What Are You Listening To? March 2023

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Incognito - Transatlantic R.P.M. (2010)

After my great computer crash a few years go, I stopped scrobbling regularly because I listened to physical media exclusively. When I finally re-ripped my music last year, I didn't bother to download the last.fm app again. Last week, I noticed the scrobble button on the music app I use on my computer (Music Bee) and clicked it. Surprisingly my account info popped up and I was then scrobbling.

It's been interesting to check out my new scrobbles. After some digging in my old scrobbles, I was surprised to discover this album was third on my all-time "most listened" list. Even accounting for timing and such, that surprised me. It's not even one of my three favorite Incognito albums. I also realized I hadn't listened to the album in a while, so I put it on yesterday ... yeah, I still like it.
 
Thomas Mapfumo & The Blacks Unlimited - Shumba: Vital Hits Of Zimbabwe (Earthworks 1990)

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Mary Halvorson - Paimon: Book of Angels Vol 32 (2017)

I have close to zero exposure to klezmer and religious Jewish music (so much so that if I'm showing my ignorance by referring to them as separate things, I don't really know it,) but I make it a point to pick up volumes of John Zorn's project of love of melding those with Jazz when it includes musicians of interest to me. My intermittant visits to this series always deliver great music to my ears.

Halvorson is one of my favorite quirky Jazz guitarists, and her technique of "bending notes" makes it easy to identify her sound. This one continues to bat 1000 for my forays into the series. That she's joined by almost equally quirky guitarist Miles Okazaki in a quartet with drums and a stand-up bass provides an interesting and pleasing soundscape.
 
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Herbie Hancock / Freddie Hubbard / Stanley Turrentine / Ron Carter / Jack DeJohnette / Eric GaleIn Concert Volume Two (CTI 1975)

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Getting a new speaker system has inspired me to reorganize my listening priorities for the first time since the pandemic arrived. Some marginal projects have fallen by the wayside, notably a bunch of obscure bluegrass artists whom I may revisit some day. But I have revived a number of old favorites that got shelved, including the CTI label. Here is where I left off, apparently more than four years ago. :oops:

This is an oddly complied live release that repeats the same song from two different shows (Chicago and Detroit on March 3 and 4, 1973, respectively). However, with such a high caliber all star group, I'm not complaining a bit. These guys just keep right on cookin'. :banana:
 
Louis Armstrong - The Complete Columbia and RCA Victor Studio Sessions 1946-1966 (Mosaic comp. 2020)

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Somehow the recent releases from Mosaic also got buried in a dark corner of the vault. This one collects a grab bag of singles waxed by Louis over a 20 year period and adds his three Columbia albums from the same time.

Perhaps the oddest item here is his version of "Mack The Knife" where he shared vocal honors with Karoline Wilhelmine Charlotte Blamauer, better known as Lotte Lenya. Her ex-husband, Kurt Weill, could not be reached for comment on this unique treatment of his best-known composition. He had been dead for five years. :nunja:

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Lotte & Louis
 
Booker T. & the M.G.’s - McLemore Avenue (1970)

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Great album and my favorite of the Abbey Road parody album covers.

 
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