What's Spinnin' ..

[JohnnyB]

Continuing my mono marathon, I pulled out this, the most amazingly meticulous LP reissue I've probably ever heard--Nat King Cole with his trio and just a few legendary jazz cats (e.g., Sweets Edison, Stuff Smith, Juan Tizol) to flesh out a small, very jazz ensemble. No treacly violins yet. This was mastered at 45 rpm and pressed the best way possible.

Finally hearing it in native mono playback with a really good mono cartridge, this is probably the best sound I have ever gotten from my LP rig. The performance is perfect, Nat is in the room, and the recording is stunning. Nat's voice, the piano, electric guitar, bongos (Tizol), and drum kit have that "spook factor," as though they're all in the room.

I finished up last night by digging out an original 1965 mono pressing of Janos Starker's legendary rendition of the Bach Cello Suites on Mercury Living Presence. My sister sent me her original copy when I got into vinyl again. When I first played it years ago, it was a bit noisy and betrayed some inner groove distortion. Played with a mono cartridge with conical stylus, however, the dirt noise and groove distortion largely disappeared, leaving a first generation performance of a cello master in my living room.

This recording is such a classic that whenever Starker changed labels they wanted him to do the Suites on their label as well. He ended up doing them something ilke 7 times on as many labels. 50 years later, however, the original Mercury Living Presence version, like the Dude, abides. It is still in print, in multiple formats: CD, 3 LP set, and mp3, 24/192Khz hi-def, and ultra high-rez DSD downloads.

Edited October 29, 2015 by JohnnyB

[Steve Haynie]

Today is Halloween, so I am listening to Helloween's latest album, My God Given Right.

[mudshark]

[mudshark]

[Disturber]

New NEW ORDER album. Going to see them live on Sunday. They only do a handful of shows in Europe on this tour.

[JohnnyB]

Still giving my monophonic cartridge a workout. I continue to find original '50s and '60s pressings I picked up at thrift shops or from eBay.

Yesterday I spun Encore of Platters Golden Hits. This is a collection of big hits originally recorded from 1955 to 1959--56 to 60 years ago. Do you remember the scene in "American Graffiti" where Ronnie Howard and Cindy Williamson are slow dancing to "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" at the school dance? That was the Platters. It's on this record along with "The Great Pretender," "Only You," "Twilight Time," "I'm Sorry," etc.

Right now I'm spinning this original pressing from sessions recorded in 1954-55:

Mine's an unjacketed, unused double-disk DJ copy I got off eBay. An all-star ensemble including Oscar Peterson, Ben Webster, Sweets Edison, Thad Jones, Freddie Green, Barney Kessel, Ray Brown, and several more. Full credits listed here.

. . . . . . . .

Now I've moved on to this. Nat King Cole and Buddy Rich. Who knew Buddy and Nat ever collaborated? Having Lester Young on tenor doesn't hurt either.

Edited November 25, 2015 by JohnnyB

[elduave]

Metaphorically:

Jeff Lynne's ELO

New Foo

Hollywood Vampires

Literally:

Black N Blue Without Love

Cheap Trick Lap Of Luxury

[Jack C]

Been listening to a bunch of Lagwagon and Bad Astronaut. Joey Cape is amazing.

[RobB]

Literally:

Black N Blue Without Love

Ha, B&B! I liked this band back in the day. They were tight, more "Tesla" than "Crue" for their genre. Plus, Tommy Thayer.

Another one of Gene Simmons' pet projects, Keel, reached greater success than B&B. Shame, B&B were better!

Edited November 25, 2015 by RobB

[belgian]

What an album !

A-typical Neil Young.

This Note's For You was always a favorite. But this one blows my mind.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0144TVVGO?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00

Edited November 25, 2015 by belgian

[elduave]

Literally:

Black N Blue Without Love

Ha, B&B! I liked this band back in the day. They were tight, more "Tesla" than "Crue" for their genre. Plus, Tommy Thayer.

Another one of Gene Simmons' pet projects, Keel, reached greater success than B&B. Shame, B&B were better!

I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed spinning WL front to back. Holds up for me.

[zorrow]

Just "old stuff" here. These days I'm back to my roots, listening to the bands I used to love when I was younger:

King Diamond, Annihilator, Queensryche, Crimson Glory, Yngwie Malmsteen, Helloween and Fates Warning.

I've realized we tend to enjoy much more what influenced us during our formative years. We do evolve later, develop new tastes and so on, but our core remains the same --well, at least for me.

[JohnnyB]

I've realized we tend to enjoy much more what influenced us during our formative years. We do evolve later, develop new tastes and so on, but our core remains the same --well, at least for me.

It's not just you. It's probably a universal condition. I read a book called This is Your Brain on Music, which describes how the things we learn from around age 5 to early 20s, especially 10-20, forms our basic schema, or frame of reference for our lives, and not just in music. It explains why things taught in those years become our "go-to" collection of knowledge, opinions, and preferences. And--related to the book's title--explains why the music we listen to from age 8 to 20 forms the backbone to what we prefer the rest of our lives.

I turned 10 in November 1963, just a few weeks before The Beatles hit the US airwaves. I grew up on the Beatles, Beach Boys, Doo-Wop, Ray Charles, Santana and the Woodstock performers (I was going on 16 then), etc. When I was 11 my sister sent me a Gene Krupa Big Band album. Soon after another sister gave me a Dave Brubeck album. The family at home played classical music records and we went to the symphony on occasion, plus I studied piano under a classical piano professor. So I have a broad schema including heavy concentrations in classical and jazz in addition to the pop music hitting the airwaves at the time.

Once you get your head wrapped around the formation of a musical schema, it's easier to see why people around my age love The Beatles, Hendrix, Cream, Stevie Winwood, the Stones, etc. while others are into KISS, or Malmsteen, Journey, Rush, Death Metal, or whatever. It's what you heard and internalized in that vital 10-20 yr-old schema-building core.

Edited November 26, 2015 by JohnnyB

[Michael_B]

The site upgrade allows us to embed Spotify and SoundCloud (probably along with others).  Fantastic development, IMO.  Here's what I'm spinnin' streamin', right now:

[gorch]

Black Star - David Bowie

[Steve Haynie]

The last album I bought was Rev by Reverend Horton Heat when they played around here with Unknown Hinson and Nashville Pussy.

 

 

 

[JohnnyB]

I was playing a couple of Hank Jones jazz combo albums today. Hank is one of the three Jones brothers, each of whom had a major impact on jazz: Hank on piano, Thad on trumpet, and Elvin on drums.

I started with "Hanky Panky, with Ron Carter on Bass and Grady Tate on drums. Can't get much better than this.

But then I put on "Just for Fun". I'm thinking, who's that guitarist? He's really hot. Umm, Howard Roberts. And that bassist has serious chops and a great sense of melody. Of course he does! It's Ray Brown. And that drummer really drives these tunes... Like very few would, it's Shelly Fuckin' Manne! These black platters made for a great afternoon.

[Ting Ho Dung]

On 11/26/2015 at 1:46 AM, JohnnyB said:

It's not just you. It's probably a universal condition. I read a book called This is Your Brain on Music, which describes how the things we learn from around age 5 to early 20s, especially 10-20, forms our basic schema, or frame of reference for our lives, and not just in music. It explains why things taught in those years become our "go-to" collection of knowledge, opinions, and preferences. And--related to the book's title--explains why the music we listen to from age 8 to 20 forms the backbone to what we prefer the rest of our lives.

I turned 10 in November 1963, just a few weeks before The Beatles hit the US airwaves. I grew up on the Beatles, Beach Boys, Doo-Wop, Ray Charles, Santana and the Woodstock performers (I was going on 16 then), etc. When I was 11 my sister sent me a Gene Krupa Big Band album. Soon after another sister gave me a Dave Brubeck album. The family at home played classical music records and we went to the symphony on occasion, plus I studied piano under a classical piano professor. So I have a broad schema including heavy concentrations in classical and jazz in addition to the pop music hitting the airwaves at the time.

Once you get your head wrapped around the formation of a musical schema, it's easier to see why people around my age love The Beatles, Hendrix, Cream, Stevie Winwood, the Stones, etc. while others are into KISS, or Malmsteen, Journey, Rush, Death Metal, or whatever. It's what you heard and internalized in that vital 10-20 yr-old schema-building core.

I wonder if that's my kids pediatrician?

I haven't been able to get enough of this.
 

 

Also been diggin' this again since the concert. 

 

[gorch]

Wolf Hoffmann - Classical ths morning 

Great to hear it again. The bolero can't be topped.

[DaveH]

 

 

[Brooks]

Been sifting thru Sco's earliest releases, downloaded this gem;
 

 

[Steve Haynie]

Today it was all In This Moment music. 

 

 

[specialk]

B.B. King, The Ultimate Collection

A very good 1 CD collection of BB's recordings, from 1951 to 2000. You can hear how his playing and singing styles, and some of the songs themselves have evolved over the years.

 

[gorch]

Steve Vai - Visual Thound Theories for a couple of days.

Vai and orchestra is a fantastic mix. The concerts are a total blast. What an energy!

[SteveB]

sorry.