Non-Classical Music Listening Thread!

[KevinP]

I agree that TB&TAT is "good stuff" (I would actually call it a classic recording that has rarely been surpassed).  But disagree about the solo: I consider it exemplifying restraint, beautifully realized and carefully developed but offering a burning intensity just below the surface.

If it means anything to you, no one's ever agreed with me on that point. :-)

[KevinP]

It's actually been several years since I've listened to it. I should probably rectify that before I say anything else.

[Bogey]

[karlhenning]

Daryl Hall, Sacred Songs

Produced by Robert Fripp. Need I say more?

[SonicMan46]

Doc Watson - Vanguard Years; 4 CD set spanning 1963-68 - own a lot of Doc's music but just had 1 compilation disc of these years; Doc still lives in Deep Gap, North Carolina near Boone, just over an hour west of our home town, Winston-Salem - we've seen him live a number of times, once w/ his son, Merle, who sadly was killed in a tractor accident in 1985!   

[SonicMan46]

Coleman Hawkins - At Ease - recorded in 1960 w/ Flanagan on the piano - NOW, I have a LOT of Hawkins but did not own this recording; I've been 'streaming' recently off a new Roku device from Pandora to my den speakers and heard a selection and ordered - this is a wonderfully relaxing jazz effort - drums are subdued and Hawkins is out in front - a recommendation! 

[George]

[Mirror Image]

Coleman Hawkins - At Ease - recorded in 1960 w/ Flanagan on the piano - NOW, I have a LOT of Hawkins but did not own this recording; I've been 'streaming' recently off a new Roku device from Pandora to my den speakers and heard a selection and ordered - this is a wonderfully relaxing jazz effort - drums are subdued and Hawkins is out in front - a recommendation! 

One of Hawkins' finest recordings I think along with The Hawk Relaxes and Today and Now.

[Henk]

Modern Jazz, really good stuff.

[karlhenning]

Genesis, Genesis, Invisible Touch, [We] Can't Dance

First time I've actually listened to the first and third of these, really.

Good morning, GMG!

[The Diner]

You poor, poor man. 

[George]

Genesis, Genesis, Invisible Touch, I Can't Dance

First time I've actually listened to the first and third of these, really.

Good morning, GMG!

Do tell us your impression of them, esp. S/T.

[KevinP]

Loved the Ellington. Searched it for years and couldn't find it until the CD version came out.

[karlhenning]

Do tell us your impression of them, esp. S/T.

I was just telling erato, George, how I had fetched in the two other boxes much earlier.  And at the time, I was fairly sure I shouldn't trouble with the 1983-1998 box.

I was actually following the band in 'real time' when they issued the Duke and Abacab LPs (and attended a concert of each of those tours). I was crazy about Duke, and really liked a couple of tracks on Abacab (no really good reason why I didn't get to know the full album back at that time, unless it's that I was at Wooster, and I took my studies fairly seriously . . . so that my pop listening was mostly a matter of cherry-picking the tried-&-true, and it was a time when I hardly absorbed any new pop albums).

Checking the calendar, the album Genesis must have come out while I was Wooster . . . and my junior and senior years were if anything a little more concentrated (I was a double-major in composition and clarinet performance).  Anyway, the singles that got radio play from the album didn't 'click' with me (though heaven knows why I should have no trouble with, say, "Every Step You Take" by the Police, and yet somehow hold "That's All" against Genesis). I think that I was even negatively affected by the cover of the new album . . . that was a kid's toy back at home, and I took it the homey minimalism of the cover for a disappointment . . . pretty silly, really; I mean, why not, right?

At some point (while I was at UVa? Probably) I did pick up Invisible Touch on CD.  As while at Wooster, my studies meant that I really did not pay attention to it as a full album. I did like all the singles (the first half of the disc is all hits, isn't it? And "Throwing It All Away" is the next to last track), but I was already half-dismissive of 'this "block-buster" Genesis,' so I was not being fair to the band or their work in my thinking.

That's pretty much where my head was with post-Duke Genesis for a long time.  The change began (I think) with my watching the When in Rome DVD.  Of course the newer material (notably "Home by the Sea" and "Domino" — to which apparently I never listened when I first owned the Invisible Touch disc) I was a complete stranger to.  But it was an obvious case where, unless I was prepared to be a blockhead and think that the early stuff was good, and the later stuff bad, just because of a watershed date — it was just plain a good show, and they're obiously a fine band, and really impressive songwriters — if anything, even more impressive because they evolved with such assurance.

Well, somewhere in the middle of that was your own advocacy for the 1983 album.  I thought I really should listen to it. (Oh! Another video reinforcement was the Genesis Songbook DVD, which spans their entire career . . . again, underscoring the point of their astonishing versatility as both a performing band, and a songwriting collective.)  So with an eye to longer-term economizing, I was rather thinking I should probably want the box.

Which brings us to the present.  I owe it to Abacab to go back and listen to it closely (and in its entirety) again, but offhand, I think Genesis is a yet better album; so I owe you thanks for patiently bespeaking its virtues!  And I couldn't help thinking, while listening to We Can't Dance last night and this morning, that in all fairness, this sounded like the album they wish they could have made of ...And Then There Were Three...

With all the twists and turns of fortune through the course of the band's career, I hardly thought I should ever find myself owning their entire studio output, let alone pleased with it.  But, in fact, I am pleased, because I am musically impressed.

[George]

I think that I was even negatively affected by the cover of the new album . . . that was a kid's toy back at home, and I took it the homey minimalism of the cover for a disappointment . . . pretty silly, really; I mean, why not, right?

I loved the silliness of the cover (like you, I had that game as a kid as well) and the symbolism of it. The game being an attempt to put back all the pieces before the foundation pops up surprisingly and tosses all the elements into disarray. The songs on this one are all over the place, yet they work brilliantly as a whole. I love how it begins so dark (Mama), yet ends with such hope (It's Gonna Get Better.) In between we get the silly side and the long instrumental side. Some songs quite literal in their lyrics, others I still scratch my head about (Home By the Sea.) I still find it to be their best, most solid album and I am glad you like it.

As for Invisible Touch, I am not a fan, though I love Land of Confusion. We Can't Dance has some great songs, but like Invisible Touch, isn't really to my liking overall.

Abacab is great, though I have yet to "get" it as an album. Many of the individual songs, like Abacab, No Reply at All, Man on the Corner and Like it or Not were easy for me to enjoy immediately and still are a pleasure to hear now. Like Duke, I love the majority of the songs, but feel that there's spots/songs were I just don't connect and therefore can't rate the albums as a whole a solid 5 stars.

[karlhenning]

Very interesting, George. Glad to hear your take on it all!

[Leon]

The Complete Miles Davis At Montreux: 1973-1991

Produced with loving care by Claude Nobs, founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival, with no edits or overdubs, this document of Miles Davis's Montreux performances shows through never-before-released material how Miles and company transformed his music live, with their fire, invention, and interplay.

I'm going through these discs in haphazard fashion, but they are uniformly very good.

Right now, Theme From Jack Johnson; One Phone Call/Street Scenes; That's What Happened from Disc 7.

[Gurn Blanston]

You poor, poor man. 

Oh look, Minnesota Dave is back! 

[karlhenning]

You poor, poor man. 

Oh look, Minnesota Dave is back! 

Hah!

[George]