What Are You Listening To? August 2022

[Unsomnambulist]

Foxboro Hot Tubs - Stop Drop and Roll!!! (2008)

 

[axolotl]

Headcase ~ Crosseyedrabbit (2003)

 

[Ojai Sam]

Keef Hartley Band - Little Big Band (1971)

Scorching live album recorded over two nights at the Marquee Club in London. Jazzier than Chicago, harder rocking than BST, I have no idea why KHB weren't a lot more successful here.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Maurice Marechal - The Artistry of Maurice Marechal (rec. 1929-35, comp. 1994)

Achingly beautiful cello from the French master (1892-1964). Right now, I'm enjoying his version of Faure's melancholy "Elegie". Where Casals attacked the cello, Marechal made love to it.

Two world wars took away many of his prime performing years, and a debilitating muscle disease silenced his instrument permanently in 1950. However, he was able to continue teaching at the Conservatoire de Paris until shortly before his death.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Neil Young + Promise Of The Real - Noise And Flowers (2022)

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Johannnes Brahms - The Piano Concertos (Ricardo Chailly, Gewandhausorchester, Nelson Freire)

 

[Ojai Sam]

Tokyo String Quartet - Haydn: 6 String Quartets (1994)

These performances are as much fun as this cover would suggest.

 

[axolotl]

Did @OjaiSam get the August memo?

P.S. Did I punctuate his moniker effectively? (How do I do it to get his attention?)

 

[Ojai Sam]

Did @OjaiSam get the August memo?

P.S. Did I punctuate his moniker effectively? (How do I do it to get his attention?)

I did and you did.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Kellye Gray - Standards In Gray (Justice Records 1990)



Being the son of the flamboyant Joe Jamail, one of the most successful attorneys in Texas, has its advantages. Randall Jamail had a hankering to start a record label so he did. Justice Records started in 1990 as a jazz label and petered out in the 2000's. In between, Jamail's friendship with Willie Nelson led to several outlaw country releases from Willie, Waylon and the boys.

This was the very first album on Justice Records and it got the label off to a fast start. The late Kellye Gray (1954-2018) was born in Dallas but spent much of her career in the Bay Area. Her work as a stand up comedian gave her the bravado to put across a song in a powerful yet approachable way. Here she is backed by her club band which manages intuitively to keep up with such a strong performer on a variety of jazz tunes ranging from 3 to 11 minutes. I'm not a fan of the over-the-top American Idol singing style but somehow Kellye can be exuberant but not annoying.

on the Sam-O-Meter.

 

[axolotl]

Burkina Electric ~ Paspanga (2010)



Indietronica, French House, Ewe Music

I rarely rate things Nothing stood out. Maybe it's a grower.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Goat - Requiem (2016)




All my new music is getting old.

 

[axolotl]

Shirley Bassey ~ The Remix Album... Diamonds are Forever



Electronic, Dance-Pop, Pop Soul

This, on the other hand, is better than expected.

RYM Review:

Blissful and you don't need to be gay to listen. What a set of lungs and what an excellent set of contemporary remixes.

 

[axolotl]

David Cullen ~ One Night, One Guitar (2007)

1		Midari
2		Cycles
3		Blue Counterpoint
4		On The Way
5		Birdland Written By – Joe Zawinul Written By – Joe Zawinul
6		Keep It That Way
7		Bahama Beach
		6th Cello Suite By J.S. Bach
8		6th Cello Suite: Prelude
9		6th Cello Suite: Allemande
10		6th Cello Suite: Courante
11		6th Cello Suite: Sarabande
12		6th Cello Suite: Gavottes 1 & 2
13		6th Cello Suite: Gigue
14		Spain Written By – Chick Corea

 

[axolotl]

Luke Hendon ~ Silk & Steel (2016)



Gypsy Swing, Hot Club Jazz

Luke Hendon: Silk & Steel album review @ All About Jazz

Luke Hendon: Silk & Steel album review by Budd Kopman, published on October 24, 2016. Find thousands jazz reviews at All About Jazz!

www.allaboutjazz.com

 

[axolotl]

Nicolas Deuson ~ Fragments

Classical Guitar

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Grails - Take Refuge In Clean Living (2008)

 

[Ojai Sam]

Arthur Rubinstein, New York Philharmonic (Bruno Walter, Cond.) - The Historic Broadcasts, Vol. 3 (rec. 1923-87, comp. 1997)



Part of a 10 CD box presenting for the first time a treasure chest of recordings not heard since their original radio broadcast. Right now, I'm enjoying Bruno Walter at the podium with Richard Strauss' Symphonia Domestica from December 1945 and Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1, Rubinstein at the keyboard, from February 1947. The presence of these two Jewish emigres at the epicenter of American culture so soon after the end of WWII lends these performances an air of historical importance beyond the music itself.

The Symphonia Domestica, a tone poem dating back to 1904, had a special connection with New York. It received its first performance at Carnegie Hall under the baton of the composer himself, followed by two more shows at Wanamaker's Department Store . Wiki tells us that German press were not amused.

 

[axolotl]

The Symphonia Domestica, a tone poem dating back to 1904, had a special connection with New York. It received its first performance at Carnegie Hall under the baton of the composer himself, followed by two more shows at Wanamaker's Department Store . Wiki tells us that German press were not amused.

It seems it was quite difficult to entertain the German press back in those days.

 

[axolotl]

Lhasa ~ The Living Road (2003)



Of course, Michaelben introduced us to Lhasa via La Llorona.

RYM Review:

much different from _La Llorona_ Lhasa's voice is always magic but the music is less lively, the mood of the album is quite different, great music still.