What are you listening to?

[FunkMonk]

One song into The National's new album and it is extremely my shit.

[garbon]

Dua Lipa - New Rules
The Pussycat Dolls - I Hate This Part

[Eddie Teach]

"Alexa, play Closer."
"Playing Closer by the Chainsmokers featuring Halsey."
/sigh

[The Minsky Moment]

Arthur Blythe - In the Tradition (1978)

Blythe died earlier this year . . . In 1979, he recorded Lenox Avenue Breakdown which is one of my top 10 favorite albums.  Blythe tended towards free improvisation, which can sometimes a recipe for either small group atonal weirdness or horribly shrieking and honking reed play.  Blythe always brought his swing roots to the proceedings, and an infectious sense of fun, which makes the material more approachable if still a bit out.  This earlier album isn't quite the masterpiece that Lenox Avenue Breakdown would be, but it's close, and as its title indicates, even more rooted in the jazz tradition, with 3 pre-war compositions out of 6, 2 from Ellington.   It's not quite your grandfather's Ellington though.

After a while OOP, this got released with Breakdown and 2 other Blythe albums on a cheap Euro import CD - great value.

I got my own copy earlier on a used LP, signed by Blythe's then wife to the previous owner: "To a Friend, a Peer, and a Marxist"

There's the Village in the 70s for you.

[Eddie Teach]

I'm in the mood to remember the 90s.

Sponge- Plowed
Local H- Bound for the Floor
Orgy- Blue Monday
Cracker- Teen Angst(What the world needs now)
Veruca Salt- Volcano Girls
Garbage- #1 Crush
The Refreshments- Banditos
The Toadies- Possum Kingdom

[The Minsky Moment]

Art Blakey - Mosaic (1961) and Caravan (1963)

I've probably listened to these close to a hundred times (combined) over the last 20 years.  Same band except for one lineup change at bass.

This time I switched up by track - i.e. one track from Mosaic, then one from Caravan, then back to Mosaic.  Point being to listen to the differences in the recording style.  Mosaic was a Rudy van Gelder job from Blue Note (one of their first dedicated stereo recordings), Caravan was put out by Riverside and Orin Keepnews.  Listening side-by-side, the RVG style really jumps out: very immediate in the action feel, some reverb with the horns and drums, every hit on Blakey's hit is highlighted with the rolls and fills nearly overwhelming the band, narrow stereo separation.  The Riverside recording is more clean, less distorted, but its a more tame and the stereo separation is wide for my taste.

[The Minsky Moment]

Jimmy Smith - Groovin at Small's Paradise (1957)

More Hammond B3 goodness, this time from the King himself, Jimmy Smith.  Sav posted a listen a few months back from Smith's classic Back in the Chicken Shack a more polished affair with strong supporting personnel (Stanley Turrentine on tenor and Kenny Burrell on guitar).  This is a more stripped down trio date played live.  While guitarist McFadden is no Kenny Burrell, he acquits himself well here.  But there is no doubt this is Smith's show.  It's basically Smith playing a series of basic standards like "Indiana," "My Funny Valentine," and "It's Just a Paper Moon," but with each track exceeding 10 minutes, much of which Smith spends displaying his insane virtuosity on the organ. 

[BuddhaRhubarb]

April Wine.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

Thin Lizzy

[The Minsky Moment]

Keith Jarrett -- My Song (1977)

This is the "European Quartet" with Jan Garbarek, Palle Danielson and Jon Christensen - 2 Norwegians and a Swede.  Easy to see how a Swedish group like e.s.t. may have gotten the Jarrett influence.  It has the Euroish ECM sound that on some tracks is in danger of veering towards New Age, and also some Jarrett vocalizations - neither are really my bag.  But this sound is pretty influential -- for example, although Robert Glasper won a bunch of grammys incorporating hip hop and contemporary R&B into his music, its core is strongly influenced by Jarrett and this sound.  The playing is high quality as well of course.

ECM so no streaming sadly.

[Liep]

Alvvays - Dreams Tonite

Nice song to shake of the one hit wonder legacy of Archie

[Eddie Teach]

Bach's Brandenburg Concertos

[The Minsky Moment]

Bach's Brandenburg Concertos

Which recording?

[Eddie Teach]

I don't remember. The one Alexa picked for me. 

[The Brain]

Bach's Brandenburg Concertos

Which recording?

The one where he's drunk out of his mind and ends up just hurling abuse on the crowd after being triggered by some heckler.