What Are You Listening to? November 2021

[axolotl]

Floating Points, Pharaoh Sanders, & The London Symphony Orchestra ~ Passages (2021)



Third Stream Jazz, Post-Minimalism, Spiritual Jazz, Chamber Jazz

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Love - Forever Changes (1967)

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Duke Ellington - Such Sweet Thunder (1957)

A twelve-part suite from Ellington and Billy Strayhorn based on the works of William Shakespeare. How have I not heard of this?! Sign me up!

Problem is I have heard of it and (thanks last.fm for highlighting my memory deficits) and actually listened to it on 2016 (probably even posting about it on the old MG site). Sigh...well hey, it sounds as fresh as if I'd never heard it ...

 

[axolotl]

Boxhead Ensemble ~ Niagara Falls EP: Recordings from the Dutch Harbor United States Film Screening Tour (1999)




Boxhead Ensemble ~ The Last Place to Go: Recordings from the Dutch Harbor European Film Screening Tour (1998)



Dang. I listened to 'em out of order, again.

 

[axolotl]

Howard Hanson Conducts Barber / Piston / Griffes / Kennan / McCauley / Bergsma [Compilation, 1992]

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

All over the map today, I've been listening to a lot of 1950s jazz lately and had Count Basie at Newport on today. A young resident is rotating with me last week and this week, and I felt I was subjecting her to too much older music, so put on a 2005 playlist of pop songs from what would be her teenage years. She admitted she didn't know any of it (really? The Black Eyed Peas, The Killers, Usher?) as she doesn't really listen to much music. Oh well, given that, I'm shifting backwards to the 1970s then

 

[Unsomnambulist]

All over the map today, I've been listening to a lot of 1950s jazz lately and had Count Basie at Newport on today. A young resident is rotating with me last week and this week, and I felt I was subjecting her to too much older music, so put on a 2005 playlist of pop songs from what would be her teenage years. She admitted she didn't know any of it (really? The Black Eyed Peas, The Killers, Usher?) as she doesn't really listen to much music. Oh well, given that, I'm shifting backwards to the 1970s then

Be wary of people who don't listen to much music.

 

[axolotl]

Be wary of people who don't listen to much music.

Be wary of people who listen to too much Black Eyed Peas, The Killers, and Usher.

 

[axolotl]

Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers ~ Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers (CD 1987, 1954)

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Queen - Jazz (1978)

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Idles - Crawler (2021)



The vocalist in this band sounds very angry, relaxed and composed at the same time.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Huey Lewis and the News - Sports (1983)

Not sure what prompted me to break this album out today - chalk it up to 80s nostalgia (though not a huge Huey Lewis fan...the News are all right though )

 

[axolotl]

^ Question: Is the heart of rock and roll still beating?

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

^ Question: Is the heart of rock and roll still beating?

Indeed! From Boston to Baton Rouge

 

[Unsomnambulist]

^ Question: Is the heart of rock and roll still beating?

Yes, but unfortunately, it's the same as it ever was.

 

[axolotl]

Yes, but unfortunately, it's the same as it ever was.

How did I we get here?

 

[Unsomnambulist]

How did I we get here?

Why ask why? It just generates negative karma.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Pete Seeger - Sing-a-long (1980)

This double album documents one of Pete's latter day college concerts on a blustery January day in 1980 at Sanders Theatre on the Harvard campus. While I was listening to this I thought to myself "boy, that crowd sure can sing surprisingly well!" It turns out that Pete had seeded the 800 person audience with about 80 members of the Boston Folk Music Society whom he had taught some of the basic harmonies in advance. Far from sounding like long-haired synthetic Mitch Millerites, the crowd gained the confidence to belt out some pretty obscure American labor broadsides along with folk material from around the world. The sound, captured by "dozens of microphones, filters, mixers, etc." has a startling warmth and immediacy.

Props to the undercredited Toshi Seeger, Pete's wife, for her hard work in organizing and implementing this unique show.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Crippled Black Phoenix - Roadburn 2017AD (2021)

 

[Ojai Sam]

Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Rafael Kubelik, cond.) - Moussorgsky: Pictures At An Exhibition; Bartok: Music For Strings, Percussion and Orchestra (1952)