What Are You Listening To? April 2024

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The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man (1965)

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Vinyl Spin of the Day.

Another album that I foolishly traded at the dawn of the digital era. Fortunately, it's easy to find a clean copy of the first pressing of their debut. The classic Byrds lineup never sounded better. Unlike many of their peers, they recorded for a major label with the budget and know how to record, mix, master and press a first class product. Roger McGuinn's 12 string and the group harmonies still have the power to move me deeply six decades later. Now if I could just find a time machine that would take me back to Ciro's....

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Thelonious Monk - Palo Alto (rec. 1968, Impulse! 2020)

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We've all got way too much music and not enough time to enjoy it, right? :confused:

So what factors will persuade you to pop for a new release? :aha:

Here are some of my admittedly lax standards:
  • artist recognition
  • performance quality
  • historical importance
  • excellent sound
  • attractive packaging
  • informative notes
  • rarity
[By the way, this is the first time I've used our forum's cool list format. Doubtless I'll annoy you with a lot more such lists in the future. :D]

This recent vault release checks off all the boxes. The late 60's were a lean period for Monk due to an array of health and financial problems. That fall, he agreed to do a benefit show on a Sunday afternoon at Palo Alto High School and even allowed the students to record it on their professional equipment. He brought along his regular group, consisting of Charlie Rouse, Larry Gales and Ben Riley.

The resulting show was both exciting and intimate. Some years ago, I had the pleasure of seeing McCoy Tyner solo in a similar venue, UCLA on a Sunday afternoon. The relaxed environment and devoted audience away from the club scene seems to draw out a more reflective side of quiet, intelligent performers like Monk and Tyner. Monk performed six of his best known songs in a 45 minute set, leaving plenty of space for his sidemen to shine.

The sound quality is superb with rich bass and plenty of auditorium ambience. I can almost feel the chewing gum under the seat. Liner notes tell the whole story from the origin of the show itself to the ongoing social turmoil in Palo Alto. There's even a replica of the original flyer, courtesy of the Palo Alto High School Graphic Arts Department.

:5.0: on the Sam-O-Meter. Highest recommendation.
 
After bouncing around the musical landscape this morning, I settled on America songs. Turns out I have 38 songs with "America" in the title, almost 3 hours of music.

Christian Scott - American't (2010)
Gift of Gab - The Idea of America (2021)
Curtis Mayfield - Miss Black America (1970)
Wilco - Ashes of American Flags (2002)
Ambrose Akinmusire - Americana / the garden waits for you to match her wilderness (2018)
Janelle Monáe - Americans (2018)
Jay-Z - American Dreamin' (2007)
Jason Palmer - American Deceptionalism: Part I (for DC) (2014)
David Bowie - Young Americans (1975)
Immanuel Wilkins - Ferguson: An American Tradition (2020)
Sugarland - Everyday America (2006)
Stevie Wonder - Jesus Children of America (1973)
Procussions - American Fado (2006)
Prince - America (1984)
Me’Shell NdegéOcello - American Rhapsody (2014)
Tom Scott & the LA Express - Good Evening mr & Mrs America & All The Ships (1975)
Lupe Fiasco - American Terrorist (2006)
Lenny Kravitz - American Woman (1998)
Nas - America (2008)
 
axolotl said:
Was this before or after "The Battle of Evermore"?
Click to expand...
Hmmm. :oops:

You ask the damnedest questions, Axo. Remind me not to let you cross-examine me. :judge:

You stumped me, but not Wiki.

"The Battle of Evermore"
Song by Led Zeppelin
from the album Led Zeppelin IV
Released8 November 1971
Recorded
  • January 1971
  • February 1971
Studio


The North Star Grassman and the Ravens
Studio album by
Sandy Denny
ReleasedSeptember 1971 (UK)
RecordedMarch – May 1971
StudioSound Techniques and Island Studios, London

So the answer is "yes and no". She recorded the song with Led Zeppelin first but it came out earlier on her own album.

Billie Joe Becoat - Let's Talk For Awhile (1970)

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Vinyl Spin of the Day.

I posted Billie Joe's first album back in March. I enjoyed that one so much that I ran out and bought his second and final effort. If anything, it's even better. Less self-consciously eclectic, his songwriting and singing both gained substantial strength as he staked out the territory between blues and rock. Why did he vanish when, say, Gil Scott-Heron succeeded in a similar vein with a much higher level of schtick, not to mention homophobia? :shrug:

:4.5: on the Sam-O-Meter.
 
Michala Petri - German & French Recorder Concertos (2016)

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Serendipity can be a powerful force. I have a big stack of new classical CD's of all ages and styles to enjoy. Today I decided simply to pick a couple purely at random, and ended up with two very different albums devoted to the much-maligned recorder. Having begun the day in 15th Century England, the Wayback Machine nearly gave me a whiplash as it brought me back to France and Germany in the 2000's.

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Composers Markus Zahnhausen, Fabrice Bollon and Gunter Kochan find creative ways to exploit the range and flexibility of the recorder in three world premiere works. As the notes explain:

Banished for decades from the concert hall, the recorder once again came to the fore in the 20th century with the revival of early music. Germany and England were particularly welcoming of the recorders return to the brotherhood of instruments. Owing to its deliberate opposition to the grand, Romantic tradition, the recorder found favor among a highly diverse group of German composers representing an equally diverse range of styles ranging from Expressionism, Neue Sachlichkeit, and Neo-Classicism to self-consciously folk-inspired and faux Renaissance works.

Michala Petri from Denmark has been making fine albums in a variety of styles covering many centuries since the 1970's and shows no signs of slowing down. This may be her most ambitious project yet.

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Vampire Weekend - Father Of The Bride (2019)

A couple of weeks ago, I read something that made me curious about this album (or the band) and I put it on my pull list at the local library. Finally listened to it and ... it's not bad. I'm not crazy about it, but I like a few songs and kind of get along with the others.

Now, if only I could remember specifically what got my attention, I could focus on that during the next listen.
 
Mark Turner - In This World (1998)


Songs About Cities
Some of my favorite songs include a city in the title. This album has three such songs, "Mesa", "Barcelona", and "Bo Brussels". It maybe have a couple of others that are about cities but I didn't make the connection from the song title. "Days of Wine And Roses"?

For months, I've been listening to two playlists of songs about a city. One about Baltimore, one about Harlem. I've been trying to identify a few songs about Jacksonville FL, but apparently nobody ever cared enough about Jacksonville to write a song about it. :shrug:Go figure.

And now, I'm wondering if I should create a playlist of songs about a city. The idea is kind of daunting, just thinking about going through and trying to pull out songs with a city in the name. But now I'm worried I'll end up omitting a ton of songs about a specific city that don't actually have the city's name in the title. Or maybe I include a song about a city, say "Jordan" on a Lost Tribe album, and it turns out the song is about a person named Jordan, not the city of Jordan. :axo:

What about songs about specific streets ("52nd Street Theme", "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out") or places/neighborhoods within an identifiable city ("How To Survive In South Central", "Rock Creek Park"). Fictional cities like Atlantis or Gotham? Lester Left Town, but what town did he leave? Did he take the Midnight Train To Georgia with his girlfriend? Can I even include "Midnight Train To Georgia" in a playlist about cities? Is "Livin' For The City" about a specific city, or just THE city?
:confused:

Is It even worth thinking about it this hard?
 
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