What Are You Listening To?

[Dennie]

These Are Soulful Days -- CD

Benny Green - Russell Malone - Christian McBride

1999 Blue Note Records

Amazon.com

Always an effusive pianist with a relentlessly melodic approach, Benny Green celebrates Blue Note's 60th Anniversary by culling eight tunes from the label's back catalog and cutting loose with a drummerless trio that includes former cohorts Russell Malone on guitar and bassist Christian McBride. The harmonic rapport of Green and Malone is immediately apparent in their exacting unison lines to open Horace Silver's "Virgo," which also features McBride's resonant bow work. No longer a wunderkind, the 36-year-old Green solos with youthful intensity (check the dynamic force of "Bellarosa") but also showcases his ensemble maturity by shouldering some of the rhythmic duty and giving Malone ample space to explore a more kinetic side of his muse. Malone's chords, Green's left hand, and McBride's yeoman time-keeping provide plenty of percussive context. Saving the best for last, the trio returns to Silver for a bluesy "Come On Home" that inspires Malone into perhaps the most commanding uptempo passages of his career thus far. --Britt Robson

Track listing:
1. Virgo 4:19
2. Bellarosa 5:41
3. Summer Nights 5:00
4. Punjab 5:40
5. These Are Soulful Days 6:48
6. Ernie's Tune 3:03
7. Hocus-Pocus 6:06
8. Come on Home 8:07

 

[Dennie]

Oscar and Benny -- 20-bit CD

Oscar Peterson and Benny Green

1998 Telarc

Piano Titans Lock Horns, July 25, 1999
By Emmett T. McQueen (Occupied Calif) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Oscar & Benny (Audio CD)

This is a thoroughly enjoyable CD, pairing the crem de la crem of the jazz piano world. Most people rate Oscar Peterson as one of the most swingingest melodists of the later part of the twentieth century but I think his nomination as best percussionist should be considered after hearing this CD. Benny Green is the most complete and interesting pianist since Bill Evans. I've never been disappointed by his playing whether in concert or in the studio. When you listen to Oscar and Benny trade fours on "The More I See You" or "Limehouse Blues" and juxtapose their playing you can obtain a clearer glimpse into each artist's style. A TEN on the groove-o-meter!

Track Listing
1. For All We Know
2. When Lights Are Low
3. Yours Is My Heart Alone
4. Here's That Rainy Day
5. More I See You, The
6. Limehouse Blues
7. Easy Does It
8. Someday My Prince Will Come
9. Scrapple from the Apple
10. Jitterbug Waltz
11. Barbara's Blues

 

[Dennie]

Naste' -- CD

Roy Ayers

1995 Grovetown/RCA Records

Once one of the most visible and winning jazz vibraphonists of the 1960s, then an R&B bandleader in the 1970s and '80s, Roy Ayers' reputation s now that of one of the prophets of acid jazz, a man decades ahead of his time. A tune like 1972's "Move to Groove" by the Roy Ayers Ubiquity has a crackling backbeat that serves as the prototype for the shuffling hip-hop groove that became, shall we say, ubiquitous on acid jazz records; and his relaxed 1976 song "Everybody Loves the Sunshine" has been frequently sampled. Yet Ayers' own playing has always been rooted in hard bop: crisp, lyrical, rhythmically resilient. His own reaction to being canonized by the hip-hop crowd as the "Icon Man" is tempered with the detachment of a survivor in a rough business. "I'm having fun laughing with it," he has said. "I don't mind what they call me, that's what people do in this industry."

Growing up in a musical family -- his father played trombone, his mother taught him the piano -- the five-year-old Ayers was given a set of vibe mallets by Lionel Hampton, but didn't start on the instrument until he was 17. He got involved in the West Coast jazz scene in his early 20s, recording with Curtis Amy (1962), Jack Wilson (1963-1967), and the Gerald Wilson Orchestra (1965-1966); and playing with Teddy Edwards, Chico Hamilton, Hampton Hawes and Phineas Newborn. A session with Herbie Mann at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach led to a four-year gig with the versatile flutist (1966-1970), an experience that gave Ayers tremendous exposure and opened his ears to styles of music other than the bebop that he had grown up with.

1. Nasté
2. Mama Daddy
3. Your Love
4. Treasure
5. Swirl
6. Fantasy
7. Olé José
8. Baby Set Me Free
9. No More Trouble
10. Satisfaction
11. I Like It Like That
12. Last XT
13. Nonsense

 

[Dennie]

What am I listening too....?

Nothing.... :confusion-scratchheadyellow:


I think I'm done!




Dennie

 

[PaulyT]

What am I listening too....?

Nothing.... :confusion-scratchheadyellow:


I think I'm done!




Dennie

Maybe it's time to start listening to classical... :eusa-whistle: Got quite a few hundred years' worth to catch up with there!

 

[Botch]

Nothing.... :confusion-scratchheadyellow:


I think I'm done!




Dennie

:scared-yipes: :scared-yipes: :scared-yipes:

 

[heeman]

What am I listening too....?

Nothing.... :confusion-scratchheadyellow:


I think I'm done!




Dennie

Dennie................Where are you?

 

[Botch]

 

[Dennie]

Oops! I found one..... :handgestures-thumbup:

Wreck of The Day -- CD

Anna Nalick

2004 Columbia Records

Amazon.com

Twenty-year-old Anna Nalick is the rare artist who makes you want to grab pop music's wheels by the spokes so they'll stop spinning so fast. "Wait," the 11 songs on this debut disc say collectively to the newly initiated, "there's something substantial here." An onslaught of substance is more what it feels like, actually, and it grabs hold early. Though each of these songs is distinctive enough to avoid congealing with the others into a gorgeous glop of introspection, heavy sighs, and reflection, leadoff track and first single "Breathe (2 A.M.)" works small wonders as a flagship song. Its simple, lonely piano swirls into guitars that stop just short of rocking, allowing plenty of room for Nalick's unaffected voice to spill in. When it does, the music turns forest-thick and dreamy--influences run the Tori Amos indie singer-songwriter gamut, with streaks of Jewel and Alanis Morissette spiking out--but there's a naturalness and urgency to her singing that saves every chorus and verse from clouding over. Now that she's cautiously alighted into pop territory, sophisticated listeners will do well to dust off their welcome mats. --Tammy La Gorce

"Breathe (2 AM)" – 4:39
"Citadel" – 2:46
"Paper Bag" – 3:27
"Wreck of the Day" – 4:05
"Satellite" – 3:57
"Forever Love (Digame)" – 3:19
"In The Rough" – 4:02
"In My Head" – 4:04
"Bleed" – 3:57
"Catalyst" – 3:34
"Consider This" – 3:34

 

[Dennie]

What am I listening too....?

Nothing.... :confusion-scratchheadyellow:


I think I'm done!




Dennie

Dennie................Where are you?

I'm right here Buddy. Where the heck are you? :confusion-scratchheadyellow:

......... :laughing-rolling:

Always good to see you Heeman!! :bow-blue:



Dennie

 

[Dennie]

................. :happy-cheerleaderkid:





Dennie

 

[Dennie]

The Best of Badfinger -- Remastered CD

Badfinger

1995 Apple/Capitol/EMI Records

BADDEST HITS, October 26, 2005
By Jukebox Dave (RECORD TOWN, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Best Of Badfinger (Audio CD)

Often unfairly written off as a Fab Four clone, since they recorded for Apple Records, Badfinger was one of rock and roll's hookiest and most harmonic singles bands, thanks chiefly to the sweet songwriting and vocal efforts of tragic figure Pete Ham. Although Paul McCartney penned their debut charter COME AND GET IT, the boys REALLY hit the pop stratosphere via Ham's NO MATTER WHAT, DAY AFTER DAY, and BABY BLUE; he also co-composed the beautiful Nilsson smash WITHOUT YOU, included in its original form here. Other bright spots on this 22 track overview include MAYBE TOMORROW, a pre-Badfinger single from their days as the Iveys, though nothing appears from the band's brief comeback attempt without Ham. In short, this is as near a picture perfect pop postcard of early seventies radio rock as you can get. So by all means, come and get it.

RATING: FIVE FINGERS UP

Track listing

1. Come and Get It
2. Maybe Tomorrow
3. Rock of All Ages
4. Dear Angie
5. Carry on till Tomorrow
6. No Matter What
7. Believe Me
8. Midnight Caller
9. Better Days
10. Without You
11. Take It All
12. Money
13. Flying
14. Name of the Game, The
15. Suitcase
16. Day After Day
17. Baby Blue - (U.S. Single Mix)
18. When I Say
19. Icicles
20. I Can Love You
21. Apple of My Eye

 

[Dennie]

The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys -- CD

Traffic

1971 Island Records

Amazon.com

Despite not even charting in the band's native England, this album became a platinum-selling American hit on the basis of three enduring FM radio staples--the expansive, jazzy impressionism of the near-12 minute title track, and the more straightforward funk of the R&B charmers "Light Up or Leave Me Alone" and "Rock & Roll Stew." Those disparate tracks perfectly underscore Traffic's rich musical appeal and its restless, sometimes problematic creative and interpersonal relationships. With now thrice-departed Dave Mason out of the mix and percussionists Jim Gordon and Reebop Kwaku Baah participating in the studio for the first time, the band's innate musicality truly takes wing. Winwood's familiar vocal phrasings nearly take a backseat to his fluid, dramatic guitar work on "Rock & Roll Stew Roll" and "Many a Mile to Freedom," while the Tull-ish, folk-madrigal sensibilities of "Hidden Treasure" and "Rainmaker" are further punctuated by Chris Wood's deft flute and woodwind flourishes. Compared with the more organic John Barleycorn album, the contrast is all the more remarkable. While many contemporary bands were experimenting with various attempts at fusion, few achieved this collection's rock-jazz-folk-R&B range or level of often subtle sophistication. Digitally remastered, this edition also contains the six-minute-plus U.S. single version of "Rock & Roll Stew, Parts 1 & 2" as a bonus track. --Jerry McCulley

All songs written by Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi unless otherwise noted.

"Hidden Treasure" – 4:16
"The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" – 11:35
"Light Up or Leave Me Alone" (Jim Capaldi) – 4:55
"Rock & Roll Stew" (Ric Grech, Jim Gordon) – 4:29
"Many a Mile to Freedom" (Steve Winwood, Anna Capaldi) – 7:26
"Rainmaker" – 7:39

The initial CD release placed Light Up or Leave Me Alone after Many a Mile to Freedom.

 

[Botch]

"The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" .

I'm not too much into this album, but there's a guitar chord at the end of a solo on this song, that just raises the hairs on my arms. :scared-yipes: :scared-yipes: :scared-yipes:

 

[Kazaam]

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

I really like quite a lot of these songs, but can't help but to wish that we could've just taken the best stuff here and the best stuff from Beady Eye's album and put them all together to form one kickass Oasis record. But I'm not expecting an Oasis reunion anytime soon. Might as well enjoy what we've got.

With High Flying Birds, we finally get some fine studio versions of Noel-penned songs that have floated around for a while, such as "If I had a Gun" and "I Wanna Live In a Dream In My Record Machine". And "Stop The Clocks", which was apparently considered for official release as an Oasis song at one point long long ago.

I think Gallagher's new song, "The Death Of You And Me", is in my opinion an excellent song that suits Noel's voice perfectly. I'd have to go back and listen to his other Noel-sung songs just to be sure, but it feels a bit fresher than some of his other stuff. Not entirely a new direction, but maybe somewhat? Regardless, it's got a good vibe.

Overall, it's a decent solo album from the elder Gallagher, and it has some high points as well as some rather mediocre---if still pleasant---points.

 

[Dennie]

The Very Best of Eagles -- 2 CD Set

Eagles

2003 Elektra Records

Amazon.com

This packed double-disc is the slim option for fans who find the Eagles' vaunted greatest hits sets too little and the boxed set too hefty. Hit singles large and medium are here, often ("One of These Nights," "Hotel California") still sounding definitive and even tough. Large helpings of favorite album cuts are also included, along with a taster from a promised 2004 Eagles studio reunion. Unfortunately, "Hole in the World," Don Henley's response to September 11, feels just as empty and entitled as "Get Over It," the band's previous state-of-the-union message (from which the newer song represents a philosophical 180-degree turn). But for those seeking an overview of this Southern California juggernaut's successes, as well as telling comments from band members--mostly Henley and Frey--in a well-designed booklet, Very Best will more than do. --Rickey Wright

Disc one

"Take It Easy" (Jackson Browne, Glenn Frey) – 3:29
"Witchy Woman" (Don Henley, Bernie Leadon) – 4:10
"Peaceful Easy Feeling" (Jack Tempchin) – 4:16
"Desperado" (Henley, Frey) – 3:33
"Tequila Sunrise" (Henley, Frey) – 2:42
"Doolin-Dalton" (Browne, Frey, Henley, J.D. Souther) – 3:26
"Already Gone" (Tempchin, Robb Strandlund) – 4:13
"Best of My Love" (Henley, Frey, Souther) – 4:35
"James Dean" (Browne, Frey, Souther, Henley) – 3:36
"Ol' '55" (Tom Waits) – 4:22
"Midnight Flyer" (Paul Craft) – 3:58
"On the Border" (Henley, Leadon, Frey) – 4:28
"Lyin' Eyes" (Henley, Frey) – 6:21
"One of These Nights" (Henley, Frey) – 4:51
"Take It to the Limit" (Randy Meisner, Henley, Frey) – 4:48
"After the Thrill Is Gone" (Henley, Frey) - 3:56
"Hotel California" (Don Felder, Henley, Frey) – 6:30

Tracks 1–3 from Eagles (1972)Tracks 4–6 from Desperado (1973)Tracks 7–12 from On the Border (1974)Tracks 13–16 from One of These Nights (1975)Track 17 from Hotel California (1976)

Disc two

"Life in the Fast Lane" (Joe Walsh, Henley, Frey) – 4:46
"Wasted Time" (Henley, Frey) – 4:55
"Victim of Love" (Felder, Souther, Henley, Frey) – 4:11
"The Last Resort" (Henley, Frey) – 7:25
"New Kid in Town" (Souther, Henley, Frey) – 5:04
"Please Come Home for Christmas" (Charlie Brown) – 2:58
"Heartache Tonight" (Henley, Frey, Bob Seger, Souther) – 4:26
"The Sad Café" (Henley, Frey, Walsh, Souther) – 5:35
"I Can't Tell You Why" (Timothy B. Schmit, Henley, Frey) – 4:56
"The Long Run" (Henley, Frey) – 3:42
"In the City" (Walsh, Barry De Vorzon) – 3:46
"Those Shoes" (Felder, Henley, Frey) – 4:56
"Seven Bridges Road (Live)" (Steve Young) – 3:25
"Love Will Keep Us Alive" (Pete Vale, Jim Capaldi, Paul Carrack) – 4:00
"Get Over It" (Henley, Frey) – 3:29
"Hole in the World" (Henley, Frey) – 4:13

Tracks 1-5 from Hotel California (1976)Track 6 was a non-album single (1978)Tracks 7-12 from The Long Run (1979)Track 13 from Eagles Live (1980)Tracks 14 and 15 from Hell Freezes Over (1994)Track 16 is a new track (2003)

 

[Dennie]

Beck & Sanborn -- Remastered CD

Joe Beck & David Sanborn

1975/1990 CTI/Columbia Records

Album Notes
Personnel includes: Joe Beck (guitar); David Sanborn (alto saxophone); Don Grolnick (electric piano, organ); Steve Kahn (guitar); Will Lee (bass); Chris Parker (drums); Ray Mantilla (conga, percussion).Recorded in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey in 1975.Popular, crossover smash session linking two instrumental pop stars for a 1975 album. Beck played in a slick, light style, while Sanborn, although restrained, would occasionally slip in a hot blues lick or a fluid alto solo. It has been reissued on CD. ~ Ron Wynn

Track Listing
1. Star Fire
2. Cactus
3. Texas Ann
4. Red Eye
5. Cafe Black Rose
6. Brothers and Others
7. Ain't It Good
8. Spoon's Theme

 

[Dennie]

If you like a little FUNK with your Smooth Jazz, this one is a winner..... :handgestures-thumbup:

Groovin' -- CD

BWB

2002 Warner Bros. Records

Amazon.com

This concept sounds like the set-up for a joke: What do you get when you cross three smooth-jazzers with topnotch straight-ahead players? Turns out Norman Brown, Kirk Whalum, and Rick Braun have the last laugh and a *** good time. While they may be three of the most distinct stylists in smooth jazz, they had to turn up the pots to cook with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Gregory Hutchinson. Keyboardist Ricky Peterson, maybe the funkiest organist in contemporary jazz outside of Larry Goldings, plays a producing role and is probably the MVP of BWB. The players aren't the only stars. The impeccable choice of 10 well-known cover tunes adds to an unapologetically fun record that allows B, W, and B to stretch out much more than they do on other recordings. Braun quotes Freddie Hubbard on "Povo," while Whalum explores Cannonball Adderley on "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy," and Brown pays back Wes Montgomery throughout the proceedings. From the sexually charged "Let's Do It Again," featuring a purring Dee Dee Bridgewater and a scatting Brown, to the inspired arrangements of Alicia Keys's "A Woman's Worth" and D'Angelo's "Brown Sugar," there are no holes in any of these grooves. --Mark Ruffin

Track Listing
1. Groovin'
2. Brown Sugar
3. Ruby Baby
4. Woman's Worth, A
5. Hip Hug Her
6. Mercy Mercy Mercy
7. Let's Do It Again - (featuring Dee Dee Bridgewater)
8. It's Your Thing
9. Povo
10. Up for the Down Stroke

BWB stands for the first initials in the last names of Rick Braun, Kirk Whalum, and Norman Brown.

BWB: Kirk Whalum (soprano & tenor saxophones); Rick Braun (trumpet); Norman Brown (guitar).
Additional personnel includes: Dee Dee Bridgewater (vocals); Michael Campbell (guitar); Ricky Peterson (Fender Rhodes, Hammond B-3 organ, keyboards); Christian McBride (bass); Gregory Hutchinson (drums); Bashiri Johnson (percussion).

 

[Dennie]

Pictures At An Exhibition -- CD

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

1972 Victory Music

Lead Me from Tortured Dreams, August 25, 2007
By Thomas K. Emanuel "Music Fan & a Half" (Deadwood, SD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This review is from: Pictures At An Exhibition (Audio CD)

Whether you like them or not, you've got to at least give Emerson Lake & Palmer credit for having the balls to pull off something like PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION. The original "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Modest Mussorgsky is one of music's most highly-regarded piano showpieces; likewise, the arrangement by Maurice Ravel is hailed as one of the premier orchestral works of all time. And ELP, a band both renowned and reviled for their savagely bombastic jazz-inflected improvisations and self-conscious pomposity, decided to give it a whirl. You can almost hear the critics screaming. But I've learned to tune out the screaming and just listen to the music - when you're a Paul McCartney fan, as I am, that's par for the course. And also par for the course is finding that, while sometimes the critics have a point, more often than not they have no clue what they're talking about.

Strangely enough, I'd say in this case the critics got more right than they usually do in such situations. They called ELP's adaptation loud, noisy, pompous, pretentious, self-important, self-indulgent, and sacrilegious. And it's all of those things, with a heaping helping of grandiloquence on the side and silliness to taste. But that's precisely the point. Moments such as Keith Emerson's Hammond playing Mussorgsky's instantly recognizable "Promenade" backed by Carl Palmer's doomsday drumming; diverging from "The Old Castle" into some angular "Blues Variations"; and Greg Lake shouting lines like "There's no ending to my life/No beginning to my death/Death is life!" over "The Great Gates of Kiev", exist pretty much just for the sake of hearing something so absurd. And yet somehow ELP make their twisted rearrangements work as ELP and not just ELP playing Mussorgsky, sounding very much like themselves while still allowing you to hear the originals underneath. The playing is stellar throughout, of course, though as usual Emerson steals the show with his mind-bending keyboard soloing.

And just to make sure we realize that they realize how ridiculous this all is, PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION concludes with the awfully-titled "Nutrocker", a supremely silly cover of a supremely silly arrangement of the "March" from Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker". Now there's an example of the prog spirit if I ever heard one.
1. "Promenade" Mussorgsky 1:58
2. "The Gnome" Mussorgsky/Palmer 4:18
3. "Promenade" Mussorgsky/Lake 1:23
4. "The Sage" Lake 4:42
5. "The Old Castle" Mussorgsky/Emerson 2:33
6. "Blues Variation" Emerson/Lake/Palmer 4:22
7. "Promenade" Mussorgsky 1:29
8. "The Hut of Baba Yaga" Mussorgsky 1:12
9. "The Curse of Baba Yaga" Emerson/Lake/Palmer 4:10
10. "The Hut of Baba Yaga (Part 2)" Mussorgsky 1:06
11. "The Great Gates of Kiev/The End" Mussorgsky/Lake 6:37
12. "Nut Rocker" Tchaikovsky/Fowley 4:26

 

[heeman]

Pictures At An Exhibition -- CD

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

1972 Victory Music

Lead Me from Tortured Dreams, August 25, 2007
By Thomas K. Emanuel "Music Fan & a Half" (Deadwood, SD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This review is from: Pictures At An Exhibition (Audio CD)

Whether you like them or not, you've got to at least give Emerson Lake & Palmer credit for having the balls to pull off something like PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION. The original "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Modest Mussorgsky is one of music's most highly-regarded piano showpieces; likewise, the arrangement by Maurice Ravel is hailed as one of the premier orchestral works of all time. And ELP, a band both renowned and reviled for their savagely bombastic jazz-inflected improvisations and self-conscious pomposity, decided to give it a whirl. You can almost hear the critics screaming. But I've learned to tune out the screaming and just listen to the music - when you're a Paul McCartney fan, as I am, that's par for the course. And also par for the course is finding that, while sometimes the critics have a point, more often than not they have no clue what they're talking about.

Strangely enough, I'd say in this case the critics got more right than they usually do in such situations. They called ELP's adaptation loud, noisy, pompous, pretentious, self-important, self-indulgent, and sacrilegious. And it's all of those things, with a heaping helping of grandiloquence on the side and silliness to taste. But that's precisely the point. Moments such as Keith Emerson's Hammond playing Mussorgsky's instantly recognizable "Promenade" backed by Carl Palmer's doomsday drumming; diverging from "The Old Castle" into some angular "Blues Variations"; and Greg Lake shouting lines like "There's no ending to my life/No beginning to my death/Death is life!" over "The Great Gates of Kiev", exist pretty much just for the sake of hearing something so absurd. And yet somehow ELP make their twisted rearrangements work as ELP and not just ELP playing Mussorgsky, sounding very much like themselves while still allowing you to hear the originals underneath. The playing is stellar throughout, of course, though as usual Emerson steals the show with his mind-bending keyboard soloing.

And just to make sure we realize that they realize how ridiculous this all is, PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION concludes with the awfully-titled "Nutrocker", a supremely silly cover of a supremely silly arrangement of the "March" from Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker". Now there's an example of the prog spirit if I ever heard one.
1. "Promenade" Mussorgsky 1:58
2. "The Gnome" Mussorgsky/Palmer 4:18
3. "Promenade" Mussorgsky/Lake 1:23
4. "The Sage" Lake 4:42
5. "The Old Castle" Mussorgsky/Emerson 2:33
6. "Blues Variation" Emerson/Lake/Palmer 4:22
7. "Promenade" Mussorgsky 1:29
8. "The Hut of Baba Yaga" Mussorgsky 1:12
9. "The Curse of Baba Yaga" Emerson/Lake/Palmer 4:10
10. "The Hut of Baba Yaga (Part 2)" Mussorgsky 1:06
11. "The Great Gates of Kiev/The End" Mussorgsky/Lake 6:37
12. "Nut Rocker" Tchaikovsky/Fowley 4:26

ELP!!! I Love This One!! :text-bravo: