What jazz, classical, or folk music are you listening to?

ThinkOfOne September 25, 2022 at 21:26 9600 views 244 comments
With the "What are you listening to" thread dominated by rock/pop, thought it might be worth giving this a try.

For the purposes of this thread creative music (both improvised and composed) that grew out of jazz and classical are included. Music that grew out of rock/pop are excluded.

Clusone Trio "Love Henry"
Brad Mehldau "Elegiac Cycle"
Jeanne Lee and Ran Blake "The Newest Sound Around"
Duke Ellington "Such Sweet Thunder"
Chang/Davies/Drouin/Durrant/Patterson/Tilbury "Variable Formations"


Comments (244)

Jamal September 26, 2022 at 04:37 #742484
The other thread has plenty of music that's not rock and pop. Maybe you've just been looking at the last few pages.

Be that as it may, I was just listening to "The Creator has a Master Plan" by Pharaoh Sanders.
ThinkOfOne September 26, 2022 at 21:26 #742750
Quoting Jamal
The other thread has plenty of music that's not rock and pop. Maybe you've just been looking at the last few pages.

Be that as it may, I was just listening to "The Creator has a Master Plan" by Pharaoh Sanders.



Seems to be dominated by rock/pop regardless. Hopefully there'll be folks who have jazz and/or classical as their primary interest.

Had never listened to the Sanders. Thanks for posting it.
Jeri Brown enlisted Leon Thomas for a vocal duet version if you're interested.
ThinkOfOne September 26, 2022 at 21:50 #742755
Julliard String Quartet - "The Four String Quartets"
Elliott Carter

Teodoro Anzellotti "Janacek"
Leos Janacek piano works arranged for accordion

Barbara Hannigan / Reinbert de Leeuw "Socrate"
Erik Satie compositions

Yuko Yamaoka "Diary 2005-2015"
Satoko Fujii compostional sketches

Maneri / Morris / Maneri "Three Men Walking"





ThinkOfOne September 29, 2022 at 15:10 #743379
Daunik Lazro / Joelle Leandre "Hasparren"

Cecil Taylor "Celebrated Blazons"
William Parker
Tony Oxley

Horace Silver "The Jody Grind"

Leos Janacek "String Quartets / Violin Sonata"
Prazak Quartet

Max Reger "Cello Suites"
Guido Schiefen




SophistiCat September 30, 2022 at 20:44 #743676
Reply to ThinkOfOne
GyΓΆrgy Ligeti: Requiem : II Kyrie

The other movements:
[hide]



[/hide]

Alfred Schnittke: Piano Quintet


(yeah, I am not in a cheery mood)
ThinkOfOne September 30, 2022 at 23:44 #743712
Reply to SophistiCat

Nice selections.

Never thought about not being in a cheery mood to listen to the Schnittke piano quartet. Works for me in whatever mood.
ThinkOfOne September 30, 2022 at 23:49 #743713
Gerald Cleaver "Farmers by Nature"
William Parker
Craig Taborn

Luis Vicente / Vasco Trilla "A Brighter Side of Darkness"

Sonny Rollins "A Night at the Village Vanguard"

Benny Carter "Jazz Giant"

Max Reger "Sonatas for Solo Violin"
Ulrike-Anima Mathe
ThinkOfOne October 01, 2022 at 18:39 #743908
Marian McPartland Trio "Personal Choice"

Urs Leimgruber "Statement of an Antirider"
Solo sax / flute

Grigori Frid "Piano Quintet / Phadra"
Elisaveta Blumina
Vogler Quintet
Paine October 02, 2022 at 00:04 #743975
I have had a long relationship with this bit of music. I like this version because it underscores the dissonance with the harmony.

SophistiCat October 02, 2022 at 14:34 #744100
Quoting ThinkOfOne
Max Reger "Cello Suites"


Quoting ThinkOfOne
Max Reger "Sonatas for Solo Violin"


I see you like Max Reger - or just exploring? Like most, probably, I am not very familiar with his quite voluminous output. Hadn't heard these works before. Bach's cello suites and violin sonatas and partitas are my favorites, so I was curious about Reger's take. I liked them a lot, especially the cello suites. But I must say, I like Reger best when he is writing more as Reger and less as ersatz Bach.

On a related note, one of my favorites from the same period:

And its companion piece: [hide][/hide]

And more early Ligeti:
ThinkOfOne October 02, 2022 at 23:24 #744254
Reply to SophistiCat

Compared to jazz and its derivatives, my exposure to classical and its derivatives is fairly limited. Heavily weighted toward the 20th and 21st century. The modern ideas are more interesting to me. Earlier than that its mostly the various combinations of strings and strings plus piano. Especially like the Bach sonatas and partitas for solo violin and the Beethoven late string quartets. They seem to have modern elements. Reger for the same reason. Other particular favorites from prior to postmodernism are Satie, Bartok, Shostakovich and Weinberg. Less so, Tartini, Paganini, Ysaye and others. What about you?
ThinkOfOne October 02, 2022 at 23:29 #744256
Gyorgy Ligeti "The Ligeti Project III"

Evan Parker / Eddie Prevost "Tools of imagination"

The Sealed Knot "Twenty"
Rhodri Davies
Mark Wastell
Burkhard Beins

John Cage "Sixty-Two Mesostics RE Merce Cunningham"
Everhard Blum voice

Michael Vincent Waller "Moments"
SophistiCat October 03, 2022 at 22:12 #744676
Reply to ThinkOfOne I am coming from a mostly classical background, and from there expanding into more difficult (for me) modern music. Lately I've been listening to more modern than classical - part of the reason being that tonal, melodic music gives me earworms something fierce, and the emotional response can be unbalancing. But I just can't get into highly "conceptual" music like Cage's.

My exposure to jazz is pretty light. I like jazz circa 1950s-1970s, from Parker to Monk, but that's probably because I don't know much else.
ThinkOfOne October 04, 2022 at 15:54 #744948
Eddie Prevost "Touch"
Tom Chant
John Edwards

Tyshawn Sorey / Marilyn Crispell "The Adornment of Time"

Morton Feldman "Only: Music for Voice and Instruments"
Joan La Barbara

Sonny Rollins "The Sound of Sonny"

ThinkOfOne October 04, 2022 at 22:53 #745076
Reply to SophistiCat

As a matter of curiosity, what Cage have you listened to? What do you think of Morton Feldman?

Since you come from a classical background, what recordings of the various combinations of strings or strings plus piano would you highly recommend?

I'd also be interested in hearing what modern classical has particularly impressed you.
ThinkOfOne October 07, 2022 at 00:14 #745991
Marian McPartland "Live at Maybeck"

Urs Leimbruber "Quartet Noir"
Marilyn Crispell
Joelle Leandre
Fritz Hauser

Nate Wooley "Mutual Aid Music"

Taku Sugimoto "Opposite"
Tom Storm October 07, 2022 at 03:48 #746045
Mahler 10 Simon Rattle (Cooke version)
Shostakovich Symphony 5
Poulenc Organ Concerto


ThinkOfOne October 07, 2022 at 21:30 #746323
Rob Brown Trio "High Wire"
William Parker
Jackson Krall

Michael Bisio "MBEK"
Eyvind Kang

Gyorgy Legiti "The Legiti Project II"

Michael Vincent Waller "The South Shore"
SophistiCat October 08, 2022 at 20:49 #746611
Quoting ThinkOfOne
As a matter of curiosity, what Cage have you listened to? What do you think of Morton Feldman?


I don't remember TBH, but I did try a few works of Cage that came recommended (and I don't mean stunts like 4'33''), but nothing left an impression. Same with Feldman.

Quoting ThinkOfOne
Since you come from a classical background, what recordings of the various combinations of strings or strings plus piano would you highly recommend?


That's not a fair question, is it? :) There are too many works in the classical repertoire that match the description. Personally, I love Schubert - quartets, quintets, trios.

Quoting ThinkOfOne
I'd also be interested in hearing what modern classical has particularly impressed you.


Well, let's see... There are the big 20th century names - don't know if you'd consider them modern: Bartok, Shostakovitch, Prokofiev, Satie, Messiaen, Britten... Stravinsky, the quintessential 20th century composer, spanning the gamut from late romanticism to modernism, neo-classicism, serialism. Hindemith, once ubiquitous, now semi-forgotten, I am not sure why. (There is an old man-walks-into-a-bar joke that I came across once, which you can tell must go back at least half a century, because the punch-line implies that Hindemith could be the greatest 20th century composer. It also involves Orff.)

Of the later generations of composers, I like Takemitsu (pretty much everything), Ginastera (the late period, but his nationalist period is also nice). Some things of Ligeti, Schnittke, Gubaidulina. The only Boulez that I have liked is Sur Incises. Steve Reich, Tom Johnson, GΓ©rard Grisey, Henri Dutilleux, Arvo PΓ€rt. Other odds and ends.

John Luther Adams: Canticles of the Holy Wind: The Hour of the Doves
ThinkOfOne October 08, 2022 at 23:57 #746647
Evan Parker "Imaginary Values"
Barry Guy
Paul Lytton

Tyshawn Sorey "Verisimilitudes"
Cory Smythe
Chris Tordini

Art Pepper "Modern Art"

William Duckworth "The Time Curve Preludes"


Srap Tasmaner October 09, 2022 at 03:07 #746681
Most recently:

Dexter Gordon, Live at the Montmartre Jazzhus (Kenny Drew p, NHOP b, Tootie Heath d)
Duke Ellington, Black, Brown & Beige (The 1944-1946 Band) (studio recordings, on Bluebird)
Charlie Parker, Complete Dial Sessions
Duke Ellington, The Blanton-Webster Band (studio recordings 40-42, also on Bluebird)
Ornette Coleman, Something Else!!!!, Shape of Jazz to Come, Tomorrow is the Question, Change of the Century, This is Our Music, Ornette!, Free Jazz, Ornette on Tenor (most of the albums from 58-62, all of them because they're in a box set from Enlightenment, cost me maybe $15, worth it even duplicating a couple I already had)

Don't remember before that, was listening to a lot of Monk for a while. Don't know what I'll grab from the milk crates next.
Srap Tasmaner October 09, 2022 at 03:13 #746682
Before that was

Mal Waldron, Hard Talk
Mal Waldron, Quadrologue at Utopia
Mal Waldron, Crowd Scene
SophistiCat October 09, 2022 at 20:10 #746795
Quoting Tom Storm
Poulenc Organ Concerto


This is great.

Poulenc: Gloria
Tom Storm October 09, 2022 at 21:53 #746814
ThinkOfOne October 10, 2022 at 00:11 #746860
Reply to SophistiCat

Thanks for this. Ginastera and Grisey are unknown to me. Had come across Gubaidulina and Dutilleux. I'll have to check them out.

Schubert I only have the late quartets, the string quintet and a couple of the late piano sonatas. As with Beethoven, the late works are what catch my ear.

Tom Johnson? Anything besides "An Hour for Piano" that I shouldn't miss?
ThinkOfOne October 10, 2022 at 00:17 #746862
Marian McPartland "Plays the Music of Mary Lou Williams"

George Lewis "Shadowgraph"

Guy Klucevsek "Stolen Memories"

Art Blakey "Mosaic"

Toru Takemitsu "Chamber Music"
Robert Aitken
ThinkOfOne October 10, 2022 at 14:38 #746998
Quoting Srap Tasmaner
Before that was

Mal Waldron, Hard Talk
Mal Waldron, Quadrologue at Utopia
Mal Waldron, Crowd Scene


On WaldronΒ’s next easily accessible recording, 1969Β’s Free at Last (the first ECM record), everything is reduced to the drone and the riff. His touch has gotten more secure and elemental. As far as I can tell, Waldron wouldnΒ’t really develop further until his death in 2002. Nor would he need to.
While on the Β’50s records he threads changes, the mature Waldron doesnΒ’t give a damn about making guide tones connect in satisfying or surprising ways.The right hand is an incantatory shaman sitting atop the chugging, low-register left, insisting that a short stutter of melody will fit anything: any harmony, any place in the beat, any tune. If the changes are noticed, simple lines are repeated in unvarying sequence.

WaldronΒ’s best music also has a darker side thatΒ’s not decipherable in sense-based or spiritual terms. H. P. LovecraftΒ’s word unnamable might be appropriate. The piano playing seethes and burbles without coming to a climax.

Not everybody likes it. While many jazz fans have easily connected with WaldronΒ’s emotional power, some professionals find Mal WaldronΒ’s mature music merely amateurish, probably because it doesnΒ’t play by the rules of sophisticated jazz. ItΒ’s certainly not that swinging, in part because Waldron frequently pushes ahead of the beat.
---Ethan Iverson

From


The dark brooding nature of Waldron's music is imbued with a hypnotic quality that I find quite likeable.
ThinkOfOne October 10, 2022 at 19:42 #747088
John Carter / Bobby Bradford "Seeking"

Ran Blake Quartet "Short Life of Barbara Monk"

Stephen Scott "Aminah's Dream"

Ben Webster "Music for Loving"

Linda Catlin Smith "Ballad"
Apartment House
Srap Tasmaner October 11, 2022 at 02:04 #747217
Cannonball Adderley, Somethin' Else
ThinkOfOne October 11, 2022 at 17:07 #747399
Larry Ochs "The Fictive Five"
Nate Wooley
Ken Filiano
Pascal Niggenkemper
Harris Eisenstadt

Rodrigo Pinheiro "Red Trio"
Hernani Faustino
Gabriel Ferrandini

Daunik Lazro "Some Other Zongs"
Solo baritone sax

Dans Les Arbres "Canopee"
Xavier Charles
Ivar Grydeland
Christian Wallumrod
Ingar Zach

Linda Catlin Smith "Dirt Road"
Mira Benjamin: violin
Simon Limbrick: percussion


SophistiCat October 11, 2022 at 21:18 #747469
Reply to ThinkOfOne Check out Schubert's piano trios if you haven't. The Andate of the 2nd trio (and it miraculous recapitulation in the finale) haunted me for the longest time.
[hide]
[/hide]

Since you like chamber music, you may like Ginastera's quartets - I know I do. I also like his piano, cello and violin concertos. This is potent stuff.

I am not all that much into Grisey or Johson, but I like a few things. Grisey: Partiels and a couple of other things. Johnson: Combinations for string quartet, especially Tilework and Combinations V. Narayana's Cows (I don't much care about all this mathematical structure behind the music; I just find the music itself - complete with the reading of the text - hypnotically attractive). And this is just fun:

ThinkOfOne October 15, 2022 at 19:09 #748645
Reply to SophistiCat

Thanks for this. Will take a closer listen to the Ginastera quartets, the Schubert piano trios and the Johnson quartets. Regarding the Schubert, is there a particular recording that rises above the others?
ThinkOfOne October 15, 2022 at 20:45 #748708
Thomas Chapin Trio "Haywire"
plus strings

John Surman "Adventure Playground"
Paul Bley
Gary Peacock
Tony Oxley

Lee Konitz and Red Mitchell "I Concentrate on You"

Art Blakey "Buhaina's Delight"

Christopher Fox "Topophony"
WDR Sinfonieorchester
Axel Dorner and Paul Lovens
John Butcher and Thomas Lehn





Tom Storm October 17, 2022 at 00:15 #749080
JS Bach: Goldberg Variations - Jean Rondeau (harpsichord)
A Schoenberg VerklΓ€rte Nacht
SophistiCat October 17, 2022 at 21:25 #749263
Quoting ThinkOfOne
Regarding the Schubert, is there a particular recording that rises above the others?


Well, you can't go wrong with the Oistrakh / Knushevitsky / Oborin classic recording that I linked in my post (it is old, but very good sound quality). There are others of course.
SophistiCat October 17, 2022 at 21:39 #749266
Quoting Tom Storm
JS Bach: Goldberg Variations - Jean Rondeau (harpsichord)


Gotta listen to that. Which recording were you listening to?

A while ago I came across this interesting project: #BachUpsideDown
Tom Storm October 17, 2022 at 21:51 #749270
Reply to SophistiCat It's on YouTube - was part of the Bach anniversary. Just pop that in and you'll get it. Rondeau is an extraordinary player. The older I get, the more I appreciate and 'feel' Bach. Perhaps that's how it is meant to work.

SophistiCat October 18, 2022 at 07:16 #749401
Reply to Tom Storm I was asking because I found two recordings: one released in 2017 for the Netherlands Bach Society's All of Bach series, and another released on Erato label a few years later. The Aria on the latter recording seemed much too slow for me; the earlier one's tempo is about right. I have to admit, though this is not to my credit as a listener, that hearing a beloved work in an unaccustomed tempo seems almost as wrong as hearing a false note.
Tom Storm October 18, 2022 at 07:52 #749403
Reply to SophistiCat I'll listen to any version of this and other pieces as I like multiple interpretations - even 'wrong' ones :wink: I'm talking about the earlier one.

I remember listening to the first movement of Barbirolli's slow Mahler 6th from 1967 and thinking this is way too slow - I love it!

SophistiCat October 18, 2022 at 21:42 #749597
Quoting Tom Storm
I'll listen to any version of this and other pieces as I like multiple interpretations - even 'wrong' ones


Have listen at Dan Tepfer's "upside-down" version then :)

I listened to the All of Bach recording - it's beautiful. Now of course I have an earworm or three. Oh well, it was worth it.

Quoting Tom Storm
I remember listening to the first movement of Barbirolli's slow Mahler 6th from 1967 and thinking this is way too slow - I love it!


I got my introduction to Schubert's great B-flat major sonata from Richter's classic recording, and instantly fell in love with it. I didn't know at the time how unusual that interpretation was in terms of tempo. Later a friend gave me Schnabel's recording of the same sonata - which goes about twice as fast. My first reaction was: How dare he! It sounded like a disrespectful parody. In time I learned to appreciate other interpretations, especially Clara Haskil's
[hide][/hide]

Jamal October 22, 2022 at 13:54 #750583
I find the "Jazz and Classical" a bit restrictive, because a lot of the music I like doesn't quite fit in either. I'm going to assume that the other interesting kinds of music I like are welcome here--I'm coming round to the view that the other thread is too rock/pop-centric.

Fred Frith might be neither jazz nor classical, but his music has aspects of both. Today I've been listening to my favourite two of his albums. The first, the album Gravity, inspired by Eastern European folk music, has been called "avant-garde dance music", which gets the idea across; and the second, Traffic Continues, is a long multipart composition played primarily by the Ensemble Modern on oldy worldy orchestral instruments.





Also Pat Metheny's The Way Up

Noble Dust October 24, 2022 at 05:23 #751048
As much as I philosophically oppose this thread, I've had this stuck in my head for the better part of two days.

Amity October 24, 2022 at 21:43 #751267
Quoting ThinkOfOne
Hopefully there'll be folks who have jazz and/or classical as their primary interest.


Jazz and/or classical music I listen to and appreciate when I'm in a certain mood or frame of mind.

The reason I've popped in. I've been listening to Liszt and I'd be grateful if anyone could answer my question below:
Liszt, La tombe et la rose, S. 285 (1844) - with score and subtitles



From the 'Poem meaning' thread: https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/13562/poem-meaning/latest/comment

Amity:Next, "phrase" is also a word used in music theory: a phrase is built from lower level stuff, too, like, say, motifs, but I'm not that knowledgable here. In any case, if you riff of this term, you might consider a phrase a compositional unit that somehow completes a rhythm. A phrase might co-incide with a line, with half a line, with a couplet... depending on the poem. You can then compare the rhythmic units with units of meaning: Do they co-incide? Do they overlap? And so on.
Β— Dawnstorm

[b]I'd be interested to hear how well the music, song and singer interpret the poem and the phrasing.
Any ideas?[/b]


Your thoughts would be appreciated :sparkle:

Jamal October 27, 2022 at 09:35 #751910
Reply to Noble Dust Good stuff. Very modern sounding. At times it reminded me of Riley and Reich.

I've been getting myself back into jazz. I've always liked Wayne Shorter, not only for his playing but also for his composition. No matter how primary the improvisation might be in jazz, everyone likes a good tune, and the harmonic simplicity of the compositions in modal jazz just sounds great to me; I never really got into the busier styles of bebop (or hard bop), aside from Charlie Parker (for me, Miles Davis and John Coltrane come alive around the Kind of Blue era, when they move away from those crazy bebop changes).

This is from Shorter's album Juju and features McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, and Reggie Workman, all from John Coltrane's group. But in contrast with sixties Coltrane, to whom he was often compared at the time this album was recorded, Shorter doesn't have the desperate searching quality that can get a bit much if you're not in the mood. And I do love Elvin Jones's drumming. I can't really get my head around it but the mercurial, impressionistic, responsive way he plays is amazing.



A couple of years later Shorter played in McCoy Tyner's band on one of my favourite albums, Expansions. Again, it has a similar modal approach, and again with good tunes. Shorter's playing is fantastic throughout.

This is "Peresina":



The album begins with a classic, "Vision". It's heavier and faster than, e.g., "Peresina", but still has the expansive, open and soaring sound that I like in this kind of jazz.



Those solos by Shorter and Gary Bartz, not least because of the help of Freddie Watts's drums, are really something.
Srap Tasmaner November 03, 2022 at 18:32 #753595
Quoting Jamal
And I do love Elvin Jones's drumming


If you haven't heard it listen to Out of This World, the opening track of Coltrane's self-titled release on Impulse!

Mine for today is

Pharaoh Sanders, Heart is a Melody
Pharaoh, ts; William Henderson, p; John Heard, b; Idris Muhammad, d

and it's very special to me. (Got to to see Pharaoh in Atlanta a couple years ago.)

Many years ago, I used to live in the DC area and would sometimes listen to Jazz 90, knowing nothing about jazz but a little curious. One late night driving up Connecticut, I heard the opening track of this record and became a lifelong jazz fan. I was blown away.

But I didn't hear who the performer was, only that it was a performance of John Coltrane's composition OlΓ©.

Next day I went to Tower Records and bought a copy of that album, my first jazz record. As I learned about jazz and branched out - Eric Dolphy is on the record, under a pseudonym, and he led me to Mingus - I learned there was tenor player Coltrane knew (the west coast expert on mouthpieces, when Trane was having trouble with his) and later played with, in his free period and who also recorded on Impulse! in the 60s and 70s, so eventually I found my way back around to Heart is a Melody.

It's a beautiful record and the performance of OlΓ© has one of the most jaw-dropping moments in recorded jazz, far as I'm concerned.
Jamal November 04, 2022 at 07:56 #753820
Quoting Srap Tasmaner
If you haven't heard it listen to Out of This World, the opening track of Coltrane's self-titled release on Impulse!


Thanks for the recommendation, I hadn't listened to that album before.

Cool to read your personal jazz story.

I have mixed feelings about Sanders. Some of it I love (or loved; it was in my twenties and I'm now trying to remember the bits I liked), and some of it sounds weak and rambling. It could be that my expectations are wrong, as they were when I first listened to Ornette Coleman after having listened to Coltrane for a while.
Srap Tasmaner November 04, 2022 at 13:39 #753877
Reply to Jamal

Couple things about Elvin Jones: he told some interviewer that part of the secret of his style, the polyrhythmic thing, is that he always hits something on the beat, just not always the same thing. Also, when Mingus was forming a group in the late fifties, the only drummer he wanted was Elvin Jones, but Elvin was playing with someone else at the moment, so Mingus taught saxophonist Danny Richmond how to play drums, and Danny was his drummer for the rest of his life.

I think it might be the liner notes to the Coltrane I recommended where Trane says of Elvin, "Sometimes he's too much even for me."

I have limited understanding and appreciation of free jazz. I mostly know Pharaoh from later albums, not his Impulse! stuff. Coltrane's last couple years, I don't do. I've listened to lots of Cecil Taylor, and find him really interesting, but I there's a lot I don't really get. Ornette is easy compared to a lot of stuff out there. Understanding and loving the many varieties of free jazz (and fusion, for that matter) remains on my to-do list.
Jamal November 04, 2022 at 15:45 #753912
Quoting Srap Tasmaner
Couple things about Elvin Jones: he told some interviewer that part of the secret of his style, the polyrhythmic thing, is that he always hits something on the beat, just not always the same thing. Also, when Mingus was forming a group in the late fifties, the only drummer he wanted was Elvin Jones, but Elvin was playing with someone else at the moment, so Mingus taught saxophonist Danny Richmond how to play drums, and Danny was his drummer for the rest of his life.

I think it might be the liner notes to the Coltrane I recommended where Trane says of Elvin, "Sometimes he's too much even for me."


:cool:

Quoting Srap Tasmaner
Coltrane's last couple years, I don't do


I don't much like Ascension or the later stuff like Interstellar Space, but I like a few things from around 1965 and 1966, like Kulu Se Mama and Transition (which have some tracks in common).

The track "Welcome" is calm and beautiful. As a jazzhead you may know it already, but I'll put it here anyway:


But it was the track "Transition" that first really got me into jazz. As a teenage fan of thrash metal, I was looking for something even more heavy, and that did the trick (along with Stravinsky). I still love to listen to it, even though my appetite for that kind of intensity has waned. It's intense and dark, but driving and controlled. His playing is clear and strong, although at first I didn't like the altissimo explorations, which I felt detracted from the strength of his normal registers. I changed my mind about that, mostly.

I love how it starts, right in it.


Quoting Srap Tasmaner
Understanding and loving the many varieties of free jazz (and fusion, for that matter) remains on my to-do list.


Yeah, I feel I ought to try getting into Albert Ayler, who might be more akin to Ornette than to Coltrane. Anthony Braxton is another sax player who seems fascinating but who I can't get to grips with. Otherwise, I'm tentatively exploring non-idiomatic free improvisers, among whom I like Fred Frith and the fairly obscure Lol Coxhill, who seems to have been an outsider even in that scene.

But with both free improvisation and free jazz, I can't often listen to the large groups, so I don't feel much desire to get into the large group improvisations of Coleman and Coltrane (the former, Free Jazz, sounds like more fun to me though).
Srap Tasmaner November 04, 2022 at 16:17 #753914
Reply to Jamal

If you've listened to some other earlyish Ornette but not to Free Jazz, just spin it. There's just more players, but it's very listenable. I only finally got around to it in the past year, and it's nothing to be afraid of. (It used to be said there were two routes into free jazz (my music theory is almost non-existent, so grain of salt here): Ornette just passes right by the theory of harmony and frees melody from it; Cecil layers in more, augmenting traditional harmony, broadening it. Free Jazz the record is definitely still on Ornette's end of the spectrum.)

I'll certainly revisit late Coltrane, so thanks for your impressions.
Jamal November 04, 2022 at 16:22 #753917
Quoting Srap Tasmaner
If you've listened to some other earlyish Ornette but not to Free Jazz, just spin it. There's just more players, but it's very listenable. I only finally got around to it in the past year, and it's nothing to be afraid of.


I've got it playing now. Thanks :up:

Quoting Srap Tasmaner
(It used to be said there were two routes into free jazz (my music theory is almost non-existent, so grain of salt here): Ornette just passes right by the theory of harmony and frees melody from it; Cecil layers in more, augmenting traditional harmony, broadening it. Free Jazz the record is definitely still on Ornette's end of the spectrum.)


Yes, that's how I see it.

Cecil Taylor is baffling. I guess I haven't given him enough of a chance.
Srap Tasmaner November 04, 2022 at 16:35 #753922
Reply to Jamal

My starting point was maybe his first record as a leader. He does a killer version of Bemsha Swing. Gets how Monk had already broken into, let's say, tactical atonality. Monk understands what can be done with a piano as a physical thing, not just as a manifestation of music theory.

For a sort of point between Monk and where Cecil ends up, don't miss the incredible Don Pullen.
Jamal November 04, 2022 at 16:52 #753927
Reply to Srap Tasmaner I'll give some earlier Cecil a spin.

Quoting Srap Tasmaner
Don Pullen


Now that's someone I know absolutely nothing about.
Srap Tasmaner November 04, 2022 at 17:57 #753940
Reply to Jamal

He and George Adams (ts) were in Mingus's last quartet, and then carried on as a band.

Pullen had a unique technique that involved rolling his hand over the keys to get clusters of notes (and some otherworldly effects). There's a cute video on YouTube of his band appearing on a show Ramsey Lewis hosted, and Ramsey tells him, I tried it, tried to play like you do, and I ended up with bandaids all over my hands.

Here's a good place to start:

Jamal November 04, 2022 at 18:17 #753947
Reply to Srap Tasmaner I see what you mean. Sounds quite conventional to begin with and then goes a bit mad later on. I like it.
Jamal November 05, 2022 at 10:18 #754085
@Srap Tasmaner

I took some time to explore Cecil Taylor and, rather than the early stuff, I've settled on the solo live album Garden, recorded in 1981, as a way in, because I liked it from the start (it's the re-issue split over two discs, Garden Set 1 and Garden Set 2).

I read that Duke Ellington was one of his heroes, but I couldn't see how his playing related to him at all. However, despite initially thinking the music was totally abstract, and closer to non-idiomatic free improv than jazz, I began to hear the jazz in it pretty strongly, and not only in the occasional blues phrases and inflections. The track "Pemmican" on Set 2 is almost close to being a conventional jazz ballad, and this is where I can see how his playing is an extension of the tradition (jazz is not dead, it just smells funny).

In a nutshell, I don't really know what he's doing, and although I can discern the repeating motifs and chords, I find it difficult to hear the carefully worked out structure that people say is there. But I like it. It's exciting, technically stunning, and somehow very precise and organized. And in this performance (Garden) he leaves quite a lot of space, which I appreciate.

Before finding that, I watched a video of him playing, and that's maybe why I was more interested in his solo work, because I dug it. I wondered why it should help to see him play, thinking that I ought to focus on the purity of the music, but on the other hand he was a kind of performance artist who liked to emphasize the physicality.

Srap Tasmaner November 05, 2022 at 12:31 #754097
Quoting Jamal
Duke Ellington


As a pianist, Ellington is thought of as having a percussive style, as opposed to say the fluidity of Art Tatum, the great pianist of the swing era. So there's a tradition that runs from this



through Monk to Cecil. Watch Monk play, oh my god:

Srap Tasmaner November 05, 2022 at 16:46 #754172
Charles Mingus, Blues and Roots

Story behind this one, I believe, is that one of the Ertegun brothers suggested he do a whole record in the vein of Haitian Fight Song, from The Clown.

So here's that:

Tom Storm November 06, 2022 at 22:05 #754485
I have always had a soft spot for this. It starts very softly and builds.

Jamal November 07, 2022 at 07:53 #754646
Reply to Srap Tasmaner It's all beginning to make sense.

Reply to Tom Storm The first time I heard that, I didn't know the story behind it, but I found it fascinating and moving all the same, which is significant I think.
Noble Dust November 08, 2022 at 05:05 #754926
Truly unhinged:

Noble Dust November 08, 2022 at 05:06 #754927
Reply to Tom Storm

Yes yes yes.
SophistiCat November 09, 2022 at 21:15 #755295
I woke up this morning with this playing in my head... and it still is.
[hide][/hide]
Jamal November 12, 2022 at 10:49 #755839
Telekinesis by Tyondai Braxton, released yesterday.
SophistiCat November 13, 2022 at 16:12 #756048
Quoting Noble Dust
Truly unhinged:


LOL, yeah!
Noble Dust November 14, 2022 at 04:58 #756143
Reply to SophistiCat

I love that knifepoint between late romanticism and early modernism. I'd like to live there.
Amity November 15, 2022 at 11:26 #756395
Quoting SophistiCat
I woke up this morning with this playing in my head... and it still is.


I've been thinking about this since you wrote it.
I woke up this morning with an earworm but not any dangling from the Prophet Bird.
And I wondered what is it about music that has that effect on our brain or mind.
I guess it's the recurrence of a motif. Is that all? Why does some music resonate more than others?
Does the impression depend on the listener's mental state or brain rhythm already going on?
What do you hear that I can't?

I've listened to Schumann's piece 3 times now. The first time, my ears didn't get it at all.
No idea how this could enter my skull and stick there. Nada.

I think I understood the lightness of the beginning as being that of the bird, then I heard a change at about 1:20. It reminded me of a hymn, and the repetition there is the bit that is going round my head right now.

So then I looked it up:
https://www.henle.de/us/music-column/schuhmann-jahr-2010/schumann-anniversary-2010/the-prophet-bird/
Most interesting with links to the score and Goethe no less:
Quoting Schumann - The Prophet Bird
In this middle section Schumann quotes, and certainly not as a coincidence, a part from his Β“Scenes from GoetheΒ’s FaustΒ” that he composed at about the same time, namely the Β“Chor Seliger KnabenΒ” (the quote is underlined)
:
PATER SERAPHICUS, mittlere Region.
Welch ein MorgenwΓΆlkchen schwebet
Durch der Tannen schwankend Haar?
Ahn ich, Was im Innern lebet?
Es ist junge Geisterschar.
CHOR SELIGER KNABEN.
Sag uns, Vater, wo wir wallen,
Sag uns, Guter, wer wir sind!
[u]GlΓΌcklich sind wir: allen, allen
Ist das Dasein so gelind.
Sag uns, Vater, wo wir wallen,
sag uns, Guter, wer wir sind.[/u]
You can listen to this part of the composition HERE ?.
Simply for inspiration, I added the lyrics to the music in the new Urtext edition: Sample pages


... and this:

Quoting Schumann - The Prophet Bird
Consequently, SchumannΒ’s pedal markings are an intended and important part of the composition. But hardly any musician respects them. Next to Clara HaskilΒ’s recording (also on YouTube) that many piano enthusiasts rightly favor, there are at least (only?) two further recordings that not only follow SchumannΒ’s original intentions, including the important and sophisticated pedal markings, but are also wonderfully expressive. One was recently released on CD; a recording by Andreas Staier [Robert Schumann: "Hommage Γ  Bach". Harmonia Mundi France HMC 901989] whose play on an Erard grand piano succeeds in communicating the enchantment of this piece. The other recording is by Wilhelm Backhaus. There are both a studio and a live recording by Backhaus, both made in the 1950s. Everything here is perfect. The live recording from Carnegie Hall with "The Prophet Bird" as an encore is especially great (it sets in at 2:10, following a breathtaking performance of ChopinΒ’s Etude op. 25/2 in f minor and an intriguingly improvised modulation to the Schumann piece): Video no longer available


Pity the Carnegie Hall video is no longer available.
Thanks for the introduction. I might listen again...if it doesn't drive me crazy trying to think...
Any idea as to the hymn it reminds me of?

Best now just to listen without thinking. Simply to feel it :sparkle:
Amity November 15, 2022 at 13:24 #756413
Quoting Amity
Pity the Carnegie Hall video is no longer available.

@SophistiCat
Found this. The Schumann piece comes in just after rapturous applause at 11:00. (if I hear right!)

Quoting Backhaus - 4 encores at Carnegie Hall, 1956
Wilhelm Backhaus at age 72 in splendid form, giving four encores during a Carnegie Hall recital in New York in 1956. Starting with some preluding to establish the key of the next piece, he plays:
- Schubert's Impromptu in B flat major Opus 142 no. 3, D935;
- Chopin's Etude Opus 25 no. 2 in F minor;
- Schumann's "Vogel als Prophet", from his Waldszenen Opus 82;
- Mozart's Rondo alla Turca from his Sonata no. 11 in A major, KV331



Amity November 16, 2022 at 08:20 #756624
Another bird; another time, place and person. Beautiful and never forgotten :sparkle:
With nod and thanks to @tim wood for this introduction, about a year ago:



***
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/599220

tim wood:And Hillary Hahn in my opinion in a class even beyond these, they mainly about allowing Bach's structures to be as accessible as possible. Hahn, on the other hand, about rendering the feeling in the music, seeking it, finding it, studying and understanding it, performing it.

As if, in going to church of a Sunday to hear a sermon, one encountered the voice of God itself!

Here:
Furtwangler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJG5A-klfgE

Kleiber:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKcAAA1O2sc

Zander
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3EiRynr1Us

Tureck:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XoAJ98PbDM

Biggs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E_peLhyksQ&list=OLAK5uy_n_ngZQXiZXethaXN2SWX-IoKE6WKfGOBA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_XmdFE-7dM

Hahn:
Sibelius
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O65YBjweUPo&t=741s
Three mini-presentations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICGFmN85J50
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OwULR_YkJk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=015QVOO-5Ek
Lark Ascending
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOWN5fQnzGk
SophistiCat November 19, 2022 at 18:43 #757573
Quoting Amity
I've been thinking about this since you wrote it.
I woke up this morning with an earworm but not any dangling from the Prophet Bird.
And I wondered what is it about music that has that effect on our brain or mind.
I guess it's the recurrence of a motif. Is that all? Why does some music resonate more than others?
Does the impression depend on the listener's mental state or brain rhythm already going on?
What do you hear that I can't?


Earworms are funny things. Often after listening to a number of pieces, such as Schumann's Waldszenen, what gets into my head is not what drew me most while I was listening. Other times I am only semi-aware of the music in my ears while I am occupied with something else. But then, after an incubation period of about 8-16 hours, some "little phrase" or entire pages worth of music hatch in my head and won't quiet down for the rest of the day (or night).

Quoting Amity
Found this. The Schumann piece comes in just after rapturous applause at 11:00. (if I hear right!)

Wilhelm Backhaus at age 72 in splendid form, giving four encores during a Carnegie Hall recital in New York in 1956. Starting with some preluding to establish the key of the next piece, he plays:
- Schubert's Impromptu in B flat major Opus 142 no. 3, D935;
- Chopin's Etude Opus 25 no. 2 in F minor;
- Schumann's "Vogel als Prophet", from his Waldszenen Opus 82;
- Mozart's Rondo alla Turca from his Sonata no. 11 in A major, KV331


Thanks for this, I loved it! (Interesting how he improvises little transitions between the pieces, as if walking from one to the next.)
SophistiCat November 19, 2022 at 18:47 #757574
Quoting Noble Dust
I love that knifepoint between late romanticism and early modernism. I'd like to live there.


At about the same time (1900s) Ives asked a question that is now stuck in my head. Does anyone know the answer? ;)

[hide][/hide]
Amity November 20, 2022 at 20:49 #757711
Noble Dust November 27, 2022 at 07:33 #758861
Reply to SophistiCat

Spare yourself the mental energy.
SophistiCat November 27, 2022 at 16:56 #758899
Reply to Noble Dust That's harsh. No love for Ives?


[hide=Berg - Violin concerto To the Memory of an Angel][/hide]

The conclusion is just heartbreaking.
Jamal December 02, 2022 at 08:20 #760093
I recently discovered Escalator Over the Hill by Carla Bley, Paul Haines, and the Jazz ComposerΒ’s Orchestra, from 1967. Weird and wonderful, I love it. ItΒ’s like some kind of prog jazz (in the rock sense of progressive, not the Stan Kenton third stream sense).
Jamal December 02, 2022 at 19:07 #760246
The only piece by Boulez that I really enjoy, probably because he abandoned serialism to do it. Rituel in Memoriam Bruno Maderna.

Jamal December 02, 2022 at 19:53 #760261
Ligeti - Six Bagatelles

SophistiCat December 03, 2022 at 19:33 #760555
Reply to El Jamal :up: I loved that video (and music too, of course).
Jamal December 03, 2022 at 19:51 #760567
Reply to SophistiCat At first, when I saw they were dancing around, I was sceptical. But yeah, it works!
SophistiCat December 05, 2022 at 13:27 #761123
[hide=Richard Strauss - Metamorphosen (1945)][/hide]

Composed in the final weeks of the war, when the composer's world was crumbling around him. If the theme sounds vaguely familiar, listen carefully: about 3/4 of the way in, and then again at the very conclusion of the piece the source of the theme is revealed.
[hide]It is the funeral march from Beethoven's Eroica symphony[/hide]
deletedmemberbcc December 06, 2022 at 23:44 #761512
Marcus Miller- Free (2007)

The title track is awesome :love:



(Marcus Miller featuring Corinne Bailey Rae- Free)
Tom Storm December 15, 2022 at 06:17 #764040
Quoting SophistiCat
Richard Strauss - Metamorphosen (1945)

Composed in the final weeks of the war, when the composer's world was crumbling around him. If the theme sounds vaguely familiar, listen carefully: about 3/4 of the way in, and then again at the very conclusion of the piece the source of the theme is revealed.


Me too. I love it. Mine is a von Karajan recording. I heard it first in 1985 and used to drive through winding mountain roads to our country place with it on.

Also:

SophistiCat December 18, 2022 at 08:15 #764807
Reply to Tom Storm Powerful stuff. Ewig...
SophistiCat December 23, 2022 at 20:59 #766145
Sometimes I find Modernist art more "interesting" than actually satisfying to watch/read/listen, and this goes for some of Varèse that I have listened to. But this one I liked:

[hide=Edgard Varèse - Amériques]

[/hide]
Amity December 25, 2022 at 09:26 #766424
Some blues...kinda...

Nina Simone - I Am Blessed


classical:

Sergei Prokofiev - Troika from "Lieutenant KijΓ©"
Amity December 28, 2022 at 12:06 #767116
Thanks to @Jamal's recommendations, commenting on the short story 'Nightmare in D Minor':
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/13826/nightmare-in-d-minor

Terry Riley - 'The Dream' for justly tuned piano - Live in Rome 1999



Commissioned by the Kanagawa Foundation, 'The Dream' is a lengthy improvisatory piece for solo piano in just intonation. It is something of a sequel to Terry Riley's 1985 cycle 'The Harp of New Albion', also for justly tuned piano. This recording is from the work's premiere performance where Riley joined Philip Glass, Michael Harrison, and Charlemagne Palestine in an evening concert of selections of each composer's music for piano.

Performed by the composer.
Recorded live at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, Italy on November 20th 1999.


Jamal December 28, 2022 at 12:10 #767117
Reply to Amity :up: :cool:
Amity December 28, 2022 at 12:15 #767120
Reply to Jamal
I'm still listening...it's wonderful. Amazing. God I love this place :fire:
Jamal December 28, 2022 at 12:16 #767121
Reply to Amity Awesome :blush:
SophistiCat December 29, 2022 at 21:30 #767503
Stravinsky allegedly said about his violin concerto that he wanted to write "a music that would have no emotional resonance." What a load of crock! It's pure joy.
[hide][/hide]

Also this:
[hide][/hide]
deletedmemberbcc December 30, 2022 at 01:22 #767580
Johnny Coltrane- Mr PC :fire: :fire: :fire:

deletedmemberbcc December 30, 2022 at 01:44 #767583
Johnny C- Blue Train :love:

deletedmemberbcc December 30, 2022 at 18:27 #767759
Charles Mingus- Moanin' :fire:



I challenge anyone to listen to this song all the way through without e.g. tapping your foot, bobbing your head, etc to the rhythm. Its just infectious.
deletedmemberbcc December 30, 2022 at 18:55 #767764
Jaco Pastorius- Blackbird :strong:

Wayfarer January 01, 2023 at 02:59 #768156
To anyone who likes authentic jazz-rock fusion - hey, I know you're an elite group - check this out. Drift Lab, an Italian quartet, no released albums as such, denizens of YouTube. All master musicians but particular call out to Matteo Mancuso who to my mind is the best electric guitarist in the world today (and I know guitarists. Plays electric guitar with flamenco technique. Absolute master. If you're into guitarists, check him out.)

SophistiCat January 01, 2023 at 21:49 #768362
Quoting busycuttingcrap
I challenge anyone to listen to this song all the way through without e.g. tapping your foot, bobbing your head, etc to the rhythm. Its just infectious.


What did I win? (Just kidding! I like it.)
deletedmemberbcc January 01, 2023 at 23:00 #768416
Reply to SophistiCat Your restraint is impressive! And you win... Another Charles Mingus video!

Mingus Sextet- Take the A Train

deletedmemberbcc January 01, 2023 at 23:31 #768433
Reply to Wayfarer :up: Yeah that's awesome, sounds like some classic (60s-70s) fusion- doesn't get any better than that, imo. Love that bass solo.

I can think of a few guitarists who could challenge the "best electric guitarist in the world" bit, though.. but no question this guy can play. If you like insane axe-playing, you should check out the video I posted in the other music thread a week or two ago- Polyphia featuring Steve Vai, an absolutely loaded lineup playing one of the best guitar pieces I've heard in a long time ("Ego Death").
Wayfarer January 01, 2023 at 23:32 #768436
Quoting busycuttingcrap
Polyphia featuring Steve Vai,




(Couldn't find anything about the second name he mentioned. Al Di Meola gives him a big rap too and featured him in a duo concert.)
deletedmemberbcc January 01, 2023 at 23:37 #768439
Reply to Wayfarer

Steve Vai is awesome, love that guy. And I agree with him, the level of guitar talent out there right now, esp in the prog rock/prog metal, fusion, math rock, etc. genres is insane- Tobin Abasi, Tim Henson, Yvette Young, some insanely talented musicians out there, and most of these people are all really young too.

Had you heard that Polyphia + Steve Vai song already? If not I strongly recommend it, some awesome (awesome, awesome, awesome) guitar playing in that song, and Steve plays an awesome whammy-bar solo (because Steve Vai is awesome, obviously). If you like guitar, you'll love "Ego Death".
Wayfarer January 02, 2023 at 00:03 #768453
Reply to busycuttingcrap IΒ’ll definitely give it a listen. Also Guthrie Govan, also mainly on YouTube.
deletedmemberbcc January 02, 2023 at 00:12 #768456
Reply to Wayfarer Checking him out right now, pretty sure I've seen/heard him before (his hair looks familiar).

Speaking of Youtube guitar players, ever watched any Ichika Nito? Guy is a monster, especially with tapping. And I honestly think that Youtube is a major reason why we're seeing such amazing guitar players at such young ages- Youtube is an incredible learning resource for musicians, I'm super jealous that we didn't have anything like it when I was growing up.
deletedmemberbcc January 02, 2023 at 00:13 #768457
Reply to Wayfarer guy really likes to work that whammy bar, I love it
deletedmemberbcc January 02, 2023 at 00:19 #768458
SophistiCat January 02, 2023 at 18:50 #768672
Another beautiful violin concerto. Not yet "typical" Britten, and not often performed, owing to its great difficulty. (Jascha Heifetz declined to premier it, because he wasn't sure it was even playable.) It doesn't sound like a virtuoso stunt in the hands of Janine Jansen though.
[hide][/hide]

Jamal January 03, 2023 at 18:40 #769078
Noble Dust January 04, 2023 at 04:45 #769318
Reply to Wayfarer Reply to busycuttingcrap

My favorite Guthrie Govan video is this in which Hans Zimmer awkwardly watches him solo and doesn't know what to do with his hands:

Wayfarer January 04, 2023 at 05:47 #769329
Reply to Noble Dust just watching that about 2 minutes ago. Zimmer is just totally digging it, he doesnΒ’t know what to do with his hands Β‘cause theyΒ’re not on a keyboard.

I found Govan through one of Rick BeatoΒ’s shows:



The versatility is amazing although I tried a couple of GovanΒ’s albums and found them a bit too metallic for my tastes.

SophistiCat January 06, 2023 at 20:47 #769994
Reply to Jamal Nice. I am listening the whole set.



A while ago I was binging on Purcell and Handel, especially their lesser known keyboard works. These guys rock!

Purcell
[hide]




[/hide]

Handel
[hide]
These are Handel's best-known keyboard suites - the only ones he published, in two sets of eight. My favorite piano version:






[/hide]
Noble Dust January 19, 2023 at 06:58 #773958
I don't know much earlier Stravinsky, so this is pretty interesting:

SophistiCat February 06, 2023 at 15:11 #779055
Woke up with this playing in my head :death:


SophistiCat March 05, 2023 at 14:39 #786392
Listening to some jazz for a change: J.D. Allen

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAHNJvwXuaSzTliSAmna2TA

Sonny Rollins said about him: "HeΒ’s got a nice, big, fat sound, and heΒ’s got a lot of ideas. He doesnΒ’t sound like heΒ’s ever wanting to find something to play."
Wayfarer May 14, 2023 at 00:33 #807768
For those into jazz fusion - Fool Arcana, a new band! They won a contest in Italy in April 2021, right in the thick of COVID which kind of hampered their launch. But they are producing some excellent material in that genre - think Incognito, Matt Bianco, Brand New Heavies, Chick Corea. All great young players, led by 22-year-old singer-guitarist Cecilia Barra Caracciolo and 23-year-old bassist Riccardo Oliva (listen out for the Fender Rhodes solo. Incidentally the name is derived from the first Tarot card, symbolising spontaneity and creativity.)



Noble Dust May 14, 2023 at 05:13 #807805
Reply to Wayfarer

Cool. More melodic variation would help, but I always love watching an open-hand-lead drummer, as one myself. Actually I guess he's just playing half left-handed with his ride on his left, Carter Beauford style. So left-handed hands and "right-handed" feet. Anyway. I also would include Snarky Puppy as a comparison.
Wayfarer May 14, 2023 at 05:37 #807808
Reply to Noble Dust Yeah I don't unreservedly like their compositions, but I'm making an effort to get familiar with them as it's a genre I very much like, and it doesn't have a wide audience base. Yeah, Snarky Puppy, definitely - my son went to see them in Milwaukee just the other day, said they were sensational. (Oh, and they're also a little reminiscent of Level 42, particularly their melodic sense.)
Noble Dust May 14, 2023 at 05:45 #807809
Reply to Wayfarer

I liked it quite a bit. When it comes to current jazz, I tend to prefer the "spiritual" corners of the genre that are being explored; Like this. simpler and more repetitive, and not for everyone, but it does it for me. Hypnotic music.
javi2541997 May 16, 2023 at 05:08 #808243
A combination of Β“nu jazzΒ” and Β“acid jazzΒ”




Wayfarer May 18, 2023 at 08:28 #808745
Reply to javi2541997 Like it. Particularly the urgency of the groove in #1. Great skiing music (not that I ski any more.)

Check out this amazing talent. One guy, one guitar, many, many layers.

javi2541997 May 18, 2023 at 11:18 #808760
Reply to Wayfarer Cheers. :party:
Moliere May 19, 2023 at 21:50 #809076
Reply to Wayfarer What a talent. Amazing to hear all that from one guitar
Wayfarer May 19, 2023 at 21:51 #809079
Reply to Moliere I know! Ain't he amazing! Tommy Emmanuel put a comment on one of his latest, 'keep up the great work'. The attention to detail is fantastic - all these little flourishes from the original recording that he captures.
Tom Storm May 21, 2023 at 03:37 #809370
SophistiCat May 21, 2023 at 20:22 #809579
Quoting javi2541997
A combination of Β“nu jazzΒ” and Β“acid jazzΒ”


I don't know much about Β“nu jazzΒ” and Β“acid jazzΒ”, but I like this. Will listen more!
javi2541997 May 22, 2023 at 04:33 #809683
Reply to SophistiCat

The first time I listened to it, I just called it "jazz" like anyone else I guess. Because I am not so familiar with technical words and I am event an expert on jazz. But, somehow, the first time you listen to the album, you feel is something different and you like it and enjoy it. To be honest, I discovered that the album is considered as "nu" jazz and "acid" jazz because of Wikipedia. :joke:

I happy to know you liked it. Cheers!
SophistiCat May 23, 2023 at 20:15 #810232
Reply to Wayfarer I am not a connoisseur or anything (I don't even know who Steely Dan is), but wow!

Reply to Tom Storm You can recognize Glass right from the first measure from his trademark arpeggios, but you need to keep in mind that this work was composed before he settled into his neo-Romantic groove. And indeed, while instantly recognizable, it doesn't sound stale to my ear.
Tom Storm May 23, 2023 at 20:30 #810240
Reply to SophistiCat Yes. I find it very satisfying to listen to.
Moliere May 23, 2023 at 21:57 #810261
Reply to Tom Storm That was wonderful.
Tom Storm May 23, 2023 at 22:03 #810262
SophistiCat May 23, 2023 at 22:22 #810274
Speaking of Baroque... Many years ago I heard this tune in a garish synth arrangement, in some indie sci-fi flick:



I had forgotten the movie, but somehow the tune impressed itself upon me. I had no idea what it was, and hadn't heard it since (except in my head once in a while). Until a couple of days ago, when I heard it on classical radio - this time with the title and composer's name attached.

And here it is, in all its Baroque ostinato glory:
Marin Marais - Sonnerie de Sainte-Geneviève (The Bells of St. Genevieve)


(Curiously, this recording is also from a movie soundtrack. I'm going to watch the movie when I get a chance.)

And a couple more affecting pieces by Marais, performed by the same stellar ensemble:
[hide]


[/hide]
Wayfarer May 23, 2023 at 22:56 #810281
Quoting SophistiCat
I am not a connoisseur or anything (I don't even know who Steely Dan is), but wow!


Here's the original (oh, and I'm a Steely Dan tragic.)
SophistiCat May 24, 2023 at 10:18 #810344
Reply to Wayfarer Cheers. Good stuff. I didn't realize there was a song to go with the instrumentals. That guitar dude's arrangement of the accompaniment is impressive as a technical and musical achievement, but without the song the overall effect is merely... nice.
Wayfarer May 24, 2023 at 10:22 #810346
Reply to SophistiCat HeΒ’s an amazing talent, thatΒ’s for sure.
Wayfarer May 24, 2023 at 11:08 #810353
Some old guys doing it - Donald Fagen, Michael McDonald, Boz Skaggs

SophistiCat July 02, 2023 at 21:14 #819598
If Bach Kept Bees...



Music from the young Arvo PΓ€rt, from around the time when he got into early music.

The buzzing tune heard at the beginning and throughout the piece is a slightly obfuscated B-A-C-H sequence (spelled out in German musical notation). The ending quotes a prelude from WTC 1.

Moliere July 21, 2023 at 23:33 #823805
I feel as if I've posted this one before, but if so I missed it while looking:

Noble Dust July 22, 2023 at 01:50 #823831
Reply to Moliere

Classic. This is one of my favorites. The title track is good, but the B-sides are my favorites:

Noble Dust July 22, 2023 at 01:54 #823832
Leontiskos July 25, 2023 at 18:42 #824516
Quoting Quixodian
Check out this amazing talent. One guy, one guitar, many, many layers.


That's a whole 'nother level. I've never seen anything like it.

Wayfarer October 30, 2023 at 03:49 #849499
Here's a recent performance by young Sicilian guitar virtuoso Matteo Mancuso, playing the track 'Open Fields' from his recent album, The Journey. For those who haven't heard of him, I think he has a legitimate claim to being the best electric guitarist recording right now. The recording quality of this performance isn't the best, but it still conveys his virtuosity - notice he plays with his fingers, not a plectrum - and his personality, which is artistic and not at all ego-driven. If you like his style, find him on Youtube where he has a big archive, or via this story which provides more background and more examples of his astonishing technical virtuosity.



Wayfarer November 22, 2023 at 10:08 #855268
Vocal jazz excellence

jkop December 20, 2023 at 11:44 #863206
This year I've been listening a lot to the young great guitarist Pedro Martins Here's a video of his version of a famous tune by Ravel
AmadeusD December 20, 2023 at 22:15 #863461
Currently looking at a lot of Opera (on top of In a Silent Way - Miles Davis, and Gregorio Allegri's Miserere)

Mario Lanza and Jussi Bjorling's performances of La Donna e Mobile are absolutely phenomenal.

180 Proof January 06, 2024 at 05:17 #869508
Michael Brecker's "Syzygy" &
Brick's "Dazz"

https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/754042
180 Proof January 08, 2024 at 21:18 #870442

"India" (14:10)
Impressions, 1963
composer John Coltrane, 1961
performers J. Coltrane, E. Dolphy, M. Tyner, J. Garrison, R. Workman & E. Jones
180 Proof January 08, 2024 at 23:06 #870507

"Shhh/Peaceful" (16:16)
In a Silent Way, 1969
composer Miles Davis
performers M. Davis, W. Shorter, J. McLaughlin, C. Corea. H. Hancock, J. Zawinul, D. Holland & T. Williams
AmadeusD January 09, 2024 at 03:12 #870682
AmadeusD January 09, 2024 at 03:13 #870684
Quoting Leontiskos
That's a whole 'nother level. I've never seen anything like it.


This version is also utterly incredible.
jkop February 02, 2024 at 17:02 #877413
Good jazz radio
https://www.jazz24.org/
Olento February 10, 2024 at 23:59 #879754
Lately been listening to a lot of baroque music. There's something strange in it that I cannot explain.

Jamal February 11, 2024 at 06:26 #879808
Reply to Olento

:up:

Quoting Olento
Lately been listening to a lot of baroque music. There's something strange in it that I cannot explain.


Is it that it lies in an uncanny valley or a liminal space between the pre-modern and the modern? That itΒ’s strange and familiar at the same time?
Olento February 11, 2024 at 08:48 #879820
Reply to Jamal
I think it's more about some specific quality of melancholy that I cannot find in other era's. It's special for me.
jkop March 01, 2024 at 09:38 #884748
Ethan Iverson's trio

SophistiCat March 17, 2024 at 01:20 #888586
I fell in love with Scarlatti K87. I'd heard it before (it is one of his best known sonatas), but yesterday it hit me hard for some reason.

Clara Haskil :heart: (two takes)


Igor Kipnis (clavichord :heart:)


Ross's complete recording of Scarlatti I just don't love... I don't know why.

I am also skipping Horowitz (and a few others for that matter). His is the kind of Romantic (re)interpretation that is breathtaking and hard to un-hear once you have heard it. And granted, this peace positively invites it. But I would then prefer to go all the way and do something like what Vaughan Williams did with his dreamy take on Thomas Tallis:


This was the original inspiration - a severe, militant psalm, striking in its own right, with words like "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."



You can see (as in Scarlatti) what harmonies moved Williams and why he took it to such different places (without changing a note of the original!)
unenlightened March 27, 2024 at 21:03 #891528
Toccata and fugue, on a friggin'harp? Oh yeah, and for the first time, it makes sense!

Moliere March 27, 2024 at 21:56 #891541
Reply to unenlightened That was super cool.

The organ version has become too cheesy to evoke -- that was a great rendition.
AmadeusD April 02, 2024 at 03:42 #893080

Swoooooooning.
SophistiCat April 08, 2024 at 19:42 #894937
Maya Beiser's take on Terry Riley's classic (cello with loop pedals and percussions)

SophistiCat April 08, 2024 at 19:47 #894939
L'Γ©lΓ©phant April 09, 2024 at 04:01 #895054
Listening to an upright bass.

User image
AmadeusD April 09, 2024 at 04:46 #895067
Reply to L'Γ©lΓ©phant You may enjoy Rob Amster.
SophistiCat April 09, 2024 at 23:31 #895270
Quoting AmadeusD
Swoooooooning.


Good stuff. I know little of Mendelsohn's lieder.

Google translates the title as "favorite cookies" :)

Friederike Robert, tr. Emily Ezust:Beloved Little Spot

Do you know where I like to linger
In the cool of an evening?
In the quiet valley there spins
A little mill,
And there is a little brook beside it,
With trees standing all around it.
I often sit there for hours on end,
Looking around and daydreaming.

Even the little flowers in the grass
Begin to speak,
And the little blue one says:
Look at how my little head is hanging!
The little rose with a thorny kiss
Has pricked me:
Ah, it has made me so sad
That my heart has broken.

There approaches a small white spider,
saying: Be content;
Some day you will die,
For that is the way it is here on this earth;
Better that your heart breaks
From the kiss of a rose,
Than that you never know love
And die loveless.
L'Γ©lΓ©phant April 11, 2024 at 02:57 #895552
Here's the video of that upright bass with Adam Ben Ezra. Awesome!!

L'Γ©lΓ©phant April 11, 2024 at 03:04 #895553
Quoting AmadeusD
You may enjoy Rob Amster.


Thanks. This is what I could find that's co-written by Rob Amster. Yes, I like listening to that bass. I couldn't find just the instrumental.



Punshhh September 01, 2024 at 13:34 #929506
Something to lighten your day.
https://youtu.be/YK_KTXb_Jrg?feature=shared
javi2541997 September 01, 2024 at 14:47 #929519
Reply to Punshhh Smooth chill tune. I wish I had listened to it this morning when it was raining under the grey and foggy sky.
Punshhh September 01, 2024 at 17:34 #929561
Reply to javi2541997
Thankyou, you can always rely on Philip Glass to take you out of yourself.
Bodhy September 02, 2024 at 11:06 #929638
Holst's The Planets:Neptune is marvellous:


riemann September 11, 2024 at 22:22 #931430
I'm listening to Walton's Passacaglia. I really dig the cello in general.
javi2541997 September 12, 2024 at 05:57 #931484
Reply to riemann Cello has an indescribable tone. That short but intense piece proves it. Thanks for sharing it with us. I enjoyed listening to it while on my way to the subway.

Welcome to TPF.
unenlightened September 15, 2024 at 06:05 #932062
I was reminded of these the other day. Neither jazz nor classical, but the dreaded folk.

So sue me, poseurs. Watch on youtube.



Jamal September 15, 2024 at 10:23 #932072
Reply to unenlightened

Very nice. I've added folk to the thread title.

unenlightened September 15, 2024 at 11:04 #932076
Also rather interesting and Modal. The harmonies remind me of the Uilleann pipes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WkrTyrR-WQ
jorndoe September 15, 2024 at 12:29 #932085
Norwegian morning music while enjoying the quietude of dawn (coffee recommended)

Peer Gynt by Grieg



The whole thing is a bit longer than the morning music

javi2541997 September 23, 2024 at 06:22 #934015
23/9/2024. Cloudy and windy morning.

javi2541997 October 12, 2024 at 12:52 #939006
jkop October 13, 2024 at 23:51 #939418
Burundi spaceport, Ozric Tentacles

javi2541997 October 24, 2024 at 10:39 #941934
@Jamal I found on YouTube the songs that were constantly playing at the museum. I think these are the best versions and fit with the ambient written by Casares. :smile:



unenlightened October 24, 2024 at 20:20 #942013
Jamal November 01, 2024 at 23:06 #943707
Wayfarer November 09, 2024 at 22:48 #946293
The ever-astonishing Kent Nishimura

The subtleties and attention to detail are quite extraordinary.
javi2541997 November 26, 2024 at 11:36 #950113
I am again in that period of time where one feels blue oneself -- a bit depressed.

unenlightened November 26, 2024 at 13:17 #950115
File under "classical". Something for the existential angst.

javi2541997 January 04, 2025 at 14:13 #958105
unenlightened January 17, 2025 at 13:55 #961413
unenlightened January 19, 2025 at 12:42 #962005
I just discovered this man who sings almost like a woman, who was so badly treated by the music industry for most of his life, but liked and respected by some great musicians. So here is another moving performance and a snippet of interview at the end. Apparently he had some unusual hormonal problem that resulted in him never going through puberty completely, and that makes him a threat and an abomination to the rigid thinkers of identity. But you can hear his big big heart...

unenlightened January 19, 2025 at 14:29 #962018
One more, and this time with a lying acceptable image.

Moliere January 22, 2025 at 23:24 #962917
Reply to unenlightened First time I've heard of this beautiful soul.

He's wonderful to listen to.
javi2541997 January 27, 2025 at 06:06 #963919
It rains and pours on this Monday morning. I feel attracted to listening to jazz and Soul when the day is rainy.


Wayfarer January 28, 2025 at 09:36 #964111
The ever-astonishing guitar artistry of Kent Nishimura

unenlightened February 02, 2025 at 20:28 #965013
This is an emergency. Banjos ain't music, but I need something American I can smile at.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af9wHDrkjfk
javi2541997 February 19, 2025 at 05:57 #970390
Another great version I found. Good memories of Casares' works. :sparkle:

AmadeusD February 21, 2025 at 03:40 #971008
Going through Woody Guthrie, Rosetta Tharpe and Mahalia Jackson currently. Also bought an old Joan Baez record recently and remember how god damn f**king good she was/is.
unenlightened March 24, 2025 at 18:50 #978267
Lest I should start to imagine I can play the guitar ...

unenlightened March 24, 2025 at 19:31 #978281
And I also can't play the violin.

unenlightened March 24, 2025 at 20:04 #978302
unenlightened April 19, 2025 at 16:56 #983477
unenlightened April 19, 2025 at 21:48 #983506


A modern folk song penned by the wonderful Leon Rosselson Β— a lesson from history.
Wayfarer May 05, 2025 at 08:24 #986094
Reply to unenlightened Speaking of Paganini + guitar, have a listen to Lucas Imbiriba. I love his passion!

Wayfarer May 05, 2025 at 08:26 #986095
Also - itΒ’s super cheesy, but I canΒ’t stop watching:

Tom Storm May 05, 2025 at 10:22 #986101
unenlightened May 05, 2025 at 11:43 #986105
Reply to Wayfarer Old Spice - old cheese. Love it!!!

As for Paganini - no one likes a showoff, Lucas.
Wayfarer May 12, 2025 at 05:22 #987221
Hope this isn't geoblocked, it's from a Sydney morning TV show couple of days back: feature interview with Australian guitar legend Tommy Emmanuel, whom I first saw in, oh, about 1979.



Never learned to read or write music. When I used to see him, he would turn up and stand in as a guest artist, and he's just play anything whatever by ear, on the spot, often with little or no rehearsal. He's a true legend.

Tom Storm May 12, 2025 at 09:24 #987247
Reply to Wayfarer TE is great!
unenlightened May 17, 2025 at 14:46 #988324
Speaking of show offs, some clever dick writing for posterity ...
unenlightened May 19, 2025 at 20:32 #988836
unenlightened May 25, 2025 at 13:12 #990136
unenlightened May 31, 2025 at 19:21 #991304
This is a classic. The intro alone is sublime, the vocals are ridiculous, the cross rhythms superb, This is rock and roll all scrubbed up and out on the pull.

javi2541997 June 30, 2025 at 05:44 #997962
Jamal July 05, 2025 at 00:47 #998789
AmadeusD July 06, 2025 at 21:45 #999057


If this doesn't move you, I have literally no clue what could.
javi2541997 July 12, 2025 at 10:10 #1000001
javi2541997 August 08, 2025 at 12:12 #1005684
GTTRPNK August 27, 2025 at 00:39 #1009776
Dave Bruebeck is a default lately
AmadeusD August 27, 2025 at 20:24 #1009998


Lula was a girl from a humble town
She had a mean drunk daddy; liked to push her around
He sold what he called 'poor man's cocaine'
But the police called it methamphetamine
One night she sunk her knife in the small of his back
Ain't no one gonna find where she buried him at
She hopped a train up the river into Omaha
Did some dirty damn things and bought a broke-down car

She'd say 'I ain't getting younger, I just wanna feel good
I ain't gonna do what you want cause you tell me I should
I'm just gonna sit right down, have a smoke
Somebody buy me a beer; somebody tell me a joke

Now people do funny things to numb their pain
And Lula drank liquor to forget her name
She used to sleep it off under an old Oak tree
In the Pontiac she bought with her money from the streets

She'd say "I ain't getting younger, I just wanna feel good
I ain't gonna do what you want cause you tell me I should
I'm just gonna sit right down; have a smoke
Somebody buy me a beer somebody tell me a joke

She was crying for a life that she never knew
What could have been, how it was and what she oughta do
She wipe the tears from her eyes and shut her mouth
When her feet hit the river all the lights went out

She'd say "I ain't getting younger, I just wanna feel good
I ain't gonna do what you want cause you tell me I should
I'm just gonna sit right down; have a smoke
Somebody buy me a beer; somebody tell me a joke
Somebody buy me a beer; somebody tell me a joke
Jamal September 25, 2025 at 18:52 #1015026
Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Moliere September 25, 2025 at 23:05 #1015083
Reply to Jamal This is great.
Jamal September 26, 2025 at 00:39 #1015099
Reply to Moliere

:party: I love the whole album.
Moliere September 26, 2025 at 02:13 #1015128
Reply to Jamal Any links to the whole album?

I was inspired to relisten to Ground Zero - Consume Red by your song:

Jamal September 26, 2025 at 07:13 #1015186
Quoting Moliere
Any links to the whole album?


https://open.spotify.com/album/1PokAFXFycM6g47eIQ9jIn?si=UcL2cSGeR0G11PvYE74u6A

Quoting Moliere
I was inspired to relisten to Ground Zero - Consume Red by your song:


I'm 25 minutes in and the drums have just entered the battle. :up:

I have a vertiginous feeling that I've heard it before, or even used to be kind of into it, and I've since forgotten it. :chin:
Jamal September 26, 2025 at 07:56 #1015192
Reply to Moliere

I found the Noto/Sakamoto album because I was having a look through the releases by the Ensemble Modern. Another one I liked:

Moliere September 26, 2025 at 12:02 #1015214
Reply to Jamal I used it in one of my old OP's, so maybe that's where you heard it before.
Jamal September 26, 2025 at 13:37 #1015220
Quoting Moliere
I used it in one of my old OP's


Interesting. What was that about?
Moliere September 26, 2025 at 13:40 #1015221
Reply to Jamal What counts as listening?

It was 5 years ago so it's been awhile.
Jamal September 26, 2025 at 14:05 #1015224
Reply to Moliere

Oh yeah! That was interesting. I even contributed a few posts myself, so maybe you're right and I heard it there.
Moliere September 26, 2025 at 15:21 #1015233
Reply to Jamal To be fair I couldn't find it anywhere else so had to look through my own posts because I remembered using it at one point. It surprised me that it was 5 years ago.

Of course as almost always I never actually got to the part where I have an answer....
Jamal October 04, 2025 at 16:03 #1016338
Jamal October 04, 2025 at 16:11 #1016340
Moliere October 10, 2025 at 05:44 #1017485


I expect I've posted this before, but it's been hitting hard tonight.
Moliere October 11, 2025 at 02:10 #1017652
Outlander October 11, 2025 at 03:26 #1017657

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtokk3dj1Hk

Finnish web programmer friend of mine (Whom I never met, and I suppose don't really know ever existed) showed me this. Back when we were kids. Well, I was 15 or so. Think the person was 20. We both ran pretty successful sites at such a young age (nothing big or money-heavy just it's own niche community, not unlike this one..)
SophistiCat October 12, 2025 at 13:02 #1018095
Reply to Moliere Huh, I was just listening to Chopin's nocturnes in Sokolov's rendition the other day:

[hide][/hide]
SophistiCat October 12, 2025 at 13:25 #1018099
And this "Notturno" is just impossibly gorgeous...

[hide][/hide]
Moliere October 14, 2025 at 04:27 #1018491
Reply to SophistiCat Reply to SophistiCat Nice :) -- I gave both a listen and both are beautiful.
Jamal October 18, 2025 at 13:27 #1019521
Punshhh October 21, 2025 at 06:30 #1020036
SophistiCat October 22, 2025 at 01:24 #1020182
Here is one that has an actual philosophical background. Serenade after Plato's Symposium is probably my favorite of Leonard Bernstein's works. Though the composer himself said that the work did not have a literal program, its structure does follow Plato, and its themes can be tied back to its source material:

  • I. Phaedrus; Pausanias
  • II. Aristophanes
  • III. Eryximachus
  • IV. Agathon (the most beautiful and moving part, in my opinion)
  • V. Socrates; Alcibiades


Young Hilary Hahn plays like an angel in a recording that also includes Beethoven's violin concerto:
[hide][/hide]

Another recording with the fiery Janine Jansen and the LSO:
[hide][/hide]
Pierre-Normand October 23, 2025 at 10:18 #1020410
javi2541997 October 26, 2025 at 10:04 #1020968
SophistiCat October 27, 2025 at 00:15 #1021100
SophistiCat October 27, 2025 at 00:45 #1021103
Ned Rorem's violin concerto is a recent discovery for me. It is featured on this recording with Gidon Kremer and Leonard Bernstein, together with Philip Glass violin concerto and Bernstein's Symposium:

[hide][/hide]

Rorem is better known for his songs. Here is a beautiful selection sung by Susan Graham:

[hide][/hide]
javi2541997 October 27, 2025 at 05:41 #1021123
Reply to SophistiCat Wonderful. :up: :up:
Moliere November 07, 2025 at 20:11 #1023706


I think this qualifies as classical.
Pierre-Normand November 12, 2025 at 00:06 #1024508
javi2541997 November 14, 2025 at 07:42 #1024881