. 
Silence being the place for inspiration. 
Silence which lets me start each piece of music as a child hearing it for the first time. 
Silence keeping me from automatically following the beaten path."...... Andre Heuvelman

 This is really the worlds most beautiful sounding trumpet player, and the sound of the album must be the available today.
 
sound clips ;
http://www.soundliaison.com/products-from-our-studio-masters/71-andre-heuvelman
 
Highly recommended.

 

[DLeeWebb]

 
"Benji" - Sun Kil Moon

 

[forkboy1965]

Been focused on How to Destroy Angels, which I just picked up on CD last week.  

 

[Bearhands]

Of Monsters and Men - King And Lionheart

 

 

[TJ Elite]

  Good stuff...I've been exploring Coltrane.
 
Agreed-he was so prolific you could spend years digesting his catalog.
 
…
 
I'm a little sketchy on full on free jazz-I tried streaming Ascension and just couldn't get through it.
 
… The dude was so far ahead of his time.
 
My top rave right now is the Complete Vanguard recordings-a good middle ground..experimental, but not too far out. Considered by many to be one of the most significant jazz concerts in the Vanguard series along with the likes of Bill Evan and Sonny Rollins. It's 4 CDs recorded from a series of concerts from 1961 before he recorded A Love Supreme. It's really good! Pretty experimental. At the time considered radical. The liner notes explain that some reviewers at the time called it "anti-jazz" and yet it was just a stepping stone. An artist pushing his boundaries. I picked this box set from Amazon at very good price.
 
Just scratching the surface.....

Ascension is one of my favorite albums of all time and also one of the most highly regarded jazz albums in history. That being said, I can count the people whom I know that can say they enjoy that album with the fingers in my one hand. I enjoyed it from first listen but it took me years to learn to appreciate it on a more than superficial level. In comparison to later free jazz albums, I actually find it surprisingly conservative and still clearly quite firmly rooted in the traditions of bop and other jazz that came before. Compared to most other free jazz records I've heard Ascensions actually has an amount of structure to it the listener might not initially expect or be aware of. It certainly is a watershed record if there ever was one.

 

What I admire most about Coltrane is that he was always looking ahead and never stopped to stand still even for a second. Listening to his records in chronological order is a fascinating journey. Right up to his death he was pushing music further than it had ever been taken before and had he lived any longer I feel his music would have reached a level beyond the comprehension of mere mortals. His last recorded live concert and studio session are both already nearly on their own plane of existence. My life would be very different if they didn't exist.

 

I got that The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings box set as a Christmas present for myself. I had to order it from Amazon.com because I was having difficulties finding it in Europe. It is indeed a steal for the modest price and the stellar music. I would only recommend the box to people who have already digested Coltrane's most other important recordings from around this period (Giant Steps, My Favorite Things, Olé Coltrane, Coltrane's Sound, Africa/Brass, Coltrane, Crescent, A Love Supreme). Some of the music might take a bit more effort to wrap one's head around than Trane's studio dates from this era. At least I found that to be the case. Also the amount of music to absorb is quite a lot. This live album is worth owning just for the appearance of Eric Dolphy alone.
 

  As for the timing, im not saying that im a walking baseline strictly 4/4 or 5/4 kinda guy and i don't mind when drummers or base players take sharp right or left turns but i do like the songs to have an over all shape that I can identify. For instance i find Miles Davis - bitches brew a bit shapeless at times. I never really liked that album - I just cant get into it. For me all the feeling and groove is gone. It sounds empty to me even though its anything but. Then on the flip side i really like Ornette colemans "the shape of jazz to come" and "free jazz". I don't even think i can say what the differences between these 3 albums are but i do know that i definitely don't like "bitches brew" and i do like "the shape of jazz to come" - the drumming on that track is incredible especially his cymbal work, those hats!
 
 
 here is a track from the Claudia quintet `¬ you might like it and you might not. their style isn't easily defined and i think they pull sounds from all over the epoch of jazz
 

 
also its not all like this, each album is a lot different from the one before - i just cant find anymore tracks on youtube. Out of the several albums that they have i really like 3 and not so much the rest, for now at least. 

Your comment regarding Bitches Brew vs. Ornette Coleman is quite interesting. I know far more people who enjoy Bitches Brew than those who can tolerate Coleman's music. I would imagine that a lot more people find Coleman's music a lot more dissonant than Bitches Brew even if that record is by no means an easy nut to crack for the uninitiated listener. Even though both Free Jazz and BB feature two drummers, I would assume most people to find Free Jazz a lot more "restless" than BB even though that record features a larger number of musicians. Musically I wouldn't even really try to compare the two because I feel they are worlds apart in many ways.

 

The bass is typically the instrument I pay the least attention to, but on The Shape of Jazz to Come and Free Jazz I really love Charlie Haden's playing (Scott LaFaro is also of course excellent on Free Jazz). On The Shape of Jazz to Come the drums are left last for me after the brass and bass respectively. Don't remember what I think of the drumming on TSoJtC, because if I want to listen to an avant-garde jazz record from around that era I typically always reach for Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch! which is one of the absolute greatest records of all time in my book. The first time I heard it was just… It was certainly one of the most memorable musical experiences in my life. Even listening to it now leaves me in total awe.

 

I'm not going to judge The Claudia Quintet one way or the other based on just one track, but at least this particular track left me feeling quite conflicted. Even though the track is clearly quite progressive, it actually manages to somehow remind me quite a bit the works of some modern classical composers whose work is often labeled as minimalism whether they condone the term themselves or not. Except unlike the music of many of those composers this music did not appeal to me. I feel like I've gotten a glimpse into how minimalist music sounds to those who absolutely loathe it and constantly bash it whenever they get the slightest of chances, preferring classical works that were composed before the beginning of the 20th century. The people in this quintet are probably all fine musicians but at least on this tune the music sound really mechanical and calculated – to the extreme. I don't know what it is about the music but it feel really… restless. Listening to it makes me feel really uneasy. Structurally the song sounds too much like a composition to me rather than a jazz performance. There is improvisation but overall the song sounds very constricted and planned out to a fault. Having listened to quite a bit of avant-garde free improvisation in addition to jazz over the past several months, my mind really craves that in-the-moment component that to me feels to be missing from this performance to a large degree. These just my initial thoughts.
 

 

Spoiler: Artwork

 
Miyuki is such a magnificent artist and this album is another exemplification of her incredible artistry.

Miyuki most definitely deserves a lot more exposure and recognition. The quality of her work is of the highest degree. She actually sent me an email recently and wanted to thank me for being a loyal fan of her music for over a year. She was very excited about that. As someone who really admires her work and would place her among my favorite musicians, it was certainly very nice to hear she found my support to be meaningful to her.

 

---

 

I'm listening through the few releases I got on Beatport yesterday. I'm really behind when it comes to new electronic music releases and I constantly have trouble keeping up. I'm starting with this one:

 

Blister 13.0 - Con Leire
 
 

 

[halfinfinity]

 

[eostoich]

 
 
Jagwar Ma - Howlin
 
^ I'd have to say it's one of the better albums of 2013.

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

I gotta say, this thread + Spotify premium = KID IN CANDYSTORE!
 

 
 
 
Jagwar Ma - Howlin
 
^ I'd have to say it's one of the better albums of 2013.

 

[xkonfuzed]

 
TECH N9NE + Q40'S =
 
EARGASM