Rooster_Ties

So, FFA -- on the subject of your wife playing trombone too... How are her jazz chops?? And how are your 'classical' chops??

The problem with having to order everything on-line, is that you rarely stumble on things that you otherwise weren't looking for. Heck, probably 1/3rd of my entire CD collection is made up of discs (new and used) that I stumbled on in stores, and half of those (fully 1/6th of my collection) are discs I would have never ordered.

Moose, I think this is all probably your fault: Bizarre CD Organization, ...brings interesting neighbors

Next thing you know, they'll try to ban premarital interdigitation!!!

I love the Symphony of Psalms - and, oddly enough, it was the very first BIG choral work I ever heard performed live. I've had the good fortune to sing it twice in the last 10 years. Very powerful work. Also, the chorus I'm in did The Dream of Gerontius a couple years ago, and unlike on your side of the pond, Bev, 'Gerontius' isn't performed much over here. There are 120 people in our chorus, and there were probably 90 professional instrumental musicians on the stage too. And among those 200+ musicians, only three people had ever performed it before, prior to the production we did. Another great British choral work is Tippett's A Child of Our Time - which I understand is also performed much more frequently in the U.K. (and maybe also in Europe?), than it is here in the U.S. - which is a shame. Complex 20th Century harmonies, alternating with movements that are choral settings of traditional negro folk spirituals/hymns. Very powerful.

You know, when I just want to brouse for music anymore, I usually hit eBay or half.com. They're not perfect, but it's closer to the experience I'm looking for, than anything here in Kansas City. Often you find bargains (or auctions that could be bargains, if the bidding stays low), and you can often find sound-samples of the discs on Amazon's or Barnes & Noble's or Tower's websites. It's not the same, but it's at least in the ballpark. Doesn't get around the credit card thing, though. Dang!!

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I was in St. Louis last weekend - and stopped into Euclid Records (which is a sort of mini Jazz Record Mart - except Euclid also has great Rock and Soul/Funk sections, and a not-half-bad Classical section (at least for used Classical, I don't think they have much new Classical). I could have easily blown $200 in there without even trying. Here in Kansas City, there really isn't anything even remotely similar. I guess maybe the closest thing is maybe Music Exchange, or maybe Recycled Sounds -- but neither one can even hold a candle to Euclid. Plus, in St. Louis, there's also Vintage Vinyl, which has a TON of CD's. Their jazz CD selection is pretty good (though not as good as Euclid's), but their Rock/Pop/Alternative music section is fantastic (especially for promos and used CD's). Again, nothing even close in Kansas City. I hear ya, Peter, totally.

From Time to Time Free (CMP, 1988) Great disc, the only Joachim Kühn I own (other than the disc with Ornette). Wish I had more.

I was wondering about that, too. Does the board software block the Umlaut in topic titles? Go for it. Let's find out!!

Heard them here in Kansas City about 5 or 6 years ago, in a huge cathedral-like church with great acoustics (probably a 2-second reverb). Was pretty amazing. Not the kind of music I own much of (or any of, now that I think of it), nor do I have a burning passion to listen to around the house. But to hear it performed live, and in the right context - it's really something you don't quickly forget.

Not a bad idea, especially if you ever play your CD's in the car, or if they otherwise occasionally get scratched with regular use. Can't hurt!!

Dark chocolate - best thing ever!!!! Anybody here ever try to limited edition Dark Chocoloate Reece's Peanut Butter Cups?? They're fantastic!!!

I love that Lee Morgan disc, and (perhaps just as importantly), my wife seems to like it quite a bit too. She normally doesn't go for jazz with horn soloists, but that Lee Morgan "Standards" disc is so melodic, even when Lee's soloing - that she doesn't mind when I put it on. I know it won't win any awards for best Lee Morgan album, but I sure do like it.

ubu, sounds like the english term for what you describe is a Motet. That kind of music is often incredibly beautiful, and surprisingly difficult to sing at times. Early motets, especially, didn't follow all the musical rules about what intervals sounded (supposedly) pleasing, and which didn't -- so you get some very interesting harmonies going on there at times -- some as difficult to sing (and tune) as some 20th Century music. On a related, but slightly different note -- I also sang in college in a Madrigal group, that sang Renaissance (1400-1600) and Baroque (1600-1750) era music. The group was usually only 10 to 14 voices, rarely with more than 2 or 3 (or maybe 4) voices on any one part. We also sang 'mixed' (meaning not all the basses in one section, or tenors in one section, etc...), so you really had to use your ear more. Madrigals were great fun to sing. And (on another note), I sang in a barbershop quartet for a couple of years too. Talk about ear-training -- it helped me more than just about anything else, since each person in the quartet only sings their own part. I sang baritone in 'barbershop' - which I always felt was the most difficult part. The bass sang what are typically 'bass' parts, meaning the usually sang the roots of chords all the time. And the 'lead' (I guess you could call it the 2nd tenor part), always sang the melody. And the 'tenor' (meaning the really high part) always sang harmony parts above the melody (like Art Garfunkel does against Paul Simon's melody, or lead). Barbershop quartet music is REALLY corny, and gets really old quickly if you're just listening to it. But as a singer, it's GREAT fun to perform.

Hi all. Even among many serious fans of classical music, choral music is often 2nd banana to all-instrumental orchestral music (symphonies and such), and as a listener, even I have to admit that I prefer instrumental "classical" music over choral classical music. BUT, as it turns out, the only damn thing I'm any good at, musically speaking, is singing. I even got my 2nd bachelor's degree in music (first one was in computer science), with a sort of co-concentration in vocal performance and music history. I sang in my college choir during all of my college years, and I have sung baritone in the Kansas City Symphony Chorus since the fall of 1995 (gosh, hard to believe that was nearly 10 years ago). As a result, I have had the good fortune to sing a whole bunch of GREAT choral music (mostly the “big” multi-movement works, with orchestra) --- music I frankly would have never give a second thought about listening to otherwise. (Well, some of it I might have bought recordings of --- but I'm much more rabid about orchestral music, and instrumental chamber music too, for that matter -- and I can probably count the number of CD's of "choral" music I own, on my fingers and toes. And even then, they're most of works I've performed.) ANYWAY, I'm about to perform the Brahms German Requiem next weekend (March 26-28), and we had our first rehearsal earlier tonight with the actual conductor who will be leading the orchestra when we perform the piece. I've sung the Brahms Requiem before, about 5 years ago, and again about 3 years before that. But I still can't help but be blown-away by this piece. I never heard the piece, really, before I sang it -- so I don't know what it's like to just hear it, without knowing all the ins and outs of the music (or at least the baritone choral part, and bits and pieces of all the other parts - which one inevitably picks up from hearing them so many times in rehearsal, and during performance week). In fact, another unexpected benefit of being in a symphony chorus, is that I am forced to listen to the works we perform, nearly a dozen times in a very short period of time (during the last week of rehearsals and the actual performances). We usually perform the work 3 times (Fri, Sat, Sun), and have rehearsals with the orchestra on the Thursday and Wednesday immediately prior, plus a chorus-only rehearsal on the Monday prior. In addition to that, I frequently will listen to recordings of the works two or three times during that same week, especially if it's a work I wasn't familiar with before -- just to try to get my ear around the way the orchestral parts sound (since we spend two months rehearsing without the orchestra). As a result, whether I like it or not, I get much more "into" these works that I ever would otherwise... ...AND, in a few cases (Beethoven's 9th symphony, and Mahler's 2nd symphony), I even get the added benefit of getting to sit on-stage during upwards of 45 minutes of purely orchestral music (no chorus), for all the non-choral movements, for 4 or 5 performances/rehearsals of the works. For instance, there was one year, back around 1997 or so, when I got to hear Beethoven's 9th while being on-stage, about 10 times all in the same year (we did the darn thing again in summer, after having done it the previous fall). Now I'm not normally one to go on and on about Beathoven's 9th. But I did find that being forced to listen to it so many times within such a short period of time, really did allow me to hear things in the music that I would probably have never otherwise noticed. (Much like seeing the movie Citizen Kane on the big screen, three times in the same week, as I did several years ago.) Well, enough of my babbling. Are there any other choral singers here?? (Probably not, but it never hurts to ask.) Failing that, for those that might happen to have heard (or have recordings of) a few big multi-movement choral works (with orchestra), which are your favorites?? The Brahms Requiem is one of my favorites, but singing Mahler's 8th Symphony ("Symphony of a Thousand") was also a big thrill for me (the first movement is all choral, and is 25-minutes of a full double-choir (16 independent choral parts) with a double fugue. It didn't make a bit of sense to me as the chorus was learning it, but when we finally put it all together, and then when we added the orchestra - I finally felt like I "got" Mahler like I had never gotten him before. (Seriously, singing Mahler's 8th is what unlocked the "Mahler" door for me, in terms of getting all his other symphonies.) Did I say "enough of my babbling" before?? OK, this time I mean it. Discuss anything and everything "choral" here in this thread...

For reasons I can't quite pinpoint, Bob Seger is and has always been one of my all-time least favorite classic-rock acts. When he comes up on the radio dial, 99% of the time I lunge for the knob or button that changes the station.

About half of this particuluar Hendrix tribute disc is VERY good, and the other half is just good or even fair. Here's a track-by-track rundown... Purple Haze - The Cure --> Nothing like the original, but I do really like this version. A totally re-imagined version of the song. GREAT!!! Stone Free - Eric Clapton --> Great version of a great tune. Spanish Castle Magic - The Spin Doctors --> Decent version of a GREAT tune!! Red House - Buddy Guy --> Not bad, far as I remember, but I've never been much for Red House. Too slow, and too many Hendrix versions out there. Hey Joe - Body Count --> Didn't care for this one much at all, as I remember. Manic Depression - Seal / Jeff Beck --> This is a pretty good verison, of a GREAT tune. I have a live version of Seal doing Hey Joe on a single of his, and it works well too. Fire - Nigel Kennedy --> Interesting version. I've also got the all-Hendrix Nigel Kennedy disc, and it's also pretty interesting. Bold as Love - The Pretenders --> GREAT version of a GREAT tune. They/she covered "Room Full of Mirrors" on a Pretenders album back around 1986, and it's really great too!!! (Would love to hear The Pretenders do an all-Hendrix album some time.) You Got Me Floatin' - PM Dawn --> Better than I was expecting. Not half bad, I guess. I Don't Live Today - Slash / Paul Rodgers / Band of Gypsies --> Paul Rodgers has done a number of great Hendrix covers over the years, and this is one of them. Are You Experienced - Belly --> Don't remember it, guess it was OK. I'm sure it was 'different' - and I generally think 'different' is a good thing. Crosstown Traffic - Living Colour --> Pretty good. Living Colour has also covered Hendrix well before, as well as here. They've recorded a great version of "Burning The Midnight Lamp" on an EP of theirs. Third Stone from the Sun - Pat Metheny --> I'm not a big Metheny nut, but this version is pretty good in my book. Hey Baby (Land of the New Rising Sun) - MACC --> Pretty good version of a GREAT tune. Guess I liked it better than I remembered, now that I'm looking back through my track-by-track review. This disc can be found in the 'used' bins for $5 or $6 frequently, and it's certainly worth that much.

Hey, does anybody know of an ice cream band that has GRAPE as a flavor??

Edy's and Dreyer's are the same thing, and which one you have in your stores depends on where you live. (We have Edy's here in Kansas City, and I only remember ever seeing Edy's in St. Louis.)

Guess not.

Hello?? Anybody???

I would start with the last two tracks on the last disc -- which is the original "Jack Johnson" album, as it was originally released. Then, as some others here have suggested, if you have a multi-disc changer -- I would load all five discs (or three of the five discs), and play all the discs in multi-disc "random" mode. If you start with disc 1, you'll get 6 or 8 takes of the very first tune. It's an interesting tune, and I love most of the "Jack Johnson"-related material. But listening to those 6 or 8 takes, back to back, as a place to start with this material --- is not the place to start (in my book). IMHO, start with those last two tracks on the last disc (particuarlly the one called "Right Off" - and give it a good spin first. Also, the 2nd disc (the one with the track(s) "Go Ahead John" might also be a good place to go (after the last disc). Also, you might stay away from disc #4 for a while. It's much more "moody" - and less like most of the rest of the "Jack Johnson" material.

Up for some more discussion. Anybody else here seen the Arkestra within the last couple years??

Undergroundagent needs that Hill "Grass Roots" CD. I'm not saying it's on hold for him, but it should be!! He and I just traded some PM's the other day, where he was asking about what Andrew Hill titles I thought he might like, and "Grass Roots" was high on my list of suggestions (knowing his primary interest is in soul-jazz, as opposed to Hill's more typical releases).

My faves are always gonna be Nefertiti and Sorcerer. Then again, I'm lovin' the new Jack Johnson box a TON, and I've always loved Jack Johnson.