Luther Vandross - Forever, For Always, For Love (1982)
What are you listening to? September 2024
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Guru - Jazzmatazz volume III: StreetSoul (2000)
Veteran of the HipHop game wraps up his trilogy of Jazz-influenced albums. This project was never intended to create Jazz albums, but rather to create a more substantial link between using Jazz samples in (some) HipHop songs, and Guru achieved this in the first volume by bringing Jazz giants (Donald Byrd, Branford Marsalis, Roy Ayers, etc) into the studio to play live. It worked well, created a thoroughly HipHop sound that included fine musical contributions from Jazz musicians.
Eight years into the project, by the time this third volume was released, the Jazzmatazz journey was collaborating more with R&B/Soul musicians+artists than with Jazz musicians. However, there are contributions with Isaac Hayes and Herbie Hancock in the mix.
Great if you like HipHop. Skip it if you don't.
Veteran of the HipHop game wraps up his trilogy of Jazz-influenced albums. This project was never intended to create Jazz albums, but rather to create a more substantial link between using Jazz samples in (some) HipHop songs, and Guru achieved this in the first volume by bringing Jazz giants (Donald Byrd, Branford Marsalis, Roy Ayers, etc) into the studio to play live. It worked well, created a thoroughly HipHop sound that included fine musical contributions from Jazz musicians.
Eight years into the project, by the time this third volume was released, the Jazzmatazz journey was collaborating more with R&B/Soul musicians+artists than with Jazz musicians. However, there are contributions with Isaac Hayes and Herbie Hancock in the mix.
Great if you like HipHop. Skip it if you don't.
Kenny Dorham - Una Mas (1963)
Tupac Shakur - The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory (1996)
On the 18th anniversary of the day of his death, what better album to listen to than the one he released that year.
On the 18th anniversary of the day of his death, what better album to listen to than the one he released that year.
Unsomnambulist
Staff member
The Jesus Lizard - Rack (2024)
Unsomnambulist
Staff member
Famous Groupies - The Furry White Album (2020)
Ojai Sam
Staff member
Electric Light Orchestra - A New World Record (1976, Epic/Legacy 2006)
We just got back to Ojai after a week in Shaky Town to find our PO box chock full of music.
This classic arrived courtesy of MusicBoomerang. The generous shipper even sent the Legacy reissue, beautifully remastered with 5 bonus tracks. 
.
We just got back to Ojai after a week in Shaky Town to find our PO box chock full of music.
This classic arrived courtesy of MusicBoomerang. The generous shipper even sent the Legacy reissue, beautifully remastered with 5 bonus tracks. .
I liked them a lot during my 70s/80s pop radio days, but have never listened to an album. Would be an interesting exercise to get a cheap box of their albums. Hmmmm...Electric Light Orchestra - A New World Record (1976, Epic/Legacy 2006)
We just got back to Ojai after a week in Shaky Town to find our PO box chock full of music.
Listened to a couple of Kenny Dorham albums yesterday. Kinda continued with that this morning...
Kenny Dorham - 'Round About Midnight at the Cafe Bohemia (1956)
About the time of my third phase of Jazz Expansion, I came across Dorham's work and fell in Jazz love with his playing. He slips through the cracks of my mind now and I don't often listen to his work. Glad to have done it this week. It's sort of like soul cleansing.
Kenny Dorham - 'Round About Midnight at the Cafe Bohemia (1956)
About the time of my third phase of Jazz Expansion, I came across Dorham's work and fell in Jazz love with his playing. He slips through the cracks of my mind now and I don't often listen to his work. Glad to have done it this week. It's sort of like soul cleansing.
Trevor Jones & Randy Edelman - The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
Nickyboy
Staff member
I have a few of their albums from back in the day, and I find that with them some of the more interesting tracks are the ones that never were radio hits.
Interrrrrrreeeeesssssstttiinnnngggg. (if I had a handlebar mustache, I'd be fingering it now)
Ojai Sam
Staff member
I never listened to a lot of ELO back in the day, but really enjoyed this album. They are one group for whom the migration to digital has been beneficial. Their original albums were well recorded and engineered, but were released at a time when the quality of vinyl was poor. I would encourage you to look for the remastered versions like this one rather than the original CDs. Early Sony CDs tended to be badly mastered.
Thanks for the tip.
Regarding the Mohicans soundtrack, I've regularly listened to soundtracks. It started way back when I was about thirteen years old, before we had a VCR. I loved the Superman movie and when it was broadcast on HBO, I put a tape recorder in front of the television and recorded the audio of the entire movie. I listened to that audio tape of the movie so much, I became intimate with every second of its soundtrack. I can honestly say I've listened to the Superman soundtrack more than any piece of music. Probably by a factor of 10. Actually, my love of film scores started before that, but that audio recording of Superman represented a ratcheting up of my affinity.
In my 20s, during my phase of really becoming a music aficionado, I adopted several soundtracks as favorites. I enjoy it when I hear it, but I haven't gotten into classical music as a collector. However, I love a well crafted soundtrack. I listen to them fairly often, usually a couple a week. For some reason, I rarely post them in the Listening thread. Probably because I rarely add to my movie soundtrack rotation and listen to the same two dozen over and over.
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Ojai Sam
Staff member
I was a soundtrack dabbler in my youth, pretty much limited to Hank Mancini and John Barry‘s early James Bond soundtracks, which I still love. During my middle years, I added the MGM musicals, largely due to the partnership between Rhino and Turner Classic Movies.
More recently, I have discovered labels like intrada and La La Land which painstakingly restore the original studio master recordings that haven’t been heard in their original form since the picture was assembled. In a sense, I’ve come full circle since both Mancini and Barry have received this treatment.
Unsomnambulist
Staff member
John Dwyer - Gong Splat (2021)
Unsomnambulist
Staff member
Famous Groupies - Chameleon Sessions (2021)
Edit: I'm glad this isn't my introduction to the group, because I would've quit here. Cheesy soft rock. The first song sounds like the theme for a late 70s TV show.
Edit: I'm glad this isn't my introduction to the group, because I would've quit here. Cheesy soft rock. The first song sounds like the theme for a late 70s TV show.
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Ojai Sam
Staff member
Speaking of which...
Lena Horne - Ain't It The Truth: Lena Horne At Metro-Goldwin-Mayer (rec. 1941-55, Rhino TCM comp. 1999)
This album contains all 17 songs performed by Lena in her 12 MGM films, plus 5 alternate takes and 1 outtake.
on the Sam-O-Meter. Essential listening.
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