CD Recommendations

Daniel, in the spirit of sharing ideas and being true to my own belief system, as concerns what I feel is great music; I would like to respectfully suggest that rather than trying to find listening satisfaction in new examples of music in your mentioned preferred genres, that you reevaluate those genres instead. Please forgive me if I sound overly opinionated, but IMO someone with 750 cd's that sometimes feels that he "has nothing he wants to listen to" has been buying a lot of the wrong cd's. I find that the best "proof" of a recording's true musical value is wether it stands the test of time. Do you want to listen to it many , many times, perhaps over a lifetime? Or do you listen to it a couple or even a few times and then forget about it? Or more concretely, are people going to want to buy it forty years from now? I listen to something like Miles' "Kind of Blue", and it sounds even more interesting today than it did when I first bought it twenty years ago; and I never NOT want to listen to it. As one's musical horizons broaden, one of the symptoms is dissatisfaction with one's music collection; at the same time, we are able to appreciate deeper and deeper levels of a recording's merits, but the good stuff has to be there to begin with. I realize that it is (and partly correctly so IMO) politically incorrect to in any way criticize a member's musical tastes, but from my vantage point this seems like a great opportunity all the way around; it is also part of what I believe this site is (should be?) all about. The process of discovering new and deeper music is a pretty cool thing. All the best.

Frap, thanks for the positive remarks. Your suggestion to Lev is an excellent one. Exposure to the music of the giants in their respective categories is the best way to expand one's musical horizons; even if the music seems "difficult" at first or second listen. I find that although it certainly is part of our very human nature to stay within the confines of what is familiar and confortable, by challenging ourselves we find a richer enjoyment of great gift that music is. Regards.