For me its the first or very early LP's of: Allman Brothers - "Allman Joys" "Idyllwild South" Santana - "Santana" 200 g reissue Emerson Lake and Palmer - "Emerson Lake and Palmer" and, Beethoven - "Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major" Rudolph Serkin/Ozawa/BSO
Today/Tonight (so far): Respighi "Church Windows" (Reference Recordings RR-15 45rpm) Sonny Rollins "Way Out West" (Contemporary S7530) Mickey Hart/Airto "Dafos" (Reference Recordings RR-12 45rpm) Yes "The Yes album" (Atlantic SD 8283) Talking Heads "Stop Making Sense" (Sire 25186-1) I had forgotten how much fun this album is to listen to, and how well recorded it was.
I've just cleaned a NM copy of Larry Young "Unity" BLP-4221 New York with the VPI and RRL fluid and I'm going to hear this copy for my first time. It's a better copy than my other original, so I'm pretty excited.
Schubert - String Quintet in A "The Trout", Vienna Octet/C.Curzon -pf, Decca SXL 2110 Speakers Corner (Just luscious, with incredible piano contribution by Curzon. One of the great performances and recordings of the Trout Quintet.)
Cannonball Adderley - Know What I Mean, Riverside 9433 (45rpm) Analogue Productions reissue (Ridiculously GOOD!)
Stravinsky - Firebird Ballet, Dorati, Mercury 45 rpm reissue from Classic Records (My all-time system reference LP)
Kodaly - Hary Janos Suite, Kertesz/LSO, Decca SXL 6136 Speakers Corner (Marvelous music, performance and recording. This is out-of-print, so get it now if you want it while it's still available at a few retailers.)
Muddy Waters Sings Big Bill Broonzy, Chess LP 1444 Speakers Corner - Outstanding!
Ry Cooder - Chicken Skin Music
Rickie Lee Jones - Rickie Lee Jones, WarnerBros BSK 3296
Isley and Bacharach: Here I am (ok-it's a cd) (after you left Spence; Dan always brings something unique and special!)
mingus"oh yeah" argent"nexus" genesis "wind and wuthering" gentle giant "three friends"jean luc ponty "mystical adventures" bowie "pinups" george benson "in flight" john miles "rebel"
Mahler: Sym 6, Horenstein/StockholmPO, Nonesuch HB 73029 (yes, I'm a Jascha Horenstein fan, love his Mahler 3d on Unicorn/Nonesuch as well. And then there are his wonderful recordings of Panufnik!)
Arturo Delmoni: "Songs my mother taught me" NorthStar DS0004 and John Marks Records JMR One (various works for violin and piano, performed with that limpid beauty of tone that Delmoni so characteristically delivers; dripping romanticism! Wonderfully recorded by the superb recording engineer David Hancock.)
Mozart: Sonatas for Violin and Piano, Shumsky (vn), Balsam (pf), ASV ALH 950, 954, 964 (3 volumes), just pulled out random sides to play. Shumsky is hard to beat in these works. .
Tonight its "whats UNDER your turntable?" I just recieved a maple Machina Dynamica Promethean Base platform for under my Scoutmaster. Have it unpacked but not installed yet...
Tonight, Hui Fen Min, Wei Li "River of Sorrow" (First Impression Music FIM-002)2 discs, 1 at 33 1/3, 1 at 45rpm. Sublime, haunting traditional chinese music. Magnificent recording! Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" (Columbia CS 8163) 45 rpm reissue Doc Watson "Home Again"(Vanguard VSD-79239) Cisco reissue.
Guys, From now until 5pm tomorrow, set aside the vinyl and tune in to 88.5FM or www.xpn.org(live stream) to hear the last day of their "Top 885 Songs of All Time Countdown. No where else can you hear segues like Yes-Close to the Edge into Judy Garland-Somewhere Over the Rainbow! Even if you choose not to listen, take a look at the list online, it is truly mind-boggling. Cheers, Spencer
Spencer, I'm streaming the playback now. Amazingly diverse list of music. I like reading through the top 10's of the various folks out there. Sure got a lot of my favorites on the list(s).
Organ! Bach! Dupre! Alain! Awash in the sounds of the great instrument!
Start with a little Karl Richter playing on a delightful tracker organ in Copenhagen one of Bach's Schubler Chorales (DGG 139325), add a beautiful little Triosonata, then the powerful Prelude and Fugue in c minor.
Then head to David Payne's performances of Bach Chorale Preludes from a lost manuscript (now found!) on a marvelous Bozeman-Gibson tracker organ (Harmonia Munid HMC 5158)
Next, step to Dupre's massive Symphonie-Passion, played on the equally massive and very French sounding organ at Hedvig Eleonora Church in Stockholm, performed by the wonderful organist Torvald Toren (on a very impressive Proprius LP - 7855). Volume up! Bass anyone?
Finish with the Litanies of Jehan Alain, performed by the incomparable Marie-Claire Alain, Erato EPR 15555.
The Red Sox/Yankees drama for the American League championship has had my eye all week. As I write this, the Sox are up 4-0 in the 7th inning of game 6 behind brilliant pitching by Curt Schilling.
Some of the great Decca recordings! Fellow AudiogoN'r Texasdave got me started on this through an email conversation we've been having about the great recording engineers who worked for Decca and who were responsible for some of the best recordings ever made: Roy Wallace, Kenneth Wilkinson, John Dunkerley... Turns out that Dave and I share in a common a passionate respect for these recording engineers and the great recordings they made from the 1950s on. So, back to the archives to pull out some great music!
Britten: War Requiem, Britten/LSO, Melos Qt, London OSA 1255 (K. Wilkinson -eng) A truly superb recording. When Peter Pears opens with his first tenor solo, the verisimilitude of Pears being right on stage in front of you is just phenomenal.
Stravinsky: Petrouchka, Ansermet/OSR, Decca SXL 2011 (Athena reissue ALSS 10004) (Roy Wallace -eng) - Dave and I may disagree on this one, but on vinyl this is one of my all time favorite Roy Wallace recordings.
Falla: Three Cornered Hat (complete), Ansermet/OSR, Decca SXL 2296 (Speakers Corner reissue) (Roy Wallace -eng) A magical recording from 1960.
Ravel: Alborada del gracioso, Ansermet/OSR, Decca (Roy Wallace -eng) As Dave commented in his email to me: "It is truly spectacular. Neophytes are always amazed, after I play it, to hear it was recorded in 1960. IÂve challenged audiophile friends to come up with another version of this piece that can rival this Wallace recording... [none of the other modern contenders] can rival the old Wallace recording for vividness, immediacy, impact. I think it is a paragon of analog, tube-era recording." I couldn't agree more. .
Albert, I've not seen a reissue of the Britten War Requiem and have not heard of one coming. My copy is a late English pressing on the London label (-4E in the deadwax), but it is superb. .
Tonight, more Roy Wallace engineered Decca marvels from the 1950s until about 1964:
Borodin: Sym 2 & 3, Ansermet/OSR, London CS 6126 (Speakers Corner reissue). OK, this one has a touch of upper mid-range brightness, probably some resonance frequency in the microphones - but this is an INCREDIBLE recording from 1954! Full, rich, detailed sound with marvelous soundstaging. Excellent performances, too.
Albeniz: Iberia, Ansermet/OSR, Decca SXL 2243 (Speakers Corner reissue) - recorded in 1960, this 40+ year old recording puts so many of the last 20 years to shame. Coupled with the Turina: Danzas fantasticas, this is a very special record. The dynamics on this LP are phenomenal.
Slipknot -- note that the wonderful Rossini Overtures recording you and I like so much is a Roy Wallace creation. .
Rush, That is a wonderful recording. It seems as though Decca cornered the market on the truly gifted engineers of that era. The Maag/LSO Mendelssohn you introduced me to never ceases to amaze both in sonics and performance as well.
Reading the exchange between you and Albert has made me want to fire up my TT despite the fact that I cannot tear myself away from watching my beloved Red Sox....;)
Joe, that's what the mute button on your TV is for! Watch the game, listen to great music. You don't really need some announcer explaining that play-by-play breath-taking action on the screen do you? :-)
As I listen to a great performance of Dvorak's Serenade for Strings, having just indulged in Satie's Trois Gnossiennes performed marvelously by Ciccolini. (Doggone AudiogoN threads keep sending me back to the music library looking for stuff I haven't listened to in years.) .
So THATS what that button is for... ;) whenever I try to do that, I get this disconnected feeling. Having the music playing in the listening room and the TV in the family room has me not paying attention to either.
As one or two of you may have noticed (or not! :-), I've stopped posting to new threads for many months now. But Slipknot1's thread idea is something I had once thought of starting myself, right around the time I cut way back over here. So I feel justified in making this a semi-regular exception, and will enjoy doing so since it concerns music and not gear.
On the TT: British Invasion night with LP's from one-shots Ian & The Zodiacs, and a couple from two-shot'ers The Zombies. (No intentional "z" theme here, it just worked out that way.) Last week I saw The Zombies for the second time since Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent rejoined forces again about three years ago. They're currently out touring with Arthur Lee & Love (also the second time I've seen them in the past year), who I must say surpassed them as the opening act on a double bill right out of my grooviest 60's dreams.
In the CD (home and car): Art Blakey titles (The Big Beat, The Witch Doctor, Mosaic, Buhaina's Delight, Orgy in Rhythm [all Blue Note], & The Jazz Messengers [Impulse!] ) recently added to ever-growing AB collection are in constant rotation. Rudy van Gelder was a busy busy man. I grew up across the street from a friend whose father actually knew Bu, from back when he worked as maitre d' at a long-defunct NY club called the Cork & Bib where the Messengers used to gig. When he was alive he used to tell the story of how once when the band crashed at his pad for the night they were so bleary-eyed, they left the next morning having neglected to pack AB's drums in the van; after they got a couple hours away they realized their blunder and had to double all the way the back again to retrieve them. Nothing but the posh life for those beboppers in the 50's folks. C'mon now: how cool is it to be able to say, "I remember the time Art Blakey left his drums at my house"? Fagedaboudit!
Zaikesman, glad to see you joining this ongoing conversation! I, too, look forward to more discussion of MUSIC and recordings. Love the story you shared. :-)
Joe, we're just going to have to get you a little 15-incher on a cart with wheels...
Rush, I need to figure out how to get my DirecTV feed onto my notebook PC. That way, I can be in the listening room, posting what LP's are playing, AND watching the game without sound.
20/20 - (self titled, Portrait 1979). The opening cut, "Yellow Pills", went on to become something of a touchstone of the burgeoning West Coast power pop movement, eventually lending its title to a compilation series and a fanzine devoted to the genre. I had dinner the other night with a friend who had moved out to LA back then to be a part of this scene and he mentioned this band, so it's been on my mind.
"Performance" (soundtrack, Warner 1970). Mostly Jack Nitsche and Ry Cooder stuff, best known for Jagger & Richards' "Memo From Turner", plus apearances from Randy Newman, Buffy Stainte-Marie on 'mouth bow', and The Last Poets' immortal "Wake Up Niggers". Skipped the Merry Clayton cuts...
Davie Allan - "Old Neck and New Strings" (Dionysus, 1990). The 60's biker-flick fuzz-guitar instro king returns. Strong as hell.
In the car CD during the day: The Duke, Jazz Party and Far East Suite.
Schumann "Symphony No. 3 in E Flat major, Op.97" "Rhenish" (Paray/Detroit Symphony Ochestra) Mercury SR90133 Wonderful, passionatly played 1st movement, with great interplay between the second violins and violas. Disc could be in a little better shape, but once again, a thorough cleaning on the VPI RCM with Paul Frumkin's two-step cleaning process has made it quite listenable
Tonight: Cat Stevens: Teaser and the Firecat, MSFL 1-244 - had to pull this out and play it to check my recollection of its sound quality given a very curious post tonight in the Vinyl Asylum. My copy sounds just like I remembered it: really really good! And I don't often say that about MoFi releases: I've listened to too many that are horribly EQ'd and congested, but not this one - it's one of the GOOD ones.
Bizet: Sym 1 in C, Marriner/ASMF, London (King Superanalogue reissue)- wonderful performance, well recorded, just a delight to listen to.
Arvo Part: Tabula Rasa; Fratres; Cantus in memory of Benjamin Britten, Sondeckis/LithChmO, Kremer -vn, Schnittke -pf, ECM 1275 - classic Part. If you don't know his music, he's worth adventuring through.
As I Went to Walsingham: collection of Renaissance music, performed by Paul O'Dette (lute) and The Musicians of Swanne Alley, Harmonia Mundi HMC 5192. Wonderful music of the renaissance, exceptionally performed, and beautifully recorded by Peter McGrath. I've never heard a bad recording with his name in the engineering credits!
Over the last few days: Mingus Workshop - Stormy Weather Ry Cooder - Chicken Skin Music (again!) The Band - Rock of Ages Prokofiev/Kabelevsky Piono Concerto#3 Gilels, State Radio Orch/Kabelevsky The Christopher Parkening Album - (Angel) OscarP trio w/MiltJ - Very Tall (verve) Bill Evans - Live @ Shelly's Manhole (Riverside) Horace Silver & Jazz Messengers (BlueNote) So good I played it in the morning & again that night! Return to Forever - Romantic Warrior Shelly Manne & His Men - Swinging Sounds #5 (Contemporary) Chopin - Piano Music vol.3 (London/ffrr) Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain (Mono 1A,2A pressing)great late at night.
Too much to listen to, not enough time to post. Now have a wireless laptop, so A-gon goes to the listening chair! Cheers, Spencer
Laptop in the listening chair is the only way to go! Congratulations, Spencer. My only problem is that my "click, click, click" on the keyboard drives my otherwise very tolerant spouse out of the listening room: Definitely NOT a good thing relative to maintaining continuing support for my music acquisition proclivities! .
Same for me. The wireless Dell notebook goes into the listening room. Now - I have to get a keyboard light as I tend to listen with the lights down low in the evening. Low lighting makes it hard to read the record # when posting.
Last night, continuing the Kenneth Wilkinson track of outstanding recordings :
Sibelius, Sym 2, Barbirolli/RPO, Chesky CR 3 (wonderful performance by Barbirolli, one of the best performances of this work, originally from the Readers Digest series recorded by Wilkinson, engineer, and Gerhardt, producer)
Sibelius, Finlandia, Mackerras/LondonPromsO, RCA LSC 2336-45 Classic Records 45 rpm reissue - far superior to the Classic Records 33 rpm effort)
Stravinsky, Le Sacre du Printemps, Solti/CSO, Decca SXL 6691 (unfortunately a bit obviously multi-miked, Wilkinson was never a purist, but still a marvelous performance and recording)
And for something completely different: Franck, Piece Heroique, Dupre -org, Mercury SRI 75006 (organ with a vengance, by the great Mercury recording team and still sounding wonderful in this Holland pressing) .
Ravel "Rapsodie Espagnole" Reiner/CSO (RCA LSC-2183) Classic Records reissue Ray Brown Trio "Soular Energy" (Side D alternate takes)Pure Audiophile PA-002 Dire Straits "Brothers in Arms"
McCoy Tyner - Extensions (rec. 1970, UA 1972) The cover design echoes the iconic graphics of the National Geographic journal, and pictures an assembly of African villagers, while the liner notes offer quotes from the Quaran (sic) and praise to Allah. I won't ponder on how some perceptions may have changed since. The music - four longish Tyner compositions - combines reserved intensity with great beauty, in that subtly exotic, modal vein which instantly evokes Coltrane and the 60's ferment. Alice Coltrane brings her harp, with Wayne Shorter, Gary Bartz, Ron Carter, and Elvin Jones. The recorded sound of Tyner's piano could have been a tad better served, but overall a deeply soul-satisfying record.
Dexter Gordon - One Flight Up (Blue Note reissue, rec. about 1965?) With Donald Bryd, Kenny Drew, Art Taylor, and an 18-year old Niels-Henning Orsted Pederson on bass, recorded in Paris. The highlight is Bryd's side-long "Tanya".
Gil Evans - Great Jazz Standards (orig. Pacific Jazz, rec. 1959) Listened all the way through a UA/Blue Note vinyl reissue from the mid-70's, then switched to a Capitol CD reissue from the late 80's. The mastering is night and day different (and neither is ideal), but the wonderfully colorful music is what sticks. Compositions from Bix Beiderbecke to Monk to Clifford Brown to John Lewis, but Evans' own "Theme" closer may be the most tantalizing cut of all. That great 'jazz orchestra' sound which propelled the classic Miles collaborations with Gil.
The Animals - Love Is (2LP, MGM, 1968) This one was from the other day. The last record made under that group's name before Burdon went solo, although the 'group' is in it's fourth or so version here. Guitarists are John Weider and Andy Summers (of Police fame, with erstwhile Big Roll Band compatriot Zoot Money on bass and keys). Averaging just two cuts per LP side, there's an excess of psychedelic noodling here as was the regrettable trend at the time, obscuring both some decent original tunes and a few ill-advised covers alike, but the three tracks on Side One (River Deep Mountain High, I'm An Animal, I'm Dying - Or Am I?) and some flashes elsewhere among the endearingly spacey jams indicate this could have been a killer single-disk album with some judicious pruning. Nevertheless, fans should pick this up if they find it cheap, but it's pretty uncommon, I'm guessing 'cause it probably didn't sell worth beans.
Thanks Rushton, and thanks also for your posts on the Ralph Karsten/Atma-Sphere situation, which I'm still trying to get my mind around (the situation that is, not your posts, which have helped). I didn't originally plan to offer commentary on my listening material, but now I find I can't really help it, and if I don't feel like yakking a bit about something I played, I simply don't list it.
ÂBranford Marsalis - Crazy People Music: Young Branford with his telepathic quartet. Juicy Ornette style musings, along with usual, high quality post-bop stuff. Tain is one titanium plated monster.
ÂThe Jazz Crusaders - Stretchin' Out: Old Pacific Jazz title with Monk Montgomery on bass, along with the potent Texans. Great ensemble sound right from the start. Signature sax-'bone synergy kills me every time. Joe Sample ain't chopped liver either.
ÂJean-Luc Ponty - Enigmatic Ocean: Hadn't heard this since my first copy was stolen over 20 years ago. DAMN...Alan Holdsworth and Alphonso Johnson had spectacular chops! Recently saw Johnson supporting James Carter...still has chops on his chops.
Zaikesman & Siliab, Thanks for including your comments along with your posts! This thread is beginning to become a great resource and shopping list for vinylphiles. To date, there have been over 6100 views of this thread.
A big thanks to all who continue to contribute. I've been exposed to some really great music!
Listening to organ music this early evening: just finished a wonderful Pontefract engineered recording on Harmonia Mundi of Rene Saorgin performing Bach's Toccata & Fugue in d minor on a lovely Silbermann organ, Harmonia Mundi HM 1214. And now listening to Marcel Dupre on a VERY FRENCH organ (Saint-Suplice) playing Bach's Prelude & Fugue in D major, Mercury SR 90227: great recording, but not my favorite way to hear Bach performed.
Representative recordings of two great recording engineers: Jean-Francois Pontefract, who made many superb recordings for Harmonia Mundi, and Robert Fine, the genius behind the legendary Mercury recordings. .
Time to dispense with consistency in my short tradition of providing anotation, only because I don't have the time right now...this covers tonight plus some odds and ends over the past few days:
Original LP issues: Nilsson - The Point (Soundtrack, RCA, 1970) "Mississippi" Fred McDowell - Vol. 2 (Arhoolie, about 1966?) Thelonius Monk - 5 By Monk By 5 (Riverside [stereo], rec. 1959) Fats Domino - I Miss You So (Imperial, about 1961?) The Impressions - This Is My Country (Curtom, about 1970?) The Equators - Hot (Stiff, 1981) Ska revival. Clyde McPhatter - Golden Blues Hits (Mercury [mono], about 1961?) The Beach Boys - Sunflower (Brother, 1970) The Turtles - Battle Of The Bands (White Whale, about 1967?)
CD reissues/collections: The Daktaris - Soul Explosion (Desco, late 90's?) 70's Afrofunk. The Crossfires (AKA The Turtles) - Out Of Control (Sundazed, '95) 60's Surf and novelty. We The People - Declaration Of Independence (Collectables, '93) 60's garage punk. George Abdo & His Flames Of Araby Orchestra - Belly Dance! (Smithsonian Folkways, '02) The Nightlighters - K-Jee (RCA/Collectables, '91) Early 70's funk. Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich - The Singles (BR Music [import], '99) 60's British pop-rock.
Cold rainy night. Warm fire burning in the woodstove; feels like: String music night! "Danses Anciennes De Hongrie Et De Transylvanie" Rene Clemencic/Clemencic Consort (Harmonia Mundi HM 1003) Trad music from Hungary and Transylvania performed on early music instruments. Listening to this brings into focus some of the many European influences that go into music from Appalachia and some Bluegrass. A couple of passages so much so, that if you didn't know it, you would think you were sitting on a front porch in Kentucky.
Josef Suk "String Quartet, Op. 31 Meditation" Suk Quartet (Supraphon 1111 3370) Suk was a Czech, as clearly evidenced in this VERY Eastern European work. Both the reading and the composition. Very somber, contemplative string music for a rainy night.
A big thank you to Rushton for introducing me to the two LP's above!
Staying with strings, but moving East: Hui Fen Min/Wei Li "River of Sorrow : Immortal Chinese Instrumentals" (First Impression Music FIM 002 45rpm) A couple of cuts from this release appeared in the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"
More strings to finish off the evening but we are back in the USA: Doc Watson "Home Again" (Vanguard 79239) Cisco 180g reissue. What can you say but: Wow! Carolina picking and singing of some great old songs like "Matty Groves" and "Froggy Went A Courtin'". Superb performance, sonics to boot on very quiet 180g vinyl...
Tonight: Holst "The Planets" von Karajan/Berlin (DG 2532 019) Stravinsky "Firebird" Dorati/London (Mercury SR90226) Classic 200g reissue Pink Floyd "Live in Zurigo" (Wind Records BP 0013) Badly recorded and transfered two LP bootleg set consisting of excellent performances of DSOTM, One Of These Days, Careful With That Axe Eugene, Echoes from 1973 or 1975 Grateful Dead "Live/Dead" (Warner "green lable" 1830)
Beethoven "Symphony No. 9 "Choral"" Solti/Chicago SO (Mobile Fidelity MFSL 2-516) As a rule, I have always found the MoFi pressings a little disappointing. Not so the case with this one. Quiet surface, good sonics, excellent performance of this warhorse by the Chicago Symphony and Chorus. Recorded in 1972 and originally released by London. The third movement has always been my favorite, and this recording delivers a very nicely paced, emotional 3rd. Beach Boys "Holland" (Reprise MS 2118) Recorded in the Netherlands in 1972. Many pressings of this abound, as does the quality. Unfortunately, this is not a great one. The Beach Boys were experimenting with quadraphonic sound during this period and this was recorded on a 30 input quad console. Some interesting tunes, very much away from surfer tunes. This has a very country feel to it.
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